Expats in Thailand travel far more than I imagined

By Dan Cheeseman 

 

 

Understanding Expats in Thailand is vital to me in the capacity of the MD for Thaivisa.com, they are, after all, our readers. It is quite common therefore to run surveys to build such intelligence and the most recent was with regards to their travel habits.

 

The feedback from the 325 expat respondents bucked many misconceptions that us expats are a bit tight with our money. To be fair for some time now I have been telling people such stereotypical views were misplaced and, quite frankly, completely wrong. At least now I can back it up with data.

 

The starting point in the survey was frequency of travel. 48% answered that they traveled four or more times per year, that’s a very healthy number and shows an active group of individuals. The average expat traveling 4.3 times per year.

 

Compare this to those living in the UK:

Baby boomers take an average of 3.3 trips a year, with each trip averaging 9.4 days.

 

Full story: https://danaboutthailand.com/2018/04/24/expats-in-thailand-travel-far-more-than-i-imagined/

 

-- DAN ABOUT THAILAND 2018-04-25

I did not join your survey's because at the end you always ask for my email-address and that's the point I don't like!

Survey can also be anonymous  and you will even have a better result. I am afraid to get a lot of commercial emails from health insurances, Travel agencies and more of that. I am not waiting for that spam.

Not a random survey, so I imagine results are questionable. I too didn't respond as surveys used as means to get at you (think FB & Trump) and your friends.

3 hours ago, RotMahKid said:

I did not join your survey's because at the end you always ask for my email-address and that's the point I don't like!

Survey can also be anonymous  and you will even have a better result. I am afraid to get a lot of commercial emails from health insurances, Travel agencies and more of that. I am not waiting for that spam.

 

Just put a fake email address.

3 hours ago, RotMahKid said:

I did not join your survey's because at the end you always ask for my email-address and that's the point I don't like!

Survey can also be anonymous  and you will even have a better result. I am afraid to get a lot of commercial emails from health insurances, Travel agencies and more of that. I am not waiting for that spam.

Didn't you supply an email when you signed up? But yes, I have received emails targeted at me as an expat that I am highly suspicious were a result of TV having my email address.

I diddn't do the survey for same reasons. 

 

Now dontchu go looking at my account details to rip my email address!

How can you travel 0.3 times, how does that work, do you start to travel then change your mind and go home again, one-third of the the way through the trip? Regardless, I've been a member for 15 years and I haven't been targeted once that I can recall.

 

Travel is the subject: about four or five times a year sounds right to me, we like a change of scenery about once a quarter.

Don't see what is so surprising about people doing 4 trips a year.   Four times a year is how often I fly out to get a new visa.   

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

How can you travel 0.3 times, how does that work, do you start to travel then change your mind and go home again, one-third of the the way through the trip? Regardless, I've been a member for 15 years and I haven't been targeted once that I can recall.

 

Travel is the subject: about four or five times a year sounds right to me, we like a change of scenery about once a quarter.

 

Do you honestly not understand how statistics work? You must get quite puzzled when you read something like that the average couple have 2.36 children.

56 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Don't see what is so surprising about people doing 4 trips a year.   Four times a year is how often I fly out to get a new visa.   

I would agree with that...most foreigners have to travel for their visa, often many times a year.

 

On top of that, there is travel and travel...flying to Bali or Hong Kong for a week with the wife is not the same thing as getting in a bus to go visit her sister two provinces away.

 

I can't imagine that, on average, TV members are offering themselves 3 or 4 leisure trips abroad every year.

 

The OP needs to go further into details so that we can get a better idea of what he is talking about...

 

 

2 hours ago, Katipo said:

Didn't you supply an email when you signed up? But yes, I have received emails targeted at me as an expat that I am highly suspicious were a result of TV having my email address.

I wonder how these blue pill sellers get my email address. Ah! I think I know, I was on the health forum asking about impotence.

I used to travel a lot until I have to spend half a day at immigration every time I even spend one night away from home.  Just to tell them I am back home where I have lived for years and years.  Kin  stupid

2 hours ago, freethinker said:

 

Do you honestly not understand how statistics work? You must get quite puzzled when you read something like that the average couple have 2.36 children.

You don't do humour or sarcasm, do you, I can tell.

Edited April 25, 20188 yr by simoh1490

2 hours ago, Brunolem said:

I would agree with that...most foreigners have to travel for their visa, often many times a year.

 

On top of that, there is travel and travel...flying to Bali or Hong Kong for a week with the wife is not the same thing as getting in a bus to go visit her sister two provinces away.

 

I can't imagine that, on average, TV members are offering themselves 3 or 4 leisure trips abroad every year.

 

The OP needs to go further into details so that we can get a better idea of what he is talking about...

 

 

That is why what, how and to whom you ask your questions and how you report your findings are so important to meaningful data collection. I did not read the survey, so I have not critiqued the questions. However, in the reporting I note several issues. As has been pointed-out, many expats travel four times a year for visas; that certainly has skewed the reported 2.9 to 4.2 trips per year. And, what is a "trip"? As one poster pointed-out, does "trip" include a bus to the next province to see the in-laws, or any other time you sleep somewhere other than your home? Or, can you even make a day trip and return home, as many used to do on visa runs when the out-in was allowed. The limited generational spread is another, including only the baby boomers and gens X, Y and Z leave out anyone born in 1945 or before.  The hotel rates reported for expats were 63% for more than B1k and 36% for more than B1.5k, that is 99%; so, those who spend less than B1k a night are 1%. The income statistics were even more disconcerting; 60% of respondents reported income of B40k/mo or more. That means 40% of expats in Thailand have less than B40k/mo--which makes the average number of trips taken annually rather difficult to digest. No wonder there are so many Cheap Charlies here. 

Edited April 25, 20188 yr by smotherb

2 minutes ago, smotherb said:

That is why what, how and to whom you ask your questions and how you report your findings are so important to meaningful data collection. I did not read the survey, so I have not critiqued the questions. However, in the reporting I note several issues. As has been pointed-out, many expats travel four times a year for visas; that certainly has skewed the reported 2.9 to 4.2 trips per year. And, what is a "trip"? As one poster pointed-out, does "trip" include a bus to the next province to see the in-laws, or any other time you sleep somewhere other than your home? Or, can you even make a day trip and return home, as many used to do on visa runs when the out-in was allowed. The limited generational spread is another, including only the baby boomers and gens X, Y and Z leave out anyone born in 1945 or before.  The hotel rates reported for expats were 63% for more than B1k and 36% for more than B1.5k, that is 99%; so, those who spend less than B1k a night are 1%. The income statistics were even more disconcerting; 60% of respondents reported income of B40k/mo or more. That means 40% of expats in Thailand have less than B40k/mo. No wonder there are so many Cheap Charlies here. 

The sample was far too small to be conclusive or indeed to be able to conclude anything meaningful.

30 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

You don't do humour or sarcasm, do you, I can tell.

Bit like ads on UK TV which say that 78% of a group of 123 women agreed that one tampon soaked up more than another.........what is 78% of 123?

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

The sample was far too small to be conclusive or indeed to be able to conclude anything meaningful.

While we do not know the population size of “expat respondents” available; that is really not necessary. Statistics are often generated for unknown population sizes. For arguments sake, let’s take a sample size of 10,000,000; I doubt expat respondents in Thailand exceed that number, do you? Let’s use a standard confidence level of 90%, and a standard margin of error of 5%. I will use the online sample size calculator https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/calculating-sample-size/  and compute that a sample size of 271 is quite sufficient. If you read, according to this post, a sample size of 325 was used.  Therefore, sample size was not an issue in my mind. As I said, how you gather the data and how you report the data is a more important and more difficult issue; sample size can be easily calculated and, as you see, need not be so large.

1 hour ago, smotherb said:

While we do not know the population size of “expat respondents” available; that is really not necessary. Statistics are often generated for unknown population sizes. For arguments sake, let’s take a sample size of 10,000,000; I doubt expat respondents in Thailand exceed that number, do you? Let’s use a standard confidence level of 90%, and a standard margin of error of 5%. I will use the online sample size calculator https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/calculating-sample-size/  and compute that a sample size of 271 is quite sufficient. If you read, according to this post, a sample size of 325 was used.  Therefore, sample size was not an issue in my mind. As I said, how you gather the data and how you report the data is a more important and more difficult issue; sample size can be easily calculated and, as you see, need not be so large.

 

I agree...this survey appears unreliable, not because of the sample, but because of the lack of clarity in questions and the way answers are reported.

 

From my personal experience (20 years), the average expat is retired with a modest pension.

 

There are rich expats with 50 million baht houses, but they are a small minority and most probably not members of TVF.

 

As a member said in another thread, rich Western people are unlikely to come live or retire in Thailand.

Edited April 25, 20188 yr by Brunolem

3 hours ago, wgdanson said:

what is 78% of 123?

It´s 95,94. 0,06 is exactly the procentual weight of 1 chromosome missing.

Edited April 25, 20188 yr by Get Real

ok i did respond to this servey.  and i do fit the profile at spending on average of 4 holidays per year abroad. my gf of 8 yrs has managed 35+ countries and i am at over 50. only once did i take her back to my home country.  yes i get a lot of junk/advertising emails, but i would have to say it is, i think 100% from the sites that i have signed into for info on our travels. Ev eryone needs a hobby, and besides drinking away too much at too many bars locally, travelling is my escape. my health not great, so way not bucket list while i can still do. have no want to wait till i on crutches or other mobiltity help to do this. can still dance.

ps dont have fsmily but still young or sort of 56. but not going to wait till some doc say 6 months

 

everbody have to live their lives different

 

do what you makes you happy

9 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

You don't do humour or sarcasm, do you, I can tell.

I guess not lol.