670,000 Chinese cancel trips to Thailand after Phuket boat tragedy

[Odysseus123]

37 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

This is a positive development. Though it will hurt some small operators, it is good in the long run, if the Chinese show their disapproval of a society that is run by incompetents by not coming and canceling their trips. Safety standards are important for any civilized society. Even though the authorities show blatant disregard for their citizens in this regard, the same lack of respect cannot be shown to foreigners who come here as tourists, without a penalty being paid. The tourism authorities here are liars, and are constantly bragging about the "numbers". Now, a price is being paid. Those numbers are being affected by gross neglect and incompetency. Western tourism is already way, way down. Now, if the golden goose of Chinese tourism drops too, hopefully something will be done.

 

Are the authorities, and this tone deaf administration capable of learning anything? We shall see. 

Agreed.

 

At least the Chinese(and their gov't) are sticking up for them

/themselves.

[StayinThailand2much]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Here is anecdote of the local's way of thinking, i used to employ many Thai people and among the things i have noticed is that they don't like to be told that they're wrong or did something wrong and they get angry at you even at the hint of beradment, so losing so and number of tourists? water of the duck back to them, there will be others to replace them....

Spot on! The interesting thing is that Chinese can easily be upset too when feeling wronged. With the current emphasis on Chinese tourists, combined with Thai unprofessionalism in tourism matters, expect a roller-coaster-ride for Thailand's tourism industry in the years ahead!

Edited August 5, 2018 by StayinThailand2much

[Eligius]

50 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

This is a positive development. Though it will hurt some small operators, it is good in the long run, if the Chinese show their disapproval of a society that is run by incompetents by not coming and canceling their trips. Safety standards are important for any civilized society. Even though the authorities show blatant disregard for their citizens in this regard, the same lack of respect cannot be shown to foreigners who come here as tourists, without a penalty being paid. The tourism authorities here are liars, and are constantly bragging about the "numbers". Now, a price is being paid. Those numbers are being affected by gross neglect and incompetency. Western tourism is already way, way down. Now, if the golden goose of Chinese tourism drops too, hopefully something will be done.

 

Are the authorities, and this tone deaf administration capable of learning anything? We shall see. 

Great post, Spidermike. The only thing that might possibly, just about, conceivably, make the derelict Thai authorities re-think their actions and behaviour is loss of -  MONEY. They don't care about morality, ethics, professional standards, pride and principles - they don't even have an inkling as to what such things are. The latter don't fall anywhere within their sphere of radar.  But they do care about MONEY - to the point of obsession.

 

Money is Divinity for them.

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Eligius

[Odysseus123]

Just now, StayinThailand2much said:

Spot on! The interesting thing is that Chinese can easily be upset too, when feeling wronged. With the current emphasis on Chinese tourists, expect a roller-coaster-ride for Thailand's tourism industry in the years ahead!

Agree.

 

[AdamTheFarang]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Here is anecdote of the local's way of thinking, i used to employ many Thai people and among the things i have noticed is that they don't like to be told that they're wrong or did something wrong and they get angry at you even at the hint of beradment, so losing so and number of tourists? water of the duck back to them, there will be others to replace them....

No you got it all wrong. Thais are never wrong, you are wrong for thinking a Thai can be wrong.

[kevc]

When will they realise that putting all these things in place to help before and after the accidents doesn't inspire people to visit, their still going to get injured just that they will get the compensation faster. People just want to have their holiday and go home with a happy memory in one piece not with a lost arm or leg and a pocket of money.

Sent from my SM-P901 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Cadbury]

19 minutes ago, ELVIS123456 said:

Every dark cloud has a silver lining ?

Every silver lining will later have a dark cloud when they lure back the 670,000 with the temptation of a "special" world famous cave, complete with museum and food stalls and souvenir shops. Plus Chinese VIP turnstile entry and giant sized Chinese VIP bus park needed to accommodate the influx. The people of Chiang Rai are going to be delighted.

[scorecard]

Just waiting for the next ridiculous idea from the tourism ministry, and here's a suggestion:

 

Give every arriving Chinese a free baseball cap with 'I luv Thailand and I will return' printed on it.

 

Problem all solved.

[billd766]

27 minutes ago, Eligius said:

Great post, Spidermike. The only thing that might possibly, just about, conceivably, make the derelict Thai authorities re-think their actions and behaviour is loss of -  MONEY. They don't care about morality, ethics, professional standards, pride and principles - they don't even have an inkling as to what such things are. The latter don't fall anywhere within their sphere of radar.  But they do care about MONEY - to the point of obsession.

 

Money is Divinity for them.

 

 

And it is all self inflicted by Thais on Thais.

[RandolphGB]

4 hours ago, darksidedog said:

670,000 less Chinese coming here huh? Who says there is no cheerful news these days?

*fewer

[Get Real]

4 hours ago, Eligius said:

Maybe they will start to learn just a little bit now about how to run a civilised, law-regulated and decent society - but of course I must be on some kind of fantasy trip, even to think that ...

Please give me the same you´re taking! I also want a trip to fantasy land, where everything is a mecca of love, piece and understanding.

[Odysseus123]

27 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

And it is all self inflicted by Thais on Thais.

Indeed.

 

Where I lived the tourism industry was just about totally crushed (apart from the struggling Thai domestic market) with an almost total and utterly blind ignorance of the "foreign" market..(my B-i-L was in the tourism office-an office where absolutely no-one could speak English,Chinese,or indeed anything else except Thai and the local patter..)

 

Yet it was very beautiful...

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Odysseus123

[bbbbooboo]

hmmmm.... good news indeed....

[Emster23]

670k cancelled. I wonder if we could get figures for new bookings compared to previous year? I would guess that number would also be significant

[zydeco]

And this is bad because . . . ?

[zydeco]

5 hours ago, Thailand said:

Priority lanes for Chinese?

If it means a spot on the B Ark, maybe not such a bad idea.

[Canuckabroad]

It’s interesting to see some dollar figures being given.  The average tourist from China is worth about $1500 per visit.  (Presumably that’s what Thailand gets out of them, so the amount they are spending here and not on airfare.). I wonder what the average values of tourists from other countries are.

[Valentine]

1 hour ago, Gunna said:

670,000 x $1 means Thailand has only lost $670,000

The rest of the money spent here goes back to China thru bogus Chinese owned and operated Thai companies

You think there are no Thais making money out of this, they are raking it in.

[zydeco]

6 minutes ago, Valentine said:

You think there are no Thais making money out of this, they are raking it in.

Shipping those dead Chinese back home alone must have made a mint for someone.

[timendres]

2 hours ago, AdamTheFarang said:

"Despite the cancellations, tourism chiefs have said they are still expecting tourist arrivals for 2018 to surpass 2017" don't they always surpass after all this is amazing Thailand........................

I am waiting for the day that Thailand has more tourist arrivals than there are people on the planet.

[BobbyL]

I find it really hard to believe that each Chinese tourist spends an average of $1500 in Thailand. The only places I have ever seen them in hordes is out shopping or being ferried about by their tour group leader.

 

You don't see them out boozing, you don't see them out eating in restaurants, even on recent visits to Phuket they just seem to be chilling in the hotel 24/7.

 

It would be very interesting to see where their money is actually spent in Thailand. 

[Benmart]

This country has many opportunities for mass death, and the next boat sinking, firery bus crash, illegally built hotel collapse, overloaded bridge failure, overloaded songtaew mass casualty, will be met with the same response as the last tragedy...blame the victims countrymen, no effect on tourism and another priority lane at the entry portal for more victims.

[Deli]

What can be done to increase this number remarkably ?

[Deli]

51 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

I find it really hard to believe that each Chinese tourist spends an average of $1500 in Thailand. The only places I have ever seen them in hordes is out shopping or being ferried about by their tour group leader.

 

You don't see them out boozing, you don't see them out eating in restaurants, even on recent visits to Phuket they just seem to be chilling in the hotel 24/7.

 

It would be very interesting to see where their money is actually spent in Thailand. 

Latex shops, King Power outlets, Jewellery outlets. All shops off the track and visited almost only by Chinese groups in huge busses. 

All controlled business, where a normal business owner doesn't participate, if not part of the game.

[marko kok prong]

I do hope Tat will come up with some of their usual nonsensical idea's to halt this awful blow to this prestigious department.

[balo]

Happy days indeed , I hope they were planning a trip to Pattaya. 

 

[hotchilli]

The only thing that surpasses year on year is the BS from TAT

[dunroaming]

Absolute nonsense just to get a headline.  I don't believe for one millisecond that 670,000 Chinese people would cancel their trip over a boat capsizing in Phuket.  They may well cancel any boat trips booked but most won't even do that.  Disasters happen every day in China and the people just shrug their shoulders and carry on.  Meaningless hype yet again!

[natway09]

Not nearly enough !!!

[chopin2]

So what, 670 000 people is only like 0.001% of all tourist arrivals every year right? And i'm pretty sure that the quality tourists would't cancel a trip to Thailand anyway, so who cares about these 670 000 cheap charlies?