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Thailand sees drop in Chinese visitors after tourist boat disaster

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Thailand sees drop in Chinese visitors after tourist boat disaster

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat

 

ch.jpg

 

Chinese tourists visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand August 19, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A boat disaster near Thailand's Phuket Island that killed 47 Chinese last month is significantly cutting arrival numbers from China, though the Thai tourism industry is hopeful the decline will be stemmed by late this year.

 

The July 5 capsizing of the Phoenix was Thailand's worst tourist-related disaster in years. China is Thailand's biggest source of visitors, and last year accounted for nearly one-third of the record 35.38 million arrivals.

 

During July, Chinese arrivals fell 0.9 percent from a year earlier, the first drop since the start of 2017, when the Thai government was cracking down on cheap tour packages from China.

 

The Thai tourism ministry expects a bigger decline of 14.3 percent for August.

 

And the ministry cut its target for Chinese arrivals in July-December by 669,000, or 11.5 percent, to 5.15 million.

 

Virat Chatturaputpitak, vice president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said he expects numbers to recover during China's "Golden Week" holiday in October, when many citizens travel en masse.

 

"They'll return in October," he said.

 

For sure, the boat deaths have cut Chinese arrivals in Phuket, a popular island resort.

 

"This is the lowest point in my 20 years working with the Chinese," said Apicharn Pasomsap, an airport transfer operator who caters to Chinese tour groups.

 

"We're all waiting around for clients that don't arrive."

 

The number of hotel rooms in Phuket taken by Chinese in July and August has been 30 percent lower than usual, according to the Thai Hotels Association.

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand said six Chinese airlines have cancelled a total of 19 flights to Phuket, or about 6 percent of weekly arrivals.

 

AVOIDING THE WATER

 

Zhou Min, 33, an English teacher from China's Yunan province, still visited Phuket for two days recently, but didn't go on the water.

 

"My husband didn't allow me to go out to the sea because the accident influenced us and we were a little scared," she said.

 

After the disaster, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan blamed Chinese tour operators for disregarding Thai safety regulations, prompting a backlash from Chinese netizens. He later apologised.

 

In July, China issued statements reminding outbound tourists to guard against safety risks, with mentions of the Phuket incident.

 

Local Thai authorities say they have increased safety checks on boats.

 

Yuthasak Supasorn, Tourism Authority of Thailand governor, told Reuters the boat disaster "has affected our image and what's most important now is we have to focus on restoring tourist confidence and our safety image."

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-8-22
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  • trainman34014
    trainman34014

    What they mean is that they hope it will all be forgotten by later this year.   Only image matters and safety is of little concern.

  • Oh! How dreadful. The money is drying up and that is the most concern. The image of corpses floating around inside a Chinese tour boat is of minor consequence. What a sick person Apichan is. Thai

  • Khun Loong
    Khun Loong

    Great to start the day with some good news.

Posted Images

  • Popular Post

What they mean is that they hope it will all be forgotten by later this year.   Only image matters and safety is of little concern.

  • Popular Post

Good job there is a boost of tourists from other countries, that not only matches the lost Chinese tourists, but actually surpasses it!

 

 

  • Popular Post
17 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Local Thai authorities say they have increased safety checks on boats.

I'd guess that they don't mean 'increased', but 'started'. When the bad publicity eventually dies down (no pun intended), the 'safety checks' will return to zero.

 

  • Popular Post

Not sure about arrivals, but there certainly appears to be a reduction in departures.

  • Popular Post

Farang - smiling!!

  • Popular Post
1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

"My husband didn't allow me to go out to the sea because the accident influenced us and we were a little scared," she said.

The untreated effluence should be more of an influence you to stay out of the water

  • Popular Post
1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

"This is the lowest point in my 20 years working with the Chinese," said Apicharn Pasomsap, an airport transfer operator who caters to Chinese tour groups.

Oh! How dreadful. The money is drying up and that is the most concern. The image of corpses floating around inside a Chinese tour boat is of minor consequence.

What a sick person Apichan is. Thailand is all about money, money, money......

 

? 

Edited by catman20

  • Popular Post

And yesterday, or the day before the were boosting an 11% increase in tourist arrivals. 

 

Damn... dunno what to believe anymore, so I 'll just switch into the Jimmy crack corn mode.

  • Popular Post
12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

"They'll return in October," he said.

Red October!

  • Popular Post

When you slaughter your guests they are very unlikely to come back?

  • Popular Post
5 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

When you slaughter your guests they are very unlikely to come back?

When you slaughter the guests they are unable to return.:cheesy::post-4641-1156693976::cheesy:

Edited by colinneil

  • Popular Post

Great to start the day with some good news.

  • Popular Post

I notice the real hazard of waterfalls has not been mentioned 

  • Popular Post

Best news I heard all year. Less Chinese. 

  • Popular Post
4 minutes ago, inThailand said:

Best news I heard all year. Less Chinese. 

I too appreciate the news, but we will all need to acknowledge that the long game is Thailand being full of Chinese for the rest of our lifetimes. There are too many and China is just close enough... Sad reality. 

 

Westerners who came to Thailand in the previous decades were SO LUCKY 

Someone needs to make up

their mind .

 

first it was Chinese dropped by 680000 

 

then it was numbers are up by 10% from previous year

 

now it’s back to numbers dropped .

 

 

  • Popular Post

It's not just sea water that's a threat - trips to Petchaburi have been suspended awaiting the arrival of more aqualungs.

  • Popular Post

Yeah?

 

And the bad news is......?

I dispute this, there is a huge number of Chines tourists at the night market and malls around Hua Hin such as Bluport.

On my way to the airport the other day, the taxi driver asked me where I was going, to which I replied Chiangmai. Ha Ha he laughed, you mean China! He wasn't wrong; the town is full of them.

10 minutes ago, BigA said:

I dispute this, there is a huge number of Chines tourists at the night market and malls around Hua Hin such as Bluport.

I dispute your observation. Mine is based on the fact that I have not seen a single Chinese person today during my morning commute to work in Bangkok. ?

On the positive side, less pollution, and more beach space available for Thai's and rest of the world!

  • Popular Post

This is what happens when you have zero concern for tourist safety. It's all about the numbers. 

This is what happens when you kill a bunch of Chinese and the hive mentality kicks in and they all decide it is unsafe, but many still come. But probably the next big accident, and with buses or boats full of Chinese this is an inevitability, the numbers will crash.

 

  • Popular Post

What's the next big accident to kill scores of Chinese, you ask? It will be a tour bus full of Chinese that crashes because the driver is on drugs or speeding or watching tv or talking to the bus attendant or falls asleep or just loses control of the bus because he is just some Somchai driving the bus and not a regulated bus driver with a bus license.

Unfortunately there are still so many, that the drop isn't visible in daily life.

I wish that they would make up their slightly discombobulated minds.

Either the numbers are up by 247 million (yesterday) or they are down by 52 (today).

Still too many screaming Chinese around me ...little bit more decline okay for me

  • Popular Post
14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

After the disaster, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan blamed Chinese tour operators for disregarding Thai safety regulations, prompting a backlash from Chinese netizens. He later apologised.

His arrogance has cost the country billions. You think after all the disasters, natural and man-made, that have befallen this country, that one boat accident is the reason for the drop? No, it's how it was handled, particularly by one individual at the top.

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