Why Thailand needs Chinese tourists, waives visa fee in hope of enticing them back

[webfact]

Why Thailand needs Chinese tourists, waives visa fee in hope of enticing them back

As Thai airlines post substantial losses, in part because of a lack of visitors from China, the Land of Smiles is working hard to tempt more travellers to visit

BY MERCEDES HUTTON

 

 

Chinese tourists at Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok, Thailand. Picture: Reuters

 

Thailand welcomed 35.4 million international arrivals last year, making it the 10th most visited country in the world, according to United Nations World Tourism Organisation figures. The only Asian destination to outdo it was China (No 4; see below).

 

And all those tourists have given the Land of Smiles plenty to be happy about. Annual research published by the World Travel and Tourism Council found that tourism contributed more than 3.2 trillion baht (US$97 billion), or 21.2 per cent, to Thailand’s GDP last year, while the sector is said to account for 15.5 per cent of employment, a total of 5.8 million jobs.

 

Forecasts for this year predicted a similarly positive outlook across the industry, so why, as the nation’s idyllic islands and beautiful beaches prepare to enter peak season, have officials decided to waive visa-on-arrival fees for tourists from 21 countries for two months from December 1, a move normally considered by countries a little further from the beaten path?

 

Full story: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2172952/why-thailand-understands-real-value-chinese-tourists

 

-- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 2018-11-15

[darksidedog]

8 minutes ago, webfact said:

so why,... ...have officials decided to waive visa-on-arrival fees for tourists from 21 countries

Because the official figures from TAT are probably untrue and the real picture on tourism is seriously grim. High season is supposedly starting, but everywhere seems pretty empty.

[ThreeEyedRaven]

17 minutes ago, webfact said:

Forecasts for this year predicted a similarly positive outlook across the industry

Those forecasts were probably made prior to the many deaths of tourists recorded this year through negligence.

For them to be giving visas away for free, (something they get a lot of revenue from), the situation on incoming tourists must be alarmingly low. I see it as a short term fix though, as getting tourist safety in good shape is the only real long term solution to getting visitors returning.

[marko kok prong]

what,no luring,tempting now,they must be getting desparate

[happy chappie]

I used to have 3-5 mates come from the uk.now it's down to 1 who come for two months at Xmas and stays with me for a month.this year it's 12 days and he's booked up for Vietnam.the high rolling days are over for Thailand.theyve cocked it up again like they do with most things and it's not a cheap destination anymore.one thing I don't understand is why some countries have to pay for visas and some don't.

[fruitman]

No smoking on beach, no lifeguards, no metered taxi's, no good attractions, nobody speaks english, high prices low quality, no beachbeds...why would they come to phuket?

 

 

[Oziex1]

I'm sure every country with a substantial tourist industry sees a rise and fall of incoming tourists.

 

They have their glory days and then people move on to new attractions and value elsewhere.

[rebo]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

the Land of Smiles is working hard to tempt more travellers to visit

Don't see hard working. What I see is hard whining, creating committees and talking.

Edited November 15, 2018 by rebo

[RotBenz8888]

The Baht is to strong, do something about that might make a difference, changing visa rules won't.

Edited November 15, 2018 by RotBenz8888

[ChrisY1]

Many Chinese have already seen Thailand....they want to see other parts of the globe.

Thailand seems to believe that Chinese tourists will keep returning here...which is wrong...now they're going everywhere.....and causing mayhem!!

[1337markus]

20 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

Many Chinese have already seen Thailand....they want to see other parts of the globe.

Thailand seems to believe that Chinese tourists will keep returning here...which is wrong...now they're going everywhere.....and causing mayhem!!

True, they are flooding Japan and Russia.

[connda]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

So why, as the nation’s idyllic islands and beautiful beaches prepare to enter peak season, have officials decided to waive visa-on-arrival fees

Because the islands are far from being idyllic and the beaches are far from being beautiful  -- and then Thais bash the tourists.  Cause - Effect.  China's the canary in the coal mine, and it's a sick little bird.

[bluesofa]

4 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

what,no luring,tempting now,they must be getting desparate

"waives visa fee in hope of enticing them back"

[Small Joke]

3 hours ago, happy chappie said:

I used to have 3-5 mates come from the uk.now it's down to 1 who come for two months at Xmas and stays with me for a month.this year it's 12 days and he's booked up for Vietnam.the high rolling days are over for Thailand.theyve cocked it up again like they do with most things and it's not a cheap destination anymore.one thing I don't understand is why some countries have to pay for visas and some don't.

On Visa fees: This is usually but not always, a 'reciprocal' arrangement.

China charge most countries, and their fees depend upon the current relationship they share. presently, US citizens pay significantly more to visit China, than most other western countries, and for some unknown reason, you can also be rejected by China for having a Turkish stamp in your passport. So coming back to the question, if your government charges Thais, then Thais MAY charge you for a visa.

Also some countries are charged to discourage their citizens from coming here due to a reputation for excessive criminality, excessive overstaying, etc.

[Small Joke]

Not specific to the conservative and curtailed Chinese, but if Thailand were the first Asian country to fully legalise weed, they'd solve a significant crop issue for many struggling farmers, and they'd see a massive boom in tourism from those that want to get their chill on in a weed-welcoming warm place.

There can be fewer true pleasures in life than getting blazed under a palm tree, or getting a happy ending while high, for that matter!

To the moon, Nuu! ????

Edited November 15, 2018 by Small Joke

[arithai12]

3 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

The Baht is to strong, do something about that might make a difference, changing visa rules won't.

Simple, hard truths are sometimes very difficult to understand for politicians. They prefer to wave their hands in the air pretending they are doing something.

[Emster23]

I would love to see a clear headed editorial "Why dropping visa fees won't entice Chinese back"

Others have indicated major reasons here previously

[terminatorchiangmai]

Thailand should focus on other tourists also , not only the Chinese are not coming any more.

[Brunolem]

It is very dangerous to bet the farm on Chinese tourists, because as a people Chinese are very versatile.

 

They somehow behave like a school of fish, moving in one direction and suddenly changing for another direction, all at once.

 

Just remember the boat accident in Phuket, a minor event in the grand scheme of things, which was anyway immediately followed by thousands of booking cancellations.

 

In case of a more frightening event, say a virus like the SARS in the early 2000s, all the Chinese tourists would disappear instantly!

 

Generally speaking, it is always a bad idea to put all of one's eggs in the same basket, even more so when it comes to Chinese.

 

Another bad idea is to give priority to quantity over quality.

 

Thailand would rather have 100 tourists each spending 10 dollars a day, while other countries such as Malaysia would rather have 10 tourists each spending 100 dollars a day!

 

Which one is the wisest?

 

 

 

[Burma Bill]

Because there are many Chinese business people not getting a good return on their investments in Thailand's tourism industry - hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, tour buses and boats etc. etc.

[ozmeldo]

3 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

Many Chinese have already seen Thailand....they want to see other parts of the globe.

Thailand seems to believe that Chinese tourists will keep returning here...which is wrong...now they're going everywhere.....and causing mayhem!!

This is a great point. Westerners come back for sun and fun. Backpackers use it as a hub. Chinese it's one and done.

 

They're crying now, wait till China's economy gets rocked and the bottom falls out of real estate and equities not to mention all the sketchy af investments.

 

20+% of GDP they're we're fools not to have protected itbin the first place. That means Thailand could see a drop in 15% GDP? That's crazy af.

[ozmeldo]

9 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

Because there are many Chinese business people not getting a good return on their investments in Thailand's tourism industry - hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, tour buses and boats etc. etc.

The Thai arent crying. This is as old as the hills here.

 

Set a dumb farang up with a business

 

Build out the office/resty/pub whatever

 

Sell them durable goods

 

Watch as the business tanks, laughing all the way to the bank.

[Thingamabob]

Killjoy government, dirty beaches and other facilities, increasingly hostile locals. Tourist numbers badly down.  Panic stations.

[curlylekan]

I really wonder if the government thinks in such as singular way as to assume that the Phuket boat incident is solely what has lead to the fall of Chinese tourists, sure Prawit's comments, though probably somewhat true didn't help, along with immigration acting like children, but the government still seems to view this as a singular problem - China and Thailand. The world is so globally intertwined, that problems and solutions need to be viewed in that regard. (As a side note, I will not do much adventure tourism in Thailand due to safety concerns, but its been this way for me way before the Phuket incident. Developing countries don't have a record of safety or at least reinvesting in their products for safety.)

 

Contrary to the strength of the yuan today and China's problems of private loans and banks, the Chinese economy as a whole, beginning in the mid-90s, is more prosperous than its even been in the past, thus more Chinese are beginning to travel to destinations outside Asia. Most tourists, outside of the budget traveler are similar - go somewhere one time and then off to a new destination. I read somewhere that the amount of Chinese traveling to Europe is rising year after year. The Chinese people seem to want new experiences outside of countries in Asia, not their next door neighbor. For example, I'm American and I've never been to Mexico or Canada cause I want to see so many other places that are far from me and different from me. I think most people in the world are similar. I even see this scenario working in Europe. Europeans seem to view going to a neighboring countries as "just another thing to do." In other words, there is no significance to going somewhere so close and so similar to you. Also, statistics show that tourists numbers of any given nationality will at some point plateau and I think that is what we are seeing with the Chinese and Thailand.

 

Now the Chinese don't really care about a military government, I mean they have an incredibly totalitarian regime in power right now, so I don't think that is stopping them. The Chinese also don't care about littering, so I don't think a dirty beach really stops them, except maybe the younger Chinese generations and it does stop westerners. I personally think much of the problem lies in  the fact that Thailand needs more variety of things to do. All is centered around a few things: 1) Go to BKK for shopping or to get a girl or lb; (2) Go to one of the massively crowded beaches and do an adventure sport - while the Chinese don't care about crowds and noise, other cultures do; and the adventure sports have proven to be unsafe (I still don't think they are safe, no matter how much the government tries to convince me otherwise); or (3) Go to temples, but once you've been to about 3-5, you've seen em all. I'm probably missing some things, but when I think of Thailand, this is what comes to mind. The government and Thailand has not done much to promote the range of places to go in Thailand. And BKK, as a tourist, if you've been to it once, you've seen it all.

 

Thailand will get there, but I think they need to view the decline in tourism through a larger, worldly scope. Stop making China out to be the end-all-problem for Thailand. Rama 9 was awesome in that he saw solution as to change the way of life and the way of doing things to make the country better and its people prosperous. The current government needs an innovator like him, someone to think outside the box in a multi-dimensional manner.

 

Personally, I'm glad, the Chinese come to a place and take over. Eating everything in sight, littering everywhere, being extremely loud and rude, overcrowding a place to the point of no fun and spitting (I saw A Chinese guy spit on the floor in Terminal 21 the other day and he was sitting in front of the bathroom) and smoking everywhere. Now I've met great Chinese while living in China, mostly age 35 or below, but I think the TAT wants the former group - they spend the money. Either way, everytime Chinese numbers go down in Thailand, my smile goes farther up.

Edited November 15, 2018 by curlylekan

[DrTuner]

3 hours ago, terminatorchiangmai said:

Thailand should focus on other tourists also , not only the Chinese are not coming any more.

The others won't come until they get rid of the Chinese. Oil and water.

[fruitman]

3 hours ago, Small Joke said:

Not specific to the conservative and curtailed Chinese, but if Thailand were the first Asian country to fully legalise weed, they'd solve a significant crop issue for many struggling farmers, and they'd see a massive boom in tourism from those that want to get their chill on in a weed-welcoming warm place.

There can be fewer true pleasures in life than getting blazed under a palm tree, or getting a happy ending while high, for that matter!

To the moon, Nuu! ????

There will also be more traffic accidents....and people hanging in hammocks all day long..

[quandow]

15 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Because the official figures from TAT are probably untrue

Not probably, most certainly. They count every traveler as if Thailand was their ultimate destination when in truth many are connecting at swampy to travel on to a more tourist friendly country. These numbers are always skewed, but what else have we come to expect from Thailand? They continue to shoot themselves in the foot, give themselves black eyes and are begging to be kicked in the nards.

[martinhp]

17 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Because the official figures from TAT are probably untrue and the real picture on tourism is seriously grim. High season is supposedly starting, but everywhere seems pretty empty.

not true not in patong or rest of phuket lots of tourist but other places you might be right

[boonrawdcnx]

Why would anybody with half a brain think that waiving a few hundred Baht visa fee would make anybody decide to go on holiday to a certain country or not?

 

Most Chinese are not rich and decide today to jump on a plane and go on a vacation to Thailand.

 

They plan their holidays long ahead - and the ones who can afford it go to Japan, Europe and the US.

 

The Chinese who visit Europe are already statistically the top spenders - spending an average of 500 - 600 € a day on shopping alone.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

 

[GeorgeCross]

13 hours ago, ozmeldo said:

The Thai arent crying. This is as old as the hills here.

 

Set a dumb farang up with a business

 

Build out the office/resty/pub whatever

 

Sell them durable goods

 

Watch as the business tanks, laughing all the way to the bank.

 

meanwhile.. set the brother up as the new 'manager'

 

watch as the business now tanks

 

clear out the brother and everything else

 

up the rent whilst waiting for the next mug westerner

 

repeat the cycle 12 months later

 

.. yeah, they're proper Warren Buffets over here LOL ..