TAT shows foreign visitors by the numbers

By The Nation

 

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand published a breakdown of 2018 visitors by nationality on the Facebook page of its Intelligence Centre on Saturday night, with Chinese leading the tally, to no one’s surprise.

 

Of the 38 million foreign visitors to Thailand last year, 10.6 million came from China, 4.1 million from Malaysia and 1.8 million each from South Korea and Laos. 

 

There were 1.6 million Japanese visitors, 1.5 million Russians and Indians, 1.3 million Singaporeans, and 1.1 million Vietnamese and Americans.

 

The centre reported the foreign visitors generated Bt2 trillion in revenue, up from Bt1.8 trillion earned from 35.6 million travellers in 2017 and Bt1.6 trillion from 32.5 million visitors in 2016.

 

See the results at facebook.com/WOWThailandOfficials.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30362570

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-21

 

 

It just shows how the Western nations are becoming less prosperous and less important globally while the Eastern nations are forging ahead.

 

It should also make you wonder why.

Ugliest map ever seen! Anyways, time for hotels to make more rice soup rather than continental breakfasts.

Just now, Somtamnication said:

Anyways, time for hotels to make more rice soup rather than continental breakfasts.

If the Chinese come back .... get on that ok.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Intelligence Centre

FAKE NEWS ALERT!!

The chart above shows it was made by the T.A.T. intelligence centre

Intelligence within T.A.T. laughable just laughable.

2 hours ago, yogi100 said:

It just shows how the Western nations are becoming less prosperous and less important globally while the Eastern nations are forging ahead.

 

It should also make you wonder why.

That's not true at all with respect to the US. US tourists are the 2nd highest spending foreign tourists globally after China, though with a much smaller populace.

 

A US tourist has many, many cheaper and closer destinations that offer many of the same characteristics of a Thailand holiday. The average flight time is over 15 hours, and door-to-door travel time from US to Thailand is 24 hours. You can fly to resorts in Mexico or Caribbean in an hour or more for a fraction of the cost.

 

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-that-spend-the-most-on-international-tourism.html

Edited January 20, 20197 yr by keemapoot

They meant TAT Imagination Centre.

Yeah the Chinese billions. Sheer numbers will produce these 10.6 million tourists easily from their middle class. Also their location is a hop skip and jump to Thailand. If you lump 10.6 million of the other nations together like US etc, the spending power will dwarf the Chinese tourist spending. 

2 hours ago, yogi100 said:

It just shows how the Western nations are becoming less prosperous and less important globally while the Eastern nations are forging ahead.

 

It should also make you wonder why.

That is a laughable piece of philosophy on your behalf. 

The poll shows that less westerners are coming to Thailand.

Why is that is the question you should ask.

Tourism in the west is skyrocketing. 

Westerners are giving corrupt autocratic countries the flick.

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Ugliest map ever seen! Anyways, time for hotels to make more rice soup rather than continental breakfasts.

And for any restaurants that cater to these bus lodes you can expect less quantity and quality. They don't care about repeat customers any more when they have 1000's of Chinese. Unfortunately I experienced this in what was a great seafood restaurant in Jomtien. 

1 minute ago, morrobay said:

And for any restaurants that cater to these bus lodes you can expect less quantity and quality. They don't care about repeat customers any more when they have 1000's of Chinese. Unfortunately I experienced this in what was a great seafood restaurant in Jomtien. 

Yeah, recently ate at Moom Aroi Naklua branch, uniformly rated one of the best seafood places, but was packed with Chinese tourists this time, and yes, the quality was not up to standard. I suppose this might be because they are not used to producing in such large quantities at one time when a tour group arrives?

44 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Yeah the Chinese billions. Sheer numbers will produce these 10.6 million tourists easily from their middle class. Also their location is a hop skip and jump to Thailand. If you lump 10.6 million of the other nations together like US etc, the spending power will dwarf the Chinese tourist spending. 

the amazing thing is that only about 10% of the Chinese population have passports; unless they are controlling the issuing of passports, then look forward to even more!

Intelligence Centre I wonder where that is dont need a big place

I for one do not believe those figures based on my experiences whilst living in Thailand and dealing with Thais.

 

Fickle nation.

 

I was previously employed within the Thai education system and to my astonishment ordered to lie about exam pass marks by giving a higher preset percentage score regardless of a students ability!!!

 

Things are and do get exaggerated, being altered to fit the need as is the case when shopping. It is part of the culture to lie.

 

Just talking to Thais as well as long term ex pats paints a very different picture for me.

 

They use the word visitors, but how is that defined? 

 

Business?

Family?

Transit?

Tourist?

 

Do those visitors spend money or simply arrive on package deals?

 

It is all well and good to blow a trumpet, but it depends on how good the sound is...

 

I ate 10 meals today, but what did I eat... 10 peanuts!! 

 

Why have so many bars etc.. closed?

 

Why do so many Thais complain that tourism is down and that work is hard to find?

 

The word on the street is a far cry from the usual propaganda BS.

 

 

44 minutes ago, Prissana Pescud said:

That is a laughable piece of philosophy on your behalf. 

The poll shows that less westerners are coming to Thailand.

Why is that is the question you should ask.

Tourism in the west is skyrocketing. 

Westerners are giving corrupt autocratic countries the flick.

 

And why should anyone care when revenues are up?

Just now, Sonhia said:

I for one do not believe those figures based on my experiences whilst living in Thailand and dealing with Thais.

 

Fickle nation.

 

I was previously employed within the Thai education system and to my astonishment ordered to lie about exam pass marks by giving a higher preset percentage score regardless of a students ability!!!

 

Things are and do get exaggerated, being altered to fit the need as is the case when shopping. It is part of the culture to lie.

 

Just talking to Thais as well as long term ex pats paints a very different picture for me.

 

They use the word visitors, but how is that defined? 

 

Business?

Family?

Transit?

Tourist?

 

Do those visitors spend money or simply arrive on package deals?

 

It is all well and good to blow a trumpet, but it depends on how good the sound is...

 

I ate 10 meals today, but what did I eat... 10 peanuts!! 

 

Why have so many bars etc.. closed?

 

Why do so many Thais complain that tourism is down and that work is hard to find?

 

The word on the street is a far cry from the usual propaganda BS.

 

 

I've been seeing such complaints since 2014 and the bungling of the murder investigation, and yet there is no collapse of the tourism industry, and the current account numbers of the national bank keep going up and up.

 

Makes you wonder what kind of people does the complaining.

3 hours ago, yogi100 said:

It just shows how the Western nations are becoming less prosperous and less important globally while the Eastern nations are forging ahead.

 

It should also make you wonder why.

What?  What I told you western nations are going to MORE expensive countries?  What If I told you the stock markets and home prices are much higher in those countries?

 

What if I told you 2,000,000 westerners went to Italy, UK, France, Germany and Greece instead of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines?  

 

 

55 minutes ago, puukao said:

What?  What I told you western nations are going to MORE expensive countries?  What If I told you the stock markets and home prices are much higher in those countries?

 

What if I told you 2,000,000 westerners went to Italy, UK, France, Germany and Greece instead of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines?  

 

 

Exactly, and those countries cost about the same or less than thailand but deliver a much higher quality of everything. Plus it saves you the long terrible flight to BKK and it's bad immigration/bad taxi's.

...adds up to 26 Million....???

14 minutes ago, fruitman said:

Exactly, and those countries cost about the same or less than thailand but deliver a much higher quality of everything. Plus it saves you the long terrible flight to BKK and it's bad immigration/bad taxi's.

Yes, had I no family here, I would not return to Thailand. This country offers very little, everything is trashy, filthy and now Bangkok is having a month long smog. Great. Close the door and let the HEPA filter fill up.

1 hour ago, sadhukar said:

I've been seeing such complaints since 2014 and the bungling of the murder investigation, and yet there is no collapse of the tourism industry, and the current account numbers of the national bank keep going up and up.

 

Makes you wonder what kind of people does the complaining.

Or what kind of people "produce" the figures? 

I rather wonder how many of the 1.8 million from Laos were here for work rather than tourism? 

The influx of Chinese tourists is just beginning. 

What happens when 30 or 40% of Chinese people have passports?

There is only a trickle of them now in Thailand. 

Thailand is obviously  only a very short flight from most parts of China. Wait 10 or 20 years.

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

The chart above shows it was made by the T.A.T. intelligence centre

Intelligence within T.A.T. laughable just laughable.

"Intelligence Centre" is AKA as an oxymoron!

So if the Chinese economy goes South (anyone taking bets), then it's game over for Thailand... mmm... not the time to be investing in tourism in Thailand I think...

Quite a bit of distortion in the numbers here. There is a big difference between an American travelling for 20+ hours each way and staying 2 weeks in 5 star hotels than a Malaysian that pops across to Dannok for a quick BJ and plate of Khao man gai.

so if I understand it correctly, just fake news correct, order and published by TAT thus nothing to worry about

14 minutes ago, milesinnz said:

So if the Chinese economy goes South (anyone taking bets), then it's game over for Thailand... mmm... not the time to be investing in tourism in Thailand I think...

 

Tourism from China will grow regardless but in any case India is the one to watch.

 

Personally I think tourism in Thailand is a very safe bet and will continue strong growth. But it's a very different kind of tourism than that which westerners are going to remember from years gone by.

2 hours ago, taichiplanet said:

the amazing thing is that only about 10% of the Chinese population have passports; unless they are controlling the issuing of passports, then look forward to even more!

Over kill already. Any part of the world I speak of.