Why the Chinese are infinitely more important than Western tourists to Thailand

[pattayadgw]

How about they provide us with a break down of that USD 192 a day spend... is that including hotels??

[charmonman]

When riding on the skytrain it seems to me I hear more Mandarin being spoken than Thai these days, particularly between Siam and From Phong stations. Very sad.

[guydude]

Also, the Chinese don't go building those pesky "Seasteading" thingies all over the open waters, right?  

[les Dennis]

13 hours ago, Bang Bang said:

But, seriously, I walk by King Power on Soi Rangam, which is Chinese tourists ground 0, every day and some of their women are majorly bangable.

Are you a ghost writer for Barbara Cartland ?

[dotpoom]

Makes good sense.

[metisdead]

Some troll posts and replies have been removed. 

[Knocker33]

14 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

Will this lead to Manadrin becoming the prefered 2nd language in Thailand?

Sent from my SM-A700FD using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

No Thai will still be first and second

[bristolgeoff]

From what I saw in cm the tour operators love them and scooter rental people.7/11 love them too.but bar owners do  not get much a slice of their money.not sure if all Thais like them

[wisperone]

23 minutes ago, guydude said:

Also, the Chinese don't go building those pesky "Seasteading" thingies all over the open waters, right?  

Right...they just build an island with a airstrip and fuel storage depot.

[KittenKong]

27 minutes ago, charmonman said:

When riding on the skytrain it seems to me I hear more Mandarin being spoken than Thai these days,

When I was on it last week I particularly noticed the large groups of Chinese jabbering away 15 to the dozen during the entire trip. Very irritating people.

At least Thais dont jabber: they just bury their noses in their phones which is fairly harmless.

[Lupatria]

14 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

Will this lead to Manadrin becoming the prefered 2nd language in Thailand?

Sent from my SM-A700FD using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

It's probably the other way around... the chinesification is already if full swing for years. After implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) this will become the next Chinese province. Then they will follow the LKY strategy to gain full dominance of over the native population.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Lupatria

[BobbyL]

Probably time to invest in some ear plugs. I can't stand being around them. 

[helloagain]

14 hours ago, Kasane said:

Well, that's another nail in the coffin for low income, bar stool dwellers, old farangs whose days of faking income through false affidavits is coming to a close as Thailand understands that the Chinese are actually bringing in more wealth than the Western expats who have already been priced out of their countries.

Shall we all just **** off and leave these racist thais to their own devices. We already know they want our money and not us. Chinese arnt much better than animals. Ive seen at breakfast raising a leg and fart. They stand next to each other and shout. When there is a buffet like at fantasy show its gone in seconds and they leave their table strewn with their rubbish. Eat like pigs. Yeh real quatity tourists NOT. They thais make it easy fir them to be here like they did for the russians. Another breed of quality tourists not. 

[onekoolguy]

14 hours ago, Bang Bang said:

The smart move is to accept that it will be China's world soon that the rest of us will be living in. And prepare accordingly.

 

A few phrases like

How are you? Yes, master. No, master. As you desire.

in Mandarin should be good.

 

But, seriously, I walk by King Power on Soi Rangam, which is Chinese tourists ground 0, every day and some of their women are majorly bangable. Prying them loose from their tour group is another matter but that's where language skills would help.

You're not trying very hard! Many of these Chinese ladies are definitely looking for a Western guy!

[KittenKong]

13 hours ago, Bang Bang said:

You are not serious are you?

 

10 million 7-day $150/day tourists vs. a couple of hundred thousand English teachers/pensioners their butt bones clanging as they run to catch the bus to their next assignment or the IMO?

Yes, very serious. Each arrival counts as one. Be it a package tourist from China here for a weekend and staying in a tawdry Chinese hotel out in the middle of nowhere, a Russian oligarch here for a month and staying in his 100MB Phuket mansion, or a British retiree who lives in Buriram or props up Soi Buakow bar counter all the time, or even an independently wealthy person like me who lives in a nice but modest Jomtien condo. We all count as just one arrival. This is why arrival figures are completely meaningless as I pointed out. Arrival figures only tell you how busy the airports are.

 

The only figures that mean anything at all are the total spend figures and the ones that show what the money is spent on (these last don't even exist). I know that I spend far more here than any Chinese package tourist does, no matter how much designer tat they buy.

[simon43]

12 hours ago, JAG said:

As an aside, I have never seen so much garish sweaty polyester!

Business opportunity there, for sure ????

[thailand49]

Too old to worry about it.  It makes no difference Chinese been here for a while no matter what they spend it isn't going to be used to better the lives of the average Thai s who are still the majority just more money in the pockets for their leaders. 

In Pattaya, you see a lot of highways being  built toll booth everywhere but when it rains the place still floods, anyone sees any new infrastructure like water treatment plants, any new garbage facilities, or even more money for the local schools so the poorest of the poor can go for free how about mass transit, better service at local government hospital. 

No matter how many Chinese bring in there will always be a bar stool for the expat just the beer will be more expensive whether it warrants it or not?

[jaiyen]

I sat in a seat near the VAT Refund counter at Chiang Mai airport for about an hour and EVERY customer was Chinese.

[Spidey]

9 hours ago, Traubert said:

There are three names for the Chinese currency.

 

RMB - Ren Min Bi - The peoples money

 

CNY - Chinese Yuan - the way they trade on the currency market.

 

Kuai Tian -  bit money - the street name for the yuan. 

 

There is no such thing as the CNH. Incredibly, some <deleted> on twitter has made it up. ????

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-CNY-and-CNH-currencies

 

China’s national currency can be confusing. It is officially called the renminbi, or RMB (which is pinyin of the Chinese 人民币–“the people’s money”). The currency’s unit of account is called the Chinese yuan. And to complicate the matters even more, there are two kinds of Chinese yuan: offshore (CNH) and onshore (CNY).

[Spidey]

2 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

I sat in a seat near the VAT Refund counter at Chiang Mai airport for about an hour and EVERY customer was Chinese.

Same at Suberanabumi 2 weeks ago. An absolute bunfight of Chinese at the counter.

 

Initially I assumed that it was a seafood buffet.

[visarunner]

14 hours ago, otherstuff1957 said:

I've done some work for companies that cooperate with TAT and saw and interesting TAT report a couple of years ago. 

 

The Chinese do spend, on average, about 20% or more than Europeans/Americans/Aussies.  However, a breakdown of where they spend their money was very interesting.  It is traditional for Chinese tourists to return to China with expensive gifts for their friends and relatives.  This is a 'face' thing so they are often willing to spend a big chunk of their total expenditures on these gifts. 

 

So, what do they buy?  They go to the high-end stores on Suk and buy brand-name stuff.

 

Unlike Western tourists, they don't usually patronize small, local shops, smaller guesthouses or local restaurants.  Consequently, even though they spend more money, much, if not most of their money goes to foreign companies and their wealthy Thai partners.  A relatively small portion of their spending goes directly to local merchants and local SME businesses. 

 

The tourists that benefit Thai SMEs the most are actually the much-maligned backpackers!

This is common sense which our host lack. It is logic that the money the Chinese spend is being held in the hand of a few (rich) groups, while the money the average Farang spend would be spread throughout the communities. Guess what this TAT prefer.   

[kiwikeith]

15 hours ago, seajae said:

looks like this doesnt take in the zero dollar tours, all that money is spent in chinese shops/businesses

 

Spot On, I have posted b4, as an ex tour driver in NZ I know the play well.

The tour guides take them to Chinese owned venues only.

They bullshite their own, and take them to Chinese factory shops where they think they are getting a good deal but are fleeced.

They even charge them for free venues, at the end of the tour the driver gets a commission, but now that's over as they have their own busses and drivers now.

Genuine Thai business and market traders will get zilch, it is all jacked up, except for the few that go out at night after the tour is over, and they are usually mean as cat crap.

I was in a songtel in Chiang Mai one night and the driver was trying to pick up more passengers , the Chinese man agreed to pay him 30 BHT, then tried to get on with 4 mates for thirty BHT, the driver waived them away and I had a joke with him, Jek Keen yow Maaaak. Chinese mean very very /a lot.

[glennb6]

so the average chinese tourists spends $200us a day, say it's a 2 week vaca that's $2800us. That's it for the year or probably many years until the chinese tourist maybe decide to come visit again.

 

Now we have the comparison to retirees (many western) who spend roughly 31,000b a month/372,000b a year ($12,000us a year), and I'm guessing that this is on the lower end of the scale. That is $12,000us annually and is probably going to be spent until the retiree dies, for let's say 20-30yrs? Oh, and the required admittance fee is 800,000b ($25,800us) parked forever in a thai bank.

 

Does Thai logic says that a one-off $2800us is better than $12,000us + admission fee.... sounds like there's an alternative agenda being written about, certainly not the truth anyways.

[Spidey]

10 hours ago, Benroon said:

What ? Is there a polling company respect index somewhere ? I've never heard of them !

Stats in this article provided by ATTA (Association of Thai Travel Agents). Opinions supplied by Jing Travel.

 

I think that I'll stick to my own opinions/stats.

[soalbundy]

11 hours ago, Liverpudlian said:

I dont give a <deleted> dam, WHY ? cos i just bought my 1 way ticked back to my birth place LIVERPOOL !

Never mind, you may even get used to it.

[wisperone]

6 minutes ago, glennb6 said:

so the average chinese tourists spends $200us a day, say it's a 2 week vaca that's $2800us. That's it for the year or probably many years until the chinese tourist maybe decide to come visit again.

 

Now we have the comparison to retirees (many western) who spend roughly 31,000b a month/372,000b a year ($12,000us a year), and I'm guessing that this is on the lower end of the scale. That is $12,000us annually and is probably going to be spent until the retiree dies, for let's say 20-30yrs? Oh, and the required admittance fee is 800,000b ($25,800us) parked forever in a thai bank.

 

Does Thai logic says that a one-off $2800us is better than $12,000us + admission fee.... sounds like there's an alternative agenda being written about, certainly not the truth anyways.

Well the thing is tho...look at the turnover which is important. Think of Thailand as a restaurant...would the restaurant prefer to have the couple have a meal and then nurse their drink for the rest of the night over chit chat....or keep turning that table over every half hour to new customers who consume their meal and drink quickly, get out, rinse and repeat.

 

Right now there is no lack of Chinese to keep coming to Thailand. Again if you compare the farang in the above example with your estimate of $12,000 per year as the restaurant table involving chit chat as the farang yearly , and the Chinese table representing $2,800 every two week table turnover...there are 26 2 week periods in the year, resulting in the Chinese table bringing in $72,800 to the "restaurant". $12,000 annual table vs. $72,800 annual table.

[ross163103]

14 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

14 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Yea but how much of that went on fixing up sick Buffalo ..

Exactly! I've been here 25+ years and have spent a hell of a lot more than a Chinese tourist who comes here for a couple of weeks a year. My money spent here has gone DIRECTLY into the Thai economy/people/extended Thai family. Obviously the Thai govt doesn't see the amount of money westerners who live here full time pump into the economy.

 

[Pattaya28]

I find these stats very hard to believe.

Average Chinese spends $192 a day ??

On what ??

Oceania Europe + USA spend the least ??

Africa 3rd on the spend list ??

 

[Pedrogaz]

I have never seen a Chinese tourist in a bar or in a girlie bar. Come to think of it I don't remember seeing them in Thai restaurants either. I have difficulty getting my head around Chinese outspending all others. Where do the data come from? How are the data analysed and what is the significance? If correct then all the bars in Pattaya will close through lack custom as the Chinese part of the pie chart grows.

The only area I see Chinese spending is buying stuff to take home in boxes on the airplane. I must admit they always have lots of boxes, so maybe they are spending in regular retail shops.

[boriga]

14 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Yea but how much of that went on fixing up sick Buffalo ..

Chinese expenditures was US$15 trillion?

From Wikipedia:

In 2017, according to the IMF, Thailand had a GDP of 15.450 trillion baht (US$455 billion),