Thailand sees rare but significant drop in tourist arrivals

[stanleycoin]

5 hours ago, garyk said:

On a side note, the Chinese economy is not doing good. I have some Chinese stock and it is in the toilet. Trump is going to up the tariffs next week with another 300-400 billion ready to put in place. IMHO if that happens Thailand could see another significant drop in tourists from China.

We all live in hope.

[thaibeachlovers]

8 hours ago, garyk said:

how can a decline of 0.7% represent 3.5 million people?
if that's the case what's the total of visitors to thailand in 2018?

 

It should of said 7%. 7% = .07.  So 3.5 million  = .07 = 50,000,000 

Which is in line with the tourist info I think. 

They had the 3.5 million right but the .7% should of been 7%

 

On a side note, the Chinese economy is not doing good. I have some Chinese stock and it is in the toilet. Trump is going to up the tariffs next week with another 300-400 billion ready to put in place. IMHO if that happens Thailand could see another significant drop in tourists from China.

IMHO if that happens Thailand could see another significant drop in tourists from China.

 

Happy days.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

What are 2 places you like more than Thailand? Or, is Thailand your favorite? 

While not addressed to me, Antarctica is my number one favourite place on the planet, Singapore second, but way too expensive now, and Thailand third, but given the problems may drop off the list. I don't have a fourth.

[Fex Bluse]

40 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

While not addressed to me, Antarctica is my number one favourite place on the planet, Singapore second, but way too expensive now, and Thailand third, but given the problems may drop off the list. I don't have a fourth.

That is a VERY interesting list. I haven't been to Antarctica. Actually, I've never even met anyone from there. 

[garyk]

1 hour ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

That will be the straw that breaks yon camel's back.

 

A slowdown in China will pop the bubble here.

 

It's coming and you're right may be Trump's tariffs that spark it 

Yep, Thailand is in for some rough time's ahead IMO on the tourist front.

[OneEyedPie]

I'm sure today's Bangkok Bank exchange rate of 40.49 baht to 1 GBP has a huge influence on tourism or lack thereof.  

 

If I were on a salary of say £25k pa then I wouldn't come near LOS for that reason alone.  

[Thunder26]

19 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Can you elaborate?  Were the tourists being polite and being treated that way unfairly?  Or were they perhaps treating the vendors poorly?

 

Genuine question.  I've always been treated pretty well.

A Chinese tourist was trying earings on and then the vendor went bersec shouting "You try you pay!". Then outside a food stall was selling crocodile steak amd many torists were stopping by to take photos. A group of Chinese were pointing and saying in Chinese "oh croxodile". Then the vendor started sarcastically shouting towards them in Chinese " Yeah crocodile, crocodile, crocodile..." I found it to be very rude towards tourists. Not nice at all.

 

[OneEyedPie]

3 minutes ago, Thunder26 said:

A Chinese tourist was trying earings on and then the vendor went bersec shouting "You try you pay!".

I nearly got into a fight about nine years ago with a vendor.  I merely touched a wallet on his stall and off he went ranting and raving, you touch but no buy.  I seriously wanted to smash him one as he was way over the top.  I learned my lesson there and then.

 

Earrings, though, shouldn't be tried on and neither should underwear.  Anyway, as I said, don't touch stallholders goods as it's not worth the potential trouble.  

[BritManToo]

6 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

What are 2 places you like more than Thailand? Or, is Thailand your favorite? 

Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines ..... don't like them more, but they're equal and with easier VISAs to stay.

[HuskerDo]

15 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

What are 2 places you like more than Thailand? Or, is Thailand your favorite? 

Had to give that a bit of thought and it's still hard to answer. To choose two places is difficult. I like various things from most places I've been. I really liked Germany. It was during Octoberfest and everyone was so welcoming. The architecture on the buildings was stunning as was the countryside. By far the most beautiful place was Monaco. In-<deleted>-credible beauty. The USA has so many beautiful places to visit and incredible foods from different parts of the country. I could spend five years travelling there and still not have seen everything I wanted to.

 

Unlike most I'd give a thumbs down to France and Greece. Just not my kind of places. Italy probably the same. 

 

 

[toenail]

One of the biggest deterrents in coming to Thailand are the aggressive tourist touts, the poor customer service, and the litter & debris laying around on the beaches and streets. Internet is more powerful than a “photo shopped” photo now days. There are cleaners destinations to go to now days such as Vietnam or Malaysia.


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[steven100]

20 hours ago, garyk said:

Yep, Thailand is in for some rough time's ahead IMO on the tourist front.

farang have been saying that for the past twenty years .....  but Thailand keeps going ahead.

One only has to look at the amount of infrustructure being built in Bangkok, North-east and in the south .. to realize your comment is false.

Tourist numbers may go up and down from month to month but it's undeniable that tourists just keep coming.

[DrTuner]

Just now, steven100 said:

farang have been saying that for the past twenty years .....  but Thailand keeps going ahead.

One only has to look at the amount of infrustructure being built in Bangkok, North-east and in the south .. to realize your comment is false.

Tourist numbers may go up and down from month to month but it's undeniable that tourists just keep coming.

Eventually they will run out of suckers. After India it's just Africa left, unless they start luring in people from Antarctica. Will take a decade or two though.

[metisdead]

Some off topic posts have been removed.

[RobertHima]

On 4/27/2019 at 10:27 AM, orchis said:

how can a decline of 0.7% represent 3.5 million people?
if that's the case what's the total of visitors to thailand in 2018?

500 million in March, so considering roughly uniform distribution across the month that's about 6 billion per year.

[metisdead]

Off topic baiting posts and the replies have been removed. 

[cmsally]

4 hours ago, steven100 said:

farang have been saying that for the past twenty years .....  but Thailand keeps going ahead.

One only has to look at the amount of infrustructure being built in Bangkok, North-east and in the south .. to realize your comment is false.

Tourist numbers may go up and down from month to month but it's undeniable that tourists just keep coming.

The recent implementation of large infrastructure projects are more to do with keeping the economy going than an increase in tourism.

If you are familiar with Thai tourism over the last 30 years you will know that Thailand went from a backpacker/adventure destination to a quality upmarket destination (both markets existed in parallel when the higher end accommodation appeared). When  other SE Asian destinations opened up Thailand lost bits of all sectors of the market but kept a "good head count" with its long stay visitors and "lifestyle  visitors" (yoga, spas etc etc)

Nowadays a big drop in backpackers - Thailand has lost the wow factor and younger people find it difficult to take longer holidays.

Big drop in quality visitors, there are still many people with the cash but they don't come to Thailand. Many were expats in Asia and there are now far less European/USA expats in Asia.

This is the reason they are trying to use Asians (mostly Chinese) to fill the gap.

It is pretty difficult to assess the Chinese market and a number of them have made investments in Thailand, so might be here a while. But its all very well to keep saying the tourists will keep coming when the Chinese are pretty much the end of the road.

[thaibeachlovers]

21 hours ago, steven100 said:

farang have been saying that for the past twenty years .....  but Thailand keeps going ahead.

One only has to look at the amount of infrustructure being built in Bangkok, North-east and in the south .. to realize your comment is false.

Tourist numbers may go up and down from month to month but it's undeniable that tourists just keep coming.

LOL. I was just re reading a post from the Pattaya Mail in 2002 saying just about the same things as are being said now. Had the writer been correct, Pattaya would have zero visitors by now.

[thaibeachlovers]

16 hours ago, cmsally said:

f you are familiar with Thai tourism over the last 30 years you will know that Thailand went from a backpacker/adventure destination to a quality upmarket destination (both markets existed in parallel when the higher end accommodation appeared).

IMO, apart from certain select hotels/ resorts, there is no "quality" "upmarket" destination in Thailand.

I may not have been to every place in LOS ( though I certainly gave it a good try ) but outside those places, Thailand is too dirty, broken, corrupt etc to qualify as "quality".

Mind you, I prefer it as it is to somewhere like Singapore which is definitely "quality" but I no longer have any desire to visit it precisely because it's quality excludes any semblance of sanuk. Singapore went upmarket and lost it's soul. I hope the same does not happen to LOS, though I'd guess it isn't going to happen anyway as they've been trying for 20 years in Pattaya and only succeeded in making a big mess.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 9:17 PM, Fex Bluse said:

That is a VERY interesting list. I haven't been to Antarctica. Actually, I've never even met anyone from there. 

Not surprising as hardly anyone goes there. A few tourists, mainly on cruises, but I don't count them anyway as they don't stay on land at all.

Some that make the trek to climb mountains or walk to the pole and fly out but very expensive.

Mainly workers for government organisations, and insignificant when taken against the size of the place. Green peace had 3 people ages ago, but none since, far as I know. 

Have to be very lucky to work there. I was.

Loads of photos on google if anyone is interested.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 8:59 AM, toenail said:

One of the biggest deterrents in coming to Thailand are the aggressive tourist touts, the poor customer service, and the litter & debris laying around on the beaches and streets. Internet is more powerful than a “photo shopped” photo now days. There are cleaners destinations to go to now days such as Vietnam or Malaysia.


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I was on Penang for 2 days and couldn't wait to leave and go back to LOS. Supposed to be there a week and changed my rail ticket to get out sooner.

[garyk]

Lets see how many Chinese tourists pour into Thailand now. 25% tariffs went into effect. Chinas stock market is in a pretty steep sell off. With all the recent events Thailand is in a very poor position IMO.

 

Thailand pretty much sealed their fate with the ridiculous retirement rules, regarding western countries. That will trickle down to even poorer numbers of western tourists coming to Thailand.

 

I for one am very curious to see how this plays out for Thailand. 

 

 

[Penefattore]

Thai Immigration bounced at the border their best most frequent visitors , so what result other than disaster could be expected ?

If you shoot your foot , you can forget walking. 

[ThomasThBKK]

IMO, apart from certain select hotels/ resorts, there is no "quality" "upmarket" destination in Thailand.
I may not have been to every place in LOS ( though I certainly gave it a good try ) but outside those places, Thailand is too dirty, broken, corrupt etc to qualify as "quality".
Mind you, I prefer it as it is to somewhere like Singapore which is definitely "quality" but I no longer have any desire to visit it precisely because it's quality excludes any semblance of sanuk. Singapore went upmarket and lost it's soul. I hope the same does not happen to LOS, though I'd guess it isn't going to happen anyway as they've been trying for 20 years in Pattaya and only succeeded in making a big mess.

Koh kood certainly is, koh mak also to a point.

Both have no red light shit, no taxi mafia and are actually quite decent...

Soneva kiri in koh kood is mind blowing but also mind blowingly expensive.

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[Chrisdoc]

No taxi mafia? You mean no taxis I'm sure.

Koh kood certainly is, koh mak also to a point.

Both have no red light shit, no taxi mafia and are actually quite decent...

Soneva kiri in koh kood is mind blowing but also mind blowingly expensive.

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[ThomasThBKK]

No taxi mafia? You mean no taxis I'm sure.


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Pickup trucks for 50 thb per person. Most are using a bicycle or scooter tho, 150-200 thb per day.

But restaurants usually have their own pickup and bring/return you for free - it's magic.

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[Chrisdoc]

You must have a different Koh Kood. Hard to get a pick up there for less than 300 to 400 b. Scooters 250b a day. Hard riding a bicycle as is so hilly. I don't know any restaurants there with free taxi services unless you are talking really high end ones like Soneva or High Season.

Pickup trucks for 50 thb per person. Most are using a bicycle or scooter tho, 150-200 thb per day.

But restaurants usually have their own pickup and bring/return you for free - it's magic.

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[ThomasThBKK]

You must have a different Koh Kood. Hard to get a pick up there for less than 300 to 400 b. Scooters 250b a day. Hard riding a bicycle as is so hilly. I don't know any restaurants there with free taxi services unless you are talking really high end ones like Soneva or High Season.


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No, was talking about koh mak actually. My error.

Koh mak seafood and co have pickup. Seavanna, mira montra, plu plab, aok white sand are quite nice hotels there.

Koh kood i only know the soneva kiri but it's really only sth you can go for special ocassions.. Easy to take a boat over from koh mak tho.






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[gk10002000]

Things dropped quite a bit after the Thaksin kick out coup.  Thailand was very lucky they did not lose more as that high season approached.  And the Bangkok flood mess hurt too

[AtoZ]

22 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Koh kood certainly is, koh mak also to a point.

Both have no red light shit, no taxi mafia and are actually quite decent...

Soneva kiri in koh kood is mind blowing but also mind blowingly expensive.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
 

Ko Mak is horrible place, unless you are sand flies and 'nothing around' lover

 

Soneva Kiri cost is more (or on par) than 5* all inclusive in Maldives or Bora Bora