Phuket’s tourism low season dips even further

By The Phuket News

 

Scores of tourism and travel industry representatives hunt for the best deals they can find at the Thailand Travel Mart in Bangkok earlier this month. Photo: TAT

 

PHUKET: Tourism arrivals figures fell in May, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS), with tourism revenues also falling year on year. Yet total arrivals and spending during the first five months of 2019 are still slightly higher than last year.

 

So far, 16,717,060 tourists have visited Thailand from Jan through May, up from 16,456,470 during the same period last year (+1.58%). Meanwhile, the fifth month alone saw a decline from 2,755,059 last year to 2,726,808 (-1.03%), reported the MoTS.

 

The fall in arrivals in May saw a corresponding fall of 0.95% in tourism revenue to B134.56 billion during the month, down from B135.856bn last year. Although total revenue during the first five months of this year is still 0.82% higher than last year (B872,47bn, compared with B865,402bn).

Read more at https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-tourism-low-season-dips-even-further-71946.php#xsGHqELByTSdMABD.99 

 

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2019-07-01

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

This is so expected it hardly rates being in the news.

As for Phuket, haven't visited the place for 14 years as it became so bad. Most of the news coming out of the place only reinforces my decision.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Phuket’s tourism low season dips even further

It needs to re-invent itself, flogging the same old recipe is getting boring!

arrivals, not tourists

China continues to purchase Thai bonds.  This drives USD and western currencies down. BoT needs to make a stand against these foreign inflows.  They’re killing the golden goose.

More and more properties in Phuket are being listed for rent I saw a figure of 3900 on one site

26 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

China continues to purchase Thai bonds.  This drives USD and western currencies down. BoT needs to make a stand against these foreign inflows.  They’re killing the golden goose.

aGREED .. they are biting the hand that feeds .. ppl already moving off to Vietnam and other places

As long as the Thai Government refuses to devalue the baht it will continually keep dropping to the point of no return, for the Thai people who rely on tourism to survive it will get even harder, imagine if the Government actually cared about it's people

13 minutes ago, Boedog said:

As long as the Thai Government refuses to devalue the baht it will continually keep dropping to the point of no return, for the Thai people who rely on tourism to survive it will get even harder, imagine if the Government actually cared about it's people

The Baht floats against a basket of currencies, principally the USD. There is a limit to the effect any intervention by the BoT can have without impinging on reserves. In addition, in Thai terms, a strong Baht is not necessarily a bad thing.

3 minutes ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

The Baht floats against a basket of currencies, principally the USD. There is a limit to the effect any intervention by the BoT can have without impinging on reserves.

Don't confuse people by stating facts. They're comfortable in their paranoia

Cambodia and Vietnam are now taking over Thailand's place, as a top tourist destination. The ones I spoke to said they will never come back to Thailand, and the word is spreading fast, can you blame them?

8 minutes ago, the guest said:

Cambodia and Vietnam are now taking over Thailand's place, as a top tourist destination. The ones I spoke to said they will never come back to Thailand, and the word is spreading fast, can you blame them?

You "spoke" to a few people, so, therefore, Cambodia and Vietnam are taking over Thailand's place? Not very scientific, eh?

How about some facts?

 

Annual tourist arrivals for 2018.

Cambodia 6.2 million.

Vietnam 15.5 million.

Thailand 38.27 million.

 

Oh dear.........the facts don't seem to support your story.

4 hours ago, upena said:

arrivals, not tourists

Lot of arrivals are people who stay some hours, one or two days in TH then flight with Air Asia to another Asean country (Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam...) 

1 hour ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

The Baht floats against a basket of currencies, principally the USD. There is a limit to the effect any intervention by the BoT can have without impinging on reserves. In addition, in Thai terms, a strong Baht is not necessarily a bad thing.

You might try explaining that to the Thai Industries which were just lobbying BOT last week to take measures because it was bad for them.

Thailand to become a paradise for importers. ! This is result of cheap dollar and other currencies 

2 hours ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

You "spoke" to a few people, so, therefore, Cambodia and Vietnam are taking over Thailand's place? Not very scientific, eh?

How about some facts?

 

Annual tourist arrivals for 2018.

Cambodia 6.2 million.

Vietnam 15.5 million.

Thailand 38.27 million.

 

Oh dear.........the facts don't seem to support your story.

Young people are all connected through social media, and the word gets around very quickly when a place has become passé, and then the new place is named by all to be the next hot place. Bye bye Thailand.

Word soon gets around as they say bad news travels fast, I kind of meet lots of young guys who travel around and extended holidays and it like all they read about is the bad things and always about police corruption and all they do is take money off farangs I have to ask them where do you read such nonsense.......?

I tell them I have lived here for 20 years and I have traveled around Thailand from the north to the south the only money I have given the police has been my own fault, speeding once, in the wrong lane in BKK so that amounts to less than a 1000 Baht.

Let me tell you, tonight you are breaking the law you were riding your bike No Helmets, You are sitting in the bar with me drinking, have you got a license? OK against the law do we need to carry on?

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Tourism arrivals figures fell in May

Now if only the traffic could follow.......btw, could that be the solution to the problem????

Only thing susprising about this news is how low the drop is, on the ground it is actually a lot worse. Most buisness owners are saying down 30 to 40%

 

Tells us how undependanble arrivals numbers are for judging actual tourist numbers, the former are only useful to the airports themselves. They need to start filtering them by something like duration of stay and eliminating visa runners

 

But unfortunately they wont as higher numbers makes TAT look better even if they are painting a false picture

3 hours ago, Lee4Life said:

You might try explaining that to the Thai Industries which were just lobbying BOT last week to take measures because it was bad for them.

BOT can not take anu measures because if they do thailand goes on currency manipulator list with consequences. The only thing BOT can do is drop interest rates to ease up but that’s only short term solution 

9 minutes ago, Lashay said:

Most buisness owners are saying down 30 to 40%

Just curious where are you getting these stats from , obviously you dont know them all. They are some pretty serious numbers your quoting

4 hours ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

You "spoke" to a few people, so, therefore, Cambodia and Vietnam are taking over Thailand's place? Not very scientific, eh?

How about some facts?

 

Annual tourist arrivals for 2018.

Cambodia 6.2 million.

Vietnam 15.5 million.

Thailand 38.27 million.

 

Oh dear.........the facts don't seem to support your story.

As a matter of fact I know quite a few expats who are leaving Thailand to move their retirement money is over there. So yes, actually have spoken to people who are actually tired of Thailand and how they treat expats.

3 minutes ago, johnc925 said:

tired of Thailand and how they treat expats

Annoyed they have to show retirement income they don't actually have is more like it 

I have to ask them where do you read such nonsense.......?

 

It really isn't important if it's true or not - the perception is there and widespread -  that Thailand is 'old hat' and full of corrupt police.  The perception will see the decline of foreign tourism in this country.

34 minutes ago, madmen said:

Just curious where are you getting these stats from , obviously you dont know them all. They are some pretty serious numbers your quoting

Patong based, personally know hell of a lot of buisness owners (bars, resturants, small hotels and misc) and over last month vast majority that are dependant on tourist trade that i have spoken to saying same thing.

 

Head of Patong entertainment also put out warning last month about many buisnesses likely to go bust as part of his complaint about new VAT collection as they are already way down.

 

Or just walk down bangla prime time on majority of nights, less than 50% of front row street tables are occupied most of the night, thats very far from normal even in low season. And thats before we factor in decreased average spend due to the baht. Nearly everyone is offering ever increasing discounts, people dont do that in a good market, thats a survival mode tactic

5 hours ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

The Baht floats against a basket of currencies, principally the USD. There is a limit to the effect any intervention by the BoT can have without impinging on reserves. In addition, in Thai terms, a strong Baht is not necessarily a bad thing.

It will help keep out us undesirable farangs.

1 hour ago, madmen said:

Just curious where are you getting these stats from , obviously you dont know them all. They are some pretty serious numbers your quoting

I have heard quite a few times those numbers as well from business owners in diving and snorkeling business.

10 minutes ago, stevenl said:

I have heard quite a few times those numbers as well from business owners in diving and snorkeling business.

 

We are in the home rental business for 20+ years. Worst ever we have experienced. 

11 hours ago, johnc925 said:

As a matter of fact I know quite a few expats who are leaving Thailand to move their retirement money is over there. So yes, actually have spoken to people who are actually tired of Thailand and how they treat expats.

Which is more than offset by the continuing hordes of retirees that are leaving Europe and settling in Thailand (yes, I've talked to quite a few of them here in Phuket).

On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 1:30 PM, the guest said:

Cambodia and Vietnam are now taking over Thailand's place, as a top tourist destination. The ones I spoke to said they will never come back to Thailand, and the word is spreading fast, can you blame them?

Is that Cambodia of now, or 10 years ago, only tourists they are interested in are Chinese gambler's and they go to a ruined Sanookville in planeloads. Vietnam plenty of Russians there now specially Na Trang.