Fewer tourists are going to Thailand because of its expensive currency

[webfact]

Fewer tourists are going to Thailand because of its expensive currency

Natnicha Chuwiruch, Bloomberg

 

File photo

 

Thailand’s tourism minister has blamed a surge in the baht for sapping tourist arrivals into Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, and says he’ll take up the matter with the central bank, highlighting rising concern over the currency’s gains.

 

Arrivals have dropped because of the baht’s strength, Piphat Ratchakitprakarn, minister of tourism and sports, told reporters in Bangkok after he officially began his new role. Piphat said he’d discuss with the Bank of Thailand and the finance minister what can be done to help support the industry. 

 

Thailand’s currency is among the strongest in emerging markets over the past 12 months, and the jump has been a headwind for an economy that’s also being hurt by the fall-out from global trade tensions. The central bank has signalled its concern about the advance, and on Wednesday Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said he’s tracking the currency closely and is prepared to act.

 

Full story: https://m.fin24.com/Economy/fewer-tourists-are-going-to-thailand-because-of-its-expensive-currency-20190722

 

-- Fin24 2019-07-23

 

 

[nev]

No just the high Baht, Making it hard to stay here with Draconian visa rules are driving many away.

Edited July 23, 2019 by nev

[RotBenz8888]

11 minutes ago, webfact said:

Arrivals have dropped because of the baht’s strength, Piphat Ratchakitprakarn, minister of tourism and sports,

Like and alcoholic, first step is to admit there's a problem.

[Thaiwrath]

6 minutes ago, nev said:

No just the high Baht, Making it hard to stay here with Draconian visa rules are bribing many away.

 

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

Fewer tourists

Not too sure the tourists are too bothered about visa rules, they normally come here for a break, and return home. But the high baht does make it expensive compared to previous years.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Thaiwrath

[Fex Bluse]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

Arrivals have dropped because of the baht’s strength

Said another way, 

 

Arrivals have dropped because of poor value to tourists

 

Thailand has been a questionable value for quite a long time, but now it is laughable. 

 

The Thais do not know how to offer good value for anything but the very lowest price. 

Edited July 23, 2019 by blackcab
Quote marks removed

[lazygourmet]

Meanwhile Thai tourists are flocking to Europe. On my last Songkran trip to Brussels the Thai Airways flight was full of upper middle class Thai families.

[SmartyMarty]

first it's lack of safety, then violence, then a high baht.....what next?

[madmitch]

One moment arrivals are up, the next they're dropping!

Will we ever get any consistency from the TAT and the Tourism Ministry?

Edited July 23, 2019 by madmitch

[DrTuner]

None of the folks I know that used to come here every year once or twice with family are coming anymore. Not about money, they are now going to Caribbean and southern Europe. It's the fact that Thailand is now a third tier destination, a gnawed bone overflowing with cheapo tourists. Thank Kobkarn the Clueless.

Edited July 23, 2019 by DrTuner

[Fex Bluse]

14 minutes ago, SmartyMarty said:

first it's lack of safety, then violence, then a high baht.....what next?

Then massages (HJs) 

Then Marijuana 

 

Next they'll be saying farangs stopped coming because it is too hot

 

????

[GeorgeCross]

the baht is only half the (financial) problem - domestic inflation has been on a tear these last 5 years regardless of what official inflation numbers suggest. 

 

even earning in baht things are getting damn expensive and the locals are suffering much more than us expats

 

 

[Fex Bluse]

28 minutes ago, lazygourmet said:

Meanwhile Thai tourists are flocking to Europe. On my last Songkran trip to Brussels the Thai Airways flight was full of upper middle class Thai families.

Not sure I'd call a handful of Thais "flocking". Very small numbers. 

 

We never see press releases from countries mentioning the numbers of Thai tourists. 

 

Thais are small fish 

[Snuller21]

I am just guessing, but I think that everybody who lives here will agree about that. And then again, yesterday, it came up that there only were o.1% more tourists in June compared by last year. But would like very much to know where they tourists are hiding. Not in the Tourist destinations for sure, so it have to be out in the Gulf of Thailand in Underwater Worlds. Just ask Hoteliers about it. They have so many empty rooms that it is hard for them to survive, and the number are still rising. Who give the numbers? Who control them?

[Chelseafan]

I've been banging on about the TAT for ages, questioning the figures and where they get their data from. You can bet if June is down 0.1% then it's a lot worse than that.

[Roy Baht]

57 minutes ago, nev said:

No just the high Baht, Making it hard to stay here with Draconian visa rules are driving many away.

According to this article--and to reality--it is the strong baht that is keeping tourists out. Period. The Draconian visa rules are (as intended by the Thai gov't) driving long-stay expats out. That's an entirely different matter. Now, this is bad in some ways (breaking up families supported by honest, hard-working foreigners) and good in others (driving out foreign scam artists, dirtbags and mongers). But to say this is at all related to tourism is to misstate the reality. Tourists come and go with very little contact with IO.  If you are here on a tourist visa, raising & supporting a Thai family, you are not a tourist.  If you are here on a tourist visa, scamming, slumming & whoring, you are not a tourist either--certainly not a tourist Thailand wants.  

[overherebc]

24 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Not sure I'd call a handful of Thais "flocking". Very small numbers. 

 

We never see press releases from countries mentioning the numbers of Thai tourists. 

 

Thais are small fish 

Friend just back from touring Europe and said every big city had many Thai tourists.

Re the baht and tourists coming here it will take a big change in the rate to have an effect and I mean 5 or more on the dollar to start with.

[Geoffggi]

33 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

the baht is only half the (financial) problem - domestic inflation has been on a tear these last 5 years regardless of what official inflation numbers suggest. 

 

even earning in baht things are getting damn expensive and the locals are suffering much more than us expats

 

 

The above is correct, the government on one hand said that the currency was at the right level then turned around and said industry could not afford to increase the minimum basic wage - make your minds up ..!!

[marcusarelus]

1 hour ago, Fex Bluse said:

Said another way, 

 

"Arrivals have dropped because of poor value to tourists" 

 

Thailand has been a questionable value for quite a long time, but now it is laughable. 

 

The Thais do not know how to offer good value for anything but the very lowest price. 

Durian, women, hospitals, oranges from Chiang Rai, crystal glassware, hard drives, moonshine, water and electricity prices and rents for homes and apartments, massage.  

[marcusarelus]

9 minutes ago, Geoffggi said:

The above is correct, the government on one hand said that the currency was at the right level then turned around and said industry could not afford to increase the minimum basic wage - make your minds up ..!!

Price of motorcycle taxi and song taus have stayed the same for 10 years.  And look at gasoline prices. 

Edited July 23, 2019 by marcusarelus

[bowerboy]

I know that many people say sex tourists only make up a small percentage of tourists but I am not so sure that it is as small as people think.

 

And the fact is that if a sex tourist wanted a holiday then Thailand would arguably be THE most expensive destination now for such a holiday.

 

Indeed the pursuit of such activities is now cheaper in Europe than Thailand and by quite some margin (especially continental Europe such as Germany, Holland etc) and arguably of much higher quality.

 

I do think people underestimate that sector as it seems Pattaya and Phuket have been harder hit.

[DLock]

Fake news - Ministry just said Tourists are up year on year.

 

...baht is just fine where it is.

 

 

[smedly]

7 minutes ago, Geoffggi said:

The above is correct, the government on one hand said that the currency was at the right level then turned around and said industry could not afford to increase the minimum basic wage - make your minds up ..!!

because there are uneducated baffoons running the country and they have absolutely no clue what they are doing, you only have to look at safety and the road accident rate - how many years have they had to improve it - 40 years of tourist billions and they have done nothing - they just can't see the big picture and prefer to stuff money into their greedy pockets than re-invest in things that are important

 

Now they are stiffing expats with stupid rules and even worse reasons for implementing them - yes we changed the rules to wipe out agents and expats paying bribes to overlook the financial requirements - that really worked didn't it - we now have an increase in agent use - go figure

 

There was nothing wrong with the rules as they existed - maybe the retention of 400k baht was not unreasonable but keeping 900k tied up in a bank account for 5 months …………. why ?

[Mikisteel]

Just now, marcusarelus said:

Check out the prices of go go dancing in NYC or Las Vegas. 

Had to chaperone a Canadian friend in may. First visit to Los. First thing he said was vegas was much cheaper.

[Chivas]

Yet again an article claiming incorrectly that the high value baht is causing all the problems which is simply not the case.

Yes the Dollar/Baht rate is stronger than we would like but its only accounting for 25% of the problem

 

The 75% is coming from the other side of the currency pairing and our own currencies weakness against the USD whether you're a Brit or from the Euro zone nations or the Aussie and Kiwi Dollar

 

Those countries weakness against the Greenback is doing the main damage. Its beyond me how people are allowed to possess passports but have zero grasp of currency exchange rates or more to the point how they are calculated

Edited July 23, 2019 by Chivas

[justin case]

elite is getting filthy rich with strong baht = cheaper crap they are allowed to buy in farangland, while in the same time, farang gets more crap to just live here

[OttoPollmann]

1 hour ago, lazygourmet said:

Meanwhile Thai tourists are flocking to Europe. On my last Songkran trip to Brussels the Thai Airways flight was full of upper middle class Thai families.

its not only on Thai holidays. I just came back from Zürich and the Swiss flight was packed with Thais.

[Fex Bluse]

6 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Friend just back from touring Europe and said every big city had many Thai tourists.

Re the baht and tourists coming here it will take a big change in the rate to have an effect and I mean 5 or more on the dollar to start with.

Sure, I know of some Thais who are actually there right now. All I was saying is that it's not so many Thais. 

 

Ton understand beyond individual experience, though, the below. Thais would be FAR down the list of spenders or outbound travelers. Near the bottom even. 

9789284419876.pdf

[marcusarelus]

6 minutes ago, smedly said:

because there are uneducated baffoons running the country and they have absolutely no clue what they are doing, you only have to look at safety and the road accident rate - how many years have they had to improve it - 40 years of tourist billions and they have done nothing - they just can't see the big picture and prefer to stuff money into their greedy pockets than re-invest in things that are important

 

Now they are stiffing expats with stupid rules and even worse reasons for implementing them - yes we changed the rules to wipe out agents and expats paying bribes to overlook the financial requirements - that really worked didn't it - we now have an increase in agent use - go figure

 

There was nothing wrong with the rules as they existed - maybe the retention of 400k baht was not unreasonable but keeping 900k tied up in a bank account for 5 months …………. why ?

Why 900k

[Eligius]

32 minutes ago, Chelseafan said:

I've been banging on about the TAT for ages, questioning the figures and where they get their data from. You can bet if June is down 0.1% then it's a lot worse than that.

Where do TAT get their data from? It's obvious to any us who have lived here for more than a decade that they simply conjure them out of thin air. In other words: they make them up as they go along (just as all Thai officials make up any statements of 'fact' as they go along).

Thailand: Land of Make-Believe.

[Chivas]

15 minutes ago, bowerboy said:

I know that many people say sex tourists only make up a small percentage of tourists but I am not so sure that it is as small as people think.

 

Less than 0.1% of all annual unique visitors