Tourism ministry: World economy to blame for Thailand's tourism woes

[bbbbooboo]

4 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

It's always someone else's fault!

It's not the dirt, the violence, the traffic- deaths, the xenophobia or racism, the misogyny, the pollution, the non-sensical laws for smoking and beach chairs, the corrupt police, the overall unfriendlyness of the immigration at the 30% occupied airport- counters....

It's us - the rest of the world...

Hear, hear

[Jimbo2014]

[FNQ]

4 hours ago, madmitch said:

But I thought arrivals were up!!!

So did I ! 

[helloagain]

4 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

It's always someone else's fault!

It's not the dirt, the violence, the traffic- deaths, the xenophobia or racism, the misogyny, the pollution, the non-sensical laws for smoking and beach chairs, the corrupt police, the overall unfriendlyness of the immigration at the 30% occupied airport- counters....

It's us - the rest of the world...

Yes yes yes

[john69]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

How can there be problems in Nirvana. This is the centre of the universe. This is Xanadu!

Aren't you lucky...

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, johng said:

I think it was introduced way before his time..though yes it made a come back during his time...then was slowly but eventually (mostly)  ignored until "the democratic soldier"  seized power.

You mean the "protect the elite, those in office, the army, the police  and those who are well connected", and ignore all the other woes facing the nation guy?

Edited September 20, 2019 by spidermike007

[sawadee1947]

Huh and I was afraid that they would blame themselves...... ????????

[Khun Paul]

Excuse me world, while I stick my head in the sand the same as an Ostrich, it cannot be our fault we are tourist  friendly he said ignoring the Road deaths, Double Pricing, Immigration nonsense, Corrupt Police , in fact everything even Thais do not like, we are a PERFECT country to visit...……..NOT !! 

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, Greenhill said:

Why you no understand?    They are 'arriving' but not 'touring'!!!    These arrivals, arrive at the airport but then mysteriously disappear!!!

They get shoved in a bus, ferried to illegal condo hotels owned by Chinese, to be later fed in watering holes operated by Chinese and then bussed around to designated tourist milking spots, with a hefty cut flowing right back to China. I'm ok with them being invisible, but Thais that rely on tourists and are not "in on it" get zilch.

[mac1970]

4 hours ago, Sticky Wicket said:

I was in BKK doing business the other day. 

By 3pm we were ready for a drink and a bite to eat

Went into 5 different restaurants and there was no alcohol for sale.

We ended up walking for 10 mins to the beer exchange where it was serving freely and openly.

Reassuringly expensive 300 baht a pint I hasten to add!!

What on earth is wrong with this place! 

The clients I was with found it hard to believe.

 

And yeh I know about this stupid law and why it was brought in.

300 bath!!!! This is unacceptable and national crisis!!! Where is my beer prices down banner? 

[Chrisswe]

GOOD MORNING YOU JUST WAKE UP !!???

THIS WE HAVE SEEN THE LAST 5-6 YEARS !!! NOTHING NEW !!!!!

[NCC1701A]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Instead Panya ended on a positive note saying that Hua Hin should be ready for high season.

almost ready. just have to sweep up a bit. any minute now. here we go.

[30la]

The world economy has been doing up and down for years.
Take your responsibilities, a country where filth, cheating and corruption reign, does not invite many to spend carefree holidays!

[agood1963]

When is uncle Tu going to except responsibilty for the countries failings , always someone elses fault . Why  dont he except he his not educated enough for the job . The countries decline his down to him and him only , why are the surrounding countries having no tourism problems.

Edited September 20, 2019 by agood1963
spelling mistake

[mac1970]

2 hours ago, dluek said:

I still don't see how they qualify nearly 40 million tourist arrivals this year as "tourism woes." Only 10 years ago, Thailand drew less than 15 million per year. The situation is already unsustainable at a lot of destinations, especially small islands. What they should be debating is whether millions more coming every year is even a good thing.  

Never heard about capitalism and greed? Works same way everywhere ????. Somewhere it's just more visible. 

[Saint Nick]

1 hour ago, Sticky Wicket said:

It's to stop kids buying booze after school! Thaksin introduced it.

The thing is the places where kids buy from is the Mom and Pop stores who sell 24/7!!

You couldn't make this <deleted> up.

A lot of these blanket,knee jerk policies that are utterly useless

You can't buy alcohol on a train either

Why? 

Because a drug crazed employee of Thai railways, an employee not a customer raped and killed a young girl and threw her out of the window near Hua Hin.

Rather than scrutinize their own recruitment policies they decided that there was to be no more booze on ANY trains. Mind boggling, incompetent and down right laziness

Okay...BUT...how about banning alcohol sales after midnight?

Also part of that stupid law and hardly aimed at child- protection...one might hope!

[Saint Nick]

1 hour ago, phungo said:

2 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

You know?
Pray tell!
Seriously!
I am here for 12 years now and I still have no actual clue, why this law exists!

what is the law you guys are referring to?

The selling hours of alcohol in Supermarkets or Convenience stores!

[kevden]

I'm a little confused. Numbers into Thailand are down, but they were reported as up recently. At the same time, visitors to neighbouring Countries are reported as up. But the World has problems (leading to reduced Tourists). If I think about it too much, I get headaches. 

[Isaan sailor]

Take a bow, ChiComs and Bank of Thailand.  It took over two years of hot money inflows, but you persevered—despite dire warnings from tourists, expats and exporters.  Thailand officially now the most overpriced currency in all SE Asia!

[curlylekan]

5 hours ago, Sticky Wicket said:

I was in BKK doing business the other day. 

By 3pm we were ready for a drink and a bite to eat

Went into 5 different restaurants and there was no alcohol for sale.

We ended up walking for 10 mins to the beer exchange where it was serving freely and openly.

Reassuringly expensive 300 baht a pint I hasten to add!!

What on earth is wrong with this place! 

The clients I was with found it hard to believe.

 

And yeh I know about this stupid law and why it was brought in.

Stupid law, do you mean the hours that they won't serve alcohol? I thought this was only if you wanted to buy it at the store, not a restaurant or a bar. Am I wrong? And why was it brought in?

[milesinnz]

Meanwhile in Vietnam... International visitors to Viet Nam in August estimated 1,512,447 arrivals, increase 14.9% over last month and up 14.3% over the same period last year. Total international arrivals in 8 months reached 11,309,232 arrivals, increasing 8.7% over the same period last year.

[Baggy]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Over the past few years, agencies responsible like the Tourism Authority of Thailand have taken little action to solve problems dragging the industry down. Scams still flourish among tourist service providers, with taxi drivers just the tip of the iceberg. Poor safety standards on public transport and patchy services in local provinces, along with the system of dual-pricing, act as powerful deterrents for potential visitors. City authorities have yet to come up with solid measures to curb the hazardous pollutant's main source, which is traffic congestion, not to mention the incredibly toxic brew that is stirred up at least twice a year, during sugar cane burning season.

 

The fact that the authorities are now targeting tourists from China, as well as India, by offering travelers from the two Asian giants free visas on arrival, suggests that Thailand has suffered a dip in visitors from traditional markets, especially Europe. Meanwhile, onerous requirements for expatriates to report their movements under the now notorious TM30 rules are exacerbating the problem by deterring domestic tourism. Marketing tactics will be useless in luring back visitors as long as tourism authorities and related agencies fail to recognise and root out the factors causing the setback. Chief among these are unscrupulous individuals and businesses for whom tourists are merely targets for exploitation. Meanwhile, until they get serious about promoting sustainable tourism, the decline will continue.

 

When these horrendously under qualified individuals at the tourism ministry attempt to shift blame for their Shakespearean level of incompetence, and blame the Thai baht, or the European economy, all they are doing is deflecting and avoiding taking even one iota of responsibility for the woes that face the nation, and the millions of Thai people who derive an income from tourism. Why? They are too small to accept that what they have been doing has not worked, and that they have been totally incapable to addressing the countless issues keeping tourist away.

 

They are practicing face. And in the process, they are openly and without awareness, telling the nation they do not take their faith seriously. Why? Face is no doubt, the greatest form of weakness, a human can engage in. Many will say it is societal, cultural, etc. No matter. It is the absolute and complete lack of the ability to introspect, and look within for the source of any problem, shortcoming, conflict, or issue. It is the polar opposite of spirituality, and therefore an absolute scourge on Buddha, and all of the precepts he taught. By practicing face, you are denying your spiritual heritage. You are refusing to man up. To take responsibility for your actions. If a man or a woman cannot, and will not take responsibility for their actions, the problems they create, the mistakes they make, and the issues they involve themselves in, what are they? Are they still an adult? Are they a complete individual, if they allow themselves to be limited by such infinitely small social convention? Buddha taught that to look within for the source of the problem, was a very noble quality, and was at the very foundation of the Buddhist faith. He also taught of the need for daily contemplation and meditation. Looking within. 

 

Who cares what people think of you? For those of us with high self esteem, it just does not matter. Sure, close friends and family. But strangers on the street? Who gives a rat's butt about this? It means nothing what they think, nor what they say about you. They count for nothing. They are just people, and people you do not know, nor will ever see again. Face is rife with self doubt, and by subscribing to this weakness, and man or woman is made a far lesser person. For those of us with high self esteem, we know who we are. What others think, what society thinks, what a guy or gal thinks, means less than zero.

Real men or women, simply own a situation, and take responsibility for their errors or mistakes. Small men, social deviants, or emotional adolescents deflect, obfuscate, attempt to confuse, and do everything in their power to deny that they made a mistake, or that they are responsible in any way, or on any level. They make up narratives about fake news, or alternative facts. Anything to avoid looking within, for the source of the problem. Anything.

Very well written, sad but true.

[phantomfiddler]

Thainess = Always blame someone else ????

[Number 6]

Hasn't the line been that Thailand was to pick up business due to the China US kerfuffle?

 

Down the memory hole

[Jiggo]

3 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

Must be the Cleaner on the end R-Side

[Isaan sailor]

I wonder if any one of them has bothered look at the Baht vs. any currency....not just for today, but also for the month, YTD, 1-year, 2-year, etc.

[PlastikbinLina]

Just like the Australian PM and Josh Friedandburnt the finance Minister, alwaysb blamethe world economy for problems developed at home.

[spidermike007]

44 minutes ago, milesinnz said:

Meanwhile in Vietnam... International visitors to Viet Nam in August estimated 1,512,447 arrivals, increase 14.9% over last month and up 14.3% over the same period last year. Total international arrivals in 8 months reached 11,309,232 arrivals, increasing 8.7% over the same period last year.

The neighbors are simply trying harder and seem to care. They are doing a better job. 

 

Thailand is infected with a plague of indifference, apathy, incompetence, corruption, fear of the outside world, xenophobia, racism and arrogance, at the government level. It pervades all the ministries and comes at a huge cost.

 

This current catastrophe is entirely self made. Factors like the high baht are all secondary. Prayuth, the tourism ministry, and stunningly ignorant men like the biggest joke and small Oud have to be held accountable. They are to blame. 

[Sydebolle]

Once these people learn to be responsible for what they do and say as well as admit that they made (a) mistake(s), intervene in utter nonsense ideas of the government with all these forms, TMs and other "see-who-is-the-boss-here" .......... then there is hope that they can get some new tourists. Those they've driven away will never come back. 

Look at Burma, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia - by infrastructure much more behind Thailand but hotels doing fine at a profitable level and tourists feel truly welcome. Here the unfriendly grouch of an immigration officer is the first thing you see after you've been queueing for hours at the immigration counter. Next is Somchai with his taxi offerings which are expanded to massage with girls, boys, katoeys, life shows, change money, snake shows etc. etc. etc. All the while the passenger is grossly overcharged or given the big city tour just to get into a hotel. Rip offs at the Grand Palace, the bag- and gold chain snatching crew of third gender executives along Pattaya's beach road etc. etc. etc.

Grow up and open your eyes; it is not the "world's economy at fault" it is exclusively the fault of Khon Thai. The biggest enemy of Thailand is her own people ......... 

[amdy2206]

The government has been saying everything is wonderful, so where are the woes??