Thailand's September foreign tourist arrivals up 10% year-on-year - ministry

 

FILE PHOTO: Long-tail boats with tourists are seen in a beach in Koh Poda island near Krabi, Thailand October 22, 2019. Picture taken October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Tourist arrivals in Thailand rose 10.11% in September from a year earlier, after an increase of 7.35% in August, the tourism ministry said in a statement.

 

A total of 2.9 million tourists in September spent 139.6 billion baht ($4.62 billion), up 8.73% from a year earlier.

 

Visitors from China, Thailand's biggest source of tourists, totalled 852,130 in September, up 31.56% from a year earlier. It rose 18.89% in August.

In the January-September period, overall tourist arrivals totalled 29.47 million, up 3.5% from a year earlier.

 

Foreign tourist receipts make up about 12% of Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP).

 

For a graph on Thailand's foreign tourists, click

 

 

(Reporting by Orathai Sriring; editing by Uttaresh.V)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-29

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Jackanory

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

A total of 2.9 million tourists in September spent 139.6 billion baht ($4.62 billion), up 8.73% from a year earlier.

Amazing how they manage to collect those numbers....

T.A.T man at it again !

the <deleted> is flying again

 

Why do i find it hard to believe in anything coming out from government official is it me or i'm not alone here?...

 

After hearing this news this is how I feel....Happy Happy Happy....

 

this can't be correct ….TVF farang keep telling us that everyone is leaving.  lol 

Not denying its truth, as I am not someone who posts about tourists numbers declining as I genuinely have no idea, However, are they really able to calculate this within 3 - 4 weeks?

 

A total of 2.9 million tourists in September spent 139.6 billion baht ($4.62 billion), up 8.73% from a year earlier.

2 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

Not denying its truth, as I am not someone who posts about tourists numbers declining as I genuinely have no idea, However, are they really able to calculate this within 3 - 4 weeks?

 

A total of 2.9 million tourists in September spent 139.6 billion baht ($4.62 billion), up 8.73% from a year earlier.

Really isn't all that difficult when bigger numbers are written on pieces of paper that are then picked out of a hat.

It doesn't matter what is drawn.  No one that matters pays any attention anyway.

12 minutes ago, steven100 said:

this can't be correct ….TVF farang keep telling us that everyone is leaving.  lol 

You think the PM is a decent and honourable man, you will believe anything for some reason.

Very bizarre mindset

 

31 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Amazing how they manage to collect those numbers....

Thailand’s informal economy, the non-regulated, non-taxed part of its overall economy, makes up about 40% of the country’s GDP also!!

It's pure unadulterated bullsh!t!

I suspect government could write that the sun rose this morning at 6:12 and most TVF posters would cry BS, it's a Pavolvian thing!

These guys don't know if they're Arthur or Martha.

 

One day up. Next day down. One day broke. Next day spending billions.

 

It applies to most government departments in Thailand.

 

I can't keep up ????

2 minutes ago, saengd said:

I suspect government could write that the sun rose this morning at 6:12 and most TVF posters would cry BS, it's a Pavolvian thing!

I agree there are a lot of pessimistic posters on this site, but even you must agree that the TAT seem to release contradictory reports on an almost weekly basis. 

6 minutes ago, Sticky Wicket said:

You think the PM is a decent and honourable man, you will believe anything for some reason.

Very bizarre mindset

 

I don't believe anything and everything, but I do believe unless you have a guy like Khun Prayuth Chan O Cha as chief and topman who can control the troublemakers and other parties who just want to fight and cause unrest, you won't have a functioning stable government. Would you sooner have Yingluck as PM …. LOL 

I don't think anyone want's that horrible episode again.

2 questions... Has anyone ever noticed that when they have a record breaking drug bust of Yaba, Cocaine, and marijuana that some of these Ministry officials post these phenomenal figures a few days after that, that always seem just about unbelievable?

 

What happens to these drugs after they display them in front of those arrested with the informational floating banner and all the top officials standing there having there picture taken?

 

There seems to a bit of coincidence happening with these events. 

1 minute ago, BobbyL said:

I agree there are a lot of pessimistic posters on this site, but even you must agree that the TAT seem to release contradictory reports on an almost weekly basis. 

Of course I agree, their public face is in desperate need of attention.

 

I know that TAT uses sampling as a primary means of determining tourists numbers and spend, along with arrivals data from Immi. Just like election results that use the same mechanism, sometimes the numbers give false positives. I can't get too excited about it however, perhaps best to wait and see what the next couple of readings look like and then form a judgement. But it doesn't take much anecdotal data, such as the bars in Pattaya are empty, before posters declare it's the end of the world, many still haven't understood that the face of tourism in Thailand changes constantly, many still think the Western model still applies and it doesn't.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Long-tail boats with tourists are seen in a beach in Koh Poda island near Krabi, Thailand October 22, 2019.

where are the tourists ????? not on the beach not on the boats, another TAT report

Sitting in chiang mai at thaepae gate one week before November and practically no tourists and much less vehicle traffic. U could safely walk across the major road here with your eyes closed. Zero cars almost. But naturally the locals are raising their prices for the non existent customers lol. 

Oh they must be having a cabinet meeting.

Good work boys very impressive, the new strategies must be working.

The TV  campaign in China with popular Chinese pop singer Wan King and the Indian TV campaign with popular Indian Bollywood actress Ms Dhoni must be working.

 

1 minute ago, johnsmith8888 said:

Sitting in chiang mai at thaepae gate one week before November and no tourists and zero traffic. U could safely walk across the major road here with your eyes closed. Zero cars almost. But naturally the locals are raising their prices for the non existent customers lol. 

Exaggerate much! We just came back from CM Ram Hospital, traffic around the moat was normal for a week day, traffic on Suthep road was quite heavy!

3 minutes ago, johnsmith8888 said:

Sitting in chiang mai at thaepae gate one week before November and no tourists and zero traffic. U could safely walk across the major road here with your eyes closed. Zero cars almost. But naturally the locals are raising their prices for the non existent customers lol. 

Just came back from a week in Phuket.... very quite.  Chinese tourists are supposed outnumber Farangs, but there were very few Chinese about at all.

 

Now back in Chiang Mai, same here.  Place is pretty quiet.  Maybe all the tourists are in Bangkok...….

36 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

I agree there are a lot of pessimistic posters on this site, but even you must agree that the TAT seem to release contradictory reports on an almost weekly basis. 

...daily...basis...

The other points to keep in mind is that November traditionally sees the start of the winter holiday tourists, some come before, some after, Loi Kratong in early November is a key start for that activity. We went to book CNX/BKK for the week of 12 November and it so difficult to do we had to delay a week.

There seems to be no consistent narrative around tourism in Thailand.

Hotels are saying they are under utilised

Government numbers are apparently "up"

Who are the statisticians collating and analysing  the numbers and checking the veracity of them 

39 minutes ago, webledink33 said:

2 questions... Has anyone ever noticed that when they have a record breaking drug bust of Yaba, Cocaine, and marijuana that some of these Ministry officials post these phenomenal figures a few days after that, that always seem just about unbelievable?

 

What happens to these drugs after they display them in front of those arrested with the informational floating banner and all the top officials standing there having there picture taken?

 

There seems to a bit of coincidence happening with these events. 

Unicorns seen in tourist hotspots!

1 hour ago, Sticky Wicket said:

Thailand’s informal economy, the non-regulated, non-taxed part of its overall economy, makes up about 40% of the country’s GDP also!!

 

Do you really think they don't know that and don't factor it into their sampling calculations! I don't know if it's 40% or whatever it might be and I suspect you don't know either, but I'm pretty certain that spend gets calculated into the bottom line. BTW less than 4% of people in Thailand pay tax via the PAYE system, in that respect the vast majority of the country's business is not regulated.

3 minutes ago, saengd said:

Do you really think they don't know that and don't factor it into their sampling calculations! I don't know if it's 40% or whatever it might be and I suspect you don't know either, but I'm pretty certain that spend gets calculated into the bottom line. BTW less than 4% of people in Thailand pay tax via the PAYE system, in that respect the vast majority of the country's business is not regulated.

So according to you only 4% of Thais are government workers.... That is just nonsense.