Flat growth in tourist arrivals to Chiang Mai 

By The Nation

 

 

The number of Thai and foreign tourists visiting Chiang Mai since January 1, 2019 remained unchanged year on year while the number of hotels has increased from 2,200-2,300 in 2017 to 4,000, offering 10,000 more rooms to a total of 60,000, said La-Iad Bungsrithong, President of the Northern Thai Hotel Association.

 

Most of the new hotels are small premises located in the Old City area and Nimmanhemin Road using online platforms such as Airbnb to promote short-term accommodation. They have led to a rise in tourist spending in the lower end of the market. 

 

The main factors influencing a tourist’s buying decision usually include room price, competitiveness, and marketing strategies such as plane ticket prices, said Bungsrithong, adding that the cost of air travel to Chiang Mai would rise in line with increasing number of visitors to the province. 

 

11 million Thai and foreign tourists are expected to visit Chiang Mai this year, growing 4 per cent from 10.5 million last year, with foreigners making up 60 per cent of the total. 

 

Tourists from mainland China account for 30 per cent of foreign visitors to the province to date while prospects remain positive, mainly due to more direct flights from the country. Tourists from Asian countries, Europe and the United States make up the balance of foreign visitors to the province. 

 

With regard to domestic tourists, hotel booking remains slow amid the ongoing economic slowdown and continuous strengthening of the baht, prompting Thais to travel abroad to countries such as South Korea and Japan despite higher costs. 

 

For Loy Krathong festival, a major event in Chiang Mai, hotel booking has risen on Loy Krathong day (November 11) only, compared to increases for each day of the three-day festival last year.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378237

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-11-11

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that means zero growth

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

while the number of hotels has increased from 2,200-2,300 in 2017 to 4,000, offering 10,000 more rooms to a total of 60,000

Nope, not at all true. Everybody understands that the amount of hotels in one city, can not almost double, from 2200 to 4000, in only two years.

I would be better to tell the truth. That is only 2200-2300 had a license for their business, and after they made a lot of raids others already doing business for many yoear had to get lecensed. That´s why they are visible today.

 

While the figures may not be exact, Chiang Mai went through a major building boom in the last two to four years, all to cash in on the latest gold rush; the Chinese. In the wake of "Lost in Chiang Mai" A lot of outside money flowed in also.
 

They way overbuilt, and that is a fact, After that you can add arbnb apartments & houses, and that  then that boat sank.

I'm happy to see decent number of tourist out there this week. but while there are chinese, nothing like the numbers of 2017/early18. If this trend does not change going to be a lot of shouting & screaming at Northern Thai Hotel Association Luncheons in 2019. 

After Loi Krathong the hotel and especially the hostel bookings are low again. Chinese prefer good hotels and will never stay in dormitories like western backpackers. Also they like Airbnb. If the new ASTRA with more then 600 Condos and the ad, that they are "Airbnb friendly", the hotels will loose more guests.

4 weeks ago I was at the Eat@Rincome restaurant. They told me that the U Hotel (4*) is fully booked - by Koreans. 

Nation can't even get Loy Krathong Day right.   So don't bother with any of the other drivel.

 

This has to be fake news.

No surprises here, no planning & over development, sad to see Chiang Mai go down this road. ????

6 hours ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Nation can't even get Loy Krathong Day right.   So don't bother with any of the other drivel.

What day was Loy Krathong? I too thought it was the 11th and that's the day my family celebrated as well.

How can 4,000 hotels add only 10,000 rooms ?

The BEST advertising for ANY City/Country is by

Word of Mouth. Scamming tourists will NOT help

Tourism as will a strong Thai currency.

Agree with the poster that said CM is over built

in the hospitality sector. 

30 minutes ago, gabruce said:

What day was Loy Krathong? I too thought it was the 11th and that's the day my family celebrated as well.

Last night.

I looked out the windows for a while, far less fireworks than I've ever seen before.

The kids preferred to stay in and watch youtube.

 

10,000 more rooms and no more visitors seems like a bit of a disaster.

But I'm sure TaT will be along soon to tell us all it was a great triumph for the country.

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The main factors influencing a tourist’s buying decision usually include room price, competitiveness, and marketing strategies such as plane ticket prices, said Bungsrithong, adding that the cost of air travel to Chiang Mai would rise in line with increasing number of visitors to the province. 

And the common denominator is the high strength of the Baht.......QED 

Went out last night to the ping river area and lanterns were banned about 200 people there from last years 5,000 another tourism catastrophe ????  

10 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Went out last night to the ping river area and lanterns were banned about 200 people there from last years 5,000 another tourism catastrophe ????  

Lanterns is a hazard to planes flying to get into the Chiang Mai airport and also might cause fire on rooftops. 

 

The lanterns ban is lifted only for certain remote area that airplanes don't fly low and not many houses there.

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The main factors influencing a tourist’s buying decision

Air pollution. 

Definitely lanterns being let off from Ping River area but probably only a few locations. Much less in the way of noise and fireworks. Seemed pretty quiet compared to previous years, but then downtown in previous years has often resembled a warzone. Accommodation at the lower end has been booked out for the Loy Kratong days but after is anyones guess. Anyone in business for many years in CM might be thinking about the old tale of the hare and the tortoise. Hares are mostly toast.

I think any tourists who were here for this years 5hit show of a burning season, not only will never be back, will warn others not to come. Our air is now as bad as Bangkok's, 61 times the population of Chiang Mai! 
 

9 hours ago, CNXexpat said:

After Loi Krathong the hotel and especially the hostel bookings are low again. Chinese prefer good hotels and will never stay in dormitories like western backpackers.

They should be happy then with all those Boutique Hotels they built. The ones that are unoccupied     

 

At Loy Khraotng last night, & walking streets on the weekend. Japanese and Koreans are the main asian tourists out there. If the Chinese don't arrive in numbers, going to be a long High Season.

2 minutes ago, LomSak27 said:

 

 

At Loy Khraotng last night, & walking streets on the weekend. Japanese and Koreans are the main asian tourists out there. If the Chinese don't arrive in numbers, going to be a long High Season.

 

How did you differentiate between Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists?

 

 

Just now, EricTh said:

How do you differentiate between Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists?

Language , not that I speak it but I certainly can differentiate between K,J and Chinese.     I went to both walking streets this last weekend, and I was shocked by that fact. Chinese are here of course but ....  Wooops

BTW a small group of Chinese tourists mini bussed in -had sky lanterns at Wat Chaimongkhon last night when I was there. Besides them no one else was sending them up. They seemed to get a preferential treatment in that regard.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, LomSak27 said:

Language     I went to both walking streets this last weekend, and I was shocked by that fact. Chinese are here of course but ....  Ooops

 

 

And you studied all three languages or are guessing based on the sounds they made?

 

Just now, EricTh said:

Just now, LomSak27 said:

Language     I went to both walking streets this last weekend, and I was shocked by that fact. Chinese are here of course but ....  Ooops

 

 

And you studied all three languages or are guessing based on the sounds they made?

 

I worked in both Korea and Japan and still have passable Korean. Hey Don't believe me, get your hiney out there to both walking streets next week and see if I'm wrong. Check out out Airport and Festival malls while you're at it. Don't just sit at the keyboard, cyber whinge-ing & reading footie scores. Get out there, do some first hand reconnaissance. Make us proud!!

 

 

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, LomSak27 said:

 

I worked in both Korea and Japan and still have passable Korean. Hey Don't believe me, get your hiney out there to both walking streets next week and see if I'm wrong. Check out out Airport and Festival malls while you're at it. Don't just sit at the keyboard, cyber whinge-ing & reading footie scores. Get out there, do some first hand reconnaissance. Make us proud!!

 

 

 

 

 

I would agree with that , have heard a lot of Japanese and Korean being spoken. Also Chinese around, but not so noticeably skewed towards Chinese as in the last few years.

I stopped going to CM 2 years ago because of the air pollution and don’t see myself ever going back. Hard for me to believe anyone who had a choice would live there.

The interest in Chiang Mai is as intense as ever. True there is the strong baht. But there is also Airbnb and low-cost flights. And at home, full employment and wage inflation. And the Chinese love Chiang Mai because it is so cheap - an OP mentioned The Astra, so I looked it up on Airbnb : where else can you get a 5-star hotel condo with rooftop landscaped eternity pool and a 50 sq meter apartment for 1200 baht a night?

 

What is overlooked is the changing ways travellers and tourists realise their goal of exotic experiences and sites. They want more, not less.

 

So these days prospects suss out destinations on Instagram and Facebook and Tripadvisor and Travelfish.  They now know what they want to see and have seen the half of it already, before leaving the office. They know what they want to focus on more than before times.

 

And this also means length of stay has been halved. Now, a "guest" can stay three or four days in Chiang Mai instead of a week; and spend the rest visiting Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle. 

 

Which is why the number of visitors is misleading as it is number of nights and average daily spend that is important. 

1 hour ago, EricTh said:

Lanterns is a hazard to planes flying to get into the Chiang Mai airport and also might cause fire on rooftops. 

 

The lanterns ban is lifted only for certain remote area that airplanes don't fly low and not many houses there.

The airport was closed for flights same as other recent years????

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Most of the new hotels are small premises located in the Old City area and Nimmanhemin Road using online platforms such as Airbnb to promote short-term accommodation.

... and owned by Chinese companies.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS) (Source) there were only 36,000 rooms in 2018. In one year, according to the  President of the Northern Thai Hotel Association, La-Iad Bungsrithong, that number nearly doubled. 

 

Also, the number of guests in these hotels was 8,360,997 and was made up by the following figures for 2018.

 

Jan-March

Number of Guest Arrivals    2,379,304 
           Thai    1,540,671
           Foreigners    838,633

Apr-Jun

  Number of Guest Arrivals    1,898,615 
           Thai    1,212,552
           Foreigners    686,063
Jul-Sep

  Number of Guest Arrivals    1,787,871 
           Thai    1,070,168
           Foreigners    717,703
Oct-Dec

  Number of Guest Arrivals    2,295,207 
           Thai    1,585,563
           Foreigners    709,644
Foreign tourists have never outnumbered Thai tourists in Chiang Mai. Someone is not telling the truth.

4 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

 

This has to be fake news.

Course it is ... Nice to start the day with a laugh though ... The worst is coming ... Batten down the hatches “;0)

38 minutes ago, 0815 said:

... and owned by Chinese companies.

Would be nice to see some statistics of how many of the new places are built on 30 year leases held by Chinese are by proxy companies funded by Chinese. I think it is quite  a few.

For some reason I awoke with thoughts of the Great Leap Forward which of course was followed by the great famine/crash. Except this time we will probably all be going along for the ride!