17 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Taiwanese might disagree...

They can disagree all they want. Still don't turn the Chinese tourists away do they? When they were boycotted three years ago they wept like babies. Hoteliers besieging Government House. Chinese bring a fortune in.

 

However, for this exercise and sticking to the point, after domestic tourism, Thailand still beats Vietnam by two clear places as a Chinese destination, whatever the Thai bashers would like to assert.

 

By the way, Chinese really dislike Vietnamese rice which is reason enough for them to avoid the place.

Edited December 20, 20196 yr by Traubert
Addition

Hopefully TAT will not be responsible for to keep the scores for point deductions on driving licenses.

So, meetings are happening among the business communities in tourist areas in an attempt to salvage the high season to some degree, yet we're hearing that the "tourist" numbers are higher than they've been in years. 

 

I can't imagine that the business people are meeting just for the heck of it to BS us and ignore their businesses that must be teeming with customers due to near-record tourist numbers, so what's the real story? Does Thailand count every arrival at its airports as a "tourist", regardless if the passengers are only in transit (heading to be an actual tourist elsewhere in SE Asia)? 

4 hours ago, Traubert said:

No. It's pretty simple. Airbnb and similar up massively, Indians and Chinese don't frequent the bars. Expats don't count for much even if they all left and came back on successive days three times a week. There isn't enough. Another TVF myth.

I see that cannabis is working well. You do know there are nearly 1/2 a million expats living in Thailand. You should check things out before making a fool of yourself. 

5 hours ago, colinneil said:

Jackanory, jackanory, please tell me a story, what a load of BS.

Maybe foreigners passing through the airports, but not tourists.

So every time an offshore worker does his monthly round trip he is counted as an incoming tourist.

3 million migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar , Laos, they probably go home 3 times per year and are counted each time.

also people transiting thru bkk airport enroute to other destinations as bkk is a major airport hub. Their numbers are far off true tourist numbers.

52 minutes ago, Inn Between said:

So, meetings are happening among the business communities in tourist areas in an attempt to salvage the high season to some degree, yet we're hearing that the "tourist" numbers are higher than they've been in years. 

 

I can't imagine that the business people are meeting just for the heck of it to BS us and ignore their businesses that must be teeming with customers due to near-record tourist numbers, so what's the real story? Does Thailand count every arrival at its airports as a "tourist", regardless if the passengers are only in transit (heading to be an actual tourist elsewhere in SE Asia)? 

No. It's the hospitality industry that are squealing because their business is going elsewhere in Thailand mainly because they are overpriced and short on options. Villa rentals are up and tourists arrange their own entertainment. Group tours are down and small parties can comfortably fit in a villa and party for two weeks unseen. That's just one aspect without taking Airbnb and the like into consideration. They need to move with the times.

According to my calculator, 39 mil in a year is about 105,000 per day. I know sod all about airport throughput, but does that seem reasonable?

Even with just the four major airports in Bangkok x2, Phuket and Chiang Mai, yes it's easily do-able.

27 minutes ago, Ron jeremy said:

3 million migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar , Laos, they probably go home 3 times per year and are counted each time.

also people transiting thru bkk airport enroute to other destinations as bkk is a major airport hub. Their numbers are far off true tourist numbers.

They aren't on tourist visas. They aren't counted and it's fair bet that they travel by road, not air.

8 minutes ago, ParkerN said:

According to my calculator, 39 mil in a year is about 105,000 per day. I know sod all about airport throughput, but does that seem reasonable?

I think the total of the visitors in December, January and February could be easily 10 times the total of May, June and September.

The other months are average imho.

5 minutes ago, Traubert said:

They aren't on tourist visas. They aren't counted and it's fair bet that they travel by road, not air.

They are still counted when entering the country, read the article.

55 minutes ago, Scot123 said:

I see that cannabis is working well. You do know there are nearly 1/2 a million expats living in Thailand. You should check things out before making a fool of yourself. 

I did. 440,000 expats of which 144,000 are Chinese and 46,000 are Indian. Westerners including Aussies and NZ are 253,000 total.

 

Maybe you should keep a civil tongue in your head when speaking to educated people.

6 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Been looking into that crystal ball? 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Ron jeremy said:

They are still counted when entering the country, read the article.

They aren't counted as tourists. Read my reply.

 

I'm not allowed to capitalise or colour  to make you understand, but they aren't on tourist visas.

Ah....this will be the fake news that Prayuth was telling us about recently.

 

What a great guy he is and so ....

what's the word ..... perspicacious.

 

Good luck to immigration tracking the comings and goings of 39 million visitors and their TM30s on their weekly peregrinations.

 

And people still worry about complying with it ? Amazing Thailand.

Tourism numbers still continuing to smash records year after year.  They will need to build more hotels to cope with the huge influx.

12 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Maybe TAT can tell us where all of these "tourists" are going. Pattaya is 40% down, Phuket and Chiang Mai 30-35% down, so obviously not there. With the all powerful super TM30 they must be able to tell us where are the new tourist hot spots. 

Perhaps they are going to more rural Thai villages which perhaps reflect the more authentic tourist experience?

Maybe they do not want tacky bars with lousy music, and working women and ladyboys.

Not to mention beaches covered in human and plastic waste

22 minutes ago, Thechook said:

Tourism numbers still continuing to smash records year after year.  They will need to build more hotels to cope with the huge influx.

So the fortune teller must be earning his keep??????????

11 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

I wonder how countries in the EU calculate tourist figures. I might arrive to Italy, travel overland to France and fly out from Germany, never once having to show my passport in France. Would I then not be counted as one of their millions of tourists?

 

In most (all?) countries in the EU hotels are obligated to collect tourist tax for each night someone stays.

 

People staying in private homes/airbnb's are not counted. So probably the real numbers are higher.

 

 

So she gets 2 free tickets.  That's good thinking, now they can count her twice.  

Amazing how they can smile for the selfie photo and lie so blatantly about the numbers.

16 hours ago, webfact said:

“Thailand’s Luckiest Visitor, the Amazing Smashing Success”

Do they have a department that comes up with these dreadful slogans?

Don't forget to bring your smelling salts. 

My aunt came for a visit last month and our family went to pick her up.

All 4 of us so they see that as 5 new visitors probably walking through the airport helping with suitcases

Does anyone here actually know for sure how the numbers are counted? There are so many variables and hence so many assumptions coming through in the comments.

 

Den

17 hours ago, webfact said:

was confirmed after the arrival of Devanshi Deepak Kesaria, a tourist from India, who was the “luckiest visitor”.

Well, that must be pure co-incidence that they are looking for more Indian tourists

Sadly for me...the lads down at my local are no longer willing to wait for me to come in after work to update them on the latest tourist figures every evening. They have, with regret, informed me that the suspense of waiting is too great and have decided to sign up to TV themselves.   So now, they get all the latest exciting news on "The tourist figures in Thailand" all by themselves.

   Tonight I begin the hunt for a new local, and a new group of lads who's lives I can bring joy and fullfillment to with the latest tourism figures in Thailand.

16 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Maybe TAT can tell us where all of these "tourists" are going. Pattaya is 40% down, Phuket and Chiang Mai 30-35% down, so obviously not there. With the all powerful super TM30 they must be able to tell us where are the new tourist hot spots. 

I can tell you.....they were all at Iconsiam yesterday, 95% of them were Chinese and they were swarming around the free food samples like they hadn’t eaten for months. I was gone within 10 minutes.

17 hours ago, Mango Bob said:

One day tourist arrivals are down.  Next day they are breaking records off tourist arrivals.  Seem like a lot of fake news to me.

Hmm - Normally it should have been a round number (38m) - why did it pass another 260k before they acted?

As we know the queue speed is not that fast at Suvarnabumi ... ????

11 hours ago, Ron jeremy said:

3 million migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar , Laos, they probably go home 3 times per year and are counted each time.

also people transiting thru bkk airport enroute to other destinations as bkk is a major airport hub. Their numbers are far off true tourist numbers.

Plus thousands of day traders passing the borders from Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia every day.