Phuket facing worst tourism crisis in three decades - half of hotel rooms empty in 2020

[toenail]

35...25 years ago it was Paradise but I quit visiting this tourist trap full of thugs and tuk tuk mafia- excessive tourism with a crumbling infrastructure and too many buses. 

I have other Thai islands to visit that are pristine because of no airports. 

[SteveK]

1 hour ago, mike787 said:

Perhaps Thailand could ease up on their visa immigration xenophobia may help...also stop the 90 day reporting along with ridiculous deposits required all year long.

I spent an hour today trying to do my 90 day report online. Downloaded and installed various browsers, tried the android app - all to no avail. So frustrating. Now it's a 3 hour round trip to the office.

[StefanBBK]

44 billion Baht divided by 14 million tourist is how much? Computer insists that is 3,143 Baht.  Did I read the report wrong? 

[Bkkthebest]

3 hours ago, madmitch said:

I've been saying for years that hotel nights are a much better indicator of tourism health rather than the arrival figures upon which TAT and the Tourism Ministry are always quoting.

 

 

I think you miss out AirBnb nights. maybe people are not keen on hotels anymore.

[moto77]

The headline should have ended with: "Surprising No One But Thailand."

They don't even have a clue and think the problem is the strong baht. That's 20% of it. There is so much local competition now that offers the same things that attracted tourists to Thailand 20 years ago. (And which Thailand no longer offers.) 

[halbachmerz]

Phuket doesn’t need more tourists, it needs far better quality ones who spend more money. Phuket was once seen as an exotic and expensive place to honeymoon and vacation but has turned into an overcrowded and tacky bucket destination where cheap tourists dine from takeaway styrofoam containers holed up in their rooms. Phuket needs to return to an image of exclusivity and work very hard to improve its environmental conservation efforts.  Banning plastic is only a drop in the bucket. The government would need to inact zoning laws and ban the building of more shop houses and retail complexes until the current empty ones are occupied or torn down. Ditto for hotels, housing developments and condos. There needs to be a significant effort to make Phuket eco-friendly and green or the lack of tourist baht will only get worse. Trying to lure more bucket tourists is not the solution and will only ruin what is left of Phuket’s image.

[dutchman]

it s obviouse a lot of us understand we re not welcome here no more.

visa s denied because you come to many times to thailand.

not accept foreign insurance on o/a

prices skyhigh,  double pricing,  hospitals are an rip off and so on.

Better go other places with no hussle.

Goodbye Thailand, good morning vietnam

 

[Fairynuff]

Greed has so much to do with this. I haven’t been for probably 7 or 8 years and even then for me it was overcrowded and overpriced where even the most “local style” restaurants were stupidly expensive. Thai friends have said similar things after they’ve been.

Add to this the fact that there are newer and considerably cheaper options in other countries I think it’s fair to say that Phuket has had its day.

[madmen]

3 hours ago, madmitch said:

I've been saying for years that hotel nights are a much better indicator of tourism health rather than the arrival figures upon which TAT and the Tourism Ministry are always quoting.

 

 

Does that include air bnb? Nope ! Thats where the other 50% are , who in their right mind would stay in 40 year old 15sqm rooms when a modern condo is the same price?. Just one example is the hotels ALL charge 5 k for special new year mandatory asian buffet with lots of rice and really worth 200 baht ..not on air bnb they dont. And the long running scams of substituting stained sheets and then demanding 3k. Hoteliers desrve this..you reap what you sow

[MadMac]

Just double the prices and open more national parks, farangs will come happily to visit a dirty waterfall for 400B.

[bearpolar]

takeaway from this thread

 

Phuket expats dont really mind  unless they are offering low quality tourist services

 

Sexpats and sextourists are angry, thats good we dont want them.

 

regular tourist are disappointed and have moved on.

 

Don't see anything bad. We had a tourism bubble, now its correcting. Lots of farangs and thais that came in late or are offering <deleted> services will go broke after making a ton of money quickly, thats how every market in the world works.

 

it is called: REDISTRIBUTION.

 

 

Out of all the expats i talk to in phuket, the only concern is traffic and school fees.. Everything else is fine.  Most people don't live in tourist ghettos.

 

We eat out almost every single day, we have a high end car and a good quality house with affluent neighbors and my lifestyle costs very little(about the same as a low-income person back home) if you remove the over the top school fees.  My coffee is definitely no where close to 350b. We get iced coffee from amazon, 7/11 or local coffee/bakery shops for 30-70b

Edited January 3, 2020 by bearpolar

[Ron jeremy]

????????????????????????????RIP Thailand.

rot in peace, 

i love it, bring it on!

[Rookiescot]

Nope. I have it on good authority that tourist numbers are breaking records.

So how do we account for occupancy being down?

Well when you have 6 guys all sharing the same room this is what you get.

But this is the lifestyle the Indian millionaires prefer.  

[Nyezhov]

Just now, Ron jeremy said:

????????????????????????????RIP Thailand.

rot in peace, 

i love it, bring it on!

Damn dude, so full of hate for a country that never caused any trouble on the world stage. Amazing.

 

There must be a bar girl and an ATM behind such vituperation.

[30la]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

They said that tourism on the holiday island needed a "big injection" - and the private sector was demanding action from the government in delivering the medicine. 

Minister Pipat has a very effective medicine, dream of new positive numbers and publish them!

[MadMac]

1 minute ago, Rookiescot said:

Nope. I have it on good authority that tourist numbers are breaking records.

So how do we account for occupancy being down?

Well when you have 6 guys all sharing the same room this is what you get.

But this is the lifestyle the Indian millionaires prefer.  

Oh, that fortune teller from the TAT? ????

[khunpa]

Our family stopped spending our holidays in Thailand and instead visit surrounding countries. They just have so much more to offer and are much better value for money.

 

I fully understand if tourists stay away from Phuket.

[tlandtday]

21 minutes ago, halbachmerz said:

Phuket doesn’t need more tourists, it needs far better quality ones who spend more money. Phuket was once seen as an exotic and expensive place to honeymoon and vacation but has turned into an overcrowded and tacky bucket destination where cheap tourists dine from takeaway styrofoam containers holed up in their rooms. Phuket needs to return to an image of exclusivity and work very hard to improve its environmental conservation efforts.  Banning plastic is only a drop in the bucket. The government would need to inact zoning laws and ban the building of more shop houses and retail complexes until the current empty ones are occupied or torn down. Ditto for hotels, housing developments and condos. There needs to be a significant effort to make Phuket eco-friendly and green or the lack of tourist baht will only get worse. Trying to lure more bucket tourists is not the solution and will only ruin what is left of Phuket’s image.

Precisely what Boracay is doing.  And Vietnam will suck up the midrange market.  Just wait until Myamar delelops more losses for Thailand. Why? Greed, lack of regulation and believing that China and India and mass cheap tourism were the answer but this is what happens when the guys at the top get huge payoffs for the Chinese tour operators.

[Guest]

(1) Taxi / Tuk Tuk Mafia - Insane pricing
(2) Strong Baht
(3) Hotel over supply
(4) Better options elsewhere
(5) A "been there, done that" tourist mentality
(6) The sense that a "special type of tourist" has taken over the island (Russians)
What could possibly go wrong?

[tlandtday]

29 minutes ago, StefanBBK said:

44 billion Baht divided by 14 million tourist is how much? Computer insists that is 3,143 Baht.  Did I read the report wrong? 

TAT never shows their formula for visits but I can guess it includes cross border shopping, day trips to the city, special events and more.... 

[jlwilliamsjr18]

Simple...cash in your baht to dollars or... then hop over the Philippines.  

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, tlandtday said:

Precisely what Boracay is doing.  And Vietnam will suck up the midrange market.  Just wait until Myamar delelops more losses for Thailand. Why? Greed, lack of regulation and believing that China and India and mass cheap tourism were the answer but this is what happens when the guys at the top get huge payoffs for the Chinese tour operators.

Myamar = Thailand in 1975 ... If I were younger, i would be up there buying a beach!

[tlandtday]

48 minutes ago, Cut the Crab said:

The Thai Baht might be considered (too) strong, but what about the very poorly performing Western countries in Europe ?

I agree Thailand is getting expensive. It would be nice if Thailand could quit charging too much for products imported from outside the ASEAN countries, and stop the over-pricing of alcoholic drinks, imported or not. It’s cheaper to have a night out in Europe than it is here, and I bet a lot of tourists spend more on a night out than they are on their hotel room.

I was in Ho Chi Minh city in a prime tourist area and ordered a vodka and redbull in a nice bar.  They brought me a huge bowl drink equivalent to two or three I get in Thailand... the cost was $1 u.s.

[tlandtday]

3 hours ago, gaikhao said:

There is nothing wrong with a strong baht. Yes, one sector may suffer, but other sectors will prosper, and in the grand scheme of things it is a wash, usually with an overall benefit to the economy.  Blaming the baht is a means of avoiding responsibility. Why not be honest and recognize the fact that the product offered is  poor and of decreasing quality?

Customers will gladly pay for quality. Look at other locations like Hua Hin which is booming. Intercontinental is putting up its luxurious residence project, and there is growth in premium venues. All this done without an airport, without good transport links and with a high baht. The difference is that one emphasizes quality  and the other does not. We just had annual meetings in Hua Hin and I came away impressed. I left previous annual events in Phuket and Pattaya disgusted. 

The Phuket ripoffs start the minute you walk out the door at the airport with the  inflated taxi fare to Karon/Kata/Rawai/Patong. 1500 baht to get to Karon? Seriously? 1000 baht to patong? That's more than the airfare  from  DMK for some.

 

Everything in the tourist areas of Phuket says rip off and disrespect. Whether it is the poor quality service or the contempt shown by the locals, it is insulting.  The last time I was in Phuket, raw sewage was still going into Patong beach and karon Beach had black water events. We had a brown out at the hotel, and there was a water shortage. I recall, not being able to walk on Patong beach because much of the space was  taken over by paraglide operators. Jetskis were everywhere. It seemed there were 100+ and of course one could see the usual rip off of jet ski users with alleged damage claims.

My driver could not stop to pick us up from a restaurant because the illegal  bike and car rentals had seized all the legal parking spaces, all done in close proximity to the Patong police box. Meanwhile the  tuk tuks were demanding 400-500 baht to go from Patong to Karon.  I could go on, but what's the point? Until this nonsense changes, no quality visitor will want to go. 

So go ahead and blame the  strong baht, but it didn't cause people to be so dishonest and disrespectful.

 

Hua Hin is booming?  Funny thing is the environment is still pristine in Phuket if compared to Pattaya lol.

Edited January 3, 2020 by tlandtday

[Edina]

4or5 years ago tourist authority Thailand did their level best to encourage Asian tourists in the hope of being able to shake off Pattayas unfortunate image as the sex capital of the world, which if the truth be known is what we all came here for in the first place and the Isaan economy grew as a direct result of that. The bars don't want the Chinese, they clog up a few hotels that are offering cheap rates, and the same applies to the Indian tourists, both proving to be very little benefit to the economy, and where ever you get those tourists the Farang do not frequent, the backbone of what used to be the tourist trade here has gone. I rest my case.    

[Isaan sailor]

By now, most potential tourists from North America and Europe and Australia have heard about the strong Baht.  Why bother with an overpriced Asian destination—when your vacation money can go further elsewhere?  

Expect more of the same numbers onward.

[CNXexpat]

22 minutes ago, tlandtday said:

Just wait until Myamar delelops more losses for Thailand.

That´s true. Myanmar has the same beautiful temples and nature to offer as Thailand. If the government doesn´t make the same mistakes as the Thai one, many tourists will come. Right now there are not enough good hotels for a fair price (you can choose between a bad and expensive or a good and super expensive one) but it´s becoming better. 

[reargunnerph3]

But the Russians are coming then the Chinese are coming then the rich Indians are coming then the Chinese are coming again?

Ruthless, aggressive Immigration for coming too many times, less than perfect Police and a sky high Baht are some of the problems.

A lot of coming but no one arrives.

[cracker1]

4 hours ago, rembody said:

Would help if they could get rid of the taxi mafia, and make it more affordable to get around

That's one of the biggest things negatively affecting Samui !

[ThailandGuy]

Well if it is not the Baht exchange rate causing this ..... then what other reason could their be? Land of smiles is loosing its smile? Neah it must be the Baht exchange rate. How long will it take for them to do something about it or keep denying it?