Chinese tourists desert Thai resort as coronavirus spreads

[rooster59]

Chinese tourists desert Thai resort as coronavirus spreads

By Juarawee Kittisilpa

 

Tourists are seen at a walking street in Phuket, Southern Thailand, January 31, 2020. Picture taken January 31, 2020. REUTERS/Juarawee Kittisilpa

 

PHUKET, Thailand (Reuters) - The narrow laneways and pastel-coloured shophouses of Phuket Old Town are usually bustling with Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday, but travel bans and local fears about coronavirus have largely emptied the streets this year.

 

Just a handful of tourists, many wearing face masks, strolled through the area during daylight hours this week. In the evening, foot traffic increased a little under the glow of the red lanterns strung across the thoroughfare, but remained far below normal levels.

 

"The impact is tremendous," 45-year old Ausana Akaradachakul told Reuters as she waited behind the counter for shoppers in her store selling postcards, straw bags, clothing and jewellery.

 

"Only a few days after the news broke about the virus, the Chinese tourists were visibly few," Akaradachakul said. "I think about 70% of them are gone."

 

The beach resort of Phuket is Thailand's second most visited destination after Bangkok and is usually a big draw for visitors from China, who accounted for 11 million visitors last year, particularly around the Lunar New Year holiday.

 

But China this week imposed restrictions on all overseas tour groups because of the coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan and which has infected more than 11,000 people and killed more than 250.

 

Reduced travel from China alone could result in 50 billion baht ($1.52 billion) of lost tourism revenue, the Thai Tourism Ministry estimated.

 

The spread of coronavirus beyond China has also affected domestic tourism in Thailand, which has recorded more infections than anywhere but China with 19 cases. Thailand announced its first case of human-to-human transmission on Friday.

 

Shopkeepers in Phuket said that had left Thai tourists wary of venturing out to join what should have been an annual festival on Walking Street at the heart of the town.

 

"There are barely any tourists around here. The people we are seeing now are just the locals," clothes store vendor Parichart Chaengmanee told Reuters as she sat on a stool outside her empty clothing stall, wearing a black face mask.

"Even the number of Thai tourists is low."

 

Shopkeepers are hoping the impact is shortlived, with one sign in a store window reading: "The Thai people pray for China and hope China will recover soon. China and Thailand are family!"

 

(Reporting by Juarawee Kittisilpa; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Jane Wardell)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-02

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[smedly]

you know what is funny 

 

Chinese are not well travelled people - they are brought here on very well fine tuned packages - plane - bus - hotel - bus - eating - bus - hotel - rinse repeat, being ripped off at every opportunity possible - they think it is all normal because they don't know any better - they are herded everywhere - charged a fortune and after 10 days shipped off home thinking - well that is what a holiday is...……..they have no concept of travel 

 

we from the west are always well travelled - it is very hard for us to understand what exactly is going on with these Chinese (so called) tourists - they just don't know any better and are being taken advantage of - very sad really and is just massive exploitation of people that don't know any better or different

 

and no it isn't really funny at all

Edited February 1, 2020 by smedly

[FarFlungFalang]

28 minutes ago, smedly said:

 

Chinese are not well travelled people - they are brought here on very well fine tuned packages

They are not the only country that have inexperienced travelers that choose the group tour option.Chinatowns all over the world will show that Chinese have a long history of traveling.

[HuskerDo]

Great idea. Leave a country where there are a few cases and go back to the place it originated from where there are thousands of "known" cases. I'd like to know the IQ of this group.

Edited February 1, 2020 by HuskerDo

[hansgruber]

Traffic has been very light. I'm not complaining. 

Coronavirus is a blessing in disguise. 

[Yinn]

My gang plan to go Phuket town this weekend. But cancel the trip, same reason everyone same. 

 

A lot of TVF thread about Coronavirus. Have a lot of people imagine this a problem because Thailand. Some blame “Thailand”. Want “Thailand” pay for hospital etc. 

some blame “Thainess”

Same posters that always complain and mock the successful Thai tourism, look like they enjoy this problem. 

 

 

Is a disease from foreigner. Is NOT a thai disease. NO tourist or Thai die in Thailand because this.

 

It is problem for Thailand because we are popular Chinese tourism. Other countries popular also have problem. Chinese most important tourist in the world. 

eg Australia popular place for Chinese tourism. Maybe because “Aussieness”? Or not? 

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/wuhan-coronavirus-tourism-impact/index.html

 

Sure, it will be low tourism now because of Coronavirus. The Chinese stop coming and the other people foreigner and Thai are scared. 

 

But nobody die in thailand. Is good news. 

Calm down.

[ChipButty]

Even the local markets around Rawai are quiet, anybody been to the weekend market Naka? usually buzzing 

[ianezy0]

This will hopefully be contained soon as it could do a lot of damage to the economy in some countries.

Also, it is annoying to see the cost of a mask increase  by 500%

I bought one for 10 baht a few months ago. Yesterday I see the same mask on sale for 50 baht.

Edited February 2, 2020 by ianezy0

[bkk6060]

2 hours ago, smedly said:

you know what is funny 

 

Chinese are not well travelled people - they are brought here on very well fine tuned packages - plane - bus - hotel - bus - eating - bus - hotel - rinse repeat, being ripped off at every opportunity possible - they think it is all normal because they don't know any better - they are herded everywhere - charged a fortune and after 10 days shipped off home thinking - well that is what a holiday is...……..they have no concept of travel 

 

we from the west are always well travelled - it is very hard for us to understand what exactly is going on with these Chinese (so called) tourists - they just don't know any better and are being taken advantage of - very sad really and is just massive exploitation of people that don't know any better or different

 

and no it isn't really funny at all

Your evaluation and comments are not all true.

Plenty of Chinese not part of what you are describing.

Mostly younger staying in condos 1000's of them everyday especially in Pattaya. At The Base alone, I would guess 200 a day coming and going. Add just Unixx and Centric and it is many many more.

Coming here 2 or 3 together lots of females not part of any tours or being herded.

[Yinn]

25 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Your evaluation and comments are not all true.

Plenty of Chinese not part of what you are describing.

Mostly younger staying in condos 1000's of them everyday especially in Pattaya. At The Base alone, I would guess 200 a day coming and going. Add just Unixx and Centric and it is many many more.

Coming here 2 or 3 together lots of females not part of any tours or being herded.

He imagine it.

More Chinese international tourist than his country. Sure.

They are number 1 in the world. 

 

Last year, 130 million Chinese people travelled abroad. Due to the robust growth in the first half of the year, Ledsham predicted annual outbound travellers from China for the entire year would hit 160 million.

[Beggar]

32 minutes ago, ianezy0 said:

This will hopefully be contained soon as it could do a lot of damage to the economy in some countries.

Also, it is annoying to see the cost of a mask increase  by 500%

I bought one for 10 baht a few months ago. Yesterday I see the same mask on sale for 50 baht.

Many people with investments wouldn't complain but be happy with such an increase in value and this in only a couple of days ????

[toenail]

I realize the revenue will be missed but it is a good thing the Chinese are not traveling in by airplane that recycles the same air in the fuselage from take off until landing. ...And we ( except the tourist authorities)do not want to take a chance of this virus spreading in Thailand. 

[Gweiloman]

3 hours ago, smedly said:

you know what is funny 

 

Chinese are not well travelled people - they are brought here on very well fine tuned packages - plane - bus - hotel - bus - eating - bus - hotel - rinse repeat, being ripped off at every opportunity possible - they think it is all normal because they don't know any better - they are herded everywhere - charged a fortune and after 10 days shipped off home thinking - well that is what a holiday is...……..they have no concept of travel 

 

we from the west are always well travelled - it is very hard for us to understand what exactly is going on with these Chinese (so called) tourists - they just don't know any better and are being taken advantage of - very sad really and is just massive exploitation of people that don't know any better or different

 

and no it isn't really funny at all

I guarantee that there are more well travelled Chinese than there are from your home country. It’s just a numbers game. 
Furthermore, not every well travelled person prefers to go down the FIT route. Last Christmas, I went on a privately arranged group tour to Egypt. There were about 15 of us. Half of us were travel professionals. It is so much more convenient to just leave the hotel directly onto a coach rather than pfaffing about with taxis or other public transportation. 

[metisdead]

A post containing unattributed content has been removed. Please provide a valid link to the source of information when posting:

 

14) You will not post any copyrighted material except as fair use laws apply (as in the case of news articles). Please only post a link, the headline and the first three sentences. 

 

Some disruptive troll posts and the replies have been removed. 

[Yinn]

9 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

True. But at this point we need absolute transparency from the Chinese government, and a willingness to work with foreign experts on disease. Not something the Chicoms are used to doing. They need to bend their ways, to deal with this, before it becomes a much larger crisis than it already is. Had they treated the first doctor who reported this, back on December 31st with some respect and dignity, rather than arresting him, this might have been dealt with much sooner. He is now in the ICU fighting for his life. Most of the Chicom government are ideological numskulls, who need to be feared, and never given respect.

Yes. 

lucky we in thailand. 

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/sites/default/files/attachments/2019/10/29/st_20191029_skinfect_5214565.pdf

[cardinalblue]

I don’t understand why risk an infection to you or a family member for a few bucks...

 

Ban all Chinese nationals until China can demonstrate their control over the virus...

 

look at the big picture 6 months out..if the virus permeates the Thai population, thailand will lose all other non Chinese tourists..

 

and why then would healthy Chinese tourists select thailand if the virus gains ground in thailand...

 

leave one infected country to go another? 
 

can’t you see the problem Mr PM?

[Borzandy]

3 hours ago, Yinn said:

My gang plan to go Phuket town this weekend. But cancel the trip, same reason everyone same. 

 

A lot of TVF thread about Coronavirus. Have a lot of people imagine this a problem because Thailand. Some blame “Thailand”. Want “Thailand” pay for hospital etc. 

some blame “Thainess”

Same posters that always complain and mock the successful Thai tourism, look like they enjoy this problem. 

 

 

Is a disease from foreigner. Is NOT a thai disease. NO tourist or Thai die in Thailand because this.

 

It is problem for Thailand because we are popular Chinese tourism. Other countries popular also have problem. Chinese most important tourist in the world. 

eg Australia popular place for Chinese tourism. Maybe because “Aussieness”? Or not? 

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/wuhan-coronavirus-tourism-impact/index.html

 

Sure, it will be low tourism now because of Coronavirus. The Chinese stop coming and the other people foreigner and Thai are scared. 

 

But nobody die in thailand. Is good news. 

Calm down.

Please, could you tell us what are you talking about?

[kwak250]

When the Chinese tourists are scared of Thailand and run back to their bat munching country you know your in trouble.

[IamNoone88]

They have not deserted anywhere - they are not allowed to travel and rightly so. The government should follow Singapore's example and stop Chinese other China transit arrivals no matter what nationality to avoid local contagion ... as they are woefully unprepared to handle an outbreak in size and magnitude as currently experienced in China. If and when that happens, they will have a problem that 10,000x worse than they have today. 

[spiekerjozef]

Is this the new view of chinatown across the globe?

 

[Old Croc]

I'm not disputing the fact that the Chinese tourists have stopped coming, for obvious reasons.

However, I regard the use of a picture of a Sunday night market taken on the afternoon of a Tuesday to illustrate a lack of crowds, to be dishonest reporting.

[Grumpy John]

I had no trouble ordering 3 layer masks and 3M suits for me (XL) but I had to  go to an unknown brand for S size for the wife.   Both Du Pont and 3M seem to be out of S and only limited M.   Try Aliexpess.....but don't buy of a seller that is saying up to 40 days or April delivery they don't have stock now  for sure.

[RedPill]

3 hours ago, Yinn said:

My gang plan to go Phuket town this weekend. But cancel the trip, same reason everyone same. 

 

A lot of TVF thread about Coronavirus. Have a lot of people imagine this a problem because Thailand. Some blame “Thailand”. Want “Thailand” pay for hospital etc. 

some blame “Thainess”

Same posters that always complain and mock the successful Thai tourism, look like they enjoy this problem. 

 

 

Is a disease from foreigner. Is NOT a thai disease. NO tourist or Thai die in Thailand because this.

 

It is problem for Thailand because we are popular Chinese tourism. Other countries popular also have problem. Chinese most important tourist in the world. 

eg Australia popular place for Chinese tourism. Maybe because “Aussieness”? Or not? 

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/wuhan-coronavirus-tourism-impact/index.html

 

Sure, it will be low tourism now because of Coronavirus. The Chinese stop coming and the other people foreigner and Thai are scared. 

 

But nobody die in thailand. Is good news. 

Calm down.

But Chinese don't read TVF or any of the comments on here.

 

Yet, that's what's happening, they are not here now

 

... what does that have to do with Thainess or what TV members post?

 

Everybody calm down, no one die in Thailand ... famous last words.

 

[Dumbastheycome]

How interesting it is to see how  so many have interpreted the  headline.

Chinese tourists desert Thai Resort........as in  not coming ! Not as in running back to China.

What surprise  with travel bans and  paranoia abound! Not a  bad thing in assisting lower the rate of spread but a disaster for those dependent on tourism.

[radjag]

Overseas travel and tourism has boomed in China in the past 10 years or so along with all of their general economic growth. Yes, most of the tour bus loads of Chinese we all see in Pattaya/Phuket are very likely on their first ever overseas trip. They are often herded around by the "zero dollar" tour operators, but that poor treatment very quickly gets reported back through social media which has become very popular amongst average Chinese. The smaller groups of independent tourists are most likely on their second + visit and know better what they want and how to get it. But there is an almost endless supply of first timers, nowadays more often from the Provincial Cities - like Wuhan!

The Chinese outnumber everyone else on the planet and so yes, of course, they become the dominant group in every tourism market. Australia is usually swamped (bush fires and now the virus are a double whammy), cruise liner fulls swamping Venice, etc., etc. It is not likely to change anytime soon.

[bagheera65]

4 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

They are not the only country that have inexperienced travelers that choose the group tour option.Chinatowns all over the world will show that Chinese have a long history of traveling.

To go live in another country and be a frequent traveller are two different things.

[ehs818]

I live in Pattaya for a long time already. I've seen many things (SARS, Coup, Red vs Yellow Shirts, loss of tourists from Western countries due to a strong baht and a lowering of the fun level here, and much more. Now as I go shop at the stores I see significantly less Chinese tourists here. At least when here they were wearing masks which a lot of other tourist don't do. Reports say tourism in down 60% over last year. Doom and gloom yes, but perhaps this will influence the government to consider having less dependence on China. I don't trust the Chinese government to release true verifiable statistics, just like most governments around the world. That said, my simple response to the Corona Virus is to switch to Heineken. (joke4u). Now smile and get on with your daily routine WEARING A MASKS.

[FinChin67]

Chinese will not travel to anywhere for a while...

 

China reports outbreak of deadly bird flu
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3048566/china-reports-outbreak-deadly-bird-flu-among-chickens-hunan

Coronavirus: Philippines reports first death outside China as Duterte orders travel ban on visitors from mainland, Hong Kong
The victim was a 44-year-old male Chinese national who was the companion of a 38-year-old Chinese woman who arrived in the Philippines from Wuhan on January 21
A new Philippine travel ban could apply to all travellers from China, regardless of nationality
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3048576/china-coronavirus-duterte-orders-travel-ban-visitors
Philippines reports first death outside China

[RedPill]

1 minute ago, ehs818 said:

That said, my simple response to the Corona Virus is to switch to Heineken. (joke4u).

I was wondering how that beer brand is doing at the moment ... fancy a Corona? Nah, give me a Heineken.

 

Human psychology ... unlucky name for a beer brand at the moment

 

[bagheera65]

Once all this virus and madness will be over ( and it will ) Chinese will come back, don't worry about that. Okay, the year is screwed for everyone who was expecting to make money from the Chinese and they just have to survive to it, that's all there is. It's still better than to be dead.