Thailand tourist arrivals in February fall 44.3% due to coronavirus

[zydeco]

21 minutes ago, Mikeasq60 said:

I love this, great for traveling for those not afraid of this virus like myself.

I must admit I tried to check the fares and hotels in Tahiti the past few days. I've never been. Thought might buy a ticket and accommodations for eight to ten months out. No doing. Things have closed down.

[marko kok prong]

I do hope no one in TaT commits hara kiri over this.

[humbug]

33 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Will never happen.

I don’t believe a word from these Han Chinese connected gangster regimes, when they say China people not allowed into Thailand, yesterday I saw more wealthy Chinese tourists in Central world than I ever saw before, granted numbers are way down overall , but those high numbers before were mainly poorer Chinese shopping in BigC with their card board boxes with 5baht noodles to take home, this time the designer fashion crowd, it’s like if you have wealth in China, escape the quarantine and holiday in shopping paradise Bangkok, not my idea of a holiday, but considering for months they been allowed to come, they probably don’t care and think they are the master race and every one should be thank full for their $‘s and Wuhan virus

[Ian Nagle]

Less money to go to touristy areas means more attacks from angry Ladyboys and crazy bar girls. We will be targeted.

[Airalee]

8 minutes ago, humbug said:

I don’t believe a word from these Han Chinese connected gangster regimes, when they say China people not allowed into Thailand, yesterday I saw more wealthy Chinese tourists in Central world than I ever saw before, granted numbers are way down overall , but those high numbers before were mainly poorer Chinese shopping in BigC with their card board boxes with 5baht noodles to take home, this time the designer fashion crowd, it’s like if you have wealth in China, escape the quarantine and holiday in shopping paradise Bangkok, not my idea of a holiday, but considering for months they been allowed to come, they probably don’t care and think they are the master race and every one should be thank full for their $‘s and Wuhan virus

Last week Emquartier was a ghost town. Usually filled with Chinese.  Didn’t make it over to Emporium so maybe there were throngs of them in the Omega and Rolex shops.

 

[saengd]

28 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Yes quite a drop. 

 

So tourism is down substantially, exports are down and agriculture is down. Are you aware how much these 3 things contribute to the Thai economy?

 

You are increasingly sounding like a spin doctor on behalf of all things related to the Thai economy, which is a shame as your posts used to make good reading. 

I think it's important that people keep perspective on these things. When the headline reads a 44% drop, folks need to understand what that means in context rather than just roll out the same old cliches that everyone is now screwed.

[observer90210]

Tourist and foreigner visitor/retiree numbers were already dropping before the virus pandemic due to the strong THB, constant immigration hassles, price cheating, over priced brand goods in malls,  and the other well known reasons. 

 

The Covid19 virus plainly accelerated the statistic dwindle of figures,  that was already on the downslope for months.

 

The actors of the foreigner industry need to wake up fast ? ? ?

[saengd]

22 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

raw arrivals has nothing to do with the number of tourists who actually entered Thailand for a few or more days.
In Raw arrivals, there are the very many travelers in transit who will not leave airports.

You mean transfer, not transit, you CANNOT transit swampy because there is no transit lounge, google it if you don't believe me...an astute poster reminded us of this recently. 

 

All International Transfer passengers all have to clear Immi and Customs before booking in for an onward flight, those people are classed as visitors because they clear Immi.

 

 

[baansgr]

1 hour ago, saengd said:

"In the worst-case scenario, the number of foreign tourists may fall to 30 million this year from last year's 39.8 million, with spending down 22%,".

 

Just read that a few times and let it sink in, 30 million tourists is a worst case scenario, does 30 million tourists sound like Armageddon to you! 30 million is 2017 levels.

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/tourist-arrivals

But we all know it will be a lot less than that...and even a very conservative drop of 25% as this Muppet says will cause a lot of pain. Just one example, a massage shop by me normally busy has dropped their price from 200 to 140...yet still no one in there. Boatyards in Jomtien are full all day, hotels are empty...need not say anymore

[metisdead]

An inflammatory post and a reply has been removed. 

[saengd]

1 minute ago, baansgr said:

But we all know it will be a lot less than that...and even a very conservative drop of 25% as this Muppet says will cause a lot of pain. Just one example, a massage shop by me normally busy has dropped their price from 200 to 140...yet still no one in there. Boatyards in Jomtien are full all day, hotels are empty...need not say anymore

Maybe, maybe not, let's wait and see. Your massage shop analogy is anecdotal, just like a business near me that has put it's staff on a short week is. You really can't second guess these things.

[Assurancetourix]

11 minutes ago, saengd said:

You mean transfer, not transit

You understood me very well;
there’s no point in making a big fuss about it.

[ivor bigun]

All sectors are hurting i am sure ,i even did not go to the dentist ,nothing serious ,but best not.

[DrTuner]

It's a good start, drop another 30% and the country might be alright to visit again. Unless you're a sardine and enjoy overtourism.

[saengd]

5 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

You understood me very well;
there’s no point in making a big fuss about it.

It's an important difference we all need to understand. Ask yourself, how many people fly long haul to Bangkok, clear customs and Immi. only to check in straight away and fly to yet another country, precious few I imagine.

[Airalee]

11 minutes ago, saengd said:

You mean transfer, not transit, you CANNOT transit swampy because there is no transit lounge, google it if you don't believe me...an astute poster reminded us of this recently. 

 

All International Transfer passengers all have to clear Immi and Customs before booking in for an onward flight, those people are classed as visitors because they clear Immi.

 

 

It depends on the airlines agreements.  Feel free to check with Bangkok Air if you don’t believe me.  There is a transit counter in the airport and also a transit hotel.  Transfer is for transferring to a connecting flight to another airport in Thailand.

 

 

[Airalee]

2 minutes ago, saengd said:

It's an important difference we all need to understand. Ask yourself, how many people fly long haul to Bangkok, clear customs and Immi. only to check in straight away and fly to yet another country, precious few I imagine.

Enough that they have the appropriate facilities to accommodate them.

[UbonThani]

1 hour ago, Cake Monster said:

 

If the Tourist arrivals remain at a near 50% down, that is 50% down on the number of arrivals quoted for 2019, which was 39 Million

Therefore 50% of 39 Million is only 19.5 Million.

That would be a true worst case scenario, with revenue close to only 1 Trillion Baht.

But there is a distinct possibility that the Tourist arrivals will be much worse than the 50% reduction. I anticipate that the Chinese Tourists will not be back in any significant numbers until maybe June of 2021.

This anticipation is based on the fact that the Chinese Gov,t will not allow travel of their Citizens in case of a possible flair up again of the Virus, and that the people will be needed to urgently repair the damage to the Chinese Economy by this outbreak.

 

After june numbers will be back at 90% or so.

 

Think about it.

[Airalee]

15 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

You understood me very well;
there’s no point in making a big fuss about it.

You were correct.  Saengd was not.  There is a transit counter....and a transit hotel.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Airalee

[humbug]

42 minutes ago, Airalee said:

Last week Emquartier was a ghost town. Usually filled with Chinese.  Didn’t make it over to Emporium so maybe there were throngs of them in the Omega and Rolex shops.

 

It wasn’t a ghost town yesterday at central world or paragon, no where near the same as before when high numbers of Chinese, queuing to get into Gucci or LV, but a lot more than I was expecting, especially the more wealthy tourists, that’s not to say numbers are huge, they are way down as the poorer ones stay behind, but really surprising to see more than you think, after all these restrictions, Paragon was far busier but that’s was the added Thai’s, not so many at central world

Edited March 9, 2020 by humbug

[UbonThani]

28 minutes ago, baansgr said:

But we all know it will be a lot less than that...and even a very conservative drop of 25% as this Muppet says will cause a lot of pain. Just one example, a massage shop by me normally busy has dropped their price from 200 to 140...yet still no one in there. Boatyards in Jomtien are full all day, hotels are empty...need not say anymore

3 mths of pain. It will blow over.

[Airalee]

7 minutes ago, humbug said:

It wasn’t a ghost town yesterday at central world or paragon, no where near the same as before when high numbers of Chinese, queuing to get into Gucci or LV, but a lot more than I was expecting, especially the more wealthy tourists, that’s not to say numbers are huge, they are way down as the poorer ones stay behind, but really surprising to see more than you think, after all these restrictions

I was at Central World two weeks ago and I didn’t see what you allude to.  I don’t have a photo of it as I do of Emquartier (which was a veritable ghost town at 4:30 in the afternoon). but I have a hard time believing the wealthy Chinese are saying “Let’s escape to Thailand!”

Edited March 9, 2020 by Airalee

[geisha]

1 hour ago, Traubert said:

I might give you half a point for the press, but Facebook? Really?

Travel forums, travel agencies, television , websites, social media, insurance companies. That’s where you get your info from , and help, when needed. When you are refused reimbursement on a trip/ airline etc you let the world know. Regularly ,on the many television programs, travel is advised against at the moment. 

[aldriglikvid]

Perhaps they will not send home the people who used 2-3 consecutive tourist visas, for the next couple of months. 

[saengd]

Setting aside for a moment the question of whether or not it is actually possible to transit Swampy versus Transfer at Swampy, I'll dig out the prior thread where airline staff argued it was not possible to transit at Swampy, I argued that is was but was subsequently convinced otherwise.

 

Back to the numbers: if it is possible to transit at swampy then transit passengers cannot possibly be included in the arriving passenger count because they never clear Immigration ergo they never arrive....TOT even separates them from their passenger counts (see below).

 

Transfer passengers do arrive because they clear Immigration hence they are counted, even if they immediately check in for a connecting flight. But as said earlier, how many long haul passengers would do that sort of turnaround, some I suppose but not many.

 

https://www.airportthai.co.th/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Annual-Airport-2018.pdf

 

[Mavideol]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The number of tourist arrivals in Thailand fell 44.3% in February from a year earlier due to the coronavirus epidemic

TAT shouldn't blame everything on the virus epidemic.... the red flag was already up prior to the virus arrival, the virus was just a good escape (blame) for TAT fake numbers

[saengd]

Here's the earlier discussion about Transit at Swampy, have at it.

 

 

[Airalee]

7 minutes ago, saengd said:

Setting aside for a moment the question of whether or not it is actually possible to transit Swampy versus Transfer at Swampy, I'll dig out the prior thread where airline staff argued it was not possible to transit at Swampy, I argued that is was but was subsequently convinced otherwise.

 

Back to the numbers: if it is possible to transit at swampy then transit passengers cannot possibly be included in the arriving passenger count because they never clear Immigration ergo they never arrive....TOT even separates them from their passenger counts (see below).

 

Transfer passengers do arrive because they clear Immigration hence they are counted, even if they immediately check in for a connecting flight. But as said earlier, how many long haul passengers would do that sort of turnaround, some I suppose but not many.

 

https://www.airportthai.co.th/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Annual-Airport-2018.pdf

 

As I said.  It depends on the agreement between airlines.  Are you going to call every airline to verify?  Some, you can go straight to the transit counter...hence...no need to go through immigration.  Others, you go through immigration and customs and then fly straight out.  I know many who have done it both ways.  It’s really no mystery.  No reply is necessary.  You were wrong.  

[Artisi]

1 hour ago, Ian Nagle said:

Less money to go to touristy areas means more attacks from angry Ladyboys and crazy bar girls. We will be targeted.

Please don't venture out into the big wide world and you will be safe.

[whiteman]

The number of tourist arrivals in Thailand fell 44.3% in February from a year earlier  you can bet your bottom dollar it is more like 75% and the Bhat remains high just like Thai airways pricers