4 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

That is on marginal land. Most of the burning occurred in forested areas.

In the marginal areas, it is feast or famine. Most farm/station properties are much larger than anywhere else in the world, they have to be.

So the average property in those areas will have 3-4 years of drought, earning nothing. Fires don't matter, nothing to burn. In 1983, I was on a 44,000 acre property that did not have a single blade of live grass. They will have a couple of years when the property breaks even. But when the drought breaks, farmers make fortunes due to scale.

It's seems to me, it's a bit hard to predict a boom, as you have, when it's based on the weather. 

 

I suspect the Chinese will soon be going on a world-wide buying spree. Countries like the UK which have traditionally held a very laissez-faire attitude toward foreign takeovers need to introduce legislation to help protect national assets and domestic companies from predatory Chinese takeover.  Hopefully not too many Thai businesses will fall to the Chinese....

10 hours ago, mike787 said:

Hilton, and all the hotels around the world are hemorrhaging cash...NOT able to survive thanks to the mishandling of the chinese Gov....thanks guys for screwing the world...

All governments are mishandling this, causing companies to close and people losing jobs, biggest mistake since time began

20 hours ago, Leaver said:

Do you really think Thai authorities are doing enough to have Thailand declared as safe for tourism within a few months?

 

I think 6 to 12 months may be more realistic.  

 

Do you think westerners will have enough money within 12 months, let alone a few months to visit LOS? Most western economies will have been destroyed by government actions if this goes on more than a month, IMO.

Perhaps the Chinese will be minting it by then and the hordes will return, but they won't save Pattaya as we knew it.

13 hours ago, Leaver said:

There is no minerals boom for Australia, fueled by Chinese demand, like there was for the GFC, this time around. 

 

Most countries will go into recession.  How long that recession will last, for each country, who knows? 

 

The debt from the Corona Virus will take generations to pay back.

I'm predicting depression. Hope I'm wrong.

Looking at their website all rooms are sold out until December, Business must be good !!

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Do you think westerners will have enough money within 12 months, let alone a few months to visit LOS?

No, I don't. 

 

Also, I can't see many Foreign Offices giving Thailand the all clear with transparency in their figures, so that mean no travel insurance, and no travel insurance, in general, means no tourists.

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I'm predicting depression. Hope I'm wrong.

A depression is possible, but many governments are now throwing cash around.  You can expect higher taxes, which only the working class pay.   

15 hours ago, Leaver said:

A depression is possible, but many governments are now throwing cash around.  You can expect higher taxes, which only the working class pay.   

governments are not getting normal tax receipts so resorting to funny money options like quantitative easing which is slime word for printing money which leads to inflation. Imagine 80s inflation and large numbers unemployed. That's a recipe for worse than depression.

7 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

governments are not getting normal tax receipts so resorting to funny money options like quantitative easing which is slime word for printing money which leads to inflation. Imagine 80s inflation and large numbers unemployed. That's a recipe for worse than depression.

I do not disagree, a depression is still possible. 

 

Whilst some countries are more concerned about the health of their people, and moved to shutdowns quicker, Thailand was more concerned about the health of their economy, and held off on shutdowns until there were practically no tourists left anyway. 

 

They keep the doors open for weeks after they should have been shut, just to turn a quick baht, but in the long run, they will have ended up losing a lot more money, as they will never flatten the curve here, and it just flattens by itself, 6 to 12 months from now. 

 

I would say Thailand is heading into a 18 month recession. 

 

Now there are reports that 30,936 hotels in Thailand will cease operations in April and these hotels expect zero income.

2 hours ago, Banana7 said:

Now there are reports that 30,936 hotels in Thailand will cease operations in April and these hotels expect zero income.

There's no reason for them to keep the doors open with such a high vacancy rate, with most probably operating now at 100% vacancy rate. 

Tonight, it looks like Pattaya Amari and Pattaya Holiday Inn are empty too.

It's a beautiful message from Marriott:

 

We will travel again.
Soon, we will step out from behind our screens.
We will look each other in the eye—instead of the camera.
We will clink glasses. We will exchange hugs.
We will travel again.
Until then, stay healthy and stay positive.
We’ll be waiting.