SURVEY: High end tourists—good idea or a flop?

[saakura]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

 

Do high end tourists want to holiday in a place full of low class Chinese tourists?

Neither would they want to holiday in a place with old farang sex addicts, alcoholics, pedos, deviants and rejects from their own countries. How is that for another sweeping generalization?

[DrTuner]

First they need to demolish pretty much everything they've built in the last decade or two and restore the natural beauty. Start by nuking the concrete monstrosities near the beaches and then let an army of tank bombard the malls to smitherines.

 

And then change the people as the current population has grown predatory. 

 

Chok dee with that.

[JensenZ]

16 hours ago, Scott said:

The government is making a push to attract high end tourists, presumably at the expense of backpackers and other less affluent travelers.   In your opinion, is this a worthwhile endeavor?   Do you think it will succeed?   Please chose the option that best fits your opinion.

Are they discouraging backpackers, or asking them not to come? How can it be "at the expense of backpackers"? Are the putting the price up? That's the only way you'll discourage them.

 

Backpackers don't listen to cr*p from government promotional sources - they have their own much more reliable info sources. They're just not that naive. Unless they prohibit people with backpacks from entering, there's nothing they can do.

[tjo o tjim]

Miserable poll options... but the bottom line is you can’t just will yourself to only accept “high end” tourists and be done with it.  Thailand has historically been a destination that people come back to. That is about the most efficient way to support tourism; you don’t have to fight for the money or energy.

 

The truly “high end” tourists I have known over the years— spending US$10k/night— will never be back; there are too many other places they want to see.  Is US$140k for two “arrivals” sustainable, of course not!  Does it provide significant value to the economy?  Harder to really tell— in dollar terms it might, but there is very little “ripple effect” through the economy with that type of customer.  

[bkk6060]

This is not Singapore or Hong Kong and never will be.

And, I am glad it is not.

 

 

 

[chainarong]

Like everything , what you want and what you get are entirely two different things , I wanted to win lotto and ended up with 5 b/r 6 car garage villa on the beach front at Monaco , but thats another story. ????????

[mjakob007]

Trust is major factor

High end tourists will demand more of above

 

here you are with people who paid for thailand elite visa can’t even make it back to the country.

Chok dee 

[from the home of CC]

first thing they need to do is kill the agent action, that will do wonders in improving the clientele..

[LomSak27]

3 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

5 hours ago, Suddenplans said:

Bhutan charges USD $250 per person per day.  The quality of guests to Bhutan is quite high.  Next store to Bhutan is Nepal that gets all the back packers.  Thailand could charge $25 a day.

Bhutan is the Shangrila of destinations in the world, with a traditional monarchy and way of life.

Thailand is a modern Shangrilalaland that has lost most of its traditional culture in the pursuit of tourist dollars. 

Bhutan has a ready made group of people that will pay to HIKE, they call them trekkers, and sleep in tents, with an occasional night in decent digs coming and going. The reason is they are in a remote region of the Himalaya mountain range.

 

Those material facts cannot be replicated by 98 per cent of countries. BTW The only country that tried to do something like that was Laos, 1989 through 1993. In case you missed it .. didn't work.

[chang1]

Rich nobs like to think they are special so need a destination that is exclusive. Small islands or regions can be exclusive but a country the size of Thailand never can be. Realistically, Thailands tourist industry is set up for the lower end market and cannot survive without it. Many jobs rely on tourism but only a tiny fraction of them can be connected to the high end market. 

As has already been said, concentrating on making tourist areas tourist friendly is what's needed. Taxi/tuktuk scams/high prices have done more long term damage than covid19 ever will.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, RJRS1301 said:

High end tourists only take a tuk-tuk once or twice, too damn smelly and noisy and uncomfortable

 

Maybe that would be an exiting story for the cocktail party back home. Something about the natives. ???? 

[CanadaSam]

Rich people will not risk their lives to holiday anywhere, they choose safe destinations, with all the necessary infrastructure and educated well-trained staff to ensure a trouble-free holiday.

 

Thailand does not have any of those things, (yet).

[Scott Tracy]

Sorry, what's a high end tourist?

 

if it's  not defined, it cannot be catered for.d

 

Backpackers, package tours, resort stayers, all known items. High end tourists?  

 

Have a gander at tbis:

 

https://austchamthailandadvance.com/2018/06/28/june-2018-how-to-create-a-high-end-tourist-market/

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Don Mega said:

Yeah devils den, cost including refreshments and 2 ladies is Bt.16,500 !!

Sounds like pocket change for the kind of tourists Thailand wants.

Maybe TAT should promote this service. Maybe make it part of the elite card or something like that. ???? 

[Don Mega]

32 minutes ago, mjakob007 said:

Trust is major factor

High end tourists will demand more of above

 

here you are with people who paid for thailand elite visa can’t even make it back to the country.

Chok dee 

Many walks of life pony up the coin for the long stay tourist visa... that don't make them high end tourists !!

[newnative]

   I don't like any of the poll choices.  It's not a do this or do that choice--or it shouldn't be.  Thailand needs to be going after tourists from all economic brackets.  Hostel owners need backpackers.  5 star hotels need higher-end tourists.  And, everything in between; it applies to tourist attractions, restaurants, and everything else tourist-related.   

[Captain Monday]

6 hours ago, Suddenplans said:

Bhutan charges USD $250 per person per day.  The quality of guests to Bhutan is quite high.  Next store to Bhutan is Nepal that gets all the back packers.  Thailand could charge $25 a day.

All of the travellers I have noticed bound for Bhutan at BKK airport are elderly Japanese. A tour is required I reckon.

 

Thailand should charge 3-500 per day. To fund physical improvements, improved services,  and an accident insurance fund. Two problems sorted. Also ban visa free travel, at least from USA. 30 percent - 40 percent of my US countrymen have no business traveling internationally. A FBI check will weed  out most.. That will solve most of the problems caused by lowlifes, and criminals.

 

No need to think of it as high ends or low end.  Thailand has a range of options that appeal to various spend levels and it won't work on 5 stars alone.

[eeworldwide]

Can you define "high end?"

How many High end hotels are there?

My brain hurts.

[chang1]

5 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

Thailand should charge 3-500 per day.

I don't think 3 Baht a day would be hard for most people but 500 may stop some from coming. 

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Does anybody know how many of the tourist from i.e. last year would qualify as high-end-tourist? 10%? 1%?

I understand that Thailand wants these people, and I think Thailand should try to get them. But they alone won't resurrect the tourist business.

 

What would help with tourists is well known: Be nice to tourists, don't have double price policy, don't have lots of taxi, gems, jet-ski and whatever scammers. Don't have TukTuk drivers who want a fortune for a trip around the corner, etc. The list is long and well known. The authorities could do a lot to address these well knows problems - if they wanted to do that...

i agree with all you are saying here, but the Thai authorities just don't have the brains to do anything about the things you mention, the same applies to the dreadful road fatalities.

Their limit is sitting round a table and making up 22 stupid rules for bars to obey, and fixing curfews, banning alcohol etc which has nothing to do with any virus.

[chang1]

5 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Ya'd think so but have you seen some em frothing at the mouth when they see a bar put up balloons  !!

Yep, I remember the good old days!

[Trillian]

If you dig around you can find statements such as, "in the UK, the five richest families own more wealth than 25% of the country's population". Translate that kind of statistic into tourism and you probably arrive at something like, "ten of the most wealthy tourists spend as much as the bottom five thousand combined".

 

Which person in their right mind wouldn't vote for something like that, especially when increasing the ratio involves doing almost nothing whatsoever.  

[RJRS1301]

39 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

i agree with all you are saying here, but the Thai authorities just don't have the brains to do anything about the things you mention, the same applies to the dreadful road fatalities.

Their limit is sitting round a table and making up 22 stupid rules for bars to obey, and fixing curfews, banning alcohol etc which has nothing to do with any virus.

High end tourists do not go to "tourist bars" they go other more acceptable establishments without putting up with disgruntled expats pontificating and stinking of cigarette smoke

 

[Hayduke]

 

The biggest single problem is that Thais see tourists as victims to be exploited…not as customers to be welcomed.

 

The constant scams, ripoffs, price gouging. poor infrastructure, police banditry, military oppression and toxic corruption will not go down well with discriminating, higher end travelers.

 

Satisfied customers tend to return...poorly treated victims tend to go elsewhere.

 

 

[Trillian]

8 minutes ago, Hayduke said:

 

The biggest single problem is that Thais see tourists as victims to be exploited…not as customers to be welcomed.

 

We all see different things based on our lifestyle and location in Thailand, I have almost never thought that Thai people see me as a victim to be exploited but there again I don't live in a tourist area.

[RichardColeman]

You give the survey to the noodle sellers and kabab vendors and those in the food queues who live off the lower end tourists and whom the high end tourists would avoid like the plague

[RJRS1301]

5 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

You give the surveyto the noodle sellers and kabab vendors and those in the food queues who live off the lower end tourists and whom the high end tourists would avoid like the plague

and well after the current plague

[mrfill]

I've been trying to think of a single country which had been a popular, relatively low cost place which is now very popular with the high end tourist. Is there such a place?

[phantomfiddler]

People attract people, let them all in and make them all feel very welcome ????

[Orton Rd]

7 hours ago, brommers said:

Thailand is not making the best of its unique culture, cuisine and character by appealing to the bottom feeder tourists that visit in their tens of millions. But a sweeping change to high end tourism is simply a pipe dream, and will provide very little in the way of numbers. And this country badly needs numbers to soak up the unemployment following the lockdown. It is not a binary decision that is needed but a long term and well managed move away from trash tourists to a more middle market. Bhutan is no model for this and neither are most markets because they become fixated, like TAT are,  on chasing volume. Tourism is highly destructive unless very carefully controlled.

What is unique about Thai culture? most of it is borrowed from other countries, including a lot of the food and sport. They have never made the most of it's music of course but lets be honest most peole are here for the dirty girls, beaches, ladyboys and copied goods.