Thailand's entire tourism industry will collapse if foreign tourists are not allowed back, industry leader

[samsensam]

4 minutes ago, laocowboy2 said:

It is not just the quarantine (I could hack that if necessary) but rather the pre-arrival mess. I live in Cyprus - no Thai embassy or consulate. With no more 30 days on arrival and the new visa and paperwork requirements, I am stuck. In theory I could fly to a country with an embassy and apply there but apart from the expense (flights, hotels while waiting for visa etc), that ups my chances of Covid-19 exposure - Cyprus is a very low Covid-19 country. Just not practical.

 

agree, from the feedback it seems the embassies and consulates around the world have been pretty confused, disorganised and inefficient in arranging/processing repatriation flights for a few hundred thai nationals, how on earth are they going to cope with hundreds of thousands of tourists?

 

thailand loves bureaucracy, it gives them a feeling of safety and security, however they are not good at defining, communicating and managing processes.

[klauskunkel]

"Down with Tourism! Long live Submarines!"

[ourmanflint]

Coronavirus is here to stay, it will not go away in 6 months, a year or even 10 years. Any vaccine produced *will not* be 100% effective or available to all that need it. Thailand cannot hide away until it blows over, it took the right decision to close down early on during the pandemic and probably saved many lives, but now it has to face up to the future.

Without tourism, Thailands fragile economy will soon splinter society even more into those with wealth and those just about managing. What those figures are, are up for debate, but I am guessing the JAM's make up the vast proportion of those outside the big cities and even in big cities like Bangkok it must be a significant proportion.

A return to the heady days of mass tourism will not in all likelihood happen for 5-10 years, so millions will still slip into poverty no matter what, but to stay closed for the rest of 2020 can only accelerate the decline of Thailands whole economy.

 

 

[ChipButty]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Tourism was already going downhill long before Covid. Now? It will never recover even close to its former levels. Not even close. Not even after 10 or 20 years. 

 

I wrote and posted this long before Covid. 

 

 

I will agree with you the last low season was the worst for years I know of resorts contemplating either closing down or trying to sell long before covid arrived,

I agree with most of what you said but add to that list is the taxi's one of the biggest complaints from tourist,

Last but not least Immigration I think we'll leave it there

[Guderian]

A lot of the cheap bars and hotels in Pattaya were already on the verge of collapsing before the pandemic. I doubt if they'll be missed by many.

[ChipButty]

32 minutes ago, Chiang Mai Bill said:

but before they kept saying that tourism was not an important source of income for Thailand, what made them change their view

 

Reality?

It is in Phuket 

[DrTuner]

It needs a headshot anyway. The way Kobkarn the Destroyress of Thailand let the Chinese hordes in was the last nail. Massive overtourism resulted and took away all pleasure out of it. Demolish it all and start again with a sustainable governance system in place.

[ThomasThBKK]

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

It needs a headshot anyway. The way Kobkarn the Destroyress of Thailand let the Chinese hordes in was the last nail. Massive overtourism resulted and took away all pleasure out of it. Demolish it all and start again with a sustainable governance system in place.

 

That's basically what my first comment was about, adapt or die.

The current model could have never worked out anyway, covid was just the nail that made the bubble explode sooner.

[AndresSP]

1 minute ago, ThomasThBKK said:

 

It will be a few huge businesses after this, no worries. 

Cheap assets for the rich, it will just no longer be owned by normal thais, blame the government, not me. 

A bit of a conspiracy theory but yeah, sometimes I wonder whether this mayhem is also about redistribution of wealth – bankrupt the weak, consolidate the infrastructure in a few hands. I am talking big businesses of course – hotel, restaurant chains and such.

[Cake Monster]

4 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

It really is a catch 22. I think the Thais are realizing that the GDP was grossly understated when it comes to how much tourists actually do for the economy. Wake up call!

With the Thai Tourism issue, its the Devil if you do let the Tourists in, and the Devil if you dont.

Whatever the Authorities do, there are going to be some really dire consequences of their actions, and I believe that their is very little capability at the top to actually come out with a " reentry " plan that will slowly revive the Economy, as well as keeping a Paranoid population from rioting in the Streets.

Burying your head in the Sand is Ok, but when you come up for a breath, the reality is still there, and there has been little knowledge gleened from any previous encounters with Covid, thus giving a situation of utter bewilderment instead of a strategic and well thought out strategy from intelligent and cool heads.

 

[ourmanflint]

2 minutes ago, AndresSP said:

A bit of a conspiracy theory but yeah, sometimes I wonder whether this mayhem is also about redistribution of wealth – bankrupt the weak, consolidate the infrastructure in a few hands. I am talking big businesses of course – hotel, restaurant chains and such.

Thailand is already one of the most unequal countries in the world, 3rd behind Russia and India, the top 1 per cent already own 58% of the countries wealth. 

[tribalfusion001]

Cities and resorts In Europe are struggling and they have tourists coming in, much lower numbers than usual. When you have a country closed off then the consequences will be dire, it seems Thailand is finally waking up to this.

 

Tbh, the numbers will take time to build up again even if they start allowing tourists in, many businesses will go bust and that is the same everywhere.

 

The first time in 14 years I went to somewhere in Europe, Athens, enjoyable time, good food, good beer and excellent sightseeing without hordes of tourists. I had a bried stop off in Germany on the way back and made my way into a local town for a Krombacher and bratwurst, cheap too.

[Chongalulu]

2 hours ago, anchadian said:

By getting an education.

Where? Have you seen their position on the PISA educational tables?

[ChipButty]

21 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

Cities and resorts In Europe are struggling and they have tourists coming in, much lower numbers than usual. When you have a country closed off then the consequences will be dire, it seems Thailand is finally waking up to this.

 

Tbh, the numbers will take time to build up again even if they start allowing tourists in, many businesses will go bust and that is the same everywhere.

 

The first time in 14 years I went to somewhere in Europe, Athens, enjoyable time, good food, good beer and excellent sightseeing without hordes of tourists. I had a bried stop off in Germany on the way back and made my way into a local town for a Krombacher and bratwurst, cheap too.

Last year we spent 3 months in Northern Cyprus and traveled to a couple other places, my wife loved it and shes not a beach lover 

Edited August 28, 2020 by ChipButty

[ExpatOne]

Think of the discounts we’ll get on condos and homes in beach areas!!!

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

They quoted the chief of the Tourism Council of Thailand as saying that the situation in the country's tourism sector is so serious that if foreign tourists are not allowed back the entire industry will collapse.

It's only 12% remember... the other 88% will support the country!

[AndresSP]

1 minute ago, ourmanflint said:

Thailand is already one of the most unequal countries in the world, 3rd behind Russia and India, the top 1 per cent already own 58% of the countries wealth. 

Agreed but those could be the wrong 1%. There has been no big business shake out since the military took over and this seems to be too good of an opportunity not to take advantage of. 

[tribalfusion001]

3 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Last year we spent 3 months in Northern Turkey and traveled to a couple other places, my wife loved it and shes not a beach lover 

I think people will just go to places that are easy to get to and with no restrictions in place. This could last for some time and Thailand won't be the first place on the list anymore if they insist on quarantine and other entry restrcitions. If they drop the restrictions then I will be interested, otherwise it's a no go.

 

I covered an average of 17km day walking around the city, I love a good walk in the heat and have 500+ photos.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

Care to explain how - in the current situation - millions who are working in tourism or in fields, profitting from tourism, should "reposition" themselves?

Half the cost of everything so Thais will pay!

The rip-off foreigner days are long gone.... get used to it.

Phuket wants to open up and return to start the fleecing again, it ain't gonna happen.

Edited August 28, 2020 by hotchilli

[JusticeGB]

He appears to have used the wrong tense "will collapse?" it already "has collapsed".

[GeorgeCross]

1 hour ago, Saint Nick said:

Easy peasy, right!

Just walk into one of the many free education- companies and start learning!

Nothing could be easier!

well actually yes, easy, peasy as you say. whilst there are no free universities, a degree can be earned cheaply via home study with minimal in class time (actually only exam time is mandatory)

my wife funded her way through university by working in a 7/11, as did her friends and they all went on to have successful careers (lower management level) in tourism. 

she had to share a room mind you but then the demographic you are talking about already does that.

[ChipButty]

9 minutes ago, ExpatOne said:

Think of the discounts we’ll get on condos and homes in beach areas!!!

Dont hold your breath

[DrTuner]

7 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

He appears to have used the wrong tense "will collapse?" it already "has collapsed".

After a couple of years all the decrepit hotels and bars will look like an apocalypse movie set. Already looked like that in southern Chaweng in February. Not what you want on a holiday unless you're into dark tourism.

[Mung]

It was going down the pan prior to COVID-19, they really needed to change up a whole number of things back then. IMHO Thailand has become really overpriced while becoming a miniature offshoot of China. 

[Zikomat]

 The industry has already collapsed. More important, it will not recover any time soon. There is no any chance Thailand will reopen its borders in a manner suitable for the international tourism (without the quarantine, 100 k insurance etc.). Let them fully concentrate on growing rice again. 
 

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Zikomat

[Isaan sailor]

Plenty of work up in Isaan on the rice farms.  Good time for yankin’ out the grass...200 Baht per day...

[tribalfusion001]

5 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

 The industry has already collapsed. More important, it will not recover any time soon. There is no any chance Thailand will reopen its borders in a manner suiting for the international tourists (without the quarantine, 100 k insurance etc.). Let them fully concentrate on growing rice again. 

So I fly 6000 miles and either 11 hours non stop or 16 hours with a stop and then have to be stuck in a hotel room for 2 weeks, sounds appealling doesn't it, not!

 

Managed virus control is the only way forward, the countries that do this will continue to have a tourist industry, although nothing like it was until the situation improves.

Edited August 28, 2020 by tribalfusion001

[GeorgeCross]

1 minute ago, Isaan sailor said:

Plenty of work up in Isaan on the rice farms.  Good time for yankin’ out the grass...200 Baht per day...

yep, burn off some of that puppy fat they've built up knocking back lady drinks and KFCs all day too ????

[Brickbat]

Does he not know Tourists are non existent? To fearful to travel and unable to leave their homelands. The Thai Baht still reigning high n mighty...yeah! Let’s buy up the world. 

[ThailandRyan]

57 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

"Down with Tourism! Long live Submarines!"

Submarine Tourism