I have just been walking around CM in the last few days and it was staggering as to how many businesses were closed .

On any given street about half the businesses were closed and in some places, it was more like 90 % of shops had their shutters down .

Also, the shops that were open had very few, if any customers and they are gradually closing down .

  Its now quite difficult to find somewhere to eat as not many places are still open .

The photo of the road was taken during "rush hour" outside Kad san Keow and that road is usually chock-a-block with traffic all around the area stretching back for kilometers , hardly any traffic there nowadays 

  Many of the closed shops have "For rent" signs stuck on them, so, they wont be coming back .

Continuing to keep the people and businesses in a virus lockdown mode has to stop. 

 

Give people the option to continue with their living and livelihood...this lockdown is causing more harm to the country now than the virus...

Nice post, the photos show a very clear picture.

Conservative estimates expect air traffic to return to pre-covid levels in 2024 I believe.

 

So for the near term, expect more closures.

 

This is how Thailand will look like, for a few good years.

13 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

Continuing to keep the people and businesses in a virus lockdown mode has to stop. 

 

Give people the option to continue with their living and livelihood...this lockdown is causing more harm to the country now than the virus...

I don’t see a lockdown in Korat....only bars from what I see.

Everyone can see now that the knee-jerk reactions to a bad cold are now much more harmful than the virus ever was.

17 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

Continuing to keep the people and businesses in a virus lockdown mode has to stop. 

 

Give people the option to continue with their living and livelihood...this lockdown is causing more harm to the country now than the virus...

There is no lock-down though , businesses are free to open .

Everythings back to normal (apart from the borders being closed) 

Must be nice to take a walk without hordes of tourists following a leader with a flag, and those monster buses choking the traffic flow.

20 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

Continuing to keep the people and businesses in a virus lockdown mode has to stop. 

 

Give people the option to continue with their living and livelihood...this lockdown is causing more harm to the country now than the virus...

Lockdown?  Philippines has lockdowns.  Thailand has minimal covid rules currently and never had real lockdown.   Chiang Mai has been living the tourist destination for decades and that well is almost dry and is not expected to get much better anytime soon.

6 minutes ago, Mansell said:

I don’t see a lockdown in Korat....only bars from what I see.

Korat bars can probably make money on locals visiting. But Chiangmai, Pattaya, Phuket bars cannot survive without tourists.

Just now, saakura said:

Must be nice to take a walk without hordes of tourists following a leader with a flag, and those monster buses choking the traffic flow.

Judging by those photos there is nothing to walk around for - unless you are a fan of graffitied roller shutters! 

With that topic title I had images of all sort of dead sexy shenanigans going on!

It could have been put better as the actress said to the Bishop.

 

PS; My so called light hearted comments aside it is sad to see so many businesses and people being so badly hurt at this time.

I also think that the knock-on effect of there being no tourists has been understated .

The closed guest houses , restaurants etc typically employ say four workers and they earn and spend money locally , yeah not a huge amount individually , but collectively they help to keep local businesses afloat .

   Many of those workers seem to have gone back to their villages and the downward spiral continues 

14 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

Everythings back to normal (apart from the borders being closed) 

You mean apart from any customers for most businesses surely.

A crass and insensitive statement!  Go make that statement to any Thai tourist related business owner and their extended family and let us know when your hospital visiting times are.

2 minutes ago, fangless said:

You mean apart from any customers for most businesses surely.

A crass and insensitive statement!  Go make that statement to any Thai tourist related business owner and their extended family and let us know when your hospital visiting times are.

I was referring to the lock down rules , all those have been lifted .

My point was that the shops werent closed due to  lockdown orders .

(That would have been apparent , had you read the post I replied to )

Realistically, because Thailand is so dependent on international tourism, they should have looked to see what other countries were doing and imposed a more relaxed version to allow some people into the country to keep things ticking over. So they do the exact opposite, relentlessly chasing a figure of zero for some reason, and have destroyed the lives of so many in the process. 

Very misleading post.    Chiangmai is a very large city,  and traffic everywhere but the old city is back to normal.  Lots of it.    All the businesses I frequent are operating as normal.  All schools and govt offices open.   

There are many tourist based businesses in town center....the usual restaurants, coffee shops, a few bars,  many guest houses , massage places , cooking classes, cycle rentals, etc etc.   YES,  that part of

the economy is all but shut down.  You could even call it a ghost town.  

But to infer that ALL of Chiangmai is like that is just another mad max statement to get attention.

5% to 10% of the overall economy closing up does not a ghost town make.

One other thing that keeping foreigners out has impacted is the large number of rentals (condos, houses, serviced apts, etc) that are obviously without customers.   It was overbuilt to begin with, and many owners are Chinese, Farangs, even Koreans who were looking for an investment.   No tenants for an extended period of time could lead to some more problems down the road.  

 

3 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

My point was that the shops werent closed due to  lockdown orders .

(That would have been apparent , had you read the post I replied to )

Absolute cr&p.  The shops are shut because there are no tourists!   Go speak to Thai (ex) tourist business owners and their families.  My partner is one of them! Make your comment to her if you dare!

6 minutes ago, rumak said:

5% to 10% of the overall economy closing up does not a ghost town make.

Where did you get that figure from ?

Walking around and seeing , seems like its 50-90 % of businesses closed .

It may be less than that on the outskirts of the city , due to them being less reliant on tourists 

Tourist related businesses and shops yes.

Hang Dong road was chocker today and Tesco Lotus, BigC and Makro were heaving.

thy are not ghosts creeping around of a night just the old expat group finding there way home

8 minutes ago, rumak said:

But to infer that ALL of Chiangmai is like that is just another mad max statement to get attention.

5% to 10% of the overall economy closing up does not a ghost town make.

I think your figures above are out by a considerable margin.

Thailand's economy  Estimates of tourism receipts directly contributing to the Thai GDP of 12 trillion baht range from 9 percent  to 16 percent. When including the indirect effects of tourism, it is said to account for 20.2 percent of Thailand's GDP.

Those figures are for Thailand as a whole.  CM has/had a much higher reliance on tourism than those figures for the whole of Thailand would  reflect.

6 minutes ago, fangless said:

Absolute cr&p.  The shops are shut because there are no tourists!   Go speak to Thai (ex) tourist business owners and their families.  My partner is one of them! Make your comment to her if you dare!

Yes, that was my point , its the borders being closed that has caused the businesses to close, rather than lock-down measures (Which were lifted a few months ago)

49 minutes ago, bwpage3 said:

Nice post, the photos show a very clear picture.

Do you have any more photos/     LOL

 

Take a look at some high streets in UK.

6 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Tourist related businesses and shops yes.

Hang Dong road was chocker today and Tesco Lotus, BigC and Makro were heaving.

Remember this is an extended holiday weekend (ex Songkran) so lots of locals out and about.

Good clear pictures. Shows that anywhere dependent on tourist traffic is really suffering.

 

And yet by contrast , county towns off the beaten tourist track are about 95% back to normal. Our local

Big C is busy , car park full on weekends and downtown is bustling with life. Fewer and fewer people bothering with masks except in the chain stores like 7/11 and Tescos etc. 

 

Why bother having a holiday elsewhere when home is so open to business.

6 minutes ago, fangless said:

  When including the indirect effects of tourism, it is said to account for 20.2 percent of Thailand's GDP.

 

Before Covid hit, the combined direct and indirect effects of tourism were even higher than that, closer to 30%. It was about 20% back in 2014 when they had significantly fewer tourists (24m vs 39m last year).  

Pattaya also a ghost town, more noticeable the last week or two as the Thais evacuation has escalated

2 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

Where did you get that figure from ?

Walking around and seeing , seems like its 50-90 % of businesses closed .

It may be less than that on the outskirts of the city , due to them being less reliant on tourists 

as i tried to point out....living in and around CM for 20 years,  Chiangmai is a lot bigger than the "old city"  tourist areas.    The city and its surrounding suburbs has grown grown grown .  Massive development over the last 15 years or so.      

Take a few years to drive around and see how many businesses there are .   Then we can discuss ghost town Chiangmai