Fear and confusion in Thailand’s tourism industry as near-bankrupt hotels decline foreign tourists

[pkrv]

Just now, bobbin said:

Have you been taking lessons in Deflection?

 

Prejudice? 555

 

Science. Facts.

Exactly. Science. Facts. Look at the death rate. Glad you agree. Covid not a death plague.

[johng]

9 minutes ago, bobbin said:

Not true, BritManToo.. .065%? where do you get that figure? 30 million+ cases worldwide. 1 million deaths. 3+%?. USA 5million+ cases. Approx. 200,000 deaths. 4%? Canada 90,000 cases. 9,000 deaths. 10%?

Short of testing everyone on earth  7.7 billion people  there is no way of knowing for sure how many have had the Wuflu and not even noticed (or had mild symptoms) ..perhaps everyone dying from now however the death happened should be tested for the virus and they can be included in the WuFlu death toll too ?

[Henryford]

They are never going to accept tourists from Europe or the USA with thousands of covid cases a day. Covid is just not going to "disappear".

[spidermike007]

The current plan on Samui and Phuket, is to release prisoners from their rooms after 7 days. Then seven more days within the resort confines. Then a release into the island population with a zombie wristband. All at a very high premium over the ordinary prices of hotels, which are quite low now. Appealing? Not for most. Only makes sense if you are planning on coming here for many months. What percentage of the general tourism population does that represent? Nonsensical stupidity. Rules based on a lack of science. Fear mongering. Let us make your stay as uncomfortable as possible. And by the way, you cannot consume alcohol either, during your quarantine. Who comes up with this stuff, and why does the nation tolerate the nonsense, the utter incompetence, the malfeasance? How much longer will they tolerate the extremely regressive army? The toxic army is despised like never before. They have over extended their welcome. They need to go, and the sooner, the better. They know that. We know that. 

 

What can one say? Desperation is setting in. Heads are going to roll. Just returned from Samui. Utter devastation. 90% of the businesses on the beach road were closed, and hundreds of hotels are closed and for sale, at half price. Trillions of baht are going to be lost here. Annually. Tourism will NEVER recover. Not in our lifetimes. Too much timidity. Too much cowardice. Too little juice and creativity. Such small minds. 
 
And now, the few remaining tourists here are being asked to leave? They should be given free visas, and 10,000 baht vouchers to stay! Commendation letters too. And for incoming tourists, free quarantine. All expenses, including meals, picked up by the army, using their multi trillion baht slush fund. 

 

My guess is that about 90% of the population supports the youth, this time around. Go Prayuth go. You are no longer needed, wanted, or even remotely productive. 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by spidermike007

[Bluetongue]

Think it more likely that the other Krabi hotels dont want to open up with all the corresponding expenses just for a very low occupancy rate. Just interesting following the seething debate on lockdowns. Lockdowns obviously work, I'm certainly not denying that. They are however extremely blunt, untargeted and costly tools. No one here that is backing lockdown is mentioning the most successful country in the world containing Covid, Taiwan, where no lockdown was necessary. And yes, there are unique factors of course. But most countries which had no choice locking down the first time to avoid crashing the health system should have used their initiative and followed Taiwan and others of that ilk, from then on. Instead in Australia at least and elsewhere I suspect, the well paid public health people normally content to do f***all went back to that, resting on their laurels. Now here we are again.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Bluetongue

[JusticeGB]

New day new rules for tourists. How can any tourist even make a plan to come? The latest idea being floated is that potential tourists isolate themselves at home before they fly to Thailand. So if this stupid idea flies there will be an effective 4 week quarantine period if you want to visit Thailand. 

[pkrv]

Covid-19 is not going away, just like flu, dengue, or any other similar malady. The world needs to adapt to a world with Covid. The vaccine - should it arrive - will of course help but it will not be a magic wand to solve all problems. Meanwhile economic ruin is being wrought though ignorance and foolishness, through deception and intention, etc.

Suffice to say Thailand is obviously at liberty to introduce any restrictions it likes - it's for the Thai people to decide if they are happy with their government's responses, that could leave many destitute based on the current situation. Similarly visitors are free to decide if they want to spend their time and money coming to Thailand with the restrictions and requirements in place. Which way the balance between these will tip, we'll have to wait and see.

It doesn't help that the government here seems - from a foreigner's perspective - to be a ship of fools.

Edited September 22, 2020 by pkrv

[DLock]

This is all crazy talk. We need to open Thailand to tourists now and save the tourism industry...

 

...just like France did, to great success...

 

...Oh...wait...

 

[2 is 1]

TAT have make so many nice plans to get foreigner back here! They annouce every week new nice promo, then few days after they make poll (85% Thais don't want foreigner back)! They have Phuket "plan" but they don't have enough ASQ rooms for that!

They say foreigner need come here whit charter flight , BUT CHARTER FLIGHT CAN'T LAND IN COUNTRY!

Foreigner need use sht load of money to come here , still they only want give them "jail" time in nice ASQ hotel! And in other hand they kick out thousand's foreigner from here!

If there is even one brain cell in somebodys head (floating in urine) , they ask from some kid's 2-5 years old WHAT WE SHOULD DO!?

Edited September 22, 2020 by 2 is 1

[KhunKenAP]

So kicking out 150,000 currently on the visa extensions, should be very helpful while TAT and their crazy ideas think new richer tourists will save the industry.

[JeffersLos]

Meanwhile, they say that there are 150,000 foreign tourists here, being warned to extend by 30 days or be arrested and deported.

 

Why not make a new 9 month visa extension for them? 3 x 3 months for the purpose of tourism.

[BritManToo]

49 minutes ago, bobbin said:

Not true, BritManToo.. .065%? where do you get that figure? 30 million+ cases worldwide. 1 million deaths. 3+%?. USA 5million+ cases. Approx. 200,000 deaths. 4%? Canada 90,000 cases. 9,000 deaths. 10%?

 

Death is not the only negative outcome from infection.. Many follow-on impacts on health for those not dying.

 

Over-counts? Under-counts? The Law of Large Numbers tells the tale,

1 Million deaths, world population 8 billion.

If it's only managed to kill 1 million in 8 months, it isn't significant.

Any serious pandemic would have already killed 400 million or more.

(Spanish Flu got 5% of the world population, Black Death got 50% of the world population)

 

As for the 'serious impacts later' you've gotta be really stupid to believe that nonsense.

Edited September 22, 2020 by BritManToo

[4MyEgo]

3 hours ago, pkrv said:

Open the borders. Save what little of the tourism industry is possible, presuming you do in fact wish to keep it.

Second waves? Maybe, but the actual death rate is comparable or less than other viruses that humanity is exposed to, and in most cases readily accepts. A vaccine would of course help, but any proper vaccine must have clinical trials and be proven, which takes times.

Covid-19 is not a killer plague that is ravaging planet Earth and destroying the majority of humanity. Economic disaster - due to the (over)reaction - and its consequences will likely have a greater overall effect.

Agree with you 110%.

 

This country would go to war if it was invaded, countless lives would be lost from both those battling to stop the invader and those invading, but to lay down and watch the country turn to sh-t with hundrends of thousands if not millions of Thais lose everything is plain gutless.

 

Where are the leaders of nations who can think outside the norm and say oi, this thing isn't that bad, a vaccine will eventually be made, but until then hold the lines, open up the borders, open up businesses and deal with it as we always have because if they keep the borders closed any longer, it won't only be lives, it will be families destitute for many years to come.

 

Sweden survived, yes out of a population of just over 10 million people, how many died from Covid 5,865, that's 0.05865% do the math.

 

Wake up people, you have been had and if you don't see the bigger picture as to why this is happening, then I am not going to explain it and be called a conspiracy theorist.

Edited September 22, 2020 by 4MyEgo

[Mr Meeseeks]

2 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

This country would go to war if it was invaded, countless lives would be lost from both those battling to stop the invader and those invading,

Evidence from the last invasion suggests this is far from the case. 

[scotsdude]

And the Thai government inciting hatred against foreigners doesn't help.. As if we're all contaminated doesnt help... Ah well you reap what you sow... Good luck... 

 

[Lacessit]

The small hotels in the provinces who are asking 400 - 600 baht/night will survive on internal tourism by Thais quite comfortably. The ones asking 2000 - 3000 baht/night will struggle, or go under.

AFAIK most of the big hotels in Chiang Mai in that price range are empty.

[Misterwhisper]

Our neighborhood hotel, purpose-built to exclusively accommodate Chinese tour groups and being booked out every single night during "the good times", apparently has successfully managed to attract a different clientele in the meantime.

 

From Friday through Sunday every weekend the hotel's parking lot fills up with cars bearing Bangkok number plates, the drivers and their primarily female passengers flooding the lobby.

 

The neighbors suspect the hotel has transformed itself into a makeshift "love nest" where local testosterone-saturated gentlemen can "properly tend" to their "mia nois" and "kiks" undisturbed. 

[steven100]

And the wheels on the bus go round and round ....

The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. They are in a catch 22 situation as are most countries. Now take the UK as an example, absolute catastrophic number coming in now due to lack of evasive action early.  No one is coming to Thailand with quarantine and other restrictions in place ... period.  Until a safe vaccine is found & quarantine lifted you can forget about tourism.  imo

[PGSan]

6 minutes ago, Misterwhisper said:

From Friday through Sunday every weekend the hotel's parking lot fills up with cars bearing Bangkok number plates, the drivers and their primarily female passengers flooding the lobby.

I can corroborate this.  But there are also lots of “tour groups of Thais” here.  And another reason is that the weather here is excellent right now, whilst Bangkok remains very hot.

[MikeN]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Highly contagious pandemic = 80% of infected dead IMHO (not .065% dead).

This is a trivial illness that everyone will get, and hardly anyone would normally worry about.

Same as colds, flu, herpes, HPV ............... et al.

Anybody who mixes the contagion rate with the fatality rate should keep their opinions to themselves perhaps ? Especially when they compound their statistical ignorance by mixing the percentages of infected with the percentages of the total population....or was that a deliberate distortion ? Approx 24 million cases have been resolved one way or another, nearly one million dead and the rest are cured. That is far more than 0.065% fatality rate !

[BritManToo]

Just now, MikeN said:

Anybody who mixes the contagion rate with the fatality rate should keep their opinions to themselves perhaps ? Especially when they compound their statistical ignorance by mixing the percentages of infected with the percentages of the total population....or was that a deliberate distortion ? Approx 24 million cases have been resolved one way or another, nearly one million dead and the rest are cured. That is far more than 0.065% fatality rate !

Until you test everyone, how can you tell how many were infected?

If it hasn't infected nearly everyone in 8 months, how serious a disease can it be?

 

Another for my ignore list.

Edited September 22, 2020 by BritManToo

[bobbin]

29 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

1 Million deaths, world population 8 billion.

If it's only managed to kill 1 million in 8 months, it isn't significant.

Any serious pandemic would have already killed 400 million or more.

(Spanish Flu got 5% of the world population, Black Death got 50% of the world population)

 

As for the 'serious impacts later' you've gotta be really stupid to believe that nonsense.

I'm impressed (not) with your ability to confuse facts..

 

Why would you reach the conclusion that world population is relevant? It's the percentage of deaths from total infections that has any meaning.

 

Logic 101.

 

And you have irrefutable facts to back up your assertion that there are no on-going health impacts on survivors?

 

Got to have your ducks in a row before you label an assertion Stupid..

Edited September 22, 2020 by bobbin

[connda]

7 hours ago, torturedsole said:

A very sad state of affairs.

 

Hotels aren't satellite outposts operating autonomously. There's management and the mid to lower rungs, middle office, back office, front of house, cleaners, facilities and suppliers of a multitude of products and those reliant on the suppliers and it goes on.  

 

Six months of global lockdown is way past the point of no return.  

 

And then to top it off - reject foreigners, which I've got to assume means that they'll reject foreigners who are already in the country on long stay.  We'll have to make sure to check on that ahead of time when we travel this high season - well, not that they'll be any shortages of hotel, but perhaps a shortage of hotels not practicing racial discrimination.

"We're dying of hunger......but we refuse to eat THAT food." 

So be it.  Hotels will fold.  Some will eventually be bought for a discount. Others may never open again.  But, those who hold on to their xenophobic fear of 'dirty' foreigners are in all reality allowing their own racism to hammer in the last of the nails into their economic coffins.  I don't have a lot of sympathy for that class of business people. Given the economic conditions, smart businesses would be courting any customer willing to visit their establishments.  It's a buyers market kids.

[BritManToo]

1 minute ago, bobbin said:

Why would you reach the conclusion that world population is relevant? It's the percentage of deaths from total infections that has any meaning.

Why would I care about anything else?

Life is a gamble, I'm betting I'll be in the 99.935% of the world population that doesn't die from it.

 

STOP,

There's a new disease out guaranteed to kill 1 in every 10,000,000. Lock yourself in a room alone forever so you don't get it ..... No thanks, I'll take my chance of being in the 9,999,999 that don't die from it.

 

Back in the good old days, women would have been handing guys like you a white feather.

Edited September 22, 2020 by BritManToo

[FarFlungFalang]

3 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

currently 968,905 (dead) people beg to differ.

 

and thats with lockdowns, nobody knows just how huge that number could have been by now if we had left deniers like yourself in charge.

 

 

If they didn't test for it like Thailand the death rate would be negligible and heaps of people would have died of viral pneumonia.Simple really it's just a flu. 

[BritManToo]

Just now, FarFlungFalang said:

If they didn't test for it like Thailand the death rate would be negligible and heaps of people would have died of viral pneumonia.Simple really it's just a flu. 

3 out of 4 of my family had it in Thailand.

Nobody wanted to test us for some reason.

My misses was the worst, was sweating on the sofa for 10 days.

I was the longest, bit of a cough and a blocked ear for 2 months.

[Rancid]

Lock down is a delay, not a cure. Allow controlled infection with isolation of infected only, or stay closed for what may be years. Those are the options. Anything is just political talk.

 

For the lock downers, what happens if this becomes a yearly cycle like the flu? Planning to close the world 9 months of the year, as virus mutate they can't create a predictive vaccine. There is no choice but to work with it.

[PaoloR]

5 minutes ago, connda said:

And then to top it off - reject foreigners, which I've got to assume means that they'll reject foreigners who are already in the country on long stay.  We'll have to make sure to check on that ahead of time when we travel this high season - well, not that they'll be any shortages of hotel, but perhaps a shortage of hotels not practicing racial discrimination.

"We're dying of hunger......but we refuse to eat THAT food." 

So be it.  Hotels will fold.  Some will eventually be bought for a discount. Others may never open again.  But, those who hold on to their xenophobic fear of 'dirty' foreigners are in all reality allowing their own racism to hammer in the last of the nails into their economic coffins.  I don't have a lot of sympathy for that class of business people. Given the economic conditions, smart businesses would be courting any customer willing to visit their establishments.  It's a buyers market kids.

No way will we reject foreigners who are already here- I have some booked for this weekend. We will however not jump through the hoops and expensive regulations necessary to join the government scheme in the vague hope that we might pick up one or two of the very small number allowed in from outside Thailand - and then lose our regular business. Would you choose to stay in a hotel that was allowing people straight off an overseas flight to occupy the room next to you? Yes, hotels will fold, mine might too, but I'm not going to throw good money after bad to support a scheme that has little or no impact and no chance of succeeding. 

[nemo38]

4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

3 out of 4 of my family had it in Thailand.

Nobody wanted to test us for some reason.

My misses was the worst, was sweating on the sofa for 10 days.

I was the longest, bit of a cough and a blocked ear for 2 months.

Not worth destroying the economy for, is it?

 

If we never noticed Covid the world would be a much safer place with a bright future ahead of it.

 

People can't get their heads around the damage the lockdown has done because it hasn't yet been realised. The bad news is in the post.

 

The Thai government may not be in a rush to fix tourism because a lack of access for tourists is masking the deep problems Covid has created for the world economy, and how much that will reduce the standard of living.

 

A lot of governments are quietly getting ready for huge social upheavals.

[connda]

The more I think about this the more ludicrous it becomes.

The viability of Thai hotels in tourist areas depends on foreign tourism, therefore a number of these hotels are adopting a policy of active racial discrimination wherein they effectively close their doors to foreigners and the funds that foreigners bring with them.
We really do now live in Clown World.  <head shake>  You reap what you sow.