TAT turning to the "super wealthy" to boost domestic tourism

[ChipButty]

The trouble is the wealthy Thai's have had a taste of what it's like around the world staying in 5 star luxury hotels and how much cheaper things are as Thai's like to go shopping for luxury goods a few Thai's I know like to go to Korea buying cosmetics some friends like to go skiing in Japan another family I know went to Majorca for a month 

[Laughing Gravy]

Thank you TAT for your daily/weekly annual non stop laughing announcements. You should start a show that would rival 'Cha Cha Cha'.

[donnacha]

45 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Thailand's flipflopping with immigration rules and difficulty in getting permanent residency will let the competitors gain an edge. Plenty of small hungry countries will offer better deals.

I certainly hope to see energetic competition, but Thailand has some advantages that would require major rewiring of most countries' tax codes.

As a country run almost entirely with the interests of the rich in mind, Thailand is unusual in not requiring you to pay tax on money you bring into the country. You definitely cannot do that legally in Vietnam.

I used to laugh at the idea of the Elite Visa until someone smarter than I pointed out how insignificant the cost of it was compared to the tax savings someone with even a modest online business could make. To be fair to them, they have kept the Elite Visa terms fairly consistent and hassle free, pre-Covid at least.

Despite becoming far more expensive in recent years, Thailand remains a pretty good place to live if you have plenty of money. It is relatively safe and the success of the government's approach to Covid (as little testing as they could get away with) may now allow them to spin it as more hygienic than the West too.

A fairly lively new expat scene could emerge, along the lines of Dubai, if the Thais pivot more explicitly towards being a tax haven. I believe this is what Mohammed bin Salman had in mind for Neom, guessing that the EU would keep drifting towards higher taxes and essentially creating a new country from scratch to capture those most affected but with the ability to live outside Europe.

I suspect that someone in the Thai bureaucracy, ruminating on the nature of the money that had been flooding in from China, has been bright enough to see that Covid will massively accelerate the high tax trend in the West, and therein lies the ticket for Thailand to escape its own post-Covid dilemmas.

Off the top of my head, I would guess that over the next few months we see a lot of kites being flown. For example, there may be talk of casinos, but only for the "superrich", not regular Thais. You will keep hearing that term, again and again, but the actual target market will be fairly regular western employees who can work remotely and small online business owners.

If you can afford a Thai Elite visa and have a million to dump into Thai property, you can help them prevent the collapse of the Thai banks because their books have been propped up for years by ridiculous amounts of reclaimed property at ludicrously high valuations.

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by donnacha

[Laughing Gravy]

49 minutes ago, donnacha said:

A million dollars isn't so much for most people working online

Really. What planet are you living on.

[ronaldo0]

And if these people go on holiday they will be going to places where they know the owners or managers and saying how they will boost and promote the hotel in return for a free stay !

Edited September 24, 2020 by ronaldo0

[DrTuner]

18 minutes ago, donnacha said:

A fairly lively new expat scene could emerge, along the lines of Dubai, if the Thais pivot more explicitly towards being a tax haven. I believe this is what Mohammed bin Salman had in mind for Neom, guessing that the EU would keep drifting towards higher taxes and essentially creating a new country from scratch to capture those most affected but with the ability to live outside Europe.

Dubai thrives on free zones, zero tax and 100% foreign company ownership, permanent residency possible (citizenship is not, but that's not a big deal). If Thailand does similar free zones, it would almost certainly be a hit. But I doubt it, xenophobia and jealousy will raise their ugly heads.

Edited September 24, 2020 by DrTuner

[DrTuner]

19 minutes ago, Laughing Gravy said:

Really. What planet are you living on.

1M$ is not that much these days. IT specialists can easily break into 200k+ yearly income, after living fairly modestly for five years should have enough savings. 25 large ones is what is considered "entry rich".

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-23/bankers-don-t-think-you-re-rich-unless-you-have-25-million

[donnacha]

24 minutes ago, Laughing Gravy said:

Really. What planet are you living on.

I mean skilled people working professionally or running their own business. The sort of people earning enough that it makes sense to avoid taxes in Europe. Obviously, I'm not talking about online English teachers.

Even working for someone else, an experienced programmer, designer, or writer should be clearing a minimum of around $100 per hour and, unless you're just blowing your money on nonsense, you build up your nest egg over a few years. Most people have a house or apartment.

Working for yourself, you obviously earn a lot more, or you may as well just work for someone else. It has been relatively easy over the past decade for anyone focused to find a niche that pays a lot more than you could earn in a job, although people often have to try a few different things before they find one that works well. That's part of the point about being experienced. Making money gets easier over time.

I genuinely don't understand why more people don't give running their own business a shot, the Internet has made it so much easier. I think it might be a "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" problem. There seems to be hostility towards the idea that some ordinary guy in a hoody in a Chiang Mai Starbucks might have accumulated a thousand Bitcoin, but it happens a lot more than you might realize.

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by donnacha

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

TAT governor Yuthasak Suphasorn said he was doing everything in his power to make the target of 80 million domestic tourist trips this calendar year a reality. 

It just keeps coming.

[donnacha]

10 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

If Thailand does similar free zones, it would almost certainly be a hit. But I doubt it, xenophobia and jealousy will raise their ugly heads.

My sense is that it will be more a case of, in truly Thai fashion, not officially doing much but knowing exactly what they are allowing to happen.

It helps that now, more than ever, the government needs a hail Mary pass. While they have always downplayed their reliance on foreign tourism, they have to know that it is unprecedented for an entire major industry to disappear like this, and they have to sense that the indirect impact is going to be felt in every business and home.

They must also realize, by now, that it isn't going to simply come flowing back if and when an effective vaccine emerges. Any rational person knows that they won't be seeing 2019 levels again at any point during this decade.

So, they are in a knife fight for survival, and they have no choice but to take advantage of the waves that Covid will inevitably cause in other countries.

To somewhat manage the xenophobia, they will just keep saying superrich, superrich, superrich.

 

[connda]

They could pay out of work Thais a few baht to line the streets and throw flower pedals at the feet of these very wealthy people.  <gag>

[madmitch]

I'd like to know what they count as a domestic tourist. Hudging by the numbers quoted, I doubt it relates to someone who stays at a hotel or takes a flight. Possibly overloaded pickups taking the family home during long weekends? A day trip to Bang Saen? Only TAT know the answer.

[rumak]

Breaking News :   TAT has contacted Rumak ,  and I am working on some ideas for a promotional poster:

It will try to appeal to the good hearted people that have experienced Amazing Thailand all these years.

 

 

[talahtnut]

A bunch of rich Thais staying in hotels owned by another bunch of rich Thais

equals net gain of zero for the economy, ordinary Thais will become poorer so

that they have to sell their businesses to bunches of rich Thais.

Its a massive cheap property grab. Same old story..rich get richer, poor get poorer.

 

[BigStar]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

It just keeps coming.

We just havin' SUCH a hard time with that 80 million. 'Course, we always sneered at that 30 million international tourists UNTIL TAT started trying to stimulate domestic tourism. Suddenly that 30 million is the gospel truth: "It'll never get back to 30 million again!" "Domestic tourist won't make up for that 30 million!" Gotta love this forum.

 

Yet the Kasikorn Research Centre (not TAT) said in 2017 regarding domestic tourism:

 

It also forecasts that Thai travellers will make 158.2 to 159.7 million trips, this year, up 6.2% to 7.2% compared with the growth rate of 7.3% last year.

 

Last year, domestic tourism circulated THB869 billion and generated 149.0 million trips.

 

Wot? That 80 million is only half of the 2017 figure! Could it be that TAT has already considered the new economic reality for many Thais w/o TVF Posters explaining it all with phony hand-wringing.

 

TAT: TVF has always refused to recognize any domestic tourism in Thailand, though knowing quite well its impact in their own countries. So actually nobody here knows anything about it, insisting only the farang Golden Egg Layers, those pillars of the entire economy of Thailand, can have any money and so be tourists.

 

Hence, we gon' stay in denial that TAT meant Thai super wealthy and pretend they meant the international, and enjoy sneering at that idea and repeat our complaints against Immigration, though the headline plainly states: "super wealthy" to boost domestic tourism. And they do recognize that's a challenge, hence they're discussing some kind of program. You know, say, a discount on Rolexes.????

 

And TVF Economics has always held that the Thai rich (or any other) don't spend on luxury goods in Thailand. That argument was immediately, and so wisely, brought up to pronounce doom on Siam Paragon before it ever opened and recurs periodically.????

[BigStar]

9 minutes ago, talahtnut said:

A bunch of rich Thais staying in hotels owned by another bunch of rich Thais

equals net gain of zero for the economy, ordinary Thais will become poorer so

that they have to sell their businesses to bunches of rich Thais.

Its a massive cheap property grab. Same old story..rich get richer, poor get poorer.

 

It's always funny how we recognize the economic importance of domestic tourism for creating businesses, jobs, and wealth via work that wouldn't otherwise happen in our own countries--where would Blackpool be without it--but absolutely and ignorantly refuse to do so in Thailand.

[Blumpie]

Exactly one year from now, we may have a vaccine which is widely available.  Which nations will have it? It depends what is approved.  

And for tourism you need people all around the world to have said vaccine, and the funds to travel.  After this world wide shock, how many will have money to travel?  I'm not so sure there will be too many.  

My point being this ultra rich travel is needed for a long long time.  Next year could very well look remarkably like this one.  

[djayz]

Yes, because the wealthy here really want to rub elbows with the local peasants. How delightful! 

[Puchaiyank]

I feel certain that the "super rich" are excited to hear TAT is looking for them to rescue Thai tourism...????

[MRToMRT]

Why don't they just tax the super wealthy more ?

[OumarhindaOunsingha]

47 minutes ago, Blumpie said:

Exactly one year from now, we may have a vaccine which is widely available.  Which nations will have it? It depends what is approved.  

And for tourism you need people all around the world to have said vaccine, and the funds to travel.  After this world wide shock, how many will have money to travel?  I'm not so sure there will be too many.  

My point being this ultra rich travel is needed for a long long time.  Next year could very well look remarkably like this one.  

No guarantee that an effective vaccine ever can be developed. Covid19 is 80% identical with SARS, and to this date no one has been able to develop an effective vaccine for SARS. Also, we see a number of cases, where the covid19 antibodies have only lasted a few months, so if ever an effective vaccine could be developed, it is vert likely that we would have to be vaccinated every 2 or 3 months. An impossible scenario, of course. Also, research shows that if you filter out studies that are supported by the pharmaceutical industry, the influenza vaccine shows to be fairly ineffective, and in any case, you don't find a doctor that would claim that the influenza-vaccination's antibodies would last more than a year. Those who got SARS, however, actually had antibodies in their bodies up to two years after the infection. But all in all, it looks like this vaccination program will have more than a hard time working out well. 

[garyk]

The middle class is where the money is, not the rich. 

 

 

[alianware]

Stupid and naiv.

The super wealthy doesn't fly to country for months like Thailand. They fly to Dubai, Las vegas, spain, maldive, hawai, etc.

[FlyingThai]

9 hours ago, Flying Saucage said:

Yeah, and let this be generously subsidized by tax payers money! 

To be fair all those currently profiting from this subsidy promotion are likely the only ones who pay taxes anyway. Those who barely earn anything don't pay tax.

[Albert Zweistein]

8 hours ago, BigStar said:

Blinded by the usual bigotry, I suppose, imagining there are no super wealthy Thais, relatively speaking. We SO hate admitting that. It doesn't matter in the slightest what it implies to you but only what it means in fact to TAT.

 

Got that right anyway. LOCAL. Yes, they are talking about TWO DIFFERENT GROUPS, but not COMPLETELY DIFFERENT as both groups are also LOCAL. The LOCAL--shock!--includes the local super wealthy. That was clear from the headline: "to boost local tourism."

 

The comedy on the forum just never ends, eh.

So does the comedy in LOL.

[bodga]

"super stupid turn to the super wealthy"

[Albert Zweistein]

7 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Taxes are one part of it. Another part is the ability to trust you can stay in the country. Thailand's flipflopping with immigration rules and difficulty in getting permanent residency will let the competitors gain an edge. Plenty of small hungry countries will offer better deals.

Only invest in Thailand what you can afford to loose, changing rules all the time, corruption and the need for a Thai partner owning 51 % of your busineness without investing a single baht doesn't make Thailand an investing paradise. So be wise, think twice !

[donnacha]

5 hours ago, MRToMRT said:

Why don't they just tax the super wealthy more ?

You may be misunderstanding who the owners of this country are.

 

[meechai]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

TAT turning to the "super wealthy" to boost domestic tourism

These poor ignorant fools have not the slightest idea that to even say/print that

they are looking for "super wealthy" tourists is in poor taste.

 

Instead they would do well to learn what being a good host means!

 

First welcome visitors of all race/economic class with open arms.

After all...If they can afford to fly to a country they can afford to visit it no?

 

Next provide them as good hosts should with a clean/safe/interesting visit for a fair price.

You will then be rewarded with income from such visitors.

You will then be rewarded with returning tourists.

You will then be rewarded with an improved economy

 

But start at the beginning & realize who is the host & who are the customers!!

 

Lastly realize you do not get to dictate who the customers are

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by meechai

[uncle_tom]

Just confirms what I surmised yesterday..

 

The 1200/month plan is not for people on commercial charter flights - it's for the super wealthy who have their own private jets..