Financial experts say ONLY 8 million foreign tourists likely to visit Thailand next year

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Thailand's financial experts have said that only eight million foreign tourists from all over the world are likely to visit Thailand next year.

 

This compared sharply to the Tourism Authority of Thailand predictions of more than 11 million from China and East Asia alone.

 

Once again you pay your money and take your choice as to whose figures you want to believe regarding tourism in Thailand, notes Thaivisa.

 

Wuthipong Jittangsakun, an advisor to the Fiscal Policy Office, said tourism would not recover in 2021. 

 

He predicted 8 million visitors, up from the 6.7 million this year who were nearly all pr-pandemic visitors in January and February.

 

Next year's tourism spending will be 400 billion baht - well down on the 1.93 trillion of 2019.

 

Continuing travel restrictions would play their part with an early vaccine the only hope for better figures, was the overriding message. 

 

The government's initial opening to tourism - through the STV scheme - was seen as having little effect on anything. 

 

The wider picture of the virus continuing to take hold in Thai tourism markets like Russia, India, Malaysia and the US was more relevant to the bigger picture, suggested Wuthipong. 

 

However, there was some good news in the Daily News report. Another official at the FPO said that the pandemic's effect on the reduction in Thai Gross Domestic Product was now thought to be less than feared at -7.7%. 

 

Source: Daily News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-10-30

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

So the financial experts say only 8 million tourists next year, hang on a minute T.A.T. says there will be 11 million Chinese tourists, so who is correct?

Clearly they never got their heads together before making their respective announcements.

It is all just guessing numbers . Nobody knows , since maybe beofre the end of this year , the 1st vaccine might be there . It will take long time to get it distributed , and given to enough people , but if everything goes good , might be that the quarantine can go away , the rules can be set a whole lot lower , and possible to get more people in . If this takes another year , and rules stay the same , 8 million is just dreaming .

So it is just not known by any means ...

8 million IF they scrap all those draconian rules inkl insurance and quaranten. Even then, 8 million is very optimistic. 

Tricky one...who to believe?.....TAT or financial experts.....I know who my money would be on.

That's getting back to when Thailand was a joy to visit. Wish I could be one of the 8 million. It would be fantastic and I might get treated well, for a change.

People look on it as a bad thing, but I think it's an opportunity to turn LOS around and make it a destination worth visiting, which it wasn't, IMO, before corona.

Had I visited in 2019 for the first time it'd probably be the only time.

Whether it is 8 or 11 million is largely irrelevant, the important part is million.

This can only mean that travel restrictions and quarantine will be lifted.

Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel after all.

1 minute ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel after all.

..or a train coming the other way...(traveling at high speed from China)

8 mil. strikes me as being a lot and TAT's 11 mil. is just wishful thinking. 

44 minutes ago, webfact said:

Once again you pay your money and take your choice as to whose figures you want to believe regarding tourism in Thailand, notes Thaivisa.

It is a little like Gambling, but at the same time it is only wishful speculation, and they need a better Crystal ball to peer into if Covid is here to stay for 2 years as a few Government officials have said.

8 mill ... 11 mill ....  yah shucks !  who really knows  .....  just hurry up a throw that dice will ya  !!

 

19 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Tricky one...who to believe?.....TAT or financial experts.....I know who my money would be on.

Both of them far too optimistic.

If this country allowed me to bet, I'd bet on no vaccine, borders still effectively closed, and less than 1M.

19 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That's getting back to when Thailand was a joy to visit. Wish I could be one of the 8 million. It would be fantastic and I might get treated well, for a change.

Yes, you would think so, unfortunately some of my domestic travel experiences during 2020, although mostly positive, appears to indicate otherwise.

It’s going to take a bit more of a mindset adjustment to reset years of a well developed price gouging culture. 

Just now, BritManToo said:

Both of them far too optimistic.

If this country allowed me to bet, I'd be betting on less than 1M.

At the moment (July/August/September) 1,500 people/day entered Thailand, foreigners only and that is with land borders closed and draconian travel restrictions. 

Just lifting the restriction a little and we will easily see 2-3 million visitors. 

1 minute ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

At the moment (July/August/September) 1,500 people/day entered Thailand, foreigners only and that is with land borders closed and draconian travel restrictions. 

I don't think Burmese truck drivers really count, this thread is clearly about foreign tourists.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Financial experts say ONLY 8 million foreign tourists likely to visit Thailand next year

So financial experts have suddenly become tourism experts.

I think they all need to agree on the correct angle at which to view the crystal ball

 

 

1 minute ago, grumbleweed said:

So financial experts have suddenly become tourism experts.

I think they all need to agree on the correct angle at which to view the crystal ball

 

 

I would suspect they are more knowledgeable than TAT when it comes to tourism......but then again almost everyone is.

Nobody knows what the numbers will be until the boarders open and we see who are travelling or even which countries are allowed with or without a vaccine 

I'm taking bets here guys, 10 to 1 odds ( joking yes) that 8 millions WILL NOT come to Thailand this is year.. that's mean 133,000 tourist a day starting tomorrow..

who's in?...

2 minutes ago, ezzra said:

I'm taking bets here guys, 10 to 1 odds ( joking yes) that 8 millions WILL NOT come to Thailand this is year.. that's mean 133,000 tourist a day starting tomorrow..

who's in?...

Half of the Thai males in the country if it means they can have a bet.

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

So the financial experts say only 8 million tourists next year, hang on a minute T.A.T. says there will be 11 million Chinese tourists, so who is correct?

Clearly they never got their heads together before making their respective announcements.

They are no tourists. They come as brothers and sisters and soon are just coming home, once Thailand becomes another province.

Here they come.

 

658 high speed trains (per hour, fully packed) from Beijing to BKK, none stop.

No visa needed.

Come home brothers and sisters. We need you.

In month one, we expect 12,4 trillion Chinese friends to visit us.

After a year, we should have counted 128 Zillion, trillion, billion visitors.????

 

I can't see the flag waving person, sitting on top of the trains. 

1 hour ago, RotBenz8888 said:

8 million IF they scrap all those draconian rules inkl insurance and quaranten. Even then, 8 million is very optimistic. 

That seems to have worked out quite well for Europe...

38 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

I would suspect they are more knowledgeable than TAT when it comes to tourism......but then again almost everyone is.

I would suspect they all come from rich families, all got appointed as favours, and all cheated and copied at school/university.

Same as all the other Thais in TAT/Government/Business/et al.

 

Thailand is a nation run by people who never had to work or think for themselves.

I doubt there's 1 'bigwig' in Thailand who got their job through personal merit.

20 minutes ago, ezzra said:

I'm taking bets here guys, 10 to 1 odds ( joking yes) that 8 millions WILL NOT come to Thailand this is year.. that's mean 133,000 tourist a day starting tomorrow..

who's in?...

NEXT year.......

January:  0

February:  0

March:  0

April:  vaccine, 0

May:  only 10,000.....emergency meeting!!!!!

June:   Free VISA and coupon to Pattaya!!!!!!   2 for 1. 

July:  100 million

 

yea, sure, you come here for the elephants and picking strawberries while learning Thai on a remote island never visited by a farang.  NOT    

1 hour ago, Surelynot said:

Tricky one...who to believe?.....TAT or financial experts.....I know who my money would be on.

You might as well believe me

Neither set of forecasters stated what their figures were based on. That is, when they expected a relaxation of entry requirements and what this relaxation would entail. 

52 minutes ago, grumbleweed said:

So financial experts have suddenly become tourism experts.

I think they all need to agree on the correct angle at which to view the crystal ball

 

 

They get paid for this garbage

7.7% of GDP. Seriously <deleted> is this guy on.

 

The % quoted does not even account for 50% of what tourists spend as this figure they conjure is not based on all the spend of a tourist. If they did factor it correctly it's 30%.