High-income tourists to return next year despite K-shaped recovery: TDRI

By THE NATION

 

Somkiat Tangkitvanich

 

Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), says the global economy is recovering in a K-shaped trend, meaning some countries are recovering fast while others spiral downwards despite the discovery of Covid-19 vaccines.

 

“TDRI estimates the global economy will contract by 4.4 per cent on average [this year], with China growing fastest thanks to its effective outbreak management and strong economic structure,” Somkiat told a seminar titled “Global and Thai economy after Covid-19”. And while Covid-19 was not the deadliest disease, it is the biggest threat to the global economy since the 2008 global depression, he added.

 

“A Covid-19 vaccine should be available by mid-2021, with pre-orders now surpassing 3 billion doses,” he said.

 

“The arrival of vaccines will enable Thailand and other countries to open for tourism. We calculate the first group of tourists to visit Thailand will be high-earners, as they will be among the first to obtain the vaccine commercially,” he added.

 

Although Thailand had successfully contained the outbreak, resulting in only 60 domestic deaths, the country still needed to improve in other aspects, Somkiat said.

 

“The World Economic Forum reported that Thailand is still suffering from wealth distribution issues where development is only occurring in the Central region and rarely in rural areas,” he said. “This has resulted in economic disparity and lack of progress in technology and innovation at regional levels.”

 

He prescribed three ways to improve the Thai government’s efficiency – eradicating corruption, reforming laws and regulations, and improving government services.

 

“Thailand has large tax revenues as well as natural resources to support national development. But corruption, legal obstacles and lack of efficiency in government services have hindered both short- and long-term development.”

 

He said Thailand should learn from Estonia, which has been leaping forward after the government applied digital technology to all its services, enabling citizens to complete any government-related transaction using only an ID card.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30398690

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-11-27

 

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2 minutes ago, webfact said:

He prescribed three ways to improve the Thai government’s efficiency – eradicating corruption, reforming laws and regulations, and improving government services.

Is this guy a part time comedian? 

2 minutes ago, webfact said:

“The World Economic Forum reported that Thailand is still suffering from wealth distribution issues where development is only occurring in the Central region and rarely in rural areas,” he said. “This has resulted in economic disparity and lack of progress in technology and innovation at regional levels.”

 

This has resulted in 1%  ( 5 families) owning about 70%  of Thailand's wealth !!

5 minutes ago, webfact said:

eradicating corruption,

9 minutes ago, webfact said:

We calculate the first group of tourists to visit Thailand will be high-earners, as they will be among the first to obtain the vaccine commercially

 

That little quip is certainly very telling of how Thailand see's the vaccine being distributed.

 

...but fortunately other countries are a bit smarter than old Somkiat, and the vaccine will go to healthcare workers and the vulnerable first...not the wealthy.

 

Calculation may be incorrect slapnuts.

 

Fail.

7 minutes ago, DLock said:

 

That little quip is certainly very telling of how Thailand see's the vaccine being distributed.

 

...but fortunately other countries are a bit smarter than old Somkiat, and the vaccine will go to healthcare workers and the vulnerable first...not the wealthy.

 

Calculation may be incorrect slapnuts.

 

Fail.

Wealthy people may - and probably will - be able to buy the vaccine and bypass the government mandated order of distribution. But not in droves, so it won't have much impact on who comes to Thailand first. 

 

The first planes will be full of old, sick people - and the morbidly obese... since they are all part of the vulnerable groups. If you follow the logic of Somkiat. 

 

 

11 minutes ago, DLock said:

 

That little quip is certainly very telling of how Thailand see's the vaccine being distributed.

 

...but fortunately other countries are a bit smarter than old Somkiat, and the vaccine will go to healthcare workers and the vulnerable first...not the wealthy.

 

Calculation may be incorrect slapnuts.

 

Fail.

Sorry to double-quote you like this, but I just got to thinking about how much you could charge for the vaccine. 

 

15-day quarantine costs THB 45,000+

You'd be willing to pay at least THB 2,000 per day NOT to sit in quarantine.

 

That's THB 75,000 in one hand and the vaccine in the other - how much would one be willing to pay to jump the queue? 

“The arrival of vaccines will enable Thailand and other countries to open for tourism. We calculate the first group of tourists to visit Thailand will be high-earners, as they will be among the first to obtain the vaccine commercially,” he added.

 

It will be free in the U.K. (and most other countries I imagine)...Yet more drivel ...from people who should know better!

 

These "experts" just spout of any old tosh that comes into their heads, plucking figures out of the air it seems.

 

Obsessed with "high income tourists" etc....when this is all over ...they should be grateful for ANY tourism..............of course they wont....This just goes on and on like a never ending circle...Another day? More drive,l more nonsense and more made up "figures! of how much tourists are going to plough into Thailand...............Yeah right!

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by welshguy
spelling

Is this the same muppet who said 10,000 tourists would arrive before the end of the year?

 

Latest figures showed a grand total of 681 arrivals this month - we're on course to perhaps hit 2000.

 

What is he smoking???

 

High income /spending tourists don't help the majority of Thais anyway - they don't frequent markets, massage parlours, dodgy bars or any of the places low income Thais work at.

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by 2530Ubon

1 hour ago, webfact said:

High-income tourists to return next year despite K-shaped recovery:

Cannot help but think 'K' shaped with two forward lines means that the richer will get richer and the poor poorer

3 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Cannot help but think 'K' shaped with two forward lines means that the richer will get richer and the poor poorer

That’s exactly what it means. 

complete tosh,china ha ha if you trust anything chinese govt say your a complete fool.even their own population dont!!!as for the rich coming here,dont judge anyone by your standards they dont apply once you leave here.many countries will give the vaccine free and to the most vulnerable except of course the special people from PRC where itll be greed and self importance first,like here.its available now a t 60 usd a go in cities around shanghai and more locations each day!so i guess the thais will have to make u show how much money you have and will spend before a visas given.dont get crushed in the rush

Very sad to see this country's obsession with only wanting tourists who are carrying briefcases full of money. This blatant greed will have more negative effect than positive ????

If the result is one of three likely courses, it is not a 'trend'. A trend identifies similar patterns, not random squiggles.

The socalled rich tourisys will surely rather go to the Caribian or may be Bali, but Thailand, as nice as it is, might be 1 or 2, but that s pŕobably it. Thousands...?? 

18 hours ago, DLock said:

 

That little quip is certainly very telling of how Thailand see's the vaccine being distributed.

 

...but fortunately other countries are a bit smarter than old Somkiat, and the vaccine will go to healthcare workers and the vulnerable first...not the wealthy.

 

Calculation may be incorrect slapnuts.

 

Fail.

Yes what a classic Thai response......it's hardwired into most of the population that money and power puts you at the front of the line for everything. Must be hard for them to understand that properly developed countries put some emphasis on humanitarian needs.

Follow Estonia "leaping forward after the government applied digital technology to all its services". Have they not heard of Singapore which leads the way and sets the GolD Standard globally in online Citizen to Gov't services and is actually in ASEAN?

18 hours ago, DLock said:

 

That little quip is certainly very telling of how Thailand see's the vaccine being distributed.

 

...but fortunately other countries are a bit smarter than old Somkiat, and the vaccine will go to healthcare workers and the vulnerable first...not the wealthy.

 

Calculation may be incorrect slapnuts.

 

Fail.

What's the bet all the ever so 'virtuous' hypocritical multi millionaire celebrities, tycoons and other elite, will all be getting top of the queue priority for vaccination over everyone else.  After all, they need to fly to important concerts, film studios, etc to meet the needs of their fans and tycoons need to hop in their private jets and zoom about.  They'll have some PR screed all ready to go to explain why they needed it and it will be 'virtuous'.  

"High income tourists" aka money launderers.

Well, I can only imagine that he is talking about China...'cause economies are not easing much elsewhere. For example, the USA is likely to suffer more lock-downs and just this morning I received an email from England saying that their business was due to be allowed opening on Dec.1. However, that has been superseded by another tier of lock-down which means they have to stay closed.  With a 3500 GBP monthly rent they don't think the business can survive much longer. I suspect that is one of many similar stories, and yesterday on another thread I mentioned Africa. So I really don't know where these Thai 'experts' get their 'economical recovery already happening' from. They certainly 'live on a different planet' to the rest of the world.

18 hours ago, webfact said:

High-income tourists to return next year despite K-shaped recovery: TDRI

The crystal ball is out again can you give me the winning lottery numbers for the 1st please sir .

19 hours ago, webfact said:

He prescribed three ways to improve the Thai government’s efficiency – eradicating corruption, reforming laws and regulations, and improving government services.

3 things that will never change.. unfortunately not even the opposition parties can provide that.

More waffle than a pancake shop

18 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Cannot help but think 'K' shaped with two forward lines means that the richer will get richer and the poor poorer

Exactly, the title should read "High-income tourists to return next year thanks to K-shaped recovery"

Good. So much better than the low income ferangs who live here ????

Obviously Somkiat Tangkitvanich lives in alternative universe from the rest of us or he has been smoking the bad stuff for so long it effected his ability to reason.

18 hours ago, welshguy said:

We calculate the first group of tourists to visit Thailand will be high-earners,

Only high-earning dog-lovers will want to come to Thailand in preference to countries that rid the streets of packs of disease-spreading, accident -causing, child-savaging, sleep-depriving vermin.

Did he know that the ‘digital technology’ is the biggest scammer in the world. The moment you register your personal details, they start to steal everything you got without your knowledge. These days, even registering some online applications are scary. This guy is just a joker.

Often the wealthy are also reasonably well educated or have access to insider knowledge. Even the CDC has stated that these vaccines seem to knock people around quite a lot, in fact they are for most far worse than the virus. Likewise it will take quite a while for the side effects, particularly on the immune system to become apparent. Then toss in the company studies are not peer reviewed, the best results published have been in the strongest younger age groups, the older group reactions haven't been released.

 

As such I would expect these high earners to avoid the vaccine like the plague, they will wait and see what happens in the longer term to the serfs before getting jabbed. These people love their money and being able to spend it, they wont take any chances with their health.

 

3 billion vaccines? Do the math on the profits to be made and then one can understand why there is such a massive media and government push for it.

"So I really don't know where these Thai 'experts' get their 'economical recovery already happening' from"

I know,.... it stays only in there minds.