Koh Samui: Holiday island is in a "coma" on its last tourism legs

[Lancelot01]

18 hours ago, AlfHuy said:

Welcome to China.

By the sea. 

[Truth Will Set You Free]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

Right now only 150 of the 660 hotels are even open. Many have gone under and many are on their last legs.

That’s still a lot to be open and no tourist!  The Thais must be really out there spending money. Add in more holidays and just maybe and said maybe, the hotels will pull through. 

[ChakaKhan]

15 hours ago, herwin1234 said:

i bet your grandpa made similar "funny" remarks about black ppl. now its the Chinese (and the Thai of course) that is at the receiving end of latent racial jokes and stereotypes.

 

50% change i might (again) get temporarely banned from TV for  my reply while the fine gentleman who made such a quality joke about Chinese will get extra bonus points.

 

cheers.

I suggest you visit the 7-11 on Nimman rd when the quality tourists come back in.......truth needs no support

 

Sidenote can you talk to Thailand about stereotypes while youre at it.....signed a supposed "sex tourist"..tnx

[Tonypandy]

4 hours ago, Dexxter said:

 

The Chinese caused this disaster and now reap the rewards. Makes me sick.

The reason why Thailand remains closed is due to countries such as Europe and in particular the USA being unable to control the virus, yes it apparently started in China but they have controlled it there. 

[hotchilli]

22 hours ago, AlfHuy said:

Welcome to China.

While I don't agree with everything China/Ji is doing, at least it's in an upward trend, even expanding it's borders with a master plan... what's Prayut doing as a leader.. does he even have a plan?

[norfolkc]

44 minutes ago, Tonypandy said:

The reason why Thailand remains closed is due to countries such as Europe and in particular the USA being unable to control the virus, yes it apparently started in China but they have controlled it there. 

So they say ?????????? 

[phetphet]

22 hours ago, philthebook said:

Coco Tams which is one of the most expensive beach bars (250 baht + for a cocktail) was packed last weekend, they were turning people away at 18:30. 

 

 

I was there last night. Was packed then. In fact it's pretty busy most nights. 98% Thai tourists.

[norfolkc]

Samui has always being a rip off first went there in 92 was working at Khanom on the power plant had a long weekend so a group of us deceived to across to Samui of we go via Don Sak expensive weekend total rip off went to the infamous Reggae Pub i think that was the name out in the middle of a field i seem to remember the roads where like a building site went back about 10 years later flew offshore from there nothing seemed to have changed but i must say it was a better place to start a offshore trip than Sumburgh in the Shetlands 

[soalbundy]

22 hours ago, ChipButty said:

This was posted 1 day ago in Samui looks more like a Shanty town never mind ghost town

 

 

Towns in Thailand all look like shanty towns, I can never tell if they are pulling places down or rebuilding, there seems to be no town planning. In Europe each town has its own character, clean and interesting, here there is something of the wild west about it, everything seems temporary.

[phetphet]

14 hours ago, 0815 said:

Or the taxi drivers at Big Buddha pier who asked for a fair of 500b for 10 kilometers to a resort...

Got to pay for all those Fortunas they are all driving as taxis now.

 

There was a new bus service that started a couple of years back from the airport, to various stops around  the island. Haven't  seen the buses running for quite a while. Probably stopped because of lack of tourists as locals will use songthaews.

[Bradmeister]

Supply and Demand.... 

 

As posted in Samui, this scene is repeated in Tak, Pai, Chiang Rai, and Hua Hin......

 

No location is in demand, anywhere. 

 

Contrary to what the Chinese are printing.... I see them as well, with unpaid debt, and defaulted loans as well. Not to mention they're woes in the South China Sea. 

 

Time to purge the system and reboot. 

 

 

[hotchilli]

On 12/18/2020 at 7:52 AM, webfact said:

But the overriding thing that would help Samui is the return of foreign tourists.

Geographically it's fine for foreign tourists, for Thais it's just too far from the rest of the country, but one has to ask why locals in the south don't go there, maybe they're happy with their own location and don't need Samui.

As for airfares to cut travel times you have to ask what the government can do?

[FitnessHealthTravel]

23 hours ago, philthebook said:

Coco Tams which is one of the most expensive beach bars (250 baht + for a cocktail) was packed last weekend, they were turning people away at 18:30. 

 

 

 

True some of the Instagram popular restaurants and bars are doing well but overall Samui is not.  Honestly, if it wasn't for the local Expats and travelling Thai's on Government subsidies it would be a lot worse.  We have 8 of our 35 staff still on Samui, most have travelled back to their home towns as they can afford to live more affordably on welfare but this too will run out.

 

My opinion and frustration falls on deaf ears. The collateral damage from border closures and shut downs outweighs Covid deaths a million times more.  The human race continues to dumb down, 2020 will be studied for centuries as the low point in human mental development...

[elgenon]

10 % on tourism!!! 5555

 

Alternative facts.

[NoshowJones]

17 hours ago, wealthychef said:

I hope they can get help from their government during the time of need.  If not, what is government for?  

We don't have a government, all we have is a bunch of tinpot soldiers playing at being politicians.

[hotchilli]

10 minutes ago, FitnessHealthTravel said:

My opinion and frustration falls on deaf ears. The collateral damage from border closures and shut downs outweighs Covid deaths a million times more.  The human race continues to dumb down, 2020 will be studied for centuries as the low point in human mental development...

To a point that's true, but the major issue with Samui is it's a holiday island with not much diversification available.

Many resorts in Thailand & worldwide are finding this out the hard way.

Closed borders are not the only culprit.

As for your take on "collateral damage" ie: deaths over profit, that's a purely personal one.

[johnarth]

what has happened to the money that all these greedy people have been making? what has happened to saving for a Rainey day? oh that right no Rainey day here, and yes people are right the Chinese are waiting in the back ground, you will get no complaint from the PM. over that just what he wants, what a sad case

[Traubert]

7 hours ago, Dexxter said:

 

The Chinese caused this disaster and now reap the rewards. Makes me sick.

If you prefer to think that way, enjoy your nausea.

 

And maybe read the news.

[spidermike007]

18 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

that's the whole world chum, but you would rather see the 3000 dead a day such as the US here in this country? lol - typical foreigner selfishness that has put the rest of the world in the toilet. BTW, I would bet any Thai, if polled, would rather not go through what is happening in California now, so I believe they are very relieved the leadership here is more interested in protecting their health than drumming up business. Thailand will survive and will come out stronger due to this but that cannot be said for many western nations..

 

I respectfully disagree. With proper testing on both ends, the risk is low. Hawaii is doing that right now, and the uptick in covid is minimal. Fear is the great equalizer. Easy for you to say how strong Thailand will be at the end of all of this. A year from now, what will the tourism industry look like? What about those three trillion baht annually? What about the trillions of dollars in tourism infrastructure? The 4% occupancy rates? The millions out of work? The only people talking like that, are the ones with a cushy pension, or investments, which provide a good living. For the millions who do not have that safety net? What that heck. Just let them go.

 

So far, the state’s system requiring visitors to get tested in advance—or face 14 days in a hotel room—has worked well, said Sumner La Croix, a research fellow with the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. Hawaii tightened its rules this week so visitors must have proof of a negative test result by the time they land in Hawaii. Those who don’t will need to quarantine for 14 days or the full length of their trip, whichever is shorter, even if a negative test result becomes available after their arrival.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hawaii-wants-to-lure-visitorsbut-keep-out-covid-19to-revive-its-economy-11606392000

[spidermike007]

18 hours ago, evadgib said:

There's more to the island than Chaweng.

HTH

True. Bhoput, and Maenam do not seem to be as hard hit. But, Chaweng and Lamai are devastated. And in general, the island is hurting big time. 

[spidermike007]

On 12/18/2020 at 9:26 AM, Phuketshrew said:

The expensive flight monopoly that Bangkok Airways has doesn't help. I just looked and the cheapest return flight BKK - USM is 4,460 baht. Add to that the still relatively expensive hotels and it is little wonder that holidaymakers are going elsewhere.

And that represents major discounting. Prior to covid it was 4,000 to 5,000 each way! They cannot fill the planes now, so a minor degree of humility and common sense has set in. The BA monopoly is a scourge on the land. 

[wealthychef]

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

We don't have a government, all we have is a bunch of tinpot soldiers playing at being politicians.

That's a familiar problem to me as an American.  I guess that is where the people have to learn to speak up in a way that their leaders respect.  The only way I know of in the USA is to pressure them with removal from office and loss of power.  Short of that, politicians usually have no conscience or desire to help people.  Oh, and they lie a LOT.  All of them, even the ones you think are "good."    

[samuiwonder]

I doubt that, due to it’s Low Covid infection rate, that Thailand will

get any vaccine shipments for a long while.   So I doubt that recovery is anywhere near.  
Does anyone want to take the Chinese or Russian vaccines?

[BernieOnTour]

20 hours ago, Mung said:

You might not be far from the truth. 
 

Do you remember the initial videos that came out of China at the very start of the viral outbreak? They depicted people fainting in the streets, hospitals rammed to the brim, and the whole scene felt like a dystopian horror movie. Months later, these scenes have not really been repeated anywhere else, which leads to suggest that those videos may have been faked.

 

Secondly, do you also remember how when the virus first emerged? WHO said that planes did not need to be grounded as that would not prevent the spread of the virus. Of course this is nonessential, it would have stopped the viral spread as that much is obvious. This was said by WHO when the virus was only in China and then subsequently in Thailand. The head of WHO, Tedros, had an odd relationship with the Chinese leader. Sources stated such things as, 

"the two men met in the Chinese capital, the number of cases was rising, and revelations were emerging that officials in Hubei province and Wuhan -- the city where the virus was first detected -- had sought to downplay and control news about the virus, even threatening medical whistleblowers with arrest."

Let's also remember that Chinese doctor who 'died' from the virus.

 

Thirdly, we have yet to establish where the virus originated – it's still an unknown. We do know that Wuhan is the home of the only biological weapons manufacturing location of such a magnitude to create something such as an engineered virus. Also, how did the Chinese obtain the the genetic sequence of the virus as early as February the 25th?

"Scientists in China have sequenced the genome of the COVID-19 virus demonstrating that it is a completely new virus, albeit closely related to the coronavirus (CoV) responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Their findings are published in the journal Chinese Medical Journal."

 

Fourthly, China has upped their spending power during the economical downturn on foreign assets, as a means to grab them at devalued prices.

"Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the global economies and businesses, Chinese companies have upped the ante to acquire or invest in distressed foreign assets in strategic locations. Against this backdrop, governments across several nations are now concerned about this move by China, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. Several media reports also suggest that there has been a growth in Chinese companies seeking proposals for targets from banks. During January to April 2020, 57 Chinese outbound M&A deals worth US$9.9bn and 145 Chinese outbound investments worth US$4.5bn were announced. The key M&A target destinations for Chinese firms included Hong Kong, the US, the UK, Germany, France, Canada and India. The key investment destinations during the period included the US, India, the UK, Hong Kong, Japan, France, Germany, South Korea and Australia."

 

Now the question must be asked, was all of this a plan from the start?

 

China is only part of the game...

If an organization, whose members are the 1000 biggest companies with an average annual turn over of 5 billion dollars,

is openly communicating about the “Great Reset”,

everybody should wake up !

 

 

 

 

Here some of their publications:

https://www.weforum.org/focus/the-great-reset

 

 

 

 

 

[josephbloggs]

20 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

soory, but i never liked this island

Great.  Thanks for dropping into the Koh Samui forum to find a Koh Samui thread to say how much you don't like Koh Samui.

 

Cheers.

[Dialemco]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

And that represents major discounting. Prior to covid it was 4,000 to 5,000 each way! They cannot fill the planes now, so a minor degree of humility and common sense has set in. The BA monopoly is a scourge on the land. 

Don't forget BA built the Airport in Koh Samui. They are providing a good reliable service without profit. The coming problem with Koh Samui is the pollution caused by to many cars and to many tourists now is the time to restructure and tax the fat cats who have the lions share of money generated by tourism they have big houses and host hugh wedding parties 

[metisdead]

A post with a link to an unknown source has been removed. 

 

Some troll posts and replies have been removed.

[Jeffr2]

35 minutes ago, Dialemco said:

Don't forget BA built the Airport in Koh Samui. They are providing a good reliable service without profit. The coming problem with Koh Samui is the pollution caused by to many cars and to many tourists now is the time to restructure and tax the fat cats who have the lions share of money generated by tourism they have big houses and host hugh wedding parties 

Getting to Samui is a big deal.  The monopoly Bangkok Air has makes the tickets ridiculously expensive, compared to other destinations.

 

Traffic is insane there and they drive like insane people.  I'd hate to think how many accidents I've seen there.  This is the #1 reason I no longer go back.  Traffic.

[Magenta408]

Greed is still rampant from quarantine to the costs of local flights, cost of hotels which are still open and all the other costs in the fine print. Until this government realizes it has to be a logical in their management. I'm not paying $3,000 to quarantine when there is NO need for this.

[evadgib]

13 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

Getting to Samui is a big deal.  The monopoly Bangkok Air has makes the tickets ridiculously expensive, compared to other destinations.

 

Traffic is insane there and they drive like insane people.  I'd hate to think how many accidents I've seen there.  This is the #1 reason I no longer go back.  Traffic.

Traffic is fine of late due to the lack tourists wobbling about on chicken-chasers, furthermore Tesco can still be reached in >15 mins whereas usually at this time of year it takes more than an hour.

Edited December 19, 2020 by evadgib