TAT forced to face reality: more than a third of the Thai tourist industry has gone bust

[Soikhaonoiken]

14 hours ago, ezzra said:

Well. allow tourists to come in following a proper PCR test, and if some have got the vaccine go easy on them and not this draconian 14 days incarceration costing lot of money, show flexibility and willingness to accommodate the above mentioned and oh yeah, stop silly tax on non existing tourist and things will get better...

My thoughts exactly,???? ezzra. 

[Letseng]

Thailand would attract more tourists if the paperwork was not so involved. The business of applying for visa,  a CoE, then ASQ booking, organising insurance ++ is just too cumbersome. I do quarantine, get tested but I wish somebody would sell me a package deal with paperwork, insurance included. May be TAT should think about such a deal. 

[Letseng]

1 hour ago, GrandPapillon said:

interesting that Dubai is the new place to be during this current lockdown, everyone is going there to party, absolutely crazy

Yeah party. The next lockdown is imminent. You can get a 3 week luxury package deal, vaccination included for 34.000€.

[Miami007]

15 hours ago, redwood1 said:

When 7-11s, Burger Kings, and Starbucks are closing down all over the place, the situation is not just bad its desperate and getting worse all the time.....Only removing all restrictions for tourist 100% could turn things around....

According to Bloomberg, the Thai economy suffered a 6% decline in GDP - hard to believe that when tourism accounts for 18% of GDP and declined about 70% (Jan and Feb were fairly normal and domestic travel did happen to some degree). The rest of the economy must be in great shape

 

Would be interesting to see the real loss in economic output. I can't see retail, real estate selling condos to foreigners, construction doing well either.

[Miami007]

1 hour ago, 473geo said:

Well 12 pages of doom and gloom

 

Tell me guys when people have been shut down for over a year, when travel has been limited and difficult. Once the world opens up you think they will holiday in the home they have been confined?

 

People will be more than ready to travel, Thailand will be as popular as previous years, people will feel they have deserved a pleasant beach holiday, it will go on credit cards and be paid later

 

Sure it will take a little time but there will still be many arrivals covid permitting

 

The beauty of Thailand is the ease and cost of which a business can be set up and run, once the customers arrive, life goes on in Thailand, and from top to bottom it seldom moves as fast as when there is opportunity to make a baht 

People in source countries who couldn't work for 1 year won't travel right away. They need to recover losses.

Not many will travel too far initially as there is no confidence that borders will remain open. Will take probably 6 months or more to build that confidence 

Only Chinese will come, if China allows them to leave.

Many other destinations available.. 

[NorthernRyland]

I'm still hearing fear mongering from various people so I will post this reminder that hospitalizations in northern US states have been falling for over a month. Nothing to do with lockdowns or vaccines, the virus simply moved south.

 

[rebo]

16 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

I think the hope was based on hopelessness.

Hope is the little sister of stupidity ...

[Andycoops]

And it's only taken them a year to find this out. Amazing TAT.

[PatOngo]

4 hours ago, Albert Zweistein said:

Sorry, mushrooms thrive on horsesh1t.

You feed your mushrooms whatever you like, ok! The TAT ones are thriving!

[Fex Bluse]

16 hours ago, crobe said:

Latest local infections in Thailand today (Saturday 23rd) are 180 of which 163 were in Samut Sakhon, 9 in Bangkok and 5 in Samut Songkhram

That means only 3 in other provinces and I am guessing that Chonburi will be zero or one as it has been in the past 5 days.

The "red-zone" restrictions are not due to be reviewed until the end of the month, but with the inter-provincial travel ban in place is it not time to immediately open up local restaurants and shops for local people to use?  

It won't be much help but it may help a little

Depends on if one thinks the testing in Thailand is very accurate, reasonably accurate, very inaccurate or deliberately underreported. 

 

Thailand still has one of the least aggressive testing programmes in the world. 

 

Testing kits, especially from China, which is where most of the kits in Thailand come from, are horribly unreliable. See reports by Chinese whistle-blowers on same. 

 

Mass tourism will not be back for any of this year, anywhere on earth. No countries. 

 

It might not be back all of next year either as people rebuild their finances and governments open up. 

 

This is a multi year recovery. Not get jabbed with a vaccine and 10s of millions travelling to Thailand. This is 2-5 year recovery IF the vaccines are efficacious. 

[Shammy]

18 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot more will be going bust.

There is no immediate help coming from T.A.T. or the "government" to help the smaller businesses within the tourist industry.

Too busy buying submarines maybe they can use them to look for all of the businesses that have "gone under".

[soi3eddie]

14 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

As far as international tourism goes, it is anyone's guess when that will start to revive, and how many years it will take to even get back to 20% of the former levels. I am guessing no more than 5 to 8 million tourists annually, even four or five years from now.

 

What many business organisations (hotels, restaurants, shops and tour companies etc.) really need to know is an accurate count of real tourists coming to Thailand. Any people entering on non-immigrant, elite or business visas should not be counted as tourists. Only those on visa exempt, visa on arrival or tourist visas should be counted as tourists. But maybe this would not serve the government's numbers very well.

 

[rioD]

I believe the travel restrictions have killed at least 75% of Thailand's small to midsized tourist related businesses.  That one third figure is still rose colored BS.  They clue is simply reluctant to admit a huge mistake and how ridiculously foolish the STV plan was and is.

[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, YetAnother said:

so what was that optimistic outlook based on ? no facts, just baseless hope ?

Yes & yes.

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

i assume he'll be doing the decent thing and stepping down?

 

lol

And give up his esteemed status and salary.... not a hope in hell.

[Albert Zweistein]

32 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

You feed your mushrooms whatever you like, ok! The TAT ones are thriving!

Are they mushroom farmers ?

[PatOngo]

28 minutes ago, Albert Zweistein said:

Are they mushroom farmers ?

No! They are BS'ers! Get with the program! ????

[Benmart]

19 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

 

I think that applies to most countries politicians. The USA and UK come to mind.

I live in Thailand and focus on the article. The comparison is meaningless.

[rondeelove1]

Some people need to remember that this is a world wide problem, and not of Thailands making. All countries are suffering  from their economies being decimated and unfortunately a great loss of life. The reality is that some countries are a whole lot worse off than Thailand , the fact is that tourism has been the hardest hit indusry along with all the associated service sectors.

 

[KarenBravo]

3 hours ago, WHansen said:

Get a life. Just sayin' like....

 

Is that the best you've got? Let me guess; you live in a one bedroom "villa". 

Edited January 24, 2021 by KarenBravo

[Mad mick]

20 hours ago, rooster59 said:

TAT forced to face reality: more than a third of the Thai tourist industry has gone bust

 

Image: Reuters

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand are having to face reality after one of their own surveys showed them their rose tinted view was a complete sham.

 

Earlier in the week TAT governor Yutthasak Suphasorn - author of the failed STV scheme - claimed that 10 million foreign tourists would be arriving from midyear and, along with Thais, would be spending 1.2 TRILLION baht on the tourist industry this year.

 

This was greeted with incredulity in many areas.

 

Now the starry eyed governor has had to admit that little might be left of the tourist industry even if people worldwide start to travel again. A highly debatable question.

 

A TAT survey between January 10 and 12 asked 1,884 businesses how they were getting along. 

 

34.66% said they had already shut down and gone out of business.

 

Those that were left begged him to provide emergency assistance on utility bills and for staff wages.

 

Without this help they feared that they too would go under.

 

The TAT surveyed businesses in the areas of accommodation, travel firms, restaurants, vehicle rental companies and public transport businesses, reported Thai media.

 

The message came back loud and clear.

 

We've either gone bust or will do without immediate help.

 

A far cry from the governor's optimistic outlook just a few days before.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-01-23

 

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Not just Thailand Its everwhere in the world its a mess ! mass unemployment ,Covid deaths or related restrictions on travel bankruptcy Lets Congradulate Terrorist Organisation CCP happy new year 

[Suua]

17 minutes ago, Mad mick said:

Not just Thailand Its everwhere in the world its a mess ! mass unemployment ,Covid deaths or related restrictions on travel bankruptcy Lets Congradulate Terrorist Organisation CCP happy new year 

May they die an excruciating death....

Edited January 24, 2021 by Suua

[mberbae]

The Tourism industry is bust, the Economy is in tatters, and yet the

baht  suspiciously remains stronger than ever.

[soalbundy]

So even when the pandemic ceases there will be no infrastructure to welcome tourists? I doubt that, government loans will be given out to those who want to buy hotels on the banks books and bar owners will just restart with bank loans. The government has saved themselves a lot of money by not supporting zombie businesses, who knows how long this situation will last. Very clever we Chinese.

[HAPPYNUFF]

The comment  from SomchaiCNX  states  the obvious .The bad apples  will rise again and continue with their scams  and overpricing. Phuket, after the tsunami  is the classic example.  Just one giant tourist rip  off pre tsunami, and   even worse now.

I feel  for the  decent and honest people in the tourism industry, having to be  labelled  with the same brush as the scum,  not all of whom are Thai by the way.

[newnative]

5 hours ago, Miami007 said:

People in source countries who couldn't work for 1 year won't travel right away. They need to recover losses.

Not many will travel too far initially as there is no confidence that borders will remain open. Will take probably 6 months or more to build that confidence 

Only Chinese will come, if China allows them to leave.

Many other destinations available.. 

2019 visitors:  China: 10.9 million.  Other Asian countries: 15 million.

[bbbbooboo]

T.A.T + reality = Oxymoron ?

[sydneyjed]

Where are these tourists supposedly coming from?Half the world and main tourism arrivals are in lockdown at the moment and countries like Australia won't let their citizens out of the country even if they wanted to come..another year they are saying!

[Wildliferescue]

This government and their officials have done absolutely ZERO to assist the people and business in the tourism sector. A business sector that used to employ millions of families and brought in huge taxpayers money. While the government says there is NO money at all to help these businesses, they are discussing spending billions on a bridge between Hua-hin and Pattaya and submarines, neither things Thailand needs. 

[Henryford]

21 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

based on the need to look good in front of one's superiors and tow the party line

 

just like everything else in thailand

 

 

 

You mean just like the UK. Is anyone allowed to give a different view on Covid? It's their way or the highway.