6 million British tourists may travel to Thailand in 2021: Survey

[vandeventer]

If this is true, and they let them in without 14 days quarantine with a vaccine from who knows where. Maybe we should hurry up and get our vaccines

[ikke1959]

I may win the lottery, I may be 110 years old.. may  is a part of maybe and that is something not sure

[Blue Muton]

I think this article needs a survey along the lines of how accurate we think the estimate will turn out to be!

[bkkdawg]

By interviewing 4000 people they managed to deduce that one eleventh of the population of the UK will travel to Thailand in 2021. These stories are just getting better by the day! 

[wombat]

i love the daily dose of optimism 

[oneton]

According to Wiki stats from Department of Tourism Thailand less than 1 million Brits travelled to Thailand in 2018 / 2019

Now 6 million want to visit in 2021 ????

[mike1967]

2 hours ago, donnacha said:

It is always the case that more people consider traveling somewhere than actually end up going. It should not be surprising that 10% of the population might, in the middle of a lockdown, and after a miserable year, fancy the idea of an exotic holiday. No one, not even TAT, is suggesting they everyone considering it will actually come, they do use the word "may" in their headline.
 

The surprising thing about many of the responses here, and in similar threads, is that so few people seem to be able to see what is already happening and to, based on that, extrapolate ahead a few months. Many of you seem convinced that the current restrictions will continue for the entire year.

By the end of February, the most vulnerable third of the UK population will have received at least their first shot, many of those will have also received their second shot. Levels of infection are already dropping. The UK in April will be a very different story. It isn't just talk, Britain is making astonishing progress, while neighboring countries flounder in Third World levels of bureaucracy and incompetence, you should be proud of that remarkable achievement.

TAT have no credibility but, in this case, when they say "within 2021" they are clearly talking about the second half of the year.

Boris has now said that a vaccine passport will be introduced, at the very least for international travel. Prayut, too, has started making the necessary noises to prepare the public for the re-opening of Thailand to mass vaccinated tourism, probably starting with Israel, who have already vaccinated 90% of their population, in April.

Many of you here seem oblivious to just how much demand has built up in the UK for getting back out into the world. People who usually have four or five breaks per year now want to go all out, they want to embrace the world with something bigger and more memorable than Marbella or Provence.

There is plenty of money around. Some people lost jobs, but the majority kept getting paid. Trapped at home, and unable to go out to their usual restaurants and pubs, most people saved quite a bit. People with online businesses have made more money than ever.

So, this summer, when most of the UK population have been innoculated, and the level of infection is back below 0.1%, Thailand will open their doors to UK tourists, swapping the current quarantine, testing, and special insurance requirements for, instead, a simple vaccine passport requirement.

At that point, the rush to get the Hell out of the UK and to Thailand will break all the records. It certainly won't be six million people but it would not at all surprise me if, in just the second half of this year, they came close to the record of one million UK visitors.

 

Yes, but what you're not mentioning is that Thailand won't be vaccinated until 2022. Do you think governments will allow people to travel to unvaccinated countries without quarantine back in their home countries? In my mind, Thailand will be classed as a high risk country.

[Estrada]

6 Million Brits want to visit Thailand this year but because of Brexit only the rich can afford the cost.

 

[Nout]

'may'

[bluesofa]

14 minutes ago, oneton said:

According to Wiki stats from Department of Tourism Thailand less than 1 million Brits travelled to Thailand in 2018 / 2019

Now 6 million want to visit in 2021 ????

"Brace yerself, Shelia."

[ttrd]

RE - A survey carried out by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) London office has suggested that up to 6 million British tourists want to travel to Thailand in 2021.

 

* Hmm, It might be a slightly difference between those who "want" and those who actually will do ... ????

Edited February 26, 2021 by ttrd

[Forrests Father]

3 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

UK arrivals have maxed out at just below 1 million since 2018, but now 6 million, yeah, right!

 

Tourist by nationality.xlsx 16.65 kB · 10 downloads

Someone needs to tell TAT that the world maps of 1836 are no longer valid. India and Australia do not belong to England anymore

[pacman32]

3 hours ago, grantbkk said:

I suppose if the burnt ashes of all the dead in the UK were sent to Thailand they could actually meet the target.

????

Edited February 26, 2021 by pacman32

[Surasak]

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

Amazing absolutely amazing, where on earth do they find these clowns?

6 million my a++e, nobody in the UK got any money to spend flying to Thailand.

I beg to differ Colin. Many have saved over the past year with the government suggesting this amount to £5Billion? If such is the case I would estimate most will splurge on home improvements and new furnishings. However, I would agree some may spend on holidays if and when the present travel restrictions are lifted, possibly in June. As to that figure being in the millions, as per usual TAT are farting out their rear ends again.

[Surasak]

3 hours ago, MarcelV said:

That is not how surveys work.

They do in Thailand????

[kiwikeith]

3 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

Hahaha - That would indicate that 3095 people planned to travel abroad (no mention of Thailand). How the hell do they arrive at a figure of 6 million Brits holidaying in Thailand this year? Please can I have some of what these clowns have been smoking?

They smoke Netanyahu- weed, Israel is implementing compulsory green passports if you dont get vaccinated you dont get one, and it you dont have one you can not go to work, visit a mall or market, kids can not go to school without a vaccination -green Passport.

Europe seems to be turning this way, however I don't like your chances getting a passport on an Astra Zeneca dose, it seems they are all freaking out about this vaccine now with thousands refusing it in England and Germany.

South Africa suspended it.

 

However the Russian vaccine is receiving glowing reports.

 

Another problem is Netenyahu' is offering vaccine supplies to other countries in exchange for favor's, the whole vaccine program  is a mess.

They are reporting on several news Agencies that there is a supply build up of Astra Vaccine, as people are well shy off it.

So if the Brits have been vaccinated with Astra I dont like their chances of 6 mill to go to LOS by Xmas.

 

Another bad thing for Astra is they don't recommend it for people over 65 so all you golden oldy expats better line up for another variant- including myself.

[grantbkk]

9 minutes ago, pacman32 said:

????

That is the only way 6 million from the UK could possibly arrive in Thailand. No visa or quarantine concerns. It is a terrible reflection my sense of humor.

[edwardandtubs]

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

Amazing absolutely amazing, where on earth do they find these clowns?

6 million my a++e, nobody in the UK got any money to spend flying to Thailand.

Except those who have been sitting at home for the past year getting their salary paid by the government.

[1duckyboy]

"A survey carried out by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) London office has suggested that up to 6 million British tourists want to travel to Thailand in 2021."

 

The key word here is "want". The survey respondents would likely also want a free Range Rover, an end to the pandemic and world peace, if asked. None of which is likely to happen in 2021.

 

[Misterwhisper]

According to my own survey among 12 family members, there also will be 14.8 million Germans coming this year. And 9 Swiss.

[ukrules]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

62 percent of those surveyed said they want to spend the European winter months in 2021 and 2022 in Thailand, providing there are no restrictions such as quarantine in place.

I'm sure they do, most of them not only can't afford it but they need to work.

 

Wanting to do something and being able / capable of doing it are very different and even if they can afford it - which fraction of a percentage actually go ahead and do it.

 

In my experience the difference between wanting to do something and actually doing it is massive.

 

[Kerryd]

Sigh.
Apparently simply statistical analysis is beyond the comprehension of many.

The number of people they surveyed (4,127) is a "sample portion" of the population. It will always be a tiny fraction of the whole. In this case, it works out to .006%

Of the 4,127 responses, roughly 370 (9%) indicated they might chose Thailand as a destination. 9% of GB's population (est at 66.65 million) works out to about 6 million people.

(I know it's outlandish but when it comes to surveys like this, reality is an inconvenience to be ignored if it doesn't help and praised it it does. Common sense gets tossed to the wayside in favour of sugar-coating.)

Also one has to keep in mind that these kinds of surveys are a) paid for and b) may have a specific agenda in mind.

So for example, if you wanted a survey that showed a "lukewarm" response to the idea of vacationing in Thailand (from "white" Europeans for example) you simply word the questions a specific way, limit the possible answers, then approach a certain demographic to get their responses (and then discard whatever doesn't fit your agenda).

"6 Million" sounds crazy but what they might push (behind closed doors) is that "only 9% of the Brits" want to go to Thailand so let's concentrate our ad campaigns in India and China instead.
(In case you are wondering why, about 10 years ago, suddenly there was a decrease in the number of Caucasian tourists and a vast increase in the number of Indian and Chinese tourists, guess what ? Targeted ad campaigns are used to try and increase the number of tourists from certain areas. Countries and Tourist agencies may be offered "incentives" to push certain destinations over others. Countries not offering incentives end up at the bottom of the pile of pamphlets. End result ? The number of Euro/American/Australian tourists plunged and the number of Indian/Chinese tourists skyrocketed.)

People, especially new travellers, are easily influence by agents in tour companies who know just how to push certain destinations/packages while downplaying others.
Many tour agencies (like FlightCentre for example) often book blocks of seats on airlines at a discount, then scramble to try and get butts into them or they swallow the cost of those seats. (And if the seats aren't filled by boarding time, the airline can probably sell them again to people on wait lists.)

If some tour companies have scads of seats booked on flights to Spain or Morocco, they aren't going to try and push travellers to go to Thailand instead.  

Also keep in mind, TAT (and Anutin) are the same people who, around the same time last year, claimed that Songkran would wipe out the virus and that in the second half of 2020, twice as many tourists would visit Thailand as did during the busiest months the year before the covid crisis !
(He actually thought that from July-Dec, Thailand was going to get 6-7 million tourists - per -  month - so that by the end of the year, the total number of arrivals would be close to (or above) the previous year's numbers !!!!)

I swear they take their PR lessons direct from Baghdad Bob (the former Iraqi Minister of Information who made a series of really stupid comments during the last Gulf War, including one where he claimed that no American forces had entered Baghdad when in fact they were fighting only a couple hundred meter away from where he was at the time in the heart of the city.)

It is quite possible that the survey may not have even had Pattaya as an option and it is possible that most of the respondents were middle-aged housewives coming out of the market with the weeks groceries and their 4 kids from 5 husbands in tow (with 4 of those ex-husbands having fled to Pattaya at some time in the past). 

Never trust a survey. Always keep in mind that normally, surveys are paid for by people looking for specific information. Results that don't match expectations can easily be modified or simply discarded.
We rarely see the true results of a survey, included who they polled, when and where. Especially so with online surveys. They can feed you any <deleted> they want and you have no way of knowing if they are "taking the *iss" or not. 

[khunpa]

I have friend who is dying to come over. Although he is not from UK, at least that makes it 6.000.001... Great times ahead!

[Millcx]

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

Amazing absolutely amazing, where on earth do they find these clowns?

6 million my a++e, nobody in the UK got any money to spend flying to Thailand.

100% right .. They will be lucky to get 6000 and that will depend on a stopover before heading to Cambodia or Vietnam .. The Thai bubble has burst and the high prices doesn’t cut ice anymore

[bluesofa]

5 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

I swear they take their PR lessons direct from Baghdad Bob (the former Iraqi Minister of Information who made a series of really stupid comments during the last Gulf War, including one where he claimed that no American forces had entered Baghdad when in fact they were fighting only a couple hundred meter away from where he was at the time in the heart of the city.)

'Baghdad Bob' I don't remember that name. I always heard to referred to as 'Comical Ali', a play on words of the more sinster Chemical Ali.

[terryofcrete]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

As for where in Thailand they want to visit, the destinations of choice were: Phuket, Krabi and Khao Lak, Koh Samui, Koh Pha-ngan, Koh Tao, Bangkok and Hua Hin.

Now see what happens when you turn Pattaya into a posh family resort... No takers ! lol

[Dialemco]

TAT office in London is CLOSED in accordance Covid restrictions.

[spidermike007]

Talk about a shot in the dark. Nothing more than a wild guess. This is based on absolutely nothing. It is impossible to make a prediction like this. There are so many variables. The longer they wait, the harder it will be to restore the industry. People have short memories. Thailand was already being forgotten by millions, before Covid, due to a dozen reasons. Now? Too many alternatives. This administration continues to see Thailand as the COTU (center of the universe). Say it ain't so! No humility seem to be getting learned as of now. The army needs to figure out a way to muster up some courage, and re-open the nation to tourism. There are many ways it can be done safely, and there will be some risk, but nothing like the risk of not opening, and remaining sealed off from the world, like early 19th century Japan. Not even close.

Plus, you have to factor in:

How people will feel about long haul travel this year? Next year? In two or three years?
How will the economic shutdown, and malaise effect their long term fortunes?

Is Thailand making any effort, on any level to address the issues that were present, pre-Covid? Traffic and public safety, air quality, road congestion, luxury taxes, wine taxes, jet ski scams?

I could go on all day. My guess is nothing is being done to address anything, and every issue they currently face is being blamed on Covid. Now, they have a real scapegoat, and looking within for the source of any of the problems is less likely than ever.

[Badrabbit]

I know of one UK resident wanting to come to Thailand, 6 Million wanting to stay in a Qurentine hotel prison for 2 weeks, I dont think so!!

[edwardandtubs]

7 minutes ago, Millcx said:

100% right .. They will be lucky to get 6000 and that will depend on a stopover before heading to Cambodia or Vietnam .. The Thai bubble has burst and the high prices doesn’t cut ice anymore

Flight and hotel prices are more expensive for Vietnam so I don't see any bubble bursting. Posters here have been predicting "another nail in the coffin" for years but it hasn't happened. The truth is as soon as lockdown and quarantine are gone there's going to be a flood of Brits coming to Thailand.