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[webfact]

Russians and Indian high spenders in the plans as Thai tourism minister HALVES 2021 assessment

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Thailand's minister for tourism and sports Pipat Ratchakitprakan said that he expects no less than five million foreign tourists to visit the country this year.

 

This is half previous assessments from the TAT in recent weeks. Their chief Yutthasak Suphasorn suggested 10 million would come. 

 

Billionaire Pipat was upbeat talking to Thai Rath about who these tourists might be, promoting the new idea of "Area Quarantine" while a ministerial aide said that 5 million doses of vaccine are being sought to inspire confidence in main tourism hotspots like Pattaya and Phuket.

 

It is felt that vaccination of locals is better than waiting for WHO's vaccination passport ideas to materialize.

 

Pipat said that no fewer than 5 million tourists would come in 2021. For now he was busy working on improving the Certificate of Entry website.

 

He was keen to hype up his "Area Quarantine" (AQ) plans saying it was much better than the "Villa Quarantine" that has already started in Phuket.

 

Under AQ tourists would still quarantine for 14 days but they would only be under lockdown in their rooms for three days. Then they would be free to use the grounds of participtaing hotels for the remaining 11. 

 

He claimed that as soon as AQ gets the nod from the CCSA Covid-19 authorities the tourists would flood in as this is just what they have been waiting for.

 

Thaivisa notes that this may be wide of the mark. Many online are saying that what tourists are waiting for is an end to quarantine entirely in Thailand.

 

So who are these tourists waiting to come to Thailand? No mention was made of British people - hyped up last week by the TAT in a much ridiculed 6 million person assessment of visitors. 

 

No, said Pipat, it was the Russians who would be leading the way. Tour companies had already been following the news and are planning 2 charter flights a day carrying 300-400 people on each flight to Phuket for AQ.

 

Apart from this Pipat said that high spending Indians who wanted to get married in Thailand would be the other group. 

 

He claimed that resorts with a total of 6,500 rooms across five provinces - Phuket, Chonburi (Pattaya in reality), Surat Thani (Koh Samui), Chiang Mai and Krabi were interested in providing AQ.

 

Ministerial aide Phinthorn Srisanphang said that 50,000 doses of the initial lot of vaccine received on February 24th would be mainly used to vaccinate hotel workers to facillitate AQ first. 

 

He revealed that the ministry has applied for 5 million doses of vaccine for the five tourism provinces to be delivered in the third quarter of this year.

 

That would inspire confidence in foreign tourists to visit and get tourism off the ground in the fourth and final quarter of 2021.

 

Waiting for the WHO vaccine passport plan could see the recovery delayed until the second quarter of next year, he noted. 

 

He did however intimate that the aim was to stop quarantine altogether as soon as was possible. 

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-03-01

 

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[darksidedog]

Will he never learn? He can hype up different sorts of quarantine all he likes to make it sound rosy, but it is still quarantine, and tourists are not going to put up with it in numbers, end of story.

[petermik]

Another day and another fancyfull statement coming from someone who hasn`t the slightest idea about what they are talking about...

[internationalism]

18 minutes ago, webfact said:

Russians and Indian high spenders in the plans as Thai tourism minister HALVES 2021 assessment

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Thailand's minister for tourism and sports Pipat Ratchakitprakan said that he expects no less than five million foreign tourists to visit the country this year.

 

This is half previous assessments from the TAT in recent weeks. Their chief Yutthasak Suphasorn suggested 10 million would come. 

but their statements are not conradictory. "No fewer than 5mln" well might be 10 or 20 mln.

Besides, yutthasak also said, that is case of further problems (new waves cased by mutations) he estimates 5mln.

 

All those estimates are nothing, based on imagination, not any calculation. That's why they are all over, taking figures from a hat, like a lottery.

 

I do estimate, that this year only some 100k tourists will come. And that is based on data from october last year. So far it's only  a few hundred per month on golf cources.

Even, if they vaccinate all phuket and pattaya, it would stretch into late summer. They would have to vaccinate all local population, not just working in hospitality.

High spenders are coming from all over different countries, but they are holidaying in one place, staying in a serviced villa on a golf course for a month or two. It's more sport holidays than tourism

Edited March 1, 2021 by internationalism

[colinneil]

How do i manage to brighten my very dull/ boring days????

Easy just read what nonsense T.A.T. are coming up with, guaranteed to bring a HUGE smile on my face.????

[papa al]

Good luck.

[nausea]

Thailand's attraction for me, when I lived in the UK, was always the visa exempt entry. Like you just got on the plane, arrived, and enjoyed. No planning needed, often it was a spur of the moment decision. I don't know about other nationalities, but all these barriers to entry would definitely have been a turn off for me. I wouldn't be here now under current entry conditions. Now you might say "so what", a few UK guys not coming makes little difference; but that easy introduction to Thailand made me want to live here, and spend millions of baht here. Small pennies, I suppose, in the general scheme of things.

[ThreeEyedRaven]

42 minutes ago, webfact said:

He did however intimate that the aim was to stop quarantine altogether as soon as was possible. 

And that is the only thing in the entire article that is going to see tourists arrive in remotely the numbers he is talking of. The rest was laughable nonsense.

[Cricky]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Indian high spenders

Never seen this before in the same sentence.

 

"Indians" and "High Spenders"

[Surelynot]

I think it would be a good idea to offer all the Russians free Kawasaki 1300's on arrival.

[ezzra]

Me think they will be more accurate predicting the next lottery's wining numbers than how many tourists will come to Thailand this year...

[spidermike007]

Not gonna happen. Why? Most wealthy people tend to be smart with their money. They simply will not pay stupid money for stuff. The ultra rich are different. But, no ultra rich people would even consider Thailand as a destination, unless they had work here. The luxury taxes have been discouraging high end tourism here for decades. It is policy that is so dumb, so shortsighted, so non-visionary, and it badly hurts the economy. If wine duty was 70%, you would have a thriving wine industry here, five to ten times the size of the current industry. So the state income would be made up on volume, and hundreds of thousands of jobs would be generated. Instead the protection of a few local wineries continues, due to some politicians passing the anti foreign wine bill years ago, and accepting the payoffs that came with that braindead decision.

I have alot of major wine collectors as friends, and the first thing they look at is the wine scene, when planning a trip. A wealthy couple typically drink a very good bottle of wine daily, or several times a week, at dinner. If they are used to drinking a good vintage Bordeaux, and they pay $100 for it at home, it is very unlikely they will be happy about paying $550 - $800 for it, at their hotel. And if they do, they will not be returning. I cannot even tell you the number of wealthy friends who have visited Thailand once, and never came back. What were their chief complaints?
 
Also, the poor english skills. Mediocre concierge services. A stunning lack of wine knowledge at the fine dining, restaurant level. Unreasonable luxury taxes. Very unsafe driving conditions. Very limited, high speed transportation options. Wealthy people are very particular, and Thailand simply has to be prepared to cater to them, and they are not on any level. These are simply more examples of brain dead leaders, who have no vision, and are NOT leading the nation forward, are not helping the nation to progress, and are not benefitting the people of Thailand.

Major changes need to be made, if Thailand wants to continue to enjoy the cash cow of tourism. Travelers these days simply have too many choices. Creativity is required. Progress needs to be made. Thailand cannot continue to be one of the least progressive nations on earth, and expect foreigners to tolerate that degree of ignorance. These seeds were planted over a decade ago. The hapless army has accelerated the process dramatically.

Up until around 2010 a small number of rich tourists used to come here. I had two groups of rich friends who came, stayed in beachfront villas, or villas at top five star resorts, and spent ALOT of money. One couple who came with their two kids, I asked him how much he spent on his trip, after seeing his wife drop 68,000 baht at the hotel spa, and seeing him drop 22,000 baht on the lunch I was invited to. He said they average $75,000 per vacation, twice or three times a year. Usually 10 days. All first class. He made 12 million pounds a year in London, representing Russian oligarchs primarily, at his law firm. He said his chief complaint about Thailand, was that other than spas, there was nothing for his wife to spend money on. He said she usually likes to spend $10-15k on purses, jewelery, or designer clothing, but the prices were so outrageous, even she refused to buy anything.

Neither he, nor my other friends ever returned to Thailand, and that was over 10 years ago. They simply have too many great options, with outstanding service, expertise, and reasonable taxes. That is one of the chief reasons they do not come, but there are at least a dozen other good reasons. 

[grantbkk]

This guy used to be a comedian right?  It really did bring a smile to my face. If you can imagine being able to see the words coming from his mouth it would be a dark shade of brown and smell like excrement.

[Golden Triangle]

1 hour ago, petermik said:

Another day and another fancyfull statement coming from someone who hasn`t the slightest idea about what they are talking about...

A bit like his unelected leader eh ???? ????????

[Emdog]

They seem to pull these numbers out of their assessment... oops. 7 letters too many in that final word. Must be spell correcter fault

[mr mr]

the russians are coming the russians are coming. 

[herfiehandbag]

There will be no tourists as long as there is any quarantine, be it golf, area, villa or state run. They will not come.

 

Thailand can either allow entry to vaccinated tourists, and take the risks associated with that, or they can retain quarantine, and accept that there will be no tourism. It is, as they say here, "up to you".

 

 

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, VYCM said:

Never seen this before in the same sentence.

 

"Indians" and "High Spenders"

Didn't it also mention 'who want tl get married'.  I can imagine a few pattaya 'ladies' reading that the wrong way. ????

[Ralf001]

For those other 11 days, can one drink booze and entertain local ladies back in their room ?

[John Drake]

1 hour ago, nausea said:

Thailand's attraction for me, when I lived in the UK, was always the visa exempt entry. Like you just got on the plane, arrived, and enjoyed. No planning needed, often it was a spur of the moment decision. I don't know about other nationalities, but all these barriers to entry would definitely have been a turn off for me. I wouldn't be here now under current entry conditions. Now you might say "so what", a few UK guys not coming makes little difference; but that easy introduction to Thailand made me want to live here, and spend millions of baht here. Small pennies, I suppose, in the general scheme of things.

 

Same here. The convenience of getting in and out of a place without worrying over visas, registrations, submitting forms and photographs is/was a big plus when traveling. Getting in and out of Thailand right now sounds like pure hell. And the quarantines, letters, physicians exams both going and coming probably cost more than the holiday itself.

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, VYCM said:

Never seen this before in the same sentence.

 

"Indians" and "High Spenders"

you beat me to it... you are correct these 3 words don't go together   555

[Nsp64]

2 hours ago, nausea said:

Thailand's attraction for me, when I lived in the UK, was always the visa exempt entry. Like you just got on the plane, arrived, and enjoyed. No planning needed, often it was a spur of the moment decision. I don't know about other nationalities, but all these barriers to entry would definitely have been a turn off for me. I wouldn't be here now under current entry conditions. Now you might say "so what", a few UK guys not coming makes little difference; but that easy introduction to Thailand made me want to live here, and spend millions of baht here. Small pennies, I suppose, in the general scheme of things.

I think that's how the vast majority ended up here. The ease of entry and the welcoming laws and administration.

Now its all changed and if we complain we are told "if we don't like it, sod off" not as easy as that , is it ? Not now we've built families and bought assets.

Your comments hit the nail on the head for a great many of us.

[mtls2005]

Spn the wheel, and Johnny, tell our studio audience which tourist segment is targeted for "luring" today.

 

 

[klauskunkel]

3 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Will he never learn?

Imo it's not about him learning something from his absurd statements, these statements are issued so he stays in the news and therefore can prove that he matters. I know it's a weird, ...but what isn't?

[davidmann]

3 hours ago, petermik said:

Another day and another fancyfull statement coming from someone who hasn`t the slightest idea about what they are talking about...

wish i had job like that. ,getting. paid for talking a load of S 

[kg1947]

add to above sentence : " high quality "  .....

[kg1947]

6 hours ago, VYCM said:

Never seen this before in the same sentence.

 

"Indians" and "High Spenders"

 

3 hours ago, kg1947 said:

add to above sentence : " high quality "  .....

 

[RichardColeman]

5 million IS possible - but not with any form of quarantine and a non existent Thai vaccine roll out

[mike1967]

What happens when you do manage to get there and the place goes into total lockdown again? Thailand has to accept there will always be cases. Zero infection rate is impossible unless you shut your borders forever. Realistic plans, acceptance of the above and some kind of reassurance Thailand won't be going into lockdown again would be much more helpful than guesstimated figures of possible tourists returning.

[spidermike007]

 

Start devoting more time to your posts, please. Nearly every time I see someone complaining, or observing a shortfall within Thailand, some guy, who has not taken the time to think things through, nor to devote any focus or effort to a reasonable reply, says something like "Perhaps Thailand is not for you", or stop whining, or maybe you should leave, or the top prize, "if you do not like it here, go back to your own country". Hard to even respond to such statements. Why? Because I have some issues with the place? Sorry to inform you, but the nature of a discerning mind, is to have issues. Though absolute contentment must be a beautiful state of mind, it is not something most of us are blessed with, in case you have not noticed. The fact that I complain, does not mean I do not love Thailand, nor most of it's people. I do. 

I love my life here. I have a very good life here. But, I do have some complaints, and there are some things I would love to see improved. I should leave because of that? Please. Next time you make a post, try to devote at least two moments of thought to it. Most of us are members, so we can whine a bit.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Rimmer
quoted reply of removed post