Phuket: Thais in poverty because foreign tourists stopped coming - island's tourism obliterated

[rooster59]

Image: Thai Rath

Influential Thai media Thai Rath reported that the average Thai in Phuket is living in poverty.

Because foreign tourists stopped going because of the pandemic. 

It relied on foreigners and when they stopped coming their standard of living - the highest in the south - went completely down the pan. 

Now a local business leader is begging the government to vaccinate every Thai quickly so that they can start to get back on their feet.

Spending 100 million baht now could do that.

Thai Rath reported that 10.6 million foreign tourists visited Phuket in 2018 - more than a quarter of the total that came to Thailand.

Phuket had the highest standard of living in the south in 2019 with average income of 400,000 baht a person. 

That was a little over 33,000 baht a month.

Now the Songkhla University Nakharin on the island reckons that average monthly earnings from February to September this year will be just 1,984 baht a month.

With the poverty line being 3,044 baht in Thailand this means that the average Thai is living in poverty in Phuket.

People who once earned the highest standard of living in the south are now paupers because they relied 84% on foreign tourism. 

The media's headline spoke of "deserted" Phuket, tourism "seriously (wounded)", poverty....the only hope was vaccine.

Chernporn Kanjanasaya of the local business association said that incomes had plummeted since the pandemic. 

People had had to seek alternative employment just to scrape by and provide for their families.

She claimed that the island nation The Maldives was full of tourists - so what about Phuket and Samui.

They are islands too and it is time that the government spent money to vaccinate everyone - 750,000 people on Phuket. 

She said that if they gave everyone two doses and spent 100 million baht everyone would reap the benefits.

With hotels still empty vaccination was the answer. 

Meanwhile Thailand has been criticized for its slow vaccine rollout and October the 1st has been set as the target date for the resumption of foreign tourism on a large scale.

But that is more than six months away.

And whether foreign tourist will even come in appreciable numbers - vaccinated or otherwise - remains highly debatable. 

Meanwhile Phuket and other places that relied on the foreign tourist dollar suffer in abject poverty.

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[bwpage3]

Perhaps during these poverty stricken times, Phuket needs to revisit poor treatment of tourists, scams and all the other bad things. 

[trainman34014]

Dare we ask where all those millions they earned in previous years have gone ?   They are so good at gouging the people that visit but not one thought of 'saving for a rainy day' ever comes to mind.

Aside from that we have always been told down the years that Thailand is not a Tourist reliant country and in fact tourism is a quite small contributor to the overall economy !

[gravity101]

22 minutes ago, andy said:

LOL, you could vaccinate the entire population of Phuket tomorrow and there will still be zero tourists coming as long as quarantine requirements remain in place.  Quarantine = no tourists, what an incredibly difficult concept to comprehend - maybe in 2027 a light bulb will go on and someone in power will get it...

They know. She means no quarantine required if everyone is vaccinated.

However her comparison of Maldives and Phuket being similar is ridiculous. There are travel requirements for Maldives, Malé the capital is closed and out of bounds and the natural isolation of other hotels is a perfect setup for quarantine and separation anyway. (I think tourists can't easily travel between hotels). Malé is arguably the same as Phuket in terms of viral mixing and even they know that's not a good idea to open it. I doubt also that maldives has domestic tourism and so its essential for them. Tourism is also 65 ish pct of foreign currency - they have to risk it.

[madmitch]

24 minutes ago, trainman34014 said:

Dare we ask where all those millions they earned in previous years have gone ?   They are so good at gouging the people that visit but not one thought of 'saving for a rainy day' ever comes to mind.

Aside from that we have always been told down the years that Thailand is not a Tourist reliant country and in fact tourism is a quite small contributor to the overall economy !

Could you explain how someone earning 33,000 baht a month can save millions?

[tgw]

I feel sorry for the many good, friendly, honest and hard-working people I met there when on holidays.

I do not feel sorry for the handful of dishonest scammers and people who insult foreigners in Thai language, thinking they don't understand.
Thankfully, these were only few people, although Phuket seemed to have more of the sort than other Thai destinations I visited.

Edited March 20, 2021 by tgw

[WineOh]

I used to live on Phuket and saw first hand how the locals treated tourists during the 'good times.'

I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. 

[mr mr]

i thought the russians and chinese and indians and 6 million brits were going to superman phuket and thailand into bliss. 

 

 

[madmen]

So Phuket is dead like Pattaya? Amazing 

[KarenBravo]

1 minute ago, madmen said:

So Phuket is dead like Pattaya? Amazing 

Only the west coast beaches that usually have the majority of the tourists.

The east looks like it typically does at this time of year. In fact, the south is unusually busy. Maybe because it presently has the best night-life. 

[Patong2021]

"Phuket had the highest standard of living in the south in 2019 with average income of 400,000 baht a person. "

Misleading average value. Much of the money went to the handful of families who own the land that were paid the high rents, and who owned the local hotel interests. With most of the large revenue makers like the resorts, shopping malls , and retail chains, the Thai ownership was not in Phuket. The majority of people were paid subsistence + a % that allowed them to finance purchases of home and auto. The typical  worker was from off island and left long ago.    If the locals had been as well paid as  claimed, they would not be so many desperate people begging and borrowing.

 

3 hours ago, andy said:

LOL, you could vaccinate the entire population of Phuket tomorrow and there will still be zero tourists coming as long as quarantine requirements remain in place.  Quarantine = no tourists, what an incredibly difficult concept to comprehend - maybe in 2027 a light bulb will go on and someone in power will get it...

You blame Thailand for having a responsible screening process that will protect the country and tourism sector in the long run.  Quarantine is not the issue. Other countries have quarantine or travel restriction that make travel to and from Thailand difficult.  Thailand is the smart one here, and it has taken months for the UK and the EU to admit that their travel openness is what  is in large part responsible for their 3rd wave now.  

Much of the world is not vaccinated. It will take  3-6months+ for the numbers to be sufficient to financially justify increased flights. The  vaccines  are not shown to be effective against the new deadlier and more infectious variants from South Africa  and Brazil. No one  even knows if  vaccine prevents transmission. And here you come to criticize and demand  that Thailand stop quarantine and instead allow people to enter a country where few people are vaccinated. You want millions of Thais to be at risk in a country that does not have  resources to care for thousands of  infected people.

 

No, Thailand has done the right thing, both financially, and ethically.  The cost of an infected coutnry  where the economy would grind to a standstill is far worse than the  hardship of  a small sector of the economy. Tens of millions of Thais are  doing just fine. They won't be if Covid19 takes hold.

[Old Croc]

The big money that workers earned in Phuket during the halcyon days helped the economy all over Thailand. The majority of tourism workers came from villages and towns in Isaan and many other rural areas. Their high wages flowed back to their families and the local economies. Phuket, Pattaya and other major tourism centers have emptied out because the workers have returned to their villages where all will be feeling the strain of lost income.

Phuket is an Island, but not a self contained country hoarding it's wealth within it's borders. Tourism tax dollars flow back to the capital and helps pay for all the roads, trains, and facilities enjoyed in other areas.

To gloat and revel in the loss of a major industry that drew huge international funds into the country shows a lack of critical thinking and a failure to grasp basic economic concepts. What if it was rice exports that were suddenly obliterated? Would that invoke glee because a few make massive profits from it?

Of course Phuket was expensive! There were ripoffs, particularly with public transport. This is Thailand, a few big players will always put self interest and greed ahead of the national good. That's what happens in an autocracy.

Where do you people with your heads in the sand actual live?

Edited March 21, 2021 by Old Croc

[Wildliferescue]

The article is hard to read, maybe someone should check it before posting.

Some of the comments are just vile. If you hate Thailand so much, stay off the TV page.

 

[metisdead]

A post using a trolling image and a reply has been removed.

A post using an image in Thai language has been removed. 

[ChipButty]

I dont think Phuket is as bad as she is making out, I live in the south of the island and it's still fairly busy many farang live here and stayed here.

I visited my friends condo the other day and judging by the car park it's busy there is 3 car parks almost full,

I'll agree the other Sunday I drove up the west coast it looked quiet not sure about night time,

Phuket town is pretty normal the markets plenty of people around, Tonight I'm going to have a couple of beers in Phuket town, lets see.

I dont understand the delay in getting the vaccines rolled out would it not be a perfect opportunity to get it done are they waiting for the rest of the world to get vaccinated? Then the government will say we dont need it now.

[ChipButty]

Another problem I see, easy get everyone who is here in Phuket vaccinated then if the flood of tourist where to arrive and all these hotels and other business's were to open would need staff, so all of a sudden we get a flood of workers from all over sticky rice land descending on Phuket how would they control that? 

 

[KannikaP]

16 hours ago, rooster59 said:

reported that 10.6 million foreign tourists visited Phuket in 2018 - more than a quarter of the total that came to Thailand.

I think the words PHUKET and THAILAND need to be swapped over.

[Barney R]

Don’t have any sympathy at all for the taxi & Tuk Tuk mafia after been ripped off a few times 

[Olad Mate]

They just do not get it!

Most Countries have closed boarders, they couldn't come even if they wanted to.

Face the facts <deleted>... people aren't coming!!!!!

Wake the <deleted> up!

I'm here because I'm married to Thai.  It's expensive, I had to get an exemption from my government, the flights were difficult to find and costly, it took over a month to get everything in line. I had to come for a minimum of 3 ,months or I couldn't go, quarantine here is a waist of time and money, quarantine back home is <deleted> and expensive. 

People here are in Poverty because your government is greedy and has no idea on implementing plans that actually work.

Good Luck

Your going to need it because Buddha is not coming.

[mr_lob]

It almost sounds like tourists are being blamed for the poverty. 

Of course its nothing to do with the ridiculous hoop jumping and quarantine imposed by Thai authorities... 

[Mavideol]

18 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Because foreign tourists stopped going because of the pandemic. 

they should stop finger pointing and not blame everything on the pandemic, what about their poor services/scams/ attitude and so forth... they never imagined the goose that laid the golden eggs would go elsewhere

[mike1967]

I'm repeating myself but this now out of Thailand's hands. It's not about when Thailand decides to let people in, it's when foreign governments allow their people to travel there. Governments, such as the UK's, have worked so hard to get its population vaccinated that they possibly won't allow travel to countries that are mostly unvaccinated and have no real testing system, let alone the facilities to test for new variants. Europe has almost certainly been wiped out for travel this summer from the UK. The far East may be different but until we're all on a level playing field, in regards to vaccinations, then don't take it for granted that people will be coming flooding back in October.

Edited March 21, 2021 by mike1967
Spelling error

[SchuetzRob]

Putting the blame on the missing tourists is perhaps a too simplistic approach.....

[wombat]

17 hours ago, madmen said:

So Phuket is dead like Pattaya? Amazing 

and its only taken 12 months to be be noticed? Priceless

[Mak25]

19 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Because foreign tourists stopped going

So foreigners are again to blame...????

[RichardColeman]

18 hours ago, trainman34014 said:

Aside from that we have always been told down the years that Thailand is not a Tourist reliant country and in fact tourism is a quite small contributor to the overall economy !

Yes its truly amazing that they can lose 20% of their economy and be still quoting growth

[Chiang Mai Bill]

18 hours ago, madmitch said:

Could you explain how someone earning 33,000 baht a month can save millions?

I think 'Trainman' was trying to say that throughout the 'good years' people should have been icing a little back in case the 'good years' went away!

 

Earnings are relative to the standard of living: larger income-earners could/should have been putting away more than those who earned less -- for that 'rainy day'!

 

It's not only a Thai thing -- it's a global failure that people don't save for hard times! This pandemic has shown the folly of spending and borrowing without care.

[khunpa]

Might be time to consider real education as something important, considering there is no longer money to be made on food stalls, massage-/nail shops and Tuk Tuk rides.

 

Only dreaming of course....

 

 

 

 

[thailand49]

Shot yourself in the foot, a year of nonsense with all the denial, wishes, and bright ideas that come and are still coming while locals suffer because of lack of leadership and any balls to make a real decision as really leaders should but of course that includes not only Thailand.

 

Instead of wishing your way out just do it!  OPEN IT UP just stop dreaming and whining after!

[Desire2016]

I don't know where they come up with the income figures 33,000bt per month as an average wage my wife is a pharmacy assistant and earns 16,000pm 

Staff in restaurants take home around 10-12k a month