If I want natural beauty, world class fruit, salmon fishing, and sunshine    - I will go to the Pacific Northwest during May through September.

If I want to mix with wild twenty something babes - I go to Thailand. Anything else would be uncivilized.

 

Is it not the first of April?

Just swap the words Focus On with Ignore then it is believable.

On 3/28/2021 at 10:29 PM, colinneil said:

So the Thai tourist industry are to focus on..... Safety, and not taking advantage of tourists, not April first yet, a bit early for April first jokes intit.????????????

there is Very FEW country's that don;t take advantage of tourists and care for there safety and I can say its getting worse  

Never  really known of ripp off here but there were some incredibly inexperienced, low I Q travelers coming here over the past few years. I'm not clear what a ripp off actually means anymore...But if Thailand  wanted to improve desirability as a tourist destination just turn the clock back to the looser, freer, more laid back scene which attracted us all back in the 80s and 90s...Make Pattaya Great again! Free Chaing Mai. Let Bangkok rock again!

On 4/3/2021 at 12:14 AM, irishman25 said:

there is Very FEW country's that don;t take advantage of tourists and care for there safety and I can say its getting worse  

No you can't. International travel and tourism has all but finish in the last 12 months. All aspect of tourism are getting less not increasing! The worst place for cheating, theft, pickpocketing, forced buying, etc used to be Morocco.  It has never really existed  here with the notable exception of Phuket  ....if it did I would not return here just as I would never return to Phuket. Generally I find kindness and honesty here and an odd protectivness to the drunk and incapable.

On 3/29/2021 at 12:25 PM, internationalism said:

before they come, around  2025, all instructions will be forgotten.

The way of teaching people to behave is to educate them about the world, just basic geography, history, but also languages.

If to try to instil the idea, that thailand is the navel of the universe under the coconut shell and insist, that thai language is a major international language, push nationalism, xenophobia, racism through all the educational system, all ministries and government agencies, you end up with indoctrinated robots which disregard all outside world

Interesting post. Do you speak Thai? Are you familiar with the history and culture of Asian countries which predate western culture? I don't really understand this post. Are you complaining or just making a disinterested observation? Where do you get your ideas from? Have you met well traveled Thais? Have you traveled extensively in Thailand? But what I really want to know is: do you feel superior to Thais?

On 4/1/2021 at 8:12 AM, rcuthbert said:

If I want natural beauty, world class fruit, salmon fishing, and sunshine    - I will go to the Pacific Northwest during May through September.

If I want to mix with wild twenty something babes - I go to Thailand. Anything else would be uncivilized.

 

May I ask: where are you now?

On 3/29/2021 at 1:31 PM, sahibji said:

Not taking advantage of tourists is more easily said than done. Usually it starts right from the taxi that picks you up from the airport and ends only when you are back in the plane for your flight home.

Sorry simply not true. The taxi pick up service at Suvanapoomi Airport is totally void of ripp offs or cheating. It's metre plus 50 baht. Easy, fast,  safe, secure and cheap. This applies to every airport I have used in Thailand with the exception of Phuket.

32 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Interesting post. Do you speak Thai? Are you familiar with the history and culture of Asian countries which predate western culture? I don't really understand this post. Are you complaining or just making a disinterested observation? Where do you get your ideas from? Have you met well traveled Thais? Have you traveled extensively in Thailand? But what I really want to know is: do you feel superior to Thais?

No, but i do speak 2 international languages, one less so, and learned latin.  We are not talking about ancient history, but future of thai tourism. It's thai working in tuurism should speak, at least, english. If too difficult should learn another tonal language, like mandarine, korean, japanese - over 25% od rourists are from china. 
i don't have to copy my thoughts from anybody, i am able to observe the state of tourist industry. Starting from xenophobic tourist guides, who inherit their hate from elderly teachers. 
Yes, i have met many travelled thai, and they are fine, open minded people. But there are very few of them. The great majority never been abroad. 
 

judging from your all replies above, your social skills are not so great. You seen to disagree with everybody. Yet you just joined this community just a few minutes ago. You must be very bored to bother to reply such way

2 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

May I ask: where are you now?

Rolling on the floor - laughing  my guts out.

8 hours ago, internationalism said:

many travelled thai, and they are fine, open minded people. But there are very few of them. The great majority never been abroad. 

This has changed a lot during the last 15 years. 

Many,  many Thais have been abroad. Maybe not yet the majority, but certainly the majority of younger Thais living in coties

That will last about 5 seconds then it will be business as usual in overdrive to make up for lost money 

On 3/30/2021 at 3:26 PM, johnarth said:

even in the beautiful city I live in it would be impossible to have one footpath to walk on, if you must walk use the road thats the way it has been and will be

That was fine when the principle method of traction was buffalo.

have been to phuket several times but it is now a waste land everybody knows its controlled by a taxi mafia allowed by corrupt athorities for years.

Would love to go back if they ever get rid of them.

Sadly covid 19 resurgence and slow vacs will keep tourists out for another year or two

to better understand thai tourism industry it's worth noting members of senate tourism board (yes, there is such one).

The majority of them are military and police generals. 

13 out of the 21-member committee are generals and 1 captain, while only 3 are women

Their businesses are not only arm deals, but also hotels, transport (including boats, ferries)

https://twitter.com/erich_parpart/status/1383664920261136394/photo/2

1 minute ago, internationalism said:

The majority of them are military and police generals.

You do surprise me......

Regarding the dual-pricing system - I don't mind it if it's reasonable I been in countries where you as a tourist pay a 20-50% surcharge and I'm fine with that. Or like in New York if you are a local on certain days you can visit some museums free of charge. But when you see a 10 fold difference that feels like you are taken for a ride. For me the most notable experience was a floating market that is free for Thais and charged 200 Baht for foreigners to enter and buy something. 

The more often I read this, the more I'm convinced it's verbal sleight of hand (or sleight of tongue if you prefer). It's not genuine, which is to say the words might be but the implications of the words are not believed by those who utter them.

 

For example: Thais have been conning and swindling tourists for years. How likely is it that Mr Prayuth, overseeing a collapsing economy. Has just had a revelation that some Thais con tourists? Answer: Not very likely at all.

 

It seems to me that what Mr Prayuth is hoping for  is to con tourists to once again come to Thailand so that at some point, the swindling can resume, and the coffers of the Thai entrepreneurs will start to fill up again.

 

If this is the case (and I believe that it is), then we should all hope that the economy will continue to collapse, because this one (very dishonest) politician will then not be able to sustain his privileged position and will himself have to seek exile.