BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has lost about 1.45 million tourism jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, including 400,000 in the first quarter, a private tourism group said on Monday, as the country gets ready to reopen to visitors to try to rescue the struggling sector.

 

Tourism is a key driver of Thailand’s growth, typically accounting for 11-12% of gross domestic product. The group says there were 4.5 million tourism jobs before the pandemic, from a workforce of about 38 million people.

 

The country could see 3 million foreign tourist arrivals this year under plans to waive quarantine for visitors vaccinated against COVID-19 in some parts of the country later this year, Vichit Prakobgoson, vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, told a briefing.

 

From July, inoculated tourists will be allowed to visit Phuket without the mandatory two-week quarantine, and from October Pattaya, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Phang Nga and Krabi.

 

The projection is in line with the central bank’s estimate but far below the 6.5 million tourists projected by the government’s Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

 

“The TAT’s target this year definitely won’t be met. From our work plans, there should be 3 million,” Vichit said.

 

“But if Bangkok is included in the reopening, it’s possible to have 6 million people,” he added.

 

Thailand’s strict entry requirements have helped keep coronavirus infections relatively low, but have devastated tourism.

 

Last year, there were only 6.7 million foreign tourists, down from nearly 40 million in 2019 who spent 1.91 trillion baht ($61.24 billion).

 

Vichit projected spending by foreign tourists would be 156 billion baht ($5 billion) this year.

 

For Phuket alone, the group expects two million foreign visitors to spend 105 billion baht between July and December, he said.

 

The tourism council had urged the government to start travel bubbles from April with other countries and to issue clear guidelines for “vaccine passports” to attract more travellers, he said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-29

 

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13 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

as the country gets ready to reopen to visitors to try to rescue the struggling sector

there will be an absolute horde of hospitality vendors , in the thai fashion, jacking up prices way over the top , to make up for their lost revenue

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

From July, inoculated tourists will be allowed to visit Phuket without the mandatory two-week quarantine, and from October Pattaya, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Phang Nga and Krabi.

Sounds like another mad scheme that will never come to fruition.

And so it continues....more of the same.

 

Vichit projected spending by foreign tourists would be 156 billion baht ($5 billion) this year.

I wish I knew how they arrive at these figures.

33 minutes ago, anchadian said:

And so it continues....more of the same.

 

Vichit projected spending by foreign tourists would be 156 billion baht ($5 billion) this year.

I wish I knew how they arrive at these figures.

 

Divided by 3 million tourists, that's only 52000 Baht each, which I think is quite low

"Tourism is a key driver of Thailand’s growth, typically accounting for 11-12% of gross domestic product. "

That is only from an international tourism.

The domestic one is yet another 6%.

I would think the majority of tourism shut down within the first 2 month of pandemic, so by middle of May.

The large part were migrating workers from the neighbouring countries , which found employment in the other sectors (food, agriculture).

There is no point talking about tourism loss and about projections.

It's a past part of thai economy, as well as well as for so many other countries which relied heavily on it. 

It can't be revived for years and will never be on the same scale

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand has lost about 1.45 million tourism jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, including 400,000 in the first quarter, a private tourism group said on Monday, as the country gets ready to reopen to visitors to try to rescue the struggling sector.

Assuming this is true - and I can well believe it is - with the possible working age population roughly about 48,000,000,  this means that the loss of tourism has increased unemployment for these people alone to 3%.

 

Thailand has historically over the past few qtr's only stated 2%. But these jobs mean that the real figure is somewhere between 4.5-5% minimum (based on continual 1.5% ish of previous years).

 

Would the real un-edited figures please stand up please ? 

I believe the lost jobs in the tourist industry to be a lot higher than 1.45m,  what about all the bar hostess in the in tourist Areas which are not even registered in these areas,  also tourism accounts for 20% of GDP, 

And if the Government is serious about kick starting the tourist sector they need to ramp up the vaccination of the population, to put confidence in arriving tourists. 

5 hours ago, anchadian said:

 

I wish I knew how they arrive at these figures.

 

Fortune tellers, what else?

Should stop talking about tourist numbers. Other countries have been badly hit by Covid financially so maybe many potential tourists if they are able to have a holiday this year may look to other more welcoming cheaper countries. Few airlines are considering scheduling flights to Thailand especially when Covid infections are on the rise and vaccine programme unlikely to get underway until next year

10 hours ago, anchadian said:

And so it continues....more of the same.

 

Vichit projected spending by foreign tourists would be 156 billion baht ($5 billion) this year.

I wish I knew how they arrive at these figures.

 

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Assuming this is true - and I can well believe it is - with the possible working age population roughly about 48,000,000,  this means that the loss of tourism has increased unemployment for these people alone to 3%.

 

Thailand has historically over the past few qtr's only stated 2%. But these jobs mean that the real figure is somewhere between 4.5-5% minimum (based on continual 1.5% ish of previous years).

 

Would the real un-edited figures please stand up please ? 

They make them up. In reality they have absolutely no idea; in the case of tourism they serve only to justify their non jobs and purposeless committees, in the case of unemployment they don't care anyway.

12 hours ago, YetAnother said:

there will be an absolute horde of hospitality vendors , in the thai fashion, jacking up prices way over the top , to make up for their lost revenue

There will be a massive oversupply of hotel rooms during the next many years to come, which hopefully will make it hard for them to charge much more than the domestic market value.

I do not foresee many local entrepeneurs risking to get back in business any time soon, so what will welcome the tourists outside the hotels and resorts, will be empty streets with closed businesses.  We have visited both Koh Samui, Phuket and Khao Lak during the last few months, and all we saw, with very few exceptions, was closed shops, markets, restaurants and bars. We visited Chaweng on a Saturday night earlier this month and every single business on Beach road was closed without a single tourist in sight. It had become a Ghost town.

The most correct option is to tighten the lockdown and finish off the country's economy

12 hours ago, YetAnother said:

there will be an absolute horde of hospitality vendors , in the thai fashion, jacking up prices way over the top , to make up for their lost revenue

No thanks.  ????.

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The country could see 3 million foreign tourist arrivals this year under plans to waive quarantine for visitors vaccinated against COVID-19 in some parts of the country later this year, Vichit Prakobgoson, vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, told a briefing.

Still dreaming.

1 hour ago, Dialemco said:

Should stop talking about tourist numbers. Other countries have been badly hit by Covid financially so maybe many potential tourists if they are able to have a holiday this year may look to other more welcoming cheaper countries. Few airlines are considering scheduling flights to Thailand especially when Covid infections are on the rise and vaccine programme unlikely to get underway until next year

Covid cases are on the rise! Where?

12 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Sounds like another mad scheme that will never come to fruition.

Invite in foreigners without quarantine before any Thais are jabbed.... what could possibly go wrong

I heard that as Thailand is going to be the hub of the space industry,most will go into that,

Well if I can’t go to bangkok why even bother coming all my friends are in BKK and I have had enough of Pattaya and Phuket to last me the rest of my life - I am 3 hours from all the beach I will ever need at home in the USA and I can take my boat or jets skis with me 

The jobs lost in the tourism 'industry' will take a long time to be recovered, and probably not ever.

 

So where are the government initiatives for retraining the unemployed into productive areas that have a future? Such as ... um ... health care, environmental care, pollution reduction, safety in the workforce eg building industry, law enforcement, ... um ...

My guess is that the numbers mentioned this time are very low compared to the real numbers of people who lost their job, X 5 to 10 would be more accurate . How many TV members actually work in tourisme? Seems like like they have a solution for everything ????

 

Where are they getting these figures from 

Every week it changes 

This will keep on  going  until the whole Country has been vaccinated and Quarantine measures are lifted 

Then they can speak of future Tourist numbers

But not until then

pie in the sky numbers as of now 

36 minutes ago, johnhender said:

Well if I can’t go to bangkok why even bother coming all my friends are in BKK and I have had enough of Pattaya and Phuket to last me the rest of my life - I am 3 hours from all the beach I will ever need at home in the USA and I can take my boat or jets skis with me 

Just stay where you are pal! Thailand doesn't need people like you!

10 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Assuming this is true - and I can well believe it is - with the possible working age population roughly about 48,000,000,  this means that the loss of tourism has increased unemployment for these people alone to 3%.

 

Thailand has historically over the past few qtr's only stated 2%. But these jobs mean that the real figure is somewhere between 4.5-5% minimum (based on continual 1.5% ish of previous years).

 

Would the real un-edited figures please stand up please ? 

The usual unsubstantiated speculation.

The tourism industry may well have lost 1.45 million jobs but only those that want to believe it would think that none of the 1.45 million have found other forms of employment.

It will have been the more senior positions with money in the bank that will have invested in a different future and the tourism industry may well be in for a shock when it comes to restaffing.

13 hours ago, anchadian said:

I wish I knew how they arrive at these figures.

 

Reliable Thai algorithm.

14 hours ago, YetAnother said:

there will be an absolute horde of hospitality vendors , in the thai fashion, jacking up prices way over the top , to make up for their lost revenue

And that's why some people might decide not to go back at all ????

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“The TAT’s target this year definitely won’t be met. From our work plans, there should be 3 million,” Vichit said.

 

“But if Bangkok is included in the reopening, it’s possible to have 6 million people,” he added.

In other words...

Maybe Buddha knows...

I hope and pray these sensible predictions will not be overturned by the thousands of Burmese refugees flooding across the frontier and bringing Covid infections with them.

2 hours ago, Xonax said:

There will be a massive oversupply of hotel rooms during the next many years to come, which hopefully will make it hard for them to charge much more than the domestic market value.

I do not foresee many local entrepeneurs risking to get back in business any time soon, so what will welcome the tourists outside the hotels and resorts, will be empty streets with closed businesses.  We have visited both Koh Samui, Phuket and Khao Lak during the last few months, and all we saw, with very few exceptions, was closed shops, markets, restaurants and bars. We visited Chaweng on a Saturday night earlier this month and every single business on Beach road was closed without a single tourist in sight. It had become a Ghost town.

 

 

If when the tourists come, the bars will be open and the vendors will be back quicker than a tuktuk driver on yaba.

 

For me, its a way to avoid quarantine, get a weeks tan before visting Mrs Chelseafans family up north.

 

3 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

 

They make them up. In reality they have absolutely no idea; in the case of tourism they serve only to justify their non jobs and purposeless committees, in the case of unemployment they don't care anyway.

I agree they have no idea how many jobs are lost . Most workers affected would be paid cash with no insurance etc .