Thai tourism in a "coma" - confidence at its worst level since records began, says academic

[Blumpie]

11 minutes ago, Tom Parkinson said:

The policies are simply irrational. The only possible rationale is that they are deliberately designed to fail. 
 

Thailand has 50 million unvaccinated Thais. Let’s imagine that we let loose a million fully vaccinated tourists. What’s the likely incremental impact on the Covid situation? 
 

it’s probably on par with round off error. 

Third world countries (and I can rightly put Thailand right back into third world status, well maybe 3 plus) don't understand tourism or what expectations will be.

Take the case of Nepal - they had climbers on everest this year.  The airport shut down, and they just said "well, they can charter a plane".  That's a huge undertaking which takes money, time, effort, but to people who don't understand that people back home have big bills to pay too don't have money for this either.  

They view foreigners as huge money pits and if they don't like it then there's lots more behind them.  IT's no big deal.

Just something to ponder when travel does eventually open up again world wide.  We are nowhere near it right now, maybe next year there will be better opportunities.  

[gejohesch]

7 hours ago, at15 said:

No surprise , we need a KISS plan, Keep it Simple Stupid. Look at Mexico and some other countries. They are are actually OPEN, come on in and enjoy yourself. No checking for a vaccine, no COE, no ASQs, no PCR testing, no insurance requirements, no wondering what businesses will be open, etc... Just, you know, OPEN!

"Look at Mexico and some other countries." It's not very much the Thai way to look outside, my impression....

[koele2]

This is what happens when the powers that be hate foreigners but love their money.  You get all these awful restrictions fearmongering about foreigners bringing in covid when it’s already spreading locally.  Bite the bullet and vaccinate the population.  But they always looking to skim and line their pockets, mucking up everything.  

[zzaa09]

I believe the wisest path that they could take would be to slowly remove this made up dependency on tourism and begin to choose other diverse avenues for economic growth. 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, bradiston said:

And it's not just Thai tourism.

 

https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2021/10/tat-performs-annual-dg-reshuffle/

 

The Madhatter's tea party.

Re-arranging the deckchairs on the Thaitanic.

[fgmr]

8 hours ago, at15 said:

No surprise , we need a KISS plan, Keep it Simple Stupid. Look at Mexico and some other countries. They are are actually OPEN, come on in and enjoy yourself. No checking for a vaccine, no COE, no ASQs, no PCR testing, no insurance requirements, no wondering what businesses will be open, etc... Just, you know, OPEN!

Try the other side of that coin? there have been 278k deaths upto the end of August.

fgmr

[MrJ2U]

2 hours ago, NorthernRyland said:

Look at Mexico

Definitely not a "go too" country on my list.

 

Filthy place with more corruption than here. 

 

Nice if you like double wide women with stained teeth.

Edited October 1, 2021 by MrJ2U

[thurien]

7 hours ago, mommysboy said:

and deaths will be 200 plus even with 80% vaccination

obviously to be expected with Chinese vaccines that won't work on DELTA?! 

[MrJ2U]

7 minutes ago, fgmr said:

Try the other side of that coin? there have been 278k deaths upto the end of August.

fgmr

Plus Mexico is a dump.

[George masaoka]

Article says 280,447 foreign tourist brought in 16.8 billion baht.  If there was 100,000 middle class retired foreigners spending an average of 45,000 baht a month that would be 54 billion baht each year.

Thai government always talks about getting the ultra weathy retirement people.

But I think government would do well to encourage us middle class income retirees to come and stay.  The Philippines, Mexico and many other places know our value to their economy. Why not Thailand?

 

[JCP108]

1 hour ago, zzaa09 said:

And even with the current and modified "reopening" policies in place, they're still not getting it. 

Tourists aren't coming if they still find they have to proceed with these continuing schemes. 

 

I'm sure Thai officialdom is expecting the hordes to eagerly break down the gates. That's not gonna happen. 

I can't imagine what October through January is gonna look like when they tally the results. 

But, they've seemingly lost all touch with reality. Just yesterday in the publication which can't be linked here, the TAT were quoted as predicting that there will be 1 million tourists coming to Phuket in the next 6 months!

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Edited October 1, 2021 by JCP108

[observer90210]

Opening with no immigration hassles to tourists and retiree visas is one aspect.

 

But will people want to come in the first place if half the venues are either shut or only operating partially due to restrictions or plainly due to shortage of supplies ?

[spidermike007]

It is no wonder. I would guess that in the event of something this catastrophic, the industry expected some support, not fear mongering, highly selective shutdowns leading to massive spread of covid, a great failure of the vaccination program and one opening date after another being pushed back by cowardly leadership. 

 

It is amazing how these guys go on and on and on about tens of millions of tourists returning as soon as they open up, and never, ever talk about the sacrifices they are willing to make, to attract these tourists, enable new businesses and appeal to investment.

 

A true COTU (Thailand is the center of the known universe) mentality, and it is so far from reality, it boggles the mind. Millions of jobs have been lost. What is being proposed to help those families get back on their feet?

Edited October 1, 2021 by spidermike007

[BwindiBoy]

7 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

why not 1  out  of 28

Because it's not 7 out of 196!

 

[Jen65]

4 hours ago, Felt 35 said:

Tourism in a "coma"

No, it's the government in the Coma !   This military government really does not like people enjoying themselves . They said it themselves - "Only business and tourism "  .  Entertainment is not on the agenda .   It was always their intention to "kill off" Pattaya and make it "family friendly"   .  Unfortunately Pattaya has lost its identity as fun city .    

[Raybo]

Maybe with tourism in a coma, it would be a good time to make double pricing illegal.

[JCP108]

Just now, Raybo said:

Maybe with tourism in a coma, it would be a good time to make double pricing illegal.

Yes. And, a few other ideas to help the tourism industry (in addition to reducing all the crazy barriers to entry):

 

1) Move the money in the submarine category of the budget to cleaning up the tourist areas and making them look more like tourists might want them to look (fix the broken sidewalks, clean the beaches, and add one or two public bathrooms).

2) Address the problem with road accidents, injuries, and deaths. Thailand is #2 in the world for worst traffic safety.

3) Enforce the rule of law so tourists are scammed less often.

4) Keep working on the plastic bag problem so the whole country isn't littered with them.

[sirineou]

Just now, Jen65 said:

No, it's the government in the Coma !   This military government really does not like people enjoying themselves . They said it themselves - "Only business and tourism "  .  Entertainment is not on the agenda .   It was always their intention to "kill off" Pattaya and make it "family friendly"   .  Unfortunately Pattaya has lost its identity as fun city .    

They are amateurs   They might have been great military men, But they are amateurs as politicians, There whole reaction to this pandemic has been Amateur night at the Bijou .

[zzaa09]

9 minutes ago, sirineou said:

They are amateurs   They might have been great military men, But they are amateurs as politicians, There whole reaction to this pandemic has been Amateur night at the Bijou .

......great military men?!? 

 

5555555

[Rocking Robert]

56 minutes ago, George masaoka said:

Article says 280,447 foreign tourist brought in 16.8 billion baht.  If there was 100,000 middle class retired foreigners spending an average of 45,000 baht a month that would be 54 billion baht each year.

Thai government always talks about getting the ultra weathy retirement people.

But I think government would do well to encourage us middle class income retirees to come and stay.  The Philippines, Mexico and many other places know our value to their economy. Why not Thailand?

 

I thought the retirement visa was 65,000 baht a month but I guess some people use an agent

[4MyEgo]

Bring back "we travel together" enticer so my wife can book us a trip away, and the government can pay 40% of our holiday accommodation, makes sense to me.

[ChrisKC]

Well, I am off tomorrow on a flight from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai and then to Koh Lipe island. I will be back home on 13 October.

 

It's a good time to organise a trip. Our airfare for two all in, B6,000 return

 

Hotel on the beach in the best room B1300 per night including breakfast and the Owners arranged everything , the van to the ferry and the speedboat to the island.

 

Because a lack of tourists the van cost twice as much but...

 

My holiday in Krabi and Koh Lanta last November was incredible as it related to nobody around and nearly everything closed. But great service wherever we went,

 

This time, we are not sure how things will pan out but I will report back later.

[sirineou]

16 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

......great military men?!? 

 

5555555

Well they must have done well in their  millinery?

But politics is a whole different game. 

look at all military coups , in every country that they have happen. Can you think of one that was ended up being good for the country?

 That's because these people are arrogant  from having their egos stroked  all their adult lives  by their underlings. and they see the difficulties their country is facing and think they can do better. 

But they don't know, what they don't know, And even though they might have the best intensions, they always mess things up. 

[Bkktodd]

9 hours ago, mommysboy said:

Assuming Thailand reopens countrywide and gets some sort of high season, come February the case load will rise to 50,000 per day imo, and deaths will be 200 plus even with 80% vaccination. UK might wear that but not Thailand. And what sort of normality will it be anyway?

By February most if not all Thais will have been vaccinated. Love how you throw numbers out there.  Work for the TAT?

[Bkktodd]

4 hours ago, Snig27 said:

The whole convoluted COE entry process is braindead and seems to have been designed by someone being paid to sabotage Thai tourism, coupled with inane rules keeping alcohol free restaurants needlessly shut coupled with a holiday destroying curfew. 

I'm in Spain at the moment and the entry process is one form. The resorts are busy and the hotel we are at in Barcelona today is booked solid for a month. 
 

Si. The COE has got to go.  Expensive nonsense.  I think the future Thailand is show Vax card, pcr test result,  passport. Enough with the rest of the bs

[cheapcanuck]

9 hours ago, khunPer said:

Might be depending on where on the island you look, how do you get the impression that 33 percent have "gone to the wall"..?

Drive down main streets in chewang or lamai.

[zzaa09]

1 minute ago, Bkktodd said:

Si. The COE has got to go.  Expensive nonsense.  I think the future Thailand is show Vax card, pcr test result,  passport. Enough with the rest of the bs

Expensive and made up bureaucratic nonsense. Any visa can act as a COE. 

[Clarkey611]

22 minutes ago, Bkktodd said:

Si. The COE has got to go.  Expensive nonsense.  I think the future Thailand is show Vax card, pcr test result,  passport. Enough with the rest of the bs

I have not paid anything for the COE, but the COVID Insurance.... that's another matter!

[WingFat]

I truly do hope I am wrong. But I don't think Thailand (or the world at large) will be the "normal" that was pre-covid in the future, as many posting here are hoping for.  The new normal is likely to be based upon the Great Reset as envisioned by Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum. If you don't know about all this, Google great reset, Klaus Schwab and decide for yourself.

[zzaa09]

32 minutes ago, Bkktodd said:

By February most if not all Thais will have been vaccinated. Love how you throw numbers out there.  Work for the TAT?

Yeah. I believe that might be pushing it to suggest that we might attain an 80 percentile vaccinate rate by February.

And I'm in the circle of optimist and positive do-gooders who would like to see a high percentage in a short time. 

 

Is it becoming better over the last month - increased significantly to the present 26%. Increasing every week.

Hope springs eternal.