Asia tourism reopens with big-spending Chinese citizens stuck at home

[Heng]

I don't think they are just counting the ones snapping up Tiger Balm heat bandages at the 7-11, but the ones buying up property by video call (presumably to visit later).  Welcome brothers and sisters, let us continue to pillage and plunder together.  ????

[Dumbfounded]

7 hours ago, blacksuitdandruff said:

Wonder what the TAT will cry about when the debt crisis in Chinese implodes the CCP economy and the world economy as a collateral domino too?  Enjoy lamenting about the big spending Chinese tourist while they still have money.

And the baht will probably rise. However to alleviate the strain this would add to tourism Prayut may announce that all other countries will be making their official currency Thai Baht, just after they have all learnt Thai as the new global language as he announced a few years back

[spidermike007]

Very few big spending Chinese come to Thailand, for a dozen valid reasons. Though it is true that the Chinese on average spend alot per day while traveling abroad, the vast majority of Chinese Thailand is capable of attracting, are lower income. Everyone I have spoken with in the tourism industry has spoken of that. 

 

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 import wine bill years ago, and accepting the payoffs that came with that braindead decision.

 

Now, if the cowards and goons would make some sacrifices, that could potentially change. But, that would require wisdom, vision, humility and smarts. Likely too much to ask of the tiny, myopic, tone deaf men. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by spidermike007

[Morty T]

Last year Americans and Europeans were the cause of all problems, now Thais love us. Until, the Chinese market opens up again. 

[The Cipher]

Quote

The real Tourist 'Big Spenders' from China don't come anywhere near Thailand

Who is spreading these lies? Jesus.

 

Re: Chinese group tours. Agree with group consensus that they are extremely annoying. Group tours in general are lame. I think the group tour demographic is what gets a lot of focus on here because they're loud and obnoxious, but also because that's what's easily visible to the average forum poster here. I think the bad manners of the tour group demographic accounts for 50% of the bitterness here.

 

Re: Wealthy Chinese. No idea where all the wrong info about this segment comes from. Pretty sure it's due to people here projecting what they think the wealthy do, rather than what they actually do.

 

These guys exist. They come to Thailand. You just might not see it because they're way less conspicuous than the tour group demographic. And bluntly, differences in wealth mean you tend to spend time in different places. I lowkey suspect that numerous posters are aware that this paragraph is true and that the resentment it causes accounts for the remaining 50% of the bitterness here.

[bangon04]

1 hour ago, Morty T said:

Last year Americans and Europeans were the cause of all problems, now Thais love us. Until, the Chinese market opens up again. 

"Thais love us"   ... ??????    leally?

[malibukid]

i have met quite a few Chinese girls here and find them more intelligent and less hung up compared to the local variety.  they are living in the 21st. century, not in feudal times.  bring them back.

Edited November 6, 2021 by malibukid

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, djayz said:

Not to mention the hordes standing around the complimentary water dispenser filling their flasks. 

A pal of mine held a concession for the cafe at a small hotel, and spent most of his day supplying free hot water for the 7-11 Mama noodles the Russians bought. 

[malibukid]

8 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Very few big spending Chinese come to Thailand, for a dozen valid reasons. Though it is true that the Chinese on average spend alot per day while traveling abroad, the vast majority of Chinese Thailand is capable of attracting, are lower income. Everyone I have spoken with in the tourism industry has spoken of that. 

 

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 import wine bill years ago, and accepting the payoffs that came with that braindead decision.

 

Now, if the cowards and goons would make some sacrifices, that could potentially change. But, that would require wisdom, vision, humility and smarts. Likely too much to ask of the tiny, myopic, tone deaf men. 

i have to have to go to Singapore to buy audio gear.  the tax here is outrageous.  i get deals in the States.  Thais are recalcitrant, will not budge, pig headed, shoot in foot, penny shy pound foolish people.  customer service also sucks here on other luxury goods.  wealthy Thai's do not have taste.

[spidermike007]

7 hours ago, The Cipher said:

Who is spreading these lies? Jesus.

 

Re: Chinese group tours. Agree with group consensus that they are extremely annoying. Group tours in general are lame. I think the group tour demographic is what gets a lot of focus on here because they're loud and obnoxious, but also because that's what's easily visible to the average forum poster here. I think the bad manners of the tour group demographic accounts for 50% of the bitterness here.

 

Re: Wealthy Chinese. No idea where all the wrong info about this segment comes from. Pretty sure it's due to people here projecting what they think the wealthy do, rather than what they actually do.

 

These guys exist. They come to Thailand. You just might not see it because they're way less conspicuous than the tour group demographic. And bluntly, differences in wealth mean you tend to spend time in different places. I lowkey suspect that numerous posters are aware that this paragraph is true and that the resentment it causes accounts for the remaining 50% of the bitterness here.

Blalantly fake news at best. Likely less than 50 wealthy Chinese came to Thailand in 2019. Their options are unlimited, and every other destination offers far less expensive shopping for luxury brands and fine wine. I could cite at least a dozen reasons why wealthy tourists avoid Thailand. Keep dreaming. 

[malibukid]

7 hours ago, The Cipher said:

Who is spreading these lies? Jesus.

 

Re: Chinese group tours. Agree with group consensus that they are extremely annoying. Group tours in general are lame. I think the group tour demographic is what gets a lot of focus on here because they're loud and obnoxious, but also because that's what's easily visible to the average forum poster here. I think the bad manners of the tour group demographic accounts for 50% of the bitterness here.

 

Re: Wealthy Chinese. No idea where all the wrong info about this segment comes from. Pretty sure it's due to people here projecting what they think the wealthy do, rather than what they actually do.

 

These guys exist. They come to Thailand. You just might not see it because they're way less conspicuous than the tour group demographic. And bluntly, differences in wealth mean you tend to spend time in different places. I lowkey suspect that numerous posters are aware that this paragraph is true and that the resentment it causes accounts for the remaining 50% of the bitterness here.

huge noisy buses spewing toxic fumes sitting idle?  what not to like

[DonniePeverley]

Big spending ? <deleted>

 

Zero dollar tourists. 

[The Cipher]

21 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Blalantly fake news at best. Likely less than 50 wealthy Chinese came to Thailand in 2019. Their options are unlimited, and every other destination offers far less expensive shopping for luxury brands and fine wine. I could cite at least a dozen reasons why wealthy tourists avoid Thailand. Keep dreaming. 

I'm going to try and respond to this comment politely and without it coming across as a massive flex.

 

So first off, I'm just gonna quickly rattle off an uncomfortable truth for this audience by citing this Credit Suisse report that shows that China has the second highest number of USD millionaires, and the second highest number of UNHW ($50M+) individuals in the world. Second after the USA in both cases. So there are plenty of wealthy tourists hailing from the country out there.

 

People of means often behave differently than how people not in that position think that they behave. I know many forumers here think that wealth = only doing stuff like spending time on superyachts off Monaco and only dining in 3 Michelin joints, because that's what they imagine they'd do if they were in that position. The reality is usually different.

 

Think - if you're taking 3-9 leisure trips a year, do you only go to <AseanNow Rich People Approved Destinations> 3-9 times per year, year after year? No. You explore a bit more of the world. Adding to that, Bangkok is an extremely famous city and close enough to China to be a comfortable weekend trip. And you want to tell me that only less than 50 out of the millions of Chinese millionaires visited Thailand in 2019? I mean...I guess..?

 

Besides the logic laid out above, and without going into too much detail, I happen to have a bit of firsthand knowledge that I'm correct about this.

[jacko45k]

3 minutes ago, The Cipher said:

Credit Suisse report that shows that China has the second highest number of USD millionaires, and the second highest number of UNHW ($50M+) individuals in the world.

Does the report also mention that China likely has the second highest number of poor and peasant people too? 

 

[newnative]

14 hours ago, AMFWolfie said:

Not entirely sure how Thailand reach the conclusion Chinese are the big spenders unless its based on what real estate they purchase combined with luxury items they cant get at home. Coupled with hotel booking and what they spend on food I suppose based on this formula they are big spenders compared with other nationalities.  Case & point I went to buy a sea facing condo in 2018 at Centric Sea Pattaya only to be told ALL had been sold to Chinese. Don't live there, just bought for the future.. Consensus of opinion then was they were trying to get their money out of China as quickly as possible and property was a good & safe investment, even in Thailand. I believe this was the case all over Pattaya with purchases mainly by Chinese, possibly before Xi Jinping gained too much power to prevent this haemorrhaging of money from China which incidentally, he has now succeeded. Off track slightly but none of this spending helps the common Thai tourism. They rely on all the other nationalities that come to Thailand for a holiday or who already live here or are looking to settle. I cant believe for one moment the amount of money these people spend can be as easily traced as its mainly cash not cards or large purchases. Its these spenders that really help the common Thai people out and not the Chinese no matter how you dress it up and Thailand needs to do more to encourage more of this type of people to come and spend there hard earned cash and forget about the dependency on China which will dwindle as more and more restrictions are bought to bare in China. 

      Correction.  Not 'ALL' Centric Sea 'sea facing' condos were originally sold to Chinese.  I owned 2 sea facing units on different floors, bought before the project was completed.  The unit next to the one I lived in was owned by a Thai, another sea facing unit down the hall was owned by a European. Two side-by-side units on the floor were owned by an Indian family.  While we lived there we knew a number of non-Chinese owners with sea view units.  However, I did sell my two Centric Sea condos to Chinese buyers.  

[newnative]

15 hours ago, Longwood50 said:

Big Spending and Chinese isn't that like Giant Shrimp, government intelligence, and constant variables.  An oxymoron. 

Not in my experience. 

[The Cipher]

4 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Does the report also mention that China likely has the second highest number of poor and peasant people too? 

Not sure, but there are tons of poor people in China. Their government themselves have admitted that 40% of the pop of China earns less than $140/mth.

 

It's almost like you can't apply a one-size-fits-all lens to discussions on the country and its population. ????

[newnative]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Blalantly fake news at best. Likely less than 50 wealthy Chinese came to Thailand in 2019. Their options are unlimited, and every other destination offers far less expensive shopping for luxury brands and fine wine. I could cite at least a dozen reasons why wealthy tourists avoid Thailand. Keep dreaming. 

     Less than 50 wealthy Chinese came to Thailand in 2019?  Ridiculous.  Try to make your false statements that you pull out of the air with never any actual backup in data be at least a little credible.  I'm just 1 person but I have sold 5 condos to wealthy Chinese--who came to Thailand.  A wealthy Chinese couple owned the 12MB condo next to me in Wong Amat.  They came to Thailand--several times a year, pre-covid.   So, that's 6 already off the top of my head just from me. Just one person's experiences--in a country of 70 million.

     In another post here someone commented that all the sea facing condos at Centric Sea Condo in Pattaya  had been bought by Chinese.  That was incorrect but a number were purchased by wealthy Chinese who came to Thailand.  Just one condo project among thousands in Thailand.  Only 50 wealthy Chinese came out of nearly 11 million in 2019?  Think again.  

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, newnative said:

     Less than 50 wealthy Chinese came to Thailand in 2019?  Ridiculous.  Try to make your false statements that you pull out of the air with never any actual backup in data be at least a little credible.  I'm just 1 person but I have sold 5 condos to wealthy Chinese--who came to Thailand.  A wealthy Chinese couple owned the 12MB condo next to me in Wong Amat.  They came to Thailand--several times a year, pre-covid.   So, that's 6 already off the top of my head just from me. Just one person's experiences--in a country of 70 million.

     In another post here someone commented that all the sea facing condos at Centric Sea Condo in Pattaya  had been bought by Chinese.  That was incorrect but a number were purchased by wealthy Chinese who came to Thailand.  Just one condo project among thousands in Thailand.  Only 50 wealthy Chinese came out of nearly 11 million in 2019?  Think again.  

How did they arrive, by private jet....asking for my <deleted>zu 

[Marley01]

Big spending Chinese??

the only ones making money from these lot are the Chinese tour companies, Chinese owned hotels, Chinese owned restaurants, Chinese owned buses, Chinese owned boats and govt officials that turn a blind eye to those Chinese owners that fraudulently register their companies as thai companies.

end of rant

[Isaan sailor]

3 hours ago, malibukid said:

i have met quite a few Chinese girls here and find them more intelligent and less hung up compared to the local variety.  they are living in the 21st. century, not in feudal times.  bring them back.

Problem with eligible Chinese girls—there aren’t enough of them.  China’s one child era begat far more boys.  So many more that Chinese men seek wives in Cambodia and other poor countries in SE Asia—and it doesn’t always make a good marriage.

Of course in my biased view, you can find beautiful, intelligent girls right here in Isaan.  I believe I did.

[crazykopite]

And there was me thinking Chinese tourists have squeaky bums when they walk because they don’t like spending there money unless they think that there getting an exceptional discount 

[FarangJon]

Dont worry the rich high quality tourists from India will solve the problem and fill the hole.

[Stargeezr]

The COVID delta variant is causing spikes in many countries. or the Delta plus

or what ever the latest variant is called. I seen a news article that over 1000 people are dying in Russia

as well, and China will not show how it is doing but I doubt that the whole country is over COVID.

  Brazil is still in the pandemic as well as other countries that have not been fully vaccinated with a good

vaccine.  I doubt that this pandemic will be finished for at least 2 or 3 more years.

  The countries that have internal fighting and all out wars are not getting most of the populations 

vaccinated.  2022 and 2023 will be years of further recovery from COVID. It is good that some countries are

still restricting their people from travelling anywhere abroad.

Geezer

[spidermike007]

19 hours ago, The Cipher said:

I'm going to try and respond to this comment politely and without it coming across as a massive flex.

 

So first off, I'm just gonna quickly rattle off an uncomfortable truth for this audience by citing this Credit Suisse report that shows that China has the second highest number of USD millionaires, and the second highest number of UNHW ($50M+) individuals in the world. Second after the USA in both cases. So there are plenty of wealthy tourists hailing from the country out there.

 

People of means often behave differently than how people not in that position think that they behave. I know many forumers here think that wealth = only doing stuff like spending time on superyachts off Monaco and only dining in 3 Michelin joints, because that's what they imagine they'd do if they were in that position. The reality is usually different.

 

Think - if you're taking 3-9 leisure trips a year, do you only go to <AseanNow Rich People Approved Destinations> 3-9 times per year, year after year? No. You explore a bit more of the world. Adding to that, Bangkok is an extremely famous city and close enough to China to be a comfortable weekend trip. And you want to tell me that only less than 50 out of the millions of Chinese millionaires visited Thailand in 2019? I mean...I guess..?

 

Besides the logic laid out above, and without going into too much detail, I happen to have a bit of firsthand knowledge that I'm correct about this.

Totally off topic. We all know how much Chinese wealth there is, and we all know they are at the top of the list of average spending per day. That is average. It takes into account lavish spending by the super rich. Very, very few of them visit Thailand, and if they do, like the few rich friends of mine who have visited, they never return. I have cited the dozen main reasons in the past. 

 

Thailand has little hope of attracting rich expats or tourists, unless major reforms are undertaken, major sacrifices are made, and major fools are removed from office and positions that are supposed to represent moral authority. 

[spidermike007]

19 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

How did they arrive, by private jet....asking for my <deleted>zu 

No need to listen to nonsense. Hard to get a landing slot for a private jet here. It is likely there are more private jets and helicopters in Burkina Faso, than there are here. A very limited number of super rich fly commercial. 

[jerrymahoney]

Thanks again to the official spokesperson on AN/TV for rich people.

[Isaan sailor]

Rising Baht not a good sign for any foreigners—tourists or expats.

[AMFWolfie]

On 11/7/2021 at 1:04 AM, newnative said:

      Correction.  Not 'ALL' Centric Sea 'sea facing' condos were originally sold to Chinese.  I owned 2 sea facing units on different floors, bought before the project was completed.  The unit next to the one I lived in was owned by a Thai, another sea facing unit down the hall was owned by a European. Two side-by-side units on the floor were owned by an Indian family.  While we lived there we knew a number of non-Chinese owners with sea view units.  However, I did sell my two Centric Sea condos to Chinese buyers.  

I dare say some were not sold to Chinese but this is how the sales staff portrayed it to me but the point was based on your own sales, all to Chinese!! My point was this is traceable spending by Chinese and wonder if it a huge part of where the Thais get there figures of top spenders from and even if it is, it wont benefit local Thais in the Tourist industry that have been his hardest

[PoorSucker]

Think the CCP is reluctant to allow ordinary Chinese to travel abroad again.

They brought back ideas like democracy and unmanly behavior.

In the future we will only see members of the party travel abroad.

But the again they are the super rich.