Thailand takes tentative first steps into new era of post-pandemic tourism

[Gsxrnz]

23 minutes ago, Tracyb said:

What was that famous quote from French Royalty?  Oh ya, “Let them eat cake!”

 

Now, where is “Madame Defarge” hanging out?

She's probably sitting outside a shuttered bar in WS, knitting in hand.  

 

Actually a great book, probably one of Dickens' best IMHO.  Certainly one of the greatest love stories of the ultimate sacrifice a man can make for a woman, and unrequited at that.  But apparently we are only misogynists - go figure.

[Walker88]

 

"I think the map TAT gave us at the airport is wrong. According to the map this IS Nana Plaza, but I don't see Billboard or Butterflies anywhere!"

[pomchop]

1 hour ago, bojo said:

Life outdoors more, compared to the West, less hand shaking, more waiing and plenty of mask wearing all contribute and yes, defo climate.........................................

It would be great if the rest of the world gave up shaking hands and went with a wai...never did much care to shake hands with some strange guy in a bar who had just likely returned from a toilet.

[sandyf]

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Extreme timidity and cowardice comes at a very heavy price. 

Sucked in by media rhetoric trying to mislead people into reading the GDP dropped by 80%.

Any self respecting journalist would not have put the word "plummeted" immediately after Thai GDP.

 

"Tourism, which until the pandemic accounted for up to 20 percent of the Thai GDP, plummeted from 40 million visitors in 2019 to just 6.7 million in 2020, a drop of more than 80 percent, due to Covid-19 travel restrictions."

 

8% of the 20% of GDP is domestic tourism, nothing to do with international visitors. Losing a percentage of 12% is not the "heavy" price you make out.

 

Many will be deterred from travelling globally due to fuel increases, tax increases, airline covid policies, transit covid requirements. etc etc.

Of course that will all be the result of "Extreme timidity and cowardice".

What will be your next vilification topic?

[cardinalblue]

Thailand and environmentally sustainable don't belong in the same sentence....Starting to brace for the smoking season in CM as the rice harvest has been underway for the last 2 weeks...I can now smell the smoke in the early mornings after nightly burns...

[RyanWalker]

5 hours ago, JCP108 said:

"...to advocate for a more environmentally sustainable reopening focused on fewer visitors but with greater purchasing power."

 

I still don't get what this means.

 

What we do see is that they put in place policies (Thailand Pass) to eliminate all but the most insane/motivated travelers (mostly not tourists but those of us with ties to Thailand [thus, maybe, more spending "power" while there longterm]). So, it is more "environmentally" friendly as they have discouraged so many from dealing with the hassles of tryng to get in. Fewer people trashing the beaches, I suppose. We also, so far, don't have to deal with annoying busloads of Chinese tour groups (though that's not because Thailand is wanting to keep them out as much as China not wanting them to come visit yet).

You would have to be really stupid to not know what this means. Also, the Chinese spend more money than you and your family can even dream off. Watch your mouth, it could get you in <deleted> you don't want

[Moonlover]

2 hours ago, aussiexpat said:

"Thailand’s main tourist attractions remain half empty"

 

So 90,000 "tourists" have entered this month and tourists attractions are half full? How did they handle the 3.3 Million tourists a month in 2019 if that's the case lol

Because a great many of those so called 'tourists' had no interest Thailand's traditional tourist attractions. They headed straight for the fleshpots and that's where they remained for the duration.

[Walker88]

28 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Sucked in by media rhetoric trying to mislead people into reading the GDP dropped by 80%.

Any self respecting journalist would not have put the word "plummeted" immediately after Thai GDP.

 

"Tourism, which until the pandemic accounted for up to 20 percent of the Thai GDP, plummeted from 40 million visitors in 2019 to just 6.7 million in 2020, a drop of more than 80 percent, due to Covid-19 travel restrictions."

 

8% of the 20% of GDP is domestic tourism, nothing to do with international visitors. Losing a percentage of 12% is not the "heavy" price you make out.

 

Many will be deterred from travelling globally due to fuel increases, tax increases, airline covid policies, transit covid requirements. etc etc.

Of course that will all be the result of "Extreme timidity and cowardice".

What will be your next vilification topic?

So you think the economy got the full "8% of the 20%" last year?  I'm guessing it didn't. I'm guessing domestic tourism also felt the pain.

 

Also, losing 80% of something that was 12% of GDP---even assuming they lost zero of that 8% domestic contribution--- is still a 9.6% loss of GDP, which by any economist's measure is butt ugly (a macro technical term). Toss in a temporary factory closure here and there due to a Covid cluster, and unless other parts of the economy kicked butt and took names (another macro technical phrase), DP probably took a big hit.

 

My hotel had, at times last year and this, low single digit occupancy, vs what was at least 75% in 2019. 330 odd rooms with 10 rooms occupied does not equate to biscuits and gravy (yet another macro technical term). At least it stayed open. Many hotels closed for months on end. A walk along Sukhumvit and Silom, or Beach Road and Second Road, shows lots of boarded up shops.

 

Again, unless some other part of the economy went gangbusters last year, the actual drop in GDP seems likely to have been closer to 10% (if two Quarters, that would qualify as something between a deep Recession and a Depression), rather than the meager drop the govt reports.

 

Oh, and the official figure of 2.5% UE is just silly on its face, believed by no one.

[arithai12]

This kind of threads remind me of the feeding time at the zoo.

 

Every day, one or two absolutely trite headlines, often written with an intentional spin, always the same food: TAT said here, Thailand Pass there. And every day, the usual bashing frenzy by the usual posters repeating the same things over and over again. The click counts go up, the forum is happy, the posters are happy, see you all tomorrow.

[RafPinto]

A large number of tourists in Thailand are the germans.

USA has now advised their citizens  "NOT" to travel to germany.

When will Thailand follow?

When will Germany be put on a "red list".

[khunPer]

Quote

In a report, the bank proposes an increase in average spending per tourist per trip from around $1,450 in recent pre-pandemic years to $1,810-$2,115.

The central bank argues that with higher spending, Thailand could increase income while reducing the numbers of tourists.

So it seems like it is quality tourists that are coming now...

[Will B Good]

17 minutes ago, khunPer said:

So it seems like it is quality tourists that are coming now...

Makes a change I guess from the poor quality tourists that are are usually cumming.

[sambum]

"Thailand’s main tourist attractions remain half empty"

 

Obviously not a statement from TAT! That would have read:-

 

"Thailand’s main tourist attractions remain half full"

[aussiexpat]

1 hour ago, khunPer said:

So it seems like it is quality tourists that are coming now...

Yeah, quality tourists that then have to sit in a curb to have a beer like a backpacker lol

[DefaultName]

4 hours ago, Millcx said:

There won’t be a sniff of tourists until Bars and Entertainment venues are open … do these people think we go on holiday for Temples ???

There used to be a question on the arrivals card about our reasons for visiting.  We all ticked temples, scenery, and beaches.  Who thought they'd believe it?   ????

 

[fakser]

5 hours ago, Will B Good said:

I would have put my money on that in the past....but they seem to be able to dodge the bullet each time??? Mask wearing, social distancing, climate.....who knows?

Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination

thats the big difference 

[fakser]

25 minutes ago, DefaultName said:

There used to be a question on the arrivals card about our reasons for visiting.  We all ticked temples, scenery, and beaches.  Who thought they'd believe it?   ????

 

????????????????????????????????????????

[Will B Good]

24 minutes ago, fakser said:

Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination Vaccination

thats the big difference 

Even before the vaccines they did well?? Lockdown then I guess.

[terryofcrete]

Just returned after a 4 week holiday . I was a regular 4 weeker 4 times a year before the Covid and had a mad urge to get back.

it was the most depressing experience of recent years and I longed for my departure date from Thailand to get home even to the point of trying to get home early but my fare rules made that too expensive. Every day was like a month I was so bored and going out was even more depressing looking at the empty streets and closed businesses ...Being told to finish up my Big Mac quickly as we are closing at 9 pm left me sitting on the kerbside of a deserted dark Main Street sipping my Coke...

I arrived home last night and really never want to see the place again , the way I feel right now. 
Oh , also , so many Thai Smiles, I jest.... don't think I've ever been subjected to as many attempts to rip me off as this time... they must have thought I was a tourist..... lol....
 

Edited November 24, 2021 by terryofcrete

[Will B Good]

3 minutes ago, terryofcrete said:

Just returned after a 4 week holiday . I was a regular 4 weeker 4 times a year before the Covid and had a mad urge to get back.

it was the most depressing experience of recent years and I longed for my departure date from Thailand to get home even to the point of trying to get home early but my fare rules made that too expensive. Every day was like a month I was so bored and going out was even more depressing looking at the empty streets and closed businesses ...Being told to finish up my Big Mac quickly as we are closing at 9 pm left me sitting on the kerbside of a deserted dark Main Street sipping my Coke...

I arrived home last night and really never want to see the place again , the way I feel right now. 
Oh , also , so many Thai Smiles, I jest.... don't think I've ever been subjected to as many attempts to rip me off as this time... they must have thought I was a tourist..... lol....
 

Hahaha....you should send a copy of this to TAT...

Edited November 24, 2021 by Will B Good

[gejohesch]

11 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Extreme timidity and cowardice comes at a very heavy price. 

And stupidity.

[BusyB]

11 hours ago, JCP108 said:

"...to advocate for a more environmentally sustainable reopening focused on fewer visitors but with greater purchasing power."

 

I still don't get what this means.

 

What we do see is that they put in place policies (Thailand Pass) to eliminate all but the most insane/motivated travelers (mostly not tourists but those of us with ties to Thailand [thus, maybe, more spending "power" while there longterm]). So, it is more "environmentally" friendly as they have discouraged so many from dealing with the hassles of tryng to get in. Fewer people trashing the beaches, I suppose. We also, so far, don't have to deal with annoying busloads of Chinese tour groups (though that's not because Thailand is wanting to keep them out as much as China not wanting them to come visit yet).

I've been thinking for a while watching and listening to all this unfold, is that they've got it in for the backpacker masses. Less so the 'middle income' types like me.

I really think it's the backpackers they're targeting.

[sandyf]

5 hours ago, Walker88 said:

Again, unless some other part of the economy went gangbusters last year, the actual drop in GDP seems likely to have been closer to 10%

That's about right, the government borrowed 10% of GDP to make up the shortfall, not the 80% that the article was worded to imply.

The UK government last year borrowed 15% of GDP, greater resources allows for greater borrowing.

[moe666]

11 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

OK prove that they are genuine tourists and not Thais and returning expats. 

Well then lets put the football in your end of the field, other than the hear-say on this site do you have the proof that thousands of people have returned to their second home.

[AllanB]

...the first tentative steps...until the next government announcement....tomorrow.

 

I like the optimism that the "tourist spots are half empty" ...there are no tourists anyway, they all fled last year.

[arick]

Watch Japan for some reason the virus is almost extinct. Eityb from it own mutations or other factors. Very interesting. Japan peaked two weeks ago and now at almost zero cases.  

[terryofcrete]

3 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Hahaha....you should send a copy of this to TAT...

Would enjoy doing so .... but I doubt if they would care ...probably have a good laugh at the eejit that even came to the Amazing Place....like to send it to Cha Cha Prayut  though....lol. 

[paul545]

8 hours ago, dallen52 said:

Just words.

Blah Blah Blah.

TAT regurgitation of numbers and words with little or no meaning.

Look at the TP or arrival T6's.

The majority of these people are NOT tourists.

Returning expats.

With families.

Or coming back to sell up and clear out...

I’ll be doing the last one very soon. Being away from Thailand for 2 years shown me I’m not missing much.

[terryofcrete]

1 hour ago, BusyB said:

I've been thinking for a while watching and listening to all this unfold, is that they've got it in for the backpacker masses. Less so the 'middle income' types like me.

I really think it's the backpackers they're targeting.

They have it in for Pattaya too.... will not all the bars to open.... attract the wrong kind .... just been there and it's miserable ....

[terryofcrete]

3 minutes ago, paul545 said:

I’ll be doing the last one very soon. Being away from Thailand for 2 years shown me I’m not missing much.

You are not ... just back from there and it's depressing.