‘We want them back’: at Lunar New Year, Thailand pines for Chinese tourists

[webfact]

Novelty bathtub seats at a restaurant built to host Chinese tour groups but now empty. Photo: Vijitra Duangdee

 

● For the second year in a row, hotspots from Pattaya to Phuket and Bangkok have been starved of income as Beijing’s quarantine measures keep Chinese visitors away

 

●Some businesses have seen incomes drop 80 per cent. Pivoting to the local market offers some respite, but memories linger of the days ‘a lot of people here got rich’

 

Vijitra Duangdee

 

At a cliffside restaurant on Thailand’s Koh Larn, where squat teak dining tables overlook an empty white-sand bay, manager Sutthiea Saengsaswi says the last time Chinese tourists were around for the Lunar New Year celebrations her takings went up to around US$6,000 a day. Now they are just US$300 a day.

 

But this year, for the second year running, there are no Chinese to be seen. Strict quarantine measures Beijing has implemented ahead of the Winter Olympics as part of its zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 have kept them away.

 

From Koh Larn restaurants to cabaret shows in Pattaya – a 45 minute ferry ride away – Phuket resorts and Bangkok night markets, entire mini-economies constructed to tap what once appeared to be a bottomless pit of Chinese money have collapsed or been forced to pivot to domestic visitors.

 

Thai tourist authorities say two million Chinese tourists a year piled into Pattaya before the pandemic. Around 4,000 of them made the day trip to Koh Larn each day on package tours run with conveyor belt-like efficiency: a beach stop, a quick snorkel, souvenirs and a set meal at restaurants like Sutthiea’s workplace at the Sangwan Beach Villa.

 

Full story: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3165497/lunar-new-year-thailand-pines-its-missing-chinese-tourists

 

-- © Copyright South China Morning Post 2022-02-03

 

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[Soikhaonoiken]

But, But, the covid infection rate is on the rampage in China right now, surely you don't want the Chinese to come to Thailand right now.... 

Oh I forgot, its the money you want... at any expense.... 

[Laughing Gravy]

Currently you have no hope of this happening. Sitting here in China reading the nonsensical statements on COVID 19 and how they come in to the country on imported parcels, imported fish and imported car parts.????????.

 

You would actually think the government don't want their citizens to leave China, keeping the money at home and producing ridiculous quarantine rules of 28 days, to deter people leaving.

[steven100]

21 minutes ago, webfact said:

Now they are just US$300 a day

good ......      and NO we don't ever want the Chinese back.

[steven100]

52 minutes ago, webfact said:

tours run with conveyor belt-like efficiency: a beach stop, a quick snorkel, souvenirs and a set meal at restaurants

all they can think of is money ......      hope they all go broke ...  Lol

[timendres]

You made your bed...

[RichardColeman]

Fact : Chinese tourists are not coming back to Thailand until they abandon their zero covid policy, and that will not be this year and i seriously doubt the next 3 years either. For China to come back it will mean that their policy of zero covid does not work, and I doubt the communist party will admit defeat. It will also mean - like all those countries that shut up tighter than a duck bottom - an explosion of cases they will have to deal with.

 

 

Probably - unlike the businesses - I doubt many posters on here will miss them

 

 

[Destiny1990]

When will they express their affection for us? ????

[Chang_paarp]

Even if the Chinese government would let the great unwashed out of the country, do these vendors and the Thai government really think they will prepared to go through the ever changing rules and regulations the Thai government comes up with? There are so many other places with so much easier and stable entry requirements. 

[inThailand]

“We want them back". 

 

They really mean... we want their greenbacks, not them? 

[Mitkof Island]

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

good ......      and NO we don't ever want the Chinese back.

Spit, Pee and <deleted> everywhere why do you want them back? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[champers]

I don't understand the sneering attitudes about businesses that catered to the Chinese. Pattaya is a tourist city and businesses cater to tourists.  Nobody planned ahead for Covid.

[daveAustin]

Sensationalist tat! The title is all about what a few businesses want, not your average Thai who couldn’t give a flying one about the Chinese. The restaurant owners, etc etc meanwhile, would sell their soul to make coin. 

[realfunster]

Is this the cover photo for the new 2022 TAT strategy guide on attracting quality tourists ?

 

[StayinThailand2much]

2 hours ago, Soikhaonoiken said:

(...)

Oh I forgot, its the money you want... at any expense.... 

True. All fears seem gone once greed targets 'the Chinese', even though, by Thai logic, Americans are "6 times richer" based on the exchange rate to the Thai baht. Still, with 'the Chinese' the determining factor in tourism these days, I'm surprised that such income is still measured in "US$" and not in CNY or CNH... 

Edited February 2, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[Karma80]

51 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Fact : Chinese tourists are not coming back to Thailand until they abandon their zero covid policy, and that will not be this year and i seriously doubt the next 3 years either. For China to come back it will mean that their policy of zero covid does not work, and I doubt the communist party will admit defeat. It will also mean - like all those countries that shut up tighter than a duck bottom - an explosion of cases they will have to deal with.

 

Probably - unlike the businesses - I doubt many posters on here will miss them

Exactly. 21 days hotel & 7 days at home quarantine to return to Hong Kong. The messaging on covid is now impossible to walk back. 

And why would China reverse policy? Right now, one of the most effective economic tools is keeping spending domestic and money locked up from elsewhere.

Thailand may dream of Chinese cash all it wants. But those days could be over for the foreseeable future.

 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai tourist authorities say two million Chinese tourists a year piled into Pattaya before the pandemic. Around 4,000 of them made the day trip to Koh Larn each day on package tours run with conveyor belt-like efficiency: a beach stop, a quick snorkel, souvenirs and a set meal at restaurants like Sutthiea’s workplace at the Sangwan Beach Villa.

Ahhhhhh those were the days.

[Andycoops]

With the zero virus approach taken in china there's no hope of tourists here.

It will be a failed policy but as losing face is more important than learning to live with the virus you can kiss chinese tourists goodbye.

[RandiRona]

1 hour ago, Destiny1990 said:

When will they express their affection for us? ????

When CCP take over and they will be all ordered to report for covid testing 2 times a day!

[CartagenaWarlock]

3 hours ago, Soikhaonoiken said:

But, But, the covid infection rate is on the rampage in China right now, surely you don't want the Chinese to come to Thailand right now.... 

Covid is rampant everywhere in the West also. It is the stupidity of CCP's  zero covid policy. 

[RandiRona]

Chinese and Indian tourists are price sensitive, With these crazy rules and too many requirements , in terms of cost makes it very expensive to Chinese or Indians to come and visit. They would rather visit Vietnam, Cambodia , Indonesia or Phillipines with similar offerings. I doubt anyone coming till they remove these restriction. There is a lot that need to change if they really would like to get tourists back!

[CartagenaWarlock]

1 hour ago, Karma80 said:

Thailand may dream of Chinese cash all it wants. But those days could be over for the foreseeable future.

Heyday's of Thailand's tourist incomes are over and may take a decade to come back still India reaches half of China's median incomes. 

Edited February 3, 2022 by CartagenaWarlock

[champers]

1 hour ago, daveAustin said:

Sensationalist tat! The title is all about what a few businesses want, not your average Thai who couldn’t give a flying one about the Chinese. The restaurant owners, etc etc meanwhile, would sell their soul to make coin. 

Restaurant owners sell food and drinks.

Thousands of Thais in this city have been damaged by the absence of Chinese tourists and care deeply about the detrimental effect it has had on their lives.

[Orinoco]

Can't wait to see them licking the bus windows again in Pattaya.

 

 

[wombat]

Endemic is the new buzzword  I am looking for.

[JonnyF]

Thailand put too many eggs in the Chinese tourist basket, and now it's been dropped. No sympathy from me. 

 

As for the Chinese, they've done enough damage. Let them stay in China. 

[Willy Wombat]

Do prawns get any say in this ?

[IamNoone88]

I don't want them back. They seeded the global population with covid. It is more pleasant without them.

[warrima]

Whats the deal with the novelty bath tub seats? Looks the daftest set up ive ever seen to sit at the beach. Is that really a thing?

[Orinoco]

10 minutes ago, Willy Wombat said:

Do prawns get any say in this ?

Got to have this in this thread, the joys of the polite Chinese tourists.

Enjoy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upNbm5N8qr0&ab_channel=KatrinaCanlas

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by Orinoco