Local tourists may help Thailand's tourism industry survive

[ikke1959]

26 minutes ago, johncat1 said:

Thais have different preferences. Although many seem to think Pattaya is a magical place, most Thais prefer to visit temples. So the main people who will benifit will be the monks with their tourist orientated temples. Temples often have many money making activites to extract money from misguided Thais. Local tourism will never give Thais that lucrative income they are used to. Plus it is not so easy to overcharge or scam a Thai in their own country. Most are wise to the scams used on foregn tourists   

That is shameful too... when a novice goes to temple he throws away the money because in Buddhism you don't need it. The people will help you for food and the things you need... But nowadays monks seems to have a lot of money...I could agree with it if the all the money was for the temple and the temple did good deeds with it, but apparently a lot of monks have money and they keep it....

[Xonax]

Hotels and Resorts in Thailand are priced to target wealthy foreigners - NOT Thais with a much lower income. Reduce the prices for Thais and Expats and the tourism business will be able to survive, while the Return of Investment will have to wait.

[Dialemco]

So many local holidays are a drain on the Thai economy. Local tourism does not bring into the country much needed foreign currencies nor do they pay same prices as foreigners owing duel pricing system.

[HappyExpat57]

And propecia may help me grow more hair on the top of my head.

 

Operative word may.

[ThailandRyan]

29 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

I'm not sure what a regular Thai is anymore, there were thousands of Thai tourists staying at luxury resorts on Koh Chang last Monday the 25 th. not a public holiday but could still take off time during the week, they were still pouring off the ferry at 5pm. Oh and not wearing masks.

To me a regular Thai is someone who works 6 to 7 days a week at 300 to 400 baht a day in the service sector or those that run food carts/stalls/clean houses etc.....not many if those folks can afford a 5 star hotel even at 3 star prices.  What you saw is probably folks who worked in the private sector or for the government who took an extra day off to avoid the traffic while returning home.

[newnative]

2 hours ago, joecoolfrog said:

Domestic travellers are not  tourists , they may spread a few baht around but they will not bring back 2 million lost jobs.

    Of course domestic travelers can be tourists.  You don't have to come from another country to be a tourist.  Thailand's domestic tourists have kept a lot of Pattaya's businesses open, along with their jobs, these past two covid years.  Fun fact: In 2019, Florida drew 131 million tourists.  Of that figure, only 10.9 million were foreign tourists.  I imagine Florida tourist businesses appreciate the money spent by all those domestic tourists, as should Thailand with its domestic tourists--and it's more than '...a few baht...'.

[StayinThailand2much]

7 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

They are delusional in my view, not many regular Thais have the kind of coin needed for a stay like this.  

Well, what else can they hope for, if their preferred tourists from China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia won't come?

Edited April 29, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[johnnybangkok]

6 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

They are delusional in my view, not many regular Thais have the kind of coin needed for a stay like this.  

Well someone is booking.

I'm off to Koh Samed next week and I've really struggled to get a good hotel for the whole duration. Ended up splitting the 5 days with 2 days at one hotel and 3 days at another. Not ideal but the best I could come up with.

[Sydebolle]

Well, I did, do and will do domestic travelling. I noted with distress, that cheap hotels (i.e. Korat Hotel in Nakorn Ratchasima, middle of the town, ample parking and good in-house F&B) have little to no business; we occupied one out of three rooms that night. 

Dan Kwian (15kms South of Korat), known for pottery products, featured literally hundreds of little shops offering anything you can think of; now you have less than ten which are open but equally ...... empty. 

The cross-province business enhancement allowed Thais from i.e. Udon to travel to Nong Khai and benefit of massive discounts on governmentally sponsored programmes. Bottomline was, that the Udon Thanians travelled to Nong Khai for shopping while the Nong Khaians went to Udon for shopping. Apart from wasting most likely millions of taxpayers money (as the government itself has no money) the purchase costs were increased with travelling costs. 

You ask me = domestic business keeps everyone busy but profitability is in no relation to the endeavours. 

[johnnybangkok]

1 hour ago, Time Traveller said:

Thailand is like a modern day beggar nation.   11 holidays in 4 months !!    That's crazy.  I get like 6 days per year.

Here's a tip. If Thailand is worried  about putting food in the mouths of their citizens, perhaps get rid of the ridiculous number of public holidays each year and get people to spend more time working and in other industries besides tourism.   

Only an idiot would cut off an industry's main customer base (foreigners) and then think that the way to make the industry better is through more vacation time.

Let me guess, you're American?
I give my staff 12 days holiday per year and with the 18 days (on average) public holidays per year, this is still only 30 days per year. 30 days is standard in the UK and actually quite low for the rest of Europe.

It's only Americans with their ridiculous 2 weeks per year who think this is somehow wrong.

[spidermike007]

There is a small percent of the Thai population that has alot of disposable cash. Never seen any intelligible breakdown on it. I would guess 1-2% are filthy rich, and perhaps 10% have enough money to stay in major resorts and travel alot. Will those 12% be enough to rescue the industry? They will certainly help. 

 

Unfortunately, tourism here is in for a rocky ride. Government policy has been stupid, juveline and cowardly. The industry has sustained permanent damage. You don't just open your doors again, and expect people to come flooding in, unless you are completely delusional, which no doubt most of these guys are. 

[ThailandRyan]

17 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Well someone is booking.

I'm off to Koh Samed next week and I've really struggled to get a good hotel for the whole duration. Ended up splitting the 5 days with 2 days at one hotel and 3 days at another. Not ideal but the best I could come up with.

When you get there please let us know of the Nationalities you see.  There are many Indians in the country now for weddings and they do stay at 5 star resorts and hotels.  Next week is also filled with a few days off for Government workers and those in the Private sector, but not the regular working class Thai's I spoke of.

[ThailandRyan]

16 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Let me guess, you're American?
I give my staff 12 days holiday per year and with the 18 days (on average) public holidays per year, this is still only 30 days per year. 30 days is standard in the UK and actually quite low for the rest of Europe.

It's only Americans with their ridiculous 2 weeks per year who think this is somehow wrong.

You Sir do not give your staff 12 holidays per year, they are holidays which must be honored as they are Thai holidays, if you wish to work them on those days then you must pay them overtime and then they still carry the day forward.  Not all Americans get just 2 weeks per year, they get a 2 week vacation plus the holidays, of which there are 13, and then as they work the vacation allotment grows to up to 6 weeks a year.

[mania]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

it seems the hospitality industry may have to rely on Thais to fill their rooms for the next few months.

It seems the hospitality industry does  not realize how badly the Thai population is hurting income wise

[RafPinto]

MAY survive!

 

Act of desperation.

[johnnybangkok]

31 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

You Sir do not give your staff 12 holidays per year, they are holidays which must be honored as they are Thai holidays, if you wish to work them on those days then you must pay them overtime and then they still carry the day forward.  Not all Americans get just 2 weeks per year, they get a 2 week vacation plus the holidays, of which there are 13, and then as they work the vacation allotment grows to up to 6 weeks a year.

Wrong.

 

Minimum holiday allowance in Thailand is only 6 days.   https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/8-617-6522?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true#:~:text=Employees are entitled to at,included in the following year. 

You might be getting confused with statutory public holidays which is a minimum of 13 days https://thailand.acclime.com/guides/working-hours-holidays/

 

And as far as America is concerned - 'Though many American companies gift their workers between five and 15 salaried days off per year, a recent study from the US-based Center for Economic and Policy Research found that nearly one in four private-sector workers doesn’t receive any paid vacation time. The United States is the only developed nation that treats paid time off as a perk rather than a right. While countries like Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain each offer their citizens more than 30 days off a year in annual leave and paid holidays, the United States offers… zero.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20141106-the-no-vacation-nation#:~:text=The United States is the,the United States offers… zero.

[newnative]

3 hours ago, johncat1 said:

Thais have different preferences. Although many seem to think Pattaya is a magical place, most Thais prefer to visit temples. So the main people who will benifit will be the monks with their tourist orientated temples. Temples often have many money making activites to extract money from misguided Thais. Local tourism will never give Thais that lucrative income they are used to. Plus it is not so easy to overcharge or scam a Thai in their own country. Most are wise to the scams used on foregn tourists   

     Visiting temples as a reason for touring has not been my experience with my Thai relatives.  They do merit a number of times a year at their local temple but when we, or they, have gone touring it hasn't been to visit temples--although they'll make a stop at a notable one such as the White Temple in Chiang Mai.  Instead, we have taken island trips, toured royal palaces and museums, went on boat rides, gone snorkeling, visited interesting places to shop and eat, toured historical sites, visited different cities, parks, aquariums, nature trails, etc.  

[ThailandRyan]

52 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Wrong.

 

Minimum holiday allowance in Thailand is only 6 days.   https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/8-617-6522?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true#:~:text=Employees are entitled to at,included in the following year. 

You might be getting confused with statutory public holidays which is a minimum of 13 days https://thailand.acclime.com/guides/working-hours-holidays/

 

And as far as America is concerned - 'Though many American companies gift their workers between five and 15 salaried days off per year, a recent study from the US-based Center for Economic and Policy Research found that nearly one in four private-sector workers doesn’t receive any paid vacation time. The United States is the only developed nation that treats paid time off as a perk rather than a right. While countries like Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain each offer their citizens more than 30 days off a year in annual leave and paid holidays, the United States offers… zero.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20141106-the-no-vacation-nation#:~:text=The United States is the,the United States offers… zero.

Correct I was using the statutory 13 days.

[thaibook]

On 4/29/2022 at 6:50 AM, RichardColeman said:

Thai holidays between now and the end of August.

1st May Labour Day
2nd May Labour Day Holiday
4th May Coronation of King Vajiralongkorn
13 May Royal Ploughing Day
15 May Viskha Bucha Day
16th May Viskha Bucha Day holiday
3rd June Queen Suthida’s Birthday
13 July Asahna Bucha Day
14 July Khao Phansa Day
28 July King Vajiralongkorn’s birthday
12th August Her Majesty the Queen Mother’s birthday

 

I make that that Thais will not be working 15% (allowing for a current 6 days week) of the working time from 1st May to 12th August.  5 day working week, and Thais working days in the period drops by 18% at work - sheer lunacy.

 

They need to work after a pandemic shutdown, not be drowned in public holiday spending !

You don't want them to get too tired.  Then their immune system may be compromise and the risk of catching covid increases dramatically.  Public holidays are the latest, if unstated, approach to keep covid at bay.

 

[thaibook]

3 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

That is shameful too... when a novice goes to temple he throws away the money because in Buddhism you don't need it. The people will help you for food and the things you need... But nowadays monks seems to have a lot of money...I could agree with it if the all the money was for the temple and the temple did good deeds with it, but apparently a lot of monks have money and they keep it....

Strictly speaking, a monk should not touch money.  

 

How do you tell the difference between a "real" monk and a novice - someone who is at a temple for a short while?  Some sartorial differentiation would allow to distinguish when behaviour is poor. 

[Harveyboy]

4 hours ago, joecoolfrog said:

Domestic travellers are not  tourists , they may spread a few baht around but they will not bring back 2 million lost jobs.

so give them Holliday's where many aren't paid   let them travel and spend..more on the card....credid = Debt it needs foreign cash..

[BigStar]

4 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

What overpaid official public servant came up with this astounding earth-shattering conclusion?  Such genius and insight!

As you can see from the responses here, it’s always an astounding earth-shattering conclusion to our forum members, no matter how many times they hear it. Genius and insight are relative, so here, being so unfathomable, it counts, even from a gov't official. 

 

Notice the article didn’t say “save”: that’s the typical straw man argument here. Only the great Golden Egg Layers, who built the entire Thai economy out of the jungles, could possible “save” Thailand. It says “help.” Does it help? Yup.

 

TAT: TVF (AN) has always refused to recognize domestic tourism in Thailand, though members do of course in their own countries. There for example even Londoner day-trippers to Brighton are considered domestic tourists and are in fact counted in the official domestic tourism figures. In Brighton they buy a lot of the same goods they could buy in the same shops in London. Understandable, but we hold that THAIS can’t do that, would never do that--except that they really do, of course.

 

No one doubts the economic benefits there, but—not here. Goods and services are produced and sold, hotels and restos occupied, and people employed who otherwise wouldn’t be.

 

So we may attribute the reluctance here to admit the economic benefits of domestic tourism in Thailand to the usual ubiquitous bigotry, nanny-state economic ignorance, selective perception (Thai blindness?), and simple envy of the Thai middle class, who may stay in the better hotels or their houses & condos, including with extended family members, when they stay overnight, not in one of those farang fleabags around Soi Buakhao with the Golden Egg Layers.

 

It's comforting to pretend they don't exist, even as they occupy the restos and spend in the mall shops on the weekends and holidays.

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by BigStar

[Millcx]

7 hours ago, Jerno said:

Michael, this topic has been beaten to death by TAT and other mindless Gov't officials.  Give us a break and editorialize something else, please.

100% Well Said Bud “;0)

[Cake Monster]

10 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

They are delusional in my view, not many regular Thais have the kind of coin needed for a stay like this.  

And with the rate of Inflation upon basic goods for most Folk, the people who have the Money, will have less of it.

Inflation is going to be a major headache for the Government in the near to mid term as commodities are rising seemingly out of control, which is going to affect everything in the Country.

From the cost of diesel to the cost of a house and everything in between is going to get squeezed, which in turn will affect the amount of " surplus " cash people have to spend on things such as a Holiday.

It has been my experience during my time on the Planet, that the first thing to get dropped off the spending list when things get tough , is a Holiday, closely followed by the new Car, and new TV and White Goods.

All things Thailand relies upon for a healthy economy.

[Thunglom]

7 hours ago, DUNROAMIN said:

Lets not forget rising food and fuel costs. I an seeing less and less cars on the road and people in shopping malls.

Thailand used to have nearly 40 million visitors per year = about 3.25 million per month on average.

the numbers simply don't add up.

Most tourist businesses rely on a certain level of customers to survive. They have already had to exist on nothing for 2 years. 

Some may recover or restart, but their are many that simply can't continue at the levels offered by local tourists.

These businesses extend from hotels and resorts to attractions groceries and all supply and support industries connected to tourism.

[Thunglom]

Thailand is known for having many holidays, so we have listed below the next eleven Thai holidays between now and the end of August.

1st May Labour Day
2nd May Labour Day Holiday
4th May Coronation of King Vajiralongkorn
13 May Royal Ploughing Day
15 May Viskha Bucha Day
16th May Viskha Bucha Day holiday
3rd June Queen Suthida’s Birthday
13 July Asahna Bucha Day
14 July Khao Phansa Day
28 July King Vajiralongkorn’s birthday
12th August Her Majesty the Queen Mother’s birthday

 

these are one day holidays .... Thailand's tourist industry relies on visitors staying from 2 weeks to a month or even more - few Thai people can replace this.

[Stargeezr]

The High paid Government leaders, and apparently  TAT seem to think that all Thais are as rich as they

are, and can take time off to enjoy the long weekends, etc.

  There is fantasy and there is reality, too bad the rich live in a fantasy world.

[sambum]

"The Tourism Authority of Thailand is still pinning its hopes on international tourists returning in the traditional high season starting in October."

 

Is that in addition to "dreams of", "hopes for", and all the other cliches that TAT are applying to this crisis?

 

 

 

 

[sambum]

14 hours ago, newnative said:

    Of course domestic travelers can be tourists.  You don't have to come from another country to be a tourist.  Thailand's domestic tourists have kept a lot of Pattaya's businesses open, along with their jobs, these past two covid years.  Fun fact: In 2019, Florida drew 131 million tourists.  Of that figure, only 10.9 million were foreign tourists.  I imagine Florida tourist businesses appreciate the money spent by all those domestic tourists, as should Thailand with its domestic tourists--and it's more than '...a few baht...'.

I would imagine Florida's domesic tourists have a few more coins/bills in their pockets that Thailand's!

[Dart12]

quit kicking out people who legaly apply and try to stay here who are spending plenty of cash already.