China Officially Allows Group Tours to Resume to Thailand

[daveAustin]

24 minutes ago, charmonman said:

As I read this, one of those annoying Chinese drum bands has been playing for the last two hours in an open lot below my apartment, terrorizing the local dogs, rehearsing for Chinese New Year celebrations and preparing to unleash their godawful racket on the rest of the city I presume. A long time ago I actually admired China and Chinese culture. Now I can't stand any part of it, other than some of their food.

 

The last three years in Thailand has been quite pleasant in many ways without them.

Indeed. Firecrackers going off everywhere. Why doesn’t everyone who wants to celebrate CNY just go to China and leave the normal people in peace? Esp Chinese nationals… just stay put already. Not buying Chinese ancestry thing. Just go to Beijing and make noise and smoke and COVID! Bah humbug ????

[actonion]

With the arrival of the Chinese,  and their Viruses  lets see who the Thai Government blames for the next outbreak....

[sambum]

No more "All you can eat buffet" lunches for me!

[Darksidedude]

here we go traffic will be a nightmare again with 100s of buses to be back on the roads

[sambum]

2 minutes ago, actonion said:

With the arrival of the Chinese,  and their Viruses  lets see who the Thai Government blames for the next outbreak....

Not just the Thai Government!

 

Did any prominent Minister in any Government publicly denounce the Chinese for (probably!) unleashing Covid on the World? 

[sambum]

9 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Indeed. Firecrackers going off everywhere. Why doesn’t everyone who wants to celebrate CNY just go to China and leave the normal people in peace? Esp Chinese nationals… just stay put already. Not buying Chinese ancestry thing. Just go to Beijing and make noise and smoke and COVID! Bah humbug ????

CNY? Thought that "was" a harmony group? ????

[actonion]

2 minutes ago, sambum said:

Not just the Thai Government!

 

Did any prominent Minister in any Government publicly denounce the Chinese for (probably!) unleashing Covid on the World? 

I live in Thailand  so that is where my interests are........for now 

[thailand49]

Until ten years ago I never had a clue Chinese New Year was so popular here in Thailand.  Reason it isn't Thai N. Y. I always left for

S. F.  a day before it was celebrated quietly compared to here. I think mainly the generations today are not taught culture and tradition is dying. Home walking through Chinatown rarely can you buy a New Year T-Shirt if you do no choice I have family ordering from me to bring them back but you can get 6 Tee for 20 bucks of S. F. 

I just hope the popularity doesn't end up throwing water like Songkran????

 

[Darksidedude]

5 hours ago, jcmj said:

Well we are truly screwed right now. Not even considering the Covid infections they will bring, the roadwork in Pattaya is far from complete and once all of those buses hit the road you best get ready for complete gridlock. The traffic is horrendous as it is now without the tour buses. Just wait till they block 2nd road, beach road and Threppasit road. It’s going to be a nightmare. You’d think they would use a little common sense and wait till the roadwork is completed. Just shows their ignorance and greediness. Can’t fix stupid. 

i just cant believe how long they are taking to do threppasit road and 2nd road absolute joke

[Spilornis]

All of those countries who are requiring tests of travellers from China didn't make the twenty country list.

New Zealand made it as did Russia and South Africa.

China pressure is real.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202301/1284134.shtml

[brommers]

In theory they spend when here, in practice they are spending in Chinese owned businesses with Thai nominees and the only benefit to this country is to low paid Thai employees. All their profits go back to the Chinese owners. My partner has already instructed the security staff to deter Chinese from the business premises because they are cheapskates, argue about the bills and hunt in packs that block seating for decent tourists. They are not the only regional tourists who are not wanted but the certainly are the worst.

[Orinoco]

15 hours ago, HuskerDo2 said:

Interesting. The Chinese govt restricted travel to/from China when Covid was high around the world. Now, most of the world has recovered for the most-part yet the virus still rages in China. Even still, China drops a travel restriction thus allowing their infected people to travel and reinfect the rest of the world for a 2nd time. Too bad the Chinese govt can't be held accountable for allowing Covid to begin in the first place.  

+1 

[Stevemercer]

I notice China has allowed tour groups to New Zealand, but not to Australia. I guess that are punishing Australia for discriminating against China - requiring inbound Chinese tourists to show a negative Covid test (despite China requiring all tourists to that country to show a negative test).

[LivingNThailand]

1 hour ago, sambum said:

Did any prominent Minister in any Government publicly denounce the Chinese for (probably!) unleashing Covid on the World? 

I think Trump did.  Not sure.

[newnative]

54 minutes ago, brommers said:

In theory they spend when here, in practice they are spending in Chinese owned businesses with Thai nominees and the only benefit to this country is to low paid Thai employees. All their profits go back to the Chinese owners. My partner has already instructed the security staff to deter Chinese from the business premises because they are cheapskates, argue about the bills and hunt in packs that block seating for decent tourists. They are not the only regional tourists who are not wanted but the certainly are the worst.

     61% were traveling independently in 2019 so it's ludicrous to think that 6.7 million of the 11 million Chinese visitors were all eating and staying at Chinese-owned businesses, with no benefit to Thai businesses.  

[LivingNThailand]

Earlier today I was in a certain boutique grocery store in Phuket and the clerks were in a state of dismay, shock and disbelief .  Not Happy. And this is only day 1 for the direct flights.

[Burma Bill]

17 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Zero dollar tours? Or what? Follow the flag holder?

Yes indeed. Holiday packages which include travel, accommodation, food, sightseeing and entertainment all paid in Yuan back in China. When in Thailand, tour companies use Chinese owned businesses for their tourists???? 

[ThailandRyan]

54 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

Yes indeed. Holiday packages which include travel, accommodation, food, sightseeing and entertainment all paid in Yuan back in China. When in Thailand, tour companies use Chinese owned businesses for their tourists???? 

And the BOT and the speculators believe more money will be spent in the country by the arrivals and so the Baht becomes stronger, when in reality as you said very little will actually hit the economy and move around here.....

[Gknrd]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

The world is slowly recovering and the Chinese in their wisdom decide to allow travel during a highly infective stage of their covid - if that does not sound like a plan to destroy the world's economies again, i really do not know what does !

The demographic demise of China cannot come fast enough.  Hopefully it will take down the CCP with it. 

[VBF]

4 hours ago, Darksidedude said:

i just cant believe how long they are taking to do threppasit road and 2nd road absolute joke

Contractors on a daily rate perhaps? ????

[Sydebolle]

God help us all and Phiphat can go and close his tourism ministry, tourism authority and all other circuses under the tourism flag. 
See what happened to Sihanoukville and you'll see Thailands prime destinations devastated in no time. 

Well done, mission accomplished - unbelievable! 

[newnative]

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

And the BOT and the speculators believe more money will be spent in the country by the arrivals and so the Baht becomes stronger, when in reality as you said very little will actually hit the economy and move around here.....

    531 billion baht in 2019, the most of any country that year.

[ThailandRyan]

58 minutes ago, newnative said:

    531 billion baht in 2019, the most of any country that year.

It may have been spent here but did it get moved around in the country or was it moved back to China by the Chinese businesses.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 1/20/2023 at 9:02 PM, HuskerDo2 said:

Interesting. The Chinese govt restricted travel to/from China when Covid was high around the world. Now, most of the world has recovered for the most-part yet the virus still rages in China. Even still, China drops a travel restriction thus allowing their infected people to travel and reinfect the rest of the world for a 2nd time. Too bad the Chinese govt can't be held accountable for allowing Covid to begin in the first place.  

 

If you've been following the news, you'll notice that a couple of cities in Italy recently were COVID testing incoming Chinese arrivals at their airports, and anywhere from 25% to nearly 50% of them were testing positive for COVID upon arrival.

 

Nearly a quarter of travelers flying out of China after ‘zero COVID’ lift were positive for the disease, new report reveals

https://fortune.com/well/2023/01/17/nearly-a-quarter-travelers-from-china-covid-postive-lifting-zero-covid-cdc-who-omicron-italy-study-restrictions/

 

Nearly half of passengers from China to Milan have COVID: Italian officials

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3790837-nearly-half-of-passengers-from-china-to-milan-have-covid-italian-officials/

 

And then beyond that, lately after prodding and pressure from the WHO and others, the Chinese government recently altered their official cumulative count of Chinese COVID deaths since they dropped restrictions in early December.  Their original official number of 37 COVID related deaths now suddenly has been revised upward to nearly 60,000 during a month-plus period of time.

 

China says 60,000 people have died of Covid since early December

(CNN) - Close to 60,000 people have died of Covid in China since the country abruptly abandoned its tight “zero-Covid” policy in early December, a medical official from the National Health Commission (NHC) told a press conference in Beijing on Saturday.

 

Jiao Yahui, head of the NHC’s medical affairs department, said China recorded 59,938 Covid-related death between December 8 and January 12. Of those deaths 5,503 came from respiratory failure caused by Covid infections, and 54,435 were people infected with Covid as well as underlying diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

...

In the month after December 8, China reported only 37 deaths from local Covid cases, according to figures released on the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website – even as the outbreak has overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums amid apparent Covid surges in multiple cities.

 

(more)

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/14/china/china-covid-deaths-intl/index.html

 

Welcome to Thailand, folks!

 

 

 

 

[spidermike007]

On 1/20/2023 at 7:09 AM, daveAustin said:

They couldn’t care less. China should do the right thing: apologise and pay compensation to the rest of the world in the trillions. I would be happy for them all to P off to Venus, however. 

When is the last time you remember China doing the right thing, or behaving as a responsible world citizen? It is not within the ability of the CCP to do so, or to show any regard or respect. Just not who they are. The world should just wise up, and refuse any Chinese tourist until China can prove Covid has gone away. Zero covid was Xi's disaster and the entire policy was based on hubris, arrogance and science denial. 

[neeray]

On 1/20/2023 at 9:02 AM, HuskerDo2 said:

Interesting. The Chinese govt restricted travel to/from China when Covid was high around the world. Now, most of the world has recovered for the most-part yet the virus still rages in China. Even still, China drops a travel restriction thus allowing their infected people to travel and reinfect the rest of the world for a 2nd time. Too bad the Chinese govt can't be held accountable for allowing Covid to begin in the first place.  

I couldn't agree with you more! Trillions of dollars of damage done around the world, millions of deaths from Covid, lingering problems that will last seemingly forever, and China takes no responsibility, plus blocks investigations to determine the root cause.

[neeray]

21 hours ago, Jiggo said:

Most of the world's economy's are already distoryed before covid including  the USA in a terrible state and UK not far behind ...

FYI, Canada too.

[ThailandRyan]

Article in the paper we can not link to says they expect 5 million Chinese tourists this year and expect them to spend more than the ones who came prior to covid did. Tell me please how half of the numbers can spend more. The average was just over 6k Thb per day per traveler spent then, so that would mean they would need to spend almost 13k Thb a day during there 6 to 8 day stays, which is the average length of stay.....gotta love TAT 

[newnative]

11 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

It may have been spent here but did it get moved around in the country or was it moved back to China by the Chinese businesses.

    As I said in another post, 61% of the Chinese visitors to Thailand in 2019 were independent travelers, not in tour groups.  That's 6.7 million traveling independently, going wherever they wanted.  Staying wherever they wanted, eating at any restaurants they cared to, visiting any tourist sites, entertainments, and shopping they chose for themselves, not a tour group. 

    How does the money they spent all over Thailand end up back in China?   Would you make the same argument with the 100,000 independently traveling UK tourists in 2019?  The money they spent all ended up back in the UK?

[ThailandRyan]

12 minutes ago, newnative said:

    As I said in another post, 61% of the Chinese visitors to Thailand in 2019 were independent travelers, not in tour groups.  That's 6.7 million traveling independently, going wherever they wanted.  Staying wherever they wanted, eating at any restaurants they cared to, visiting any tourist sites, entertainments, and shopping they chose for themselves, not a tour group. 

    How does the money they spent all over Thailand end up back in China?   Would you make the same argument with the 100,000 independently traveling UK tourists in 2019?  The money they spent all ended up back in the UK?

How many UK businesses are here in Thailand versus the Chinese ones and then the illegal ones or zero dollar tours. Take a look at today's BP and give me your view.