Tourism officials say domestic visitors making up bulk of Songkran tourists

[onthedarkside]

Offensive racial slur reported/removed

[chalawaan]

Well paint me yellow and call me a canary!

We saw a video on social media, which was filmed at the Chiang Mai moat, and what a forlorn sight. 

Half-hearted revellers milling about with water guns, and the place looks no busier than a random low-season Tuesday.

 

The mob reported at KSR are all probably leaving the Kingdom by next week. 

 

Thailand had better pivot to the industries departing overpriced and unpredictable China before their neighbours take the lions share.

 

"Quality" tourists have the entire world to roam, and they tend to go for "quality" experiences! 

 

Super hazardous air pollution,  isn't a quality experience.

Edited April 16, 2023 by chalawaan

[roo860]

3 minutes ago, chalawaan said:

Well paint me yellow and call me a canary!

We saw a video on social media, which was filmed at the Chiang Mai moat, and what a forlorn sight. 

Half-hearted revellers milling about with water guns, and the place looks no busier than a random low-season Tuesday.

 

The mob reported at KSR are all probably leaving the Kingdom by next week. 

 

Thailand had better pivot to the industries departing overpriced and unpredictable China before their neighbours take the lions share.

 

"Quality" tourists have the entire world to roam, and they tend to go for "quality" experiences! 

 

Songkran, as currently presented to tourists, isn't a quality experience.

What day of Songkran was the Chiang Mai moat video posted on?

Edited April 16, 2023 by roo860

[bradiston]

1 hour ago, nigelforbes said:

I agree that "ex pats do contribute handsomely and well in proportion to their numbers", relative to the average or even majority of the population they are big spenders. The problem is, there aren't enough of them to make an economic impact, relative to their numbers, 150k vs 69 million is a very small percentage. 

 

I would hazard a guess that the average expat spend is circa 50k baht per month, big spenders don't impact the median by much. I used to spend at the same levels as you but that was back in 2006 when I lived in Phuket, today I spend 50k per month. 150k a month included rent of 35k, constantly hopping on planes here and there and pretty much spending what I wanted, when I wanted. Today, I own my own home, don't drink any longer and live more like a native, I'm also older and happier to be banking money instead of spending it - expats are aging, not getting younger. 

Talking to a Russian recent emigrée, she said it was costing her and her husband 1.5m pa for international school for her 3 daughters here. She's a long term resident now. So it comes with significant costs. Anyway, we seem to have drifted off topic slightly. TAT saying bulk of Songkran tourists are domestic - well as someone above points out, no big surprise there.

 

I do remember thinking how absurd it was to repatriate 12,000 Burmese when my understanding was, there was a massive shortage of manual workers here. But that's another story.

[Menken]

All Thais with few farang exceptions where I've been for a month.

 

Actually, I'm quite shocked at the lack of people in general. Economy must be far weaker than reported.

[nigelforbes]

23 minutes ago, chalawaan said:

Well paint me yellow and call me a canary!

We saw a video on social media, which was filmed at the Chiang Mai moat, and what a forlorn sight. 

Half-hearted revellers milling about with water guns, and the place looks no busier than a random low-season Tuesday.

 

The mob reported at KSR are all probably leaving the Kingdom by next week. 

 

Thailand had better pivot to the industries departing overpriced and unpredictable China before their neighbours take the lions share.

 

"Quality" tourists have the entire world to roam, and they tend to go for "quality" experiences! 

 

Super hazardous air pollution,  isn't a quality experience.

Perhaps at midnight it was so!

 

We drove through CM, around the moat, on Friday and Saturday, it was absolutely heaving. The concert at Maya was jam packed. I can't imagine what you saw.

[nigelforbes]

23 minutes ago, bradiston said:

Talking to a Russian recent emigrée, she said it was costing her and her husband 1.5m pa for international school for her 3 daughters here. She's a long term resident now. So it comes with significant costs. Anyway, we seem to have drifted off topic slightly. TAT saying bulk of Songkran tourists are domestic - well as someone above points out, no big surprise there.

 

I do remember thinking how absurd it was to repatriate 12,000 Burmese when my understanding was, there was a massive shortage of manual workers here. But that's another story.

We also met a Russian a couple of months ago, at a neighbours party, a nice guy but very nervous at being Russian under present circumstances. Married to a Thai, resident here for years, couple of kids, paying silly money in school fees every year at Prem International. 

 

I guess the repatriation means there's not enough work, usually it's the pother way around.

 

 

[nigelforbes]

On 4/15/2023 at 12:23 PM, nigelforbes said:

I thought the issue was domestic or international tourism estimates in the eyes of TAT, and your comments therein? The extent to which government subsidised domestic tourism programs is, I think, a different subject entirely.

 

Foreign currency exchange in itself doesn't improve GDP or the Thai economy very much at all, spending by tourists does because that puts income into the hands of the Thai consumer who then spend it to live.....that spending is known in GDP as Domestic or Consumer Consumption. Anyone can put that money into their hands, international tourists or domestic ones. International tourism does help increase BOT foreign currency reserves which in turn help strengthen the Baht. But that foreign currency doesn't serve any other purposes apart from being available to pay for imports if payment in that currency is required. This entire subject is discussed at length in the Baht Thread which I've linked below, in case you are interested.

 

Regional tourism is also discussed at length in the attached thread, there are also some charts and links showing tourists by country of origin. From memory, regional tourists account for over 74% of all International tourists, during the past year Malaysian tourists were the biggest single group. I's a fallacy to think that Western tourists are dominant or that Chinese are so today, neither is true. It's also a fallacy to think that regional (not necessarily neighbors) are major components of international tourism to Thailand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My error in the above post: "It's also a fallacy to think that regional (not necessarily neighbors) are major components of international tourism to Thailand". It should of course read, that it's NOT a fallacy to think that  regional ...... Sorry.

[bradiston]

17 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

My error in the above post: "It's also a fallacy to think that regional (not necessarily neighbors) are major components of international tourism to Thailand". It should of course read, that it's NOT a fallacy to think that  regional ...... Sorry.

Could you point me back to the figures you had for tourism spend by nationality? Such a welter of data here...

[nigelforbes]

8 minutes ago, bradiston said:

Could you point me back to the figures you had for tourism spend by nationality? Such a welter of data here...

Main website here:

http://statbbi.nso.go.th/staticreport/page/sector/en/17.aspx

 

 

Report entitled Average Expenditure of International Tourists by Expenditure Item here:

http://statbbi.nso.go.th/staticreport/Page/sector/EN/report/sector_17_11114_EN_.xlsx

 

The second one makes fascinating reading.

 

The fourth one down on the list shows type of transport used to access the country, Land, Sea or Air,  by country of origin, that may interest you.

Edited April 16, 2023 by nigelforbes

[nigelforbes]

1 hour ago, bradiston said:

Could you point me back to the figures you had for tourism spend by nationality? Such a welter of data here...

Here's an even better one, from the same site, chapter and verse of how much they all spend per day etc:

 

http://statbbi.nso.go.th/staticreport/Page/sector/EN/report/sector_17_11115_EN_.xlsx

[JimmyJ]

Tough to spend money even if one wants to.

 

All 3 Cappuccino stands closed, about 5 or 6 restaurants I've checked for delivery are closed, 1 restaurant I was glad to find open for deliveries but order cancelled due to no drivers, reordered, got a driver but then he cancelled.

 

Maybe the malls are busy - got a delivery from 1 mall restaurant, but a 2nd one I wanted is closed.

 

Perhaps in areas that attract many tourists there are stores doing well during Songkran, but in my experience the owners of businesses don't want to deal with the nuttiness and close down for the holiday.

Or they want to take off and join in.

[roo860]

5 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

Perhaps at midnight it was so!

 

We drove through CM, around the moat, on Friday and Saturday, it was absolutely heaving. The concert at Maya was jam packed. I can't imagine what you saw.

Was from Wednesday night onwards, absolutely rammed with people.

[Lashay]

You do realise those spend figures are provided by TAT and are pure politically motivated fiction? Just look at Lao spend for example 5502b per day/$870 per trip? from a country where average GDP per capita is just under $3000 per year?!?

 

 Or if you compare chinese spend  (6118b per day or $1536 per trip) to what it's regional competitors ( Vietnam, Malaysia,  Indonesia/bali) say Chinese spend ($800 to $1000) Thai figures range from 50 to 100% higher for no real reason (and really we all know the tour group Chinese, which untill covid were the majority of chinese visitors, were spending no where close to that).

 

Even the western figures are wacky, like average spend of Swiss vs Spain being nearly the same? Highly unlikely

 

 

[nigelforbes]

6 minutes ago, Lashay said:

You do realise those spend figures are provided by TAT and are pure politically motivated fiction? Just look at Lao spend for example 5502b per day/$870 per trip? from a country where average GDP per capita is just under $3000 per year?!?

 

 Or if you compare chinese spend  (6118b per day or $1536 per trip) to what it's regional competitors ( Vietnam, Malaysia,  Indonesia/bali) say Chinese spend ($800 to $1000) Thai figures range from 50 to 100% higher for no real reason (and really we all know the tour group Chinese, which untill covid were the majority of chinese visitors, were spending no where close to that).

 

Even the western figures are wacky, like average spend of Swiss vs Spain being nearly the same? Highly unlikely

 

 

You do understand what average means and how it is calculated!

 

Why not start by reading this: 

 https://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Laos/sub5_3b/entry-2955.html

Edited April 16, 2023 by nigelforbes

[it is what it is]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:59 PM, hotchilli said:

Domestic tourism and only those international ones who are already here.

Not many will make a special trip here just to squirt water.

 

agree, i've never met anyone who came to thailand specifically for songkran, i do, however, know many expats and locals that leave thailand over the songkran holiday. those figures don't get published... ????

[SoilSpoil]

I just came back from Kyoto and Tokyo and I have never seen it so busy with foreign tourists. Its booming over there, even without Chinese travellers. It took an hour to get through Narita, which usually can be done in 20 minutes or less. International travel is alive and kicking, just not in LOS, the land of smog/scams.