New visa-free regime plan for Chinese tourists will see more criminal elements entering Thailand

[newnative]

10 hours ago, lordgrinz said:

They should runup a tally of money scams and criminal activity (baht losses) against how much (baht gains) they get from legitimate tourist from China. They may not like the numbers...

2019 tourist revenue from China:  543 billion baht.  They 'like the numbers'.

[IamNoone88]

32 minutes ago, newnative said:

Or, thinking without the benefit of any actual information regarding international tourist revenue.

Chinese zero dollar tours are well documented. You should read more.

[newnative]

3 hours ago, IamNoone88 said:

Chinese zero dollar tours are well documented. You should read more.

    You should learn to look at the big picture, rather than be laser-focused on a small brushstroke applied back in 2016.  If you read more, yourself, you'd know that in 2019, over 60% of the nearly 11 million Chinese visitors to Thailand were independent travelers, not in tour groups, be they budget tours or otherwise.  So, about 6.6 million independent Chinese tourists that year, a far bigger figure than any other country.  6.6 million not in your so-called zero dollar tours from years ago.  6.6 million spending their money anywhere they wanted in Thailand.  Just to be clear, the remaining 4.4 million in tour groups also contributed greatly to the Thai economy.

    Whether they were traveling independently or with groups, Chinese tourists dropped 543 billion baht in Thailand in 2019.   No other country came remotely close.  To even get into that ballpark, you would have to add the revenue from all the countries of Europe, which gives you 461 billion baht and change. 

     You can certainly choose to focus on a small segment that garnered some publicity years ago, but it doesn't reflect the importance of the Chinese tour market to Thailand.   As I said in my earlier post, it explains Thailand's actions in trying to boost the Chinese tourist numbers.  You can find the 2019 revenue figures here:  https://www.statista.com/statistics/1140714/thailand-value-of-tourist-spending-by-region-of-origin/

 

[bamnutsak]

So is that 300 baht Tourist Fee idea dead?

 

I am fairly certain the new Minister for Sport and Tourism is eager to fill up his treasure chest with foreign doubloons.

 

 

 

[impulse]

https://www.rt.com/business/582398-chinese-travel-boom-oil-prices/

[fallup88]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:01 AM, positivevibes said:

There are already ten direct flights per day from Shanghai alone, just to Bangkok.

 

Now multiply that by 100x Chinese cities and then x3 for CM, Phuket also

The number of flights haven’t resume to precovid days, and most likely won’t due to Chinas worsening economy. Hence I say there won’t be a bottle neck anytime soon. Why else would Thailand need to come up with schemes to attract Chinese tourists if it’s doing just fine.

[positivevibes]

2 hours ago, fallup88 said:

The number of flights haven’t resume to precovid days, and most likely won’t due to Chinas worsening economy. Hence I say there won’t be a bottle neck anytime soon. Why else would Thailand need to come up with schemes to attract Chinese tourists if it’s doing just fine.

I agree it's not the same as before covid, but you are overlooking the fact that China's middle class continues to grow, as has their disposable income after being locked in their slave box apartments for three years.

 

I have been fortunate to have met some Chinese tourists in CM and spoken with them, sometimes at great length about the last three years. Quite shocked by what I have learned and some of the video footage, not least that the CCP gave in to covid restrictions because people finally pushed back - nothing to do with health.

 

They also mentioned the huge pent up demand for foreign travel and Thailand is their favorite escape by a long way.