Thailand Is Sleeping

[chiang mai]

I've read many reports of late about how quiet all the tourist destinations are in Thailand yet in each one there is invariably someone who claims that their location is the exact opposite. Well I've just completed a move from Chiang Mai to Phuket that involved visits to many of the tourist "hot spots" and it would be easy for me to imagine that the entire country is closed to tourists at present.

Chiang Mai has no more than a handful of westerner visitors currently, Bangkok's lower Sukhumvit was sparsely populated, Krabi and Phagna were absolutely dead, Pattaya was veerrryyyy quiet and Patong Beach contains only a fraction of the tourists generally seen there in low season. Yet despite all of that my local paper boasts that tourist arrival and international flight arrival number are up at least 17%! I know I know, journalistic license. In talking to locals in each of those places the story is the same, no farangs, no tourists no money. I know of one westerner who sells very upmarket timeshares in Laguna in Phuket who has just lost his job because they are cutting back on staff and overheads - sales have gone from 10 Mill Baht plus per month to less than 2 mill in the past three months.

All of the above makes me wonder where all of this is going to end and what will be the effect on future tourism - it's easy to lose market share but it's a lot more difficult to regain it. With both exports and tourism in trouble in Thailand the future does not look good.

[thedude]

the places you visit are typically european tourist areas. and the prime season for europeans is something like december to march.

i think the overall tourism projection for 2007 is something like 5% growth according to kasikorn research. interestingly, hey noted that regional tourism from asian neighbours will fall this year, but it will be more than compensated by increases in european and middle eastern arrivals.

i dunno about you but i was at bumrungrad hospital lately and i can certainly vouch for the middle eastern part of the argument.

[eek]

I have no idea about statistics for this, but recently I thought there was really quite an influx of young western people in CM.

I figured it was probably because of the Summer Holidays.

[LaoPo]

I've read many reports of late about how quiet all the tourist destinations are in Thailand yet in each one there is invariably someone who claims that their location is the exact opposite. Well I've just completed a move from Chiang Mai to Phuket that involved visits to many of the tourist "hot spots" and it would be easy for me to imagine that the entire country is closed to tourists at present.

Chiang Mai has no more than a handful of westerner visitors currently, Bangkok's lower Sukhumvit was sparsely populated, Krabi and Phagna were absolutely dead, Pattaya was veerrryyyy quiet and Patong Beach contains only a fraction of the tourists generally seen there in low season. Yet despite all of that my local paper boasts that tourist arrival and international flight arrival number are up at least 17%! I know I know, journalistic license. In talking to locals in each of those places the story is the same, no farangs, no tourists no money. I know of one westerner who sells very upmarket timeshares in Laguna in Phuket who has just lost his job because they are cutting back on staff and overheads - sales have gone from 10 Mill Baht plus per month to less than 2 mill in the past three months.

All of the above makes me wonder where all of this is going to end and what will be the effect on future tourism - it's easy to lose market share but it's a lot more difficult to regain it. With both exports and tourism in trouble in Thailand the future does not look good.

Your observations are indeed odd and even weird also since the HIGH - HIGH European tourist season is in full blast; so where are the tourists ?

LaoPo

[TopDogger]

I've been in Bangkok, Pattaya & Samui over the last month.. All are very quiet compared to past 5 years low seasons.

Its a combination of 4 things imo.. The baht/coup/bad press/problems in the south..

Edited July 19, 2007 by TopDogger

[Ijustwannateach]

There's an ant crawling up your back in the night time

There's an ant crawling up your back in the night time

But you think that's okay while you're sleeping

That ant crawled in your head in the night time

That ant crawled in your head in the night time

But you think that's okay while you're sleeping

Some day that ant will grow up to be President

Some day that ant will grow up to be President

But you think that's okay while you're sleeping

The President calls your name in the night time

The President calls your name in the night time

And that will spoil your dreams while you're sleeping

The man ransacked your house in the night time

Yes, the man ransacked your house in the night time

As the ant crawls up your back while you're sleeping

(They Might Be Giants)

[steveromagnino]

I've read many reports of late about how quiet all the tourist destinations are in Thailand.....

Chiang Mai has no more than a handful of westerner visitors currently, Bangkok's lower Sukhumvit was sparsely populated, .....

All of the above makes me wonder where all of this is going to end and what will be the effect on future tourism - it's easy to lose market share but it's a lot more difficult to regain it. With both exports and tourism in trouble in Thailand the future does not look good.

I work in the centre of Bangkok; tourist numbers are fine - less westerners, more Middle Easterners, Indians and East Europeans. We like them, they spend money.

The tough one is getting locals to spend at the moment when they can cheaply fly abroad and buy offshore with the exchange rate like this combined with cheap flights. Hotel occupancy numbers that i know of are doing fine BUT I only deal with a very select group of hotels, so that may be a totally biased sample.

Retail is struggling in the heart of Bangkok due to reductions in high spending Asian tourists (slight effect); major reductions in local spending on and off (minimised thanks to sales and exchange rate issues for imports which is mostly the area I am in) and somewhat offset by the growth in ME and EE tourism. Overall a flat year; in fact some are getting growth over last year, but due to hard work rather than anything else.

Phuket normally would be very quiet 'bout dis time. Lower Sukhumvit is a scum hole but seems reasonably busy; the higher exchange rate may be deterring Maguns, but still seem to be plenty of bee-otches, sluts and hos with customers in the Nana area etc etc.* Maybe the deathly quiet thing is due to the gradual reduction of Thermae service providers and subsequent migration of people interested in that sort of thing to Cambodia, Vietnam and soon to be LA ;-0

* not that i was looking, but if i was, I would have noted prices are getting higher, not lower for service prodivers, er, providers

[LaoPo]

There's an ant crawling up your back in the night time

There's an ant crawling up your back in the night time

But you think that's okay while you're sleeping

That ant crawled in your head in the night time

That ant crawled in your head in the night time

But you think that's okay while you're sleeping

Some day that ant will grow up to be President

Some day that ant will grow up to be President

But you think that's okay while you're sleeping

The President calls your name in the night time

The President calls your name in the night time

And that will spoil your dreams while you're sleeping

The man ransacked your house in the night time

Yes, the man ransacked your house in the night time

As the ant crawls up your back while you're sleeping

(They Might Be Giants)

What happened to the ant ?

LaoPo

[qwertz]

What happened to the ant ? unsure.gif

LaoPo

She went home to Uncle.

Edited July 19, 2007 by qwertz

[lannarebirth]

I don't get into the city much, but yesterday when I was in Chiang Mai, I saw many many western tourists. More than I've seen in the past few months, by far.

[true blue]

chiang mai very busy at the moment not seen so many vistors for at least 4 months