When Did Thailand Become Such a tourist hotspot?

[Querentino_Spaghettino]

I have just begun to think that Bangkok is getting too crowded more than usual lol. Personally, I have noticed a massive surge of foreign faces and voices here since COVID but I would like to know all of your thoughts. For as long as you have lived in or visited Thailand, when have you noticed that Thailand has just become a place that draws in so many people? 

[JoseThailand]

Bangkok has always been crowded. Even before covid it was the most visited city in the world (in terms of overnight stays).

[newbee2022]

15 hours ago, Querentino_Spaghettino said:

I have just begun to think that Bangkok is getting too crowded more than usual lol. Personally, I have noticed a massive surge of foreign faces and voices here since COVID but I would like to know all of your thoughts. For as long as you have lived in or visited Thailand, when have you noticed that Thailand has just become a place that draws in so many people? 

With the GIs invading the girls.

[Peterphuket]

Well, it is rated lower than you might think, and with the Tax payments, it will probably move further down the list.

[Thingamabob]

The late 1960s/early 1970s. Before than it was delightful.

[ChaiyaTH]

Because of sex R&R of the americans.

[Acharn]

12 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

With the GIs invading the girls.

No, it was a few years later, after Vietnam ended. I'd guess during the '90s, but the World Bank study recommending they take advantage of the sex trade to lure tourists was back in the '50s. It didn't really take off until after the GIs left. I guess they spread the word.

Edited May 30 by Acharn

[geisha]

First came in 1984 , Bangkok was absolutely nothing like today, no malls etc. The north was great, went tracking with a guide, fantastic, really welcomed in the villages,  they fed us and looked after us.  Hardly saw any foreigners, except one boat that overtook us , they were Germans and had armed guards !!! We walked through poppy fields after Lek our guide had a word with some men. Great trip. Then flew to Phuket where the airport was quite ancient , no technology like elsewhere. It was beautiful , stayed on Kata beach and lodged in Chaukuan bungalows right on the beach front, the owner Ott is still my best friend today  . Wonderful Thais with whom we spent every day and went fishing etc.  Went to Krabi and the islands, Phi Phi, Koh Samui etc.  I loved our 2 months there so much that I became a snowbird, spending my French winters in Thailand. Eventually moved away , after the Tsunami. For me, that’s when it all went downhill. Now it’s an overcrowded Benidorm traffic disappointment. Moved to Hua Hin, then to Jomtien, which to my great surprise I liked !! Different of course. I miss the once beautiful scenery of Phuket but I’d never go back to live there, I pop down just to see my friends. Of all the Europeans , only one friend is left. My Thai friends very well off and long retired.

[stoner]

13 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Before than it was delightful.

 

great gran papi is that you ?

[rattlesnake]

I have noticed it too. The current government has decided to flood the country with foreign money to compensate the Covid disaster. Exactly how this will benefit the average Thai remains to be seen, the "trickle-down effect" seldom works, it didn't work in the West (which partly explains why an increasing number of impoverished Western middle-class people are seeking to live in cheaper places like Thailand… it's a vicious cycle).

[JoseThailand]

15 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

The late 1960s/early 1970s. Before than it was delightful.

 

Tell us how you enjoyed it

[bendejo]

It was the VN war that put it on the map, US military guys returning with tales of sensual adventures and knock-out marijuana in LOS.  There was a movie (French, I think) called Emmanuelle that pushed the reputation of it being a flesh pit.  The word backpacker (for such travellers) wasn't used yet, and there were a lot of young people doing the overland route through Asia travelling from Oz and NZ to UK, and back.  Even then, Bkk was known as one of the best places in the world for cheap air tickets -- maybe it has changed now, but it was not possible to cross into Burma (now Myanmar) by land.

The mid-1980s or so amped up the backpacker thing; there was no KSR before then, most of the cheap places to stay were around Hualumpong, but there was nothing like what KSR has become. 

Something else that happened in the 1980s was Nepal became a big sports-adventure destination, offering white-water rafting, which I don't recall being offered in the 1970s.  I suspect a lot of people flew into Katmandu via BKK.

 

 

[susanlea]

I visited Khao San last month. It wasn't very busy. I stayed about 20 minutes north of there and hardly saw any tourists. In Hua Hin I only saw lots of tourists in the night markets. Many of the beaches there were hardly any. Mid year Thailand is quiet mostly outside a few popular spots. In Bangkok it is so easy to avoid tourists. Anywhere from 500m north of Khao San to Don Muang you won't see many at all.