Tourism Thailand's Tourism Industry Faces Pivotal Moment as Arrivals Decline

[greeneking]

1 hour ago, ronnie50 said:

I've wondered about that in other places like Bangkok too. The big question is who owns them? Is there a certain small group of people that own the majority of them? I doubt they are all individually owned by sole proprietors. Money laundering comes to mind.

It is ridiculous how many there are. And not many working within the law as it was originally understood.

Most do not even pretend to be dispensaries any more.

I would also like to know what the real game is.

[DonniePeverley]

Utter nonsense of the highest order. 

 

The inline to smash around 40 million tourists this year. Which is almost their record. 

 

Special interest groups leak these doom stories during low season every year. This year maybe it's to stimulate interest in casinos to save the day. 

 

Easing visas has allowed in mass cheap rubbish to enter the country. Crime up. Rampant anti social behaviour up. Drug fuelled violence up. Open solicitation by Indian visitors in Pattaya up. Turning into a big dump.

 

Compare to Vietnam - no crime, culture, strict rules and laws, no anti social behaviour, no drugs - you would not mess with a cop there. Strict controls still on Indians and cheap visitors. 

[terryofcrete]

19 hours ago, Reddavy said:

I do not eat what i don’t recognise and when it is still moving on your plate 🤮

 

[DonniePeverley]

These interest groups ramp up the doom every low season. Then during peak season it will be back to 'record breaking numbers'. 

 

They have let in so many cheap awful tourists they will get high numbers. But revenue will be down. Culture will be destroyed as you let in so many undesirables. 

 

Remember Europe, UK, USA could easily smash billions of tourists every year if they had the same open door visa policy as Thailand - but they chose quality tourism over mass cheap tourism.

 

No other country has adopted this ridiculous approach that Thailand has. Shameful that India doesn't even let Thai's enter their country without a soul destroying visa process. 

[kinyara]

22 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

Utter nonsense of the highest order. 

 

The inline to smash around 40 million tourists this year. Which is almost their record. 

 

Special interest groups leak these doom stories during low season every year. This year maybe it's to stimulate interest in casinos to save the day. 

 

Easing visas has allowed in mass cheap rubbish to enter the country. Crime up. Rampant anti social behaviour up. Drug fuelled violence up. Open solicitation by Indian visitors in Pattaya up. Turning into a big dump.

 

Compare to Vietnam - no crime, culture, strict rules and laws, no anti social behaviour, no drugs - you would not mess with a cop there. Strict controls still on Indians and cheap visitors. 

 

They are not in line to smash 40 million tourists this year and it will never happen while the Chinese are staying at home. No other market can generate sufficient numbers to compensate for their shortfall.

[ronnie50]

16 minutes ago, kinyara said:

 

They are not in line to smash 40 million tourists this year and it will never happen while the Chinese are staying at home. No other market can generate sufficient numbers to compensate for their shortfall.

I don't think they will hit that mark either. He's right about the unwashed masses though. It's maybe anecdotal - everything we read about the kee nok riff-raff being welcomed with open arms to try to (never) substitute the 20-30 million Chinese - but there is surely a sense that the main tourist areas like Pattaya walking street and Soi Bangla on Phuket have become horrible if not dangerous (more than ever before). The notion that Thailand can come up with some plan to attract only well-healed tourists by the millions is infantile wishful thinking.

[it is what it is]

 

did they implement the return to 30 day visa exempt entry for most western countries, or is it still 60 days?