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?

[kinyara]

9 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

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.

 

I tend to agree with you having seen a notable increase of anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour in Pattaya in the last year. I don't know whether it's down to the entry relaxation, legalisation of marijuana, extension of late night drinking hours or a combination of all 3, but something has changed it for the worse.

 

I don't think the volume approach is working in Thailand's favour, it's lowering the attractiveness and quality of the main tourist areas with debatable legitimate revenue benefits. Unfortunately the country is so corrupt that I can't see the powers that be ever being capable of improving the product offering to attract a better standard of tourism. They cater to predominantly cheap mass tourism which they need to absorb a vast unskilled labour force.

 

 

 

[TroubleandGrumpy]

13 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

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.

I would not be surprised by what number TAT conjures out of thin air. They currently count all entries as tourists - including land border entries from Malaysia  and Laos and Cambodia and Myanmar.  I used to wonder why the Thai Govt does not force TAT to only count international arrivals via airports and on ships, and only those that are designated as a 'tourist' for Visa purposes - not business, workers, family, diplomats and Thais. But then I realised what I already knew - Thailand is corrupt top to bottom - of course they want the numbers to be as high as possible - to keep up the illusion that Thailand is very popular for tourists. 

 

They will never admit that they never had 39 million tourists in 2019 and it was more like 20-24 million - if you take out the 9 million border walkers and then assume that 20% of the rest (6 million) were non-tourists on business, workers, family, etc (probably more like 25%).  TAT is struggling to find new ways to keep the fake numbers up - but if they only counted international arrivals with a 'tourist' visa (or approval) it would be much much less. 

 

Plus for those that do not know, Thailand only has Tourist Visas - there are no Immigrant or any other Visa into Thailand.  Every Visa is a non-immigrant (tourist) visa - with many sub-categories - from tourism to working to family to diplomat - but they are all technically a non-immigrant tourist visa. That explanation was given by an IO during a presentation years ago but most people just ignore that reality - which in this case matters. TAT is not lying (technically) because all foreign arrivals are technically tourists - but as with all things in this country - the truth is not what it seems to be - until it all falls down on their/our heads.