so it appears even the high end tourists are not enough to save the junta and their glorious economic revival.........so either

1) the strong baht is affecting the spending habits of tourists

2) there is oversupply of high end hotels and high vacancy rights

3) the high end tourists have other more stable places/non police state places to spend their wealth

4) more builders are going under or have no access to capital/funding due to investor sentiment

5) any others I missed?

.......but nothing to see here except unicorns

He said many hotel investors were worrying about the future of Thailand's tourism, due to poor growth of international arrivals this year following foreign-exchange fluctuations.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/23...ss_30046137.php

There seems to be a massive oversupply, in my view. I live in soi 11. Putting aside the condo developments that are going on in this soi, right now le fenix has opened, a five star serviced apartment complex has been finished and opens in November, and they've just started work on another Le Citadines. In one soi!

That's ignoring the new Millinnium on soi 21, a new serviced apartment short stay place that's opened on Suk Road between soi 13 and 15, a Crowne Plaza being built further up Suk Road, and god knows how many others I cant think of right now.

Enough already, people.

so it appears even the high end tourists are not enough to save the junta and their glorious economic revival.........so either

1) the strong baht is affecting the spending habits of tourists

2) there is oversupply of high end hotels and high vacancy rights

3) the high end tourists have other more stable places/non police state places to spend their wealth

4) more builders are going under or have no access to capital/funding due to investor sentiment

5) any others I missed?

.......but nothing to see here except unicorns

He said many hotel investors were worrying about the future of Thailand's tourism, due to poor growth of international arrivals this year following foreign-exchange fluctuations.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/23...ss_30046137.php

No unicorns bingo. Just commonsense. The same article talks about 50 hotels opening over the next two years. It appears that the ones you kindly highlighted were the marginal 'me too' hotels who have caught the tail end of a hotel supply upgrade.

Now there is a glut. Big deal, that is free market economics for you.

Many of these new hotels were envisaged to replace older properties nearing the end of their useful life - there are many of these along Sukhumvit.

Unfortunately, the rapidly weakening dollar make these new investments risky as tourists turn to cheaper alternatives - and in so doing actually extended the life of some of the older properties because a) they were cheaper to stay at and still tolerable, and delayed any decision to rebuild these properties.

It's just a temporary thing, though, unless the political climate gets worse and security becomes an issue. And anyhow, competition is good for the consumer.

Yes, of course, there are definitely no problems in Thailand, nothing to see here, please pass the street ...