Are Visitor Numbers Being Affected By The Crime Stats

[misterman21]

From what i see in and around Pattaya there seems to be healthy numbers of tourists. A lot of Russians and Asians - from where ever!

What about the traditional EU and American visitors - with the visa restrictions and property rules and soaring murder rate - surely they are down?

[tw25rw]

From what i see in and around Pattaya there seems to be healthy numbers of tourists. A lot of Russians and Asians - from where ever!

What about the traditional EU and American visitors - with the visa restrictions and property rules and soaring murder rate - surely they are down?

Personally, I'm not scared because I know the place, but when I try to encourage my parents to go there instead of Singapore (en route UK-Australia), they are put of by items in the news about crime and people needing consular assistance.

[londonthai]

with the weak £/$ and with the always rising airfare (due to fuel) the holidaymakers travel rather locally, not far from home.

pattaya is not necesserily the mirror of the thai tourism, there are more interesting and peaceful holiday destinations in thailand than pattaya

[wilko]

Pattauya is doing fine...it's just that the type of tourist is changing...the Western sex tourists etc are on the decline and will be replaced by Eastern Europeans, Korean and Chinese..........tourism is on the increase...westerners on the decline.

[asanee]

tourism is on the increase...westerners on the decline.

No. not even that. as far as the stats (of course they are not yet there for jan etc.). show, a fairly healthy in % (but less as TAT had wished) rise of also about any west-europe nation. Major decline of Malays+ those tended to do weekend visits in the troubled south. Nr of japanese is down: in fact they were by far the major nr of ''whealthy'' tourists, but theyr valuta, the JPY has also fallen considerably=it buys far less THB as before.

But of course impressions from ''my soi'' say far. far more as the plain facts. nah?

[Daffy D]

Apart from the crime figures, which are bad in any country, I would think that having to close all the bars on election days would also send a negative message.

If you were at sitting at home with your family in Farangland planning your next annual holiday would you be tempted to a country where the locals are so wild, unpredictable and uncontrolled that the government has to close all the bars incase the population goes on wild political rampaging through the streets.

D.D.

[wilko]

tourism is on the increase...westerners on the decline.

No. not even that. as far as the stats (of course they are not yet there for jan etc.). show, a fairly healthy in % (but less as TAT had wished) rise of also about any west-europe nation. Major decline of Malays+ those tended to do weekend visits in the troubled south. Nr of japanese is down: in fact they were by far the major nr of ''whealthy'' tourists, but theyr valuta, the JPY has also fallen considerably=it buys far less THB as before.

But of course impressions from ''my soi'' say far. far more as the plain facts. nah?

No such thing as "plain facts" as snyone should know who deals with stats, but my sources are newspapers from a few months ago and things change....but the long term "factless"......westerners out easterners in.

[BigSnake]

No I don't think so, most people understand that there are risks almost every where you visit.

[asanee]

Just a day or 2/3 ago the BKK-post published the nrs of INTEnational arrivals at the AOT aiirports for jan. a 8,8% RISE in total, compared to dec '07 (which traditionally is the month with the highest nr, understandably..). ALL west-europe nations on the rise, stable for US (their money buys less and less) and fall in JPnese, over the whole of 2007 also a big fall in fact for Chinese (it may surprise you, but their money also buys less THB, and there was big negative cover about ''selling '' tourgroups to guides, getting the money back by leading them to profit-sdharing shops. ALL previous assumptyions hence contradicted, I am afraid.

[Thai at Heart]

Just a day or 2/3 ago the BKK-post published the nrs of INTEnational arrivals at the AOT aiirports for jan. a 8,8% RISE in total, compared to dec '07 (which traditionally is the month with the highest nr, understandably..). ALL west-europe nations on the rise, stable for US (their money buys less and less) and fall in JPnese, over the whole of 2007 also a big fall in fact for Chinese (it may surprise you, but their money also buys less THB, and there was big negative cover about ''selling '' tourgroups to guides, getting the money back by leading them to profit-sdharing shops. ALL previous assumptyions hence contradicted, I am afraid.

Total arrivals includes transits. With our new fantastic airport hub sort of finally functioning these numbers may be scewed in terms of total airport arrivals.