Even The Chinese Don't Want To Come To Pattaya/ Thailand

[BugJackBaron]

Sorry to interrupt your religeous debate, but back to the topic at hand.

I took the Mrs to Pattaya recently (not sure why but I did) and stayed at a fairly new hotel on 2nd road owned by a big french hotel group. You can fill in the blanks.

The hotel was full of Chinese Tourists, 5 busloads in fact. Families and couples. The rest was mostly local Bangkokians who drove down from the weekend.

What if any conclusions I can draw from this?

When this hotel opened a couple years back it was full of farangs / locals. Based solely on my last trip, their target group has changed to Chinese Tour Groups as their primary focus. And let's face it, Pattaya isn't exactly a draw for Western couples with kids as it once was .

Reasons: Just speaking outloud but me thinks the Chinese like the place (Pattaya). It's cheap, it's a novelity to stair at eastern European girls dancing, it's close to Bangkok, and did I mention it's cheap.

Oh, and I don't envision busloads showing up on Samui or in Phuket anytime soon despite what the guy quoted in the article suggest TAT to do.

Yes, Even a couple of years ago when I took the Kho Larn trip from Pattaya beach, I remember being only one of a handful of

"white guys", the rest beng Chinese and obviously part of a group tour. They seemed to love it.

Some of the hotels at the end of Jomtien beach also seem to be "Chinese only" and may not even understand you unless you

speak Chinese or Thai

The Koreans also seem to love the group tours.

[NotNew2You]

Some of the hotels at the end of Jomtien beach also seem to be "Chinese only" and may not even understand you unless you speak Chinese or Thai

That market is so huge... investors could probably build dozens of hotels catering to mainland tours groups and keep the places filled with package tours for the next 50 years!

[Ricardo]

Note that the (excellent) table shows expenditure in Baht/per-person/per-day.

Would it be reasonable that somebody on a short-break trip from Asia might be expected to spend more per-day, than someone on a long-haul 10-day/2-week trip, because they only have a few days to shop-till-they-drop ? !

I remember seeing the Japanese/Korean 3-day-honeymoon tours in Pattaya, ferried by coach from shopping-mall to shopping-mall, in the days when I used to holiday there. I suspect that they too spent more per-day than I did on a 60-day trip.

Perhaps Baht/per-person/per-trip might therefore give a different perspective ?

[LaoPo]

Note that the (excellent) table shows expenditure in Baht/per-person/per-day.

Would it be reasonable that somebody on a short-break trip from Asia might be expected to spend more per-day, than someone on a long-haul 10-day/2-week trip, because they only have a few days to shop-till-they-drop ? !

I remember seeing the Japanese/Korean 3-day-honeymoon tours in Pattaya, ferried by coach from shopping-mall to shopping-mall, in the days when I used to holiday there. I suspect that they too spent more per-day than I did on a 60-day trip.

Perhaps Baht/per-person/per-trip might therefore give a different perspective ?

You are correct. The average stay of Eastern Asia tourists is (much) shorter than the European and therefore they indeed spend more per day than the EU tourist.

In the end the EU tourist spends more because the stay is longer.

However, it's an overall picture since about 60% of Inbound Thai tourism is from South and East Asia whilst some 25% comes from Europe. The US counts for less than 5%

LaoPo

[Ricardo]

Perhaps the TAT might therefore reach the sensible conclusion, that all tourists add to the Thai economy, and are to be encouraged, targetting different campaigns at different groups.

This used to be called 'market-segmentation', in my consumer-marketing days, I recall.

Good Heavens ! We might even rediscover that the humble backpacker can indeed be a net-benefit to the country ! Perhaps their true crime is that they don't stay in the 5-star hotels/resorts, or shop in the massive (size & price) shopping-malls, owned by senior politicians ? Surely not !