There has been some discussion on here about tourism. I'm not sure if you are interested but we thought we'd pass along some information since we live in Hawaii and our only industry is tourism.

Since March 1st cruise ship arrivals are down about 66% which translates into approximately 20,000 tourist a month. After the first announcement informing that cruise ships were canceling those figures are not longer represented in the following percentages.

The latest figures from Hawaii Tourism Bureau are as follows: Arrivals from mainland U.S.A. are down 25%, arrivals from Asia are down 18%, we have lost 25% of the seats that are available on incoming flights due to airline bankruptcy and cancellations.

I drive a tour bus occasionally and I notice that the amount of tips have decreased about 50% and that people from the following countries- Australia, Canada, France, and New Zea land have increased because of the decline in the U.S. Currency.

What I found most interesting was that when asking people when they booked their trip almost everyone has booked 6 months to a year before and would not be traveling if they had not made a deposit on their trip.

We personally booked our trip to Chiang Mai in March. We have friends that go visit Chiang Mai on the yearly basis and are still up in the air about whether they are going to come this year in November or not.

Wilmar

Fantastic!

If only the credit crunch would come here sooner, get some of those SUV's off the road, more room for me and my bike!

It finally happened, after two years here ive finally become a stereotypical grumpy farang! Tourists! pah!, who needs em!?

Retirees are the only decent cashflow here, for the long term 'good' in my opinion. The buck(s) stops here.

If it means one more tacky theme bar shuts, one less burger joint, then god bless America!

Bring back the golden triangle!

Retirees are the only decent cashflow here, for the long term 'good' in my opinion.

Tourists are more likely to spend money freely, where many retirees are on a very limited budget. It is best to have both.

Fantastic!

. . .

It finally happened, after two years here ive finally become a stereotypical grumpy farang!

Also fantastic is that after one year on TV forum you have made your first post! Congratulations!

Fantastic!

. . .

It finally happened, after two years here ive finally become a stereotypical grumpy farang!

Also fantastic is that after one year on TV forum you have made your first post! Congratulations!

One can only hope there will be many more to come...

Retirees are the only decent cashflow here, for the long term 'good' in my opinion.

Tourists are more likely to spend money freely, where many retirees are on a very limited budget. It is best to have both.

it's true, I used to drop quite a bit of $ into Gecko books when I was single.

Now I have a wife, a house payment, a car payment and other things and now I download e-books.

Now I feel guilty, maybe i should stop by and pick up something to read tomorrow.

Thanks for the congrats on my first post, i didnt feel i was grumpy enough to post until now, but I think ive finally made it!

Ebooks, great idea! thanks. Im also at the stage of calculating the return value of my old books, and weighing that against how much a Thai earns a day here...

As for burgers.. im getting right into those little grasshoppers, great with a 30 baht beer. yum.

Only thing worse than more tourists here, are more bloody missionaries.

[edited - only kidding - well sort of. do seem to be a lot of them about though, making good cash it seems, gawd bless 'em]

Only thing worse than more tourists here, are more bloody missionaries.

Im going completely off-topic here, sorry, but that line reminded me of of something, and seeing as your in a talkative mood ( ) maybe you have an idea... what is the organisation and who are the girls (western) who walk around looking sort of nun-like (not nuns though, more like Little House on the Prairie style, with scarves on their heads and long plain dresses)?. I see them occasionally. Anyone know?

Nah... they are not in it for the honey...

Oops, a freudian typo.

like the large group of young, male, LDS types here at the moment, doing their best to "convert" young women....

Only thing worse than more tourists here, are more bloody missionaries.

[edited - only kidding - well sort of. do seem to be a lot of them about though, making good cash it seems, gawd bless 'em]

Retirees are the only decent cashflow here, for the long term 'good' in my opinion.

Tourists are more likely to spend money freely, where many retirees are on a very limited budget. It is best to have both.

it's true, I used to drop quite a bit of $ into Gecko books when I was single.

Now I feel guilty, maybe i should stop by and pick up something to read tomorrow.

Don't worry, I am an expat too and realize how hard it is to make ends meet with everything going up. We are all watching our satang.

The truth is that for most of us, tourists are what make businesses here worth doing and they really pay the rent. Expats and Thai customers help, but they are icing on the cake. As long as new tourists want to see Thailand and the old ones keep coming back, things should not get too bad.

Only thing worse than more tourists here, are more bloody missionaries.

Im going completely off-topic here, sorry, but that line reminded me of of something, and seeing as your in a talkative mood ( ) maybe you have an idea... what is the organisation and who are the girls (western) who walk around looking sort of nun-like (not nuns though, more like Little House on the Prairie style, with scarves on their heads and long plain dresses)?. I see them occasionally. Anyone know?

Me too..seems to be allot of 'em near my 'hood. Saw one woman driving a BMW so I know they're not Amish!

Are they Quakers?

Mennonites.

Yes, Mennonites. A very small cluster of them live in Hang Dong area. I am expecting a visit in a few days from friends of mine who dress like that. I suspect the ladies may be volunteer school teachers at Grace International School, but am not sure. She told me they were missionaries. Mennonites are nearly Amish and only a few of them are evangelical stereotypical Bible-thumpers. Not Quakers, but conservative Christian absolute pacifists. Like my friend, they are nearly as likely to be law-breaking human rights workers as missionaries.

But we are off topic. Tourists have more discretionary income than retirees, generally. The mix of tourists is changing, apparently. More Asians, fewer farang tourists.

I dont have anything against the missionairies really, just a rant at the easy life they seem to be living

I do like tourist also, and in my line of 'work' I see more french/continental types (and arabs) are coming at the moment, maybe its their season.

As for the Anglo/Irish tourists under 30. Grrr, bugger off to Pai!