Number Of Foreigners Moving To Thailand

[rocket2]

With the whole economic crisis thing occurring, I am wondering how tourism and foreigners moving to Thailand has been impacted. Obviously tourism has been hit quite hard but what about the long-termers and people looking to move to Thailand?

Also, just curious, have people that lost jobs in the west moved to Thailand to save money?

[anothertorres]

dude, we're not rocket scientists here, we live in Thailand and drink beer. and one thing we most certainly do NOT do is, hang out with eachother so there is no way we know what anyone else is experiencing during these trying times

[nidge]

I don't know of anyone that has moved to Thailand recently and i only know of 1 tourist that has been here in the last month. How should any of us know, unless we sit at the airport with a clipboard and pen? Why would any of us care anyway?

[bkkjames]

I don't know of anyone that has moved to Thailand recently and i only know of 1 tourist that has been here in the last month. How should any of us know, unless we sit at the airport with a clipboard and pen? Why would any of us care anyway?

hmm, perhaps those who are employed in a tourist related industry might care?

Nevermind, I was thinking outside of the box for a minute there.

[mauGR1]

I simply look around here in Koh Chang,it seems the tourist arrivals are decreasing since last year.

On the other hand i would guess that retired guys who come to live in LoS are about in the same number of the ones who are leaving.

Having a look at the votes it seems my perception is about right.

[LennyW]

I personally know of two couples (freinds of mine) who have permanently relocated to Pattaya (well, Huay Yai actually) this year, as far as they are concerned life here still beats the UK easily!!

As well as the well wishers arriving with the aforementioned couples, plenty people i know coming from Scotland, i ask them when they get here about their views on red shirts/yellow shirts etc?? none of them have heard about it/even less concerned about it??,

The No1 main concern is about the ex rate (Miserable Scottish i guess!! ), luckily some of them have had accounts here for years so they work it out between them, no problem.

[rocket2]

thanks for the answers.

My experience in Thailand was that most expats were quite friendly to each other. Seems based on the first few responses time may have changed...

I know of a few Canadian real estate agents that were looking at relocating until things approved in Canada. They had huge rents (over $2000 a month) and there savings wouldn't last them the year. Subsequently, things have picked up here as far as real estate goes so they aren't moving abroad. I assume other professions involved in construction or finance must be in the same boat and took the leap to move overseas for while. Maybe I am wrong though.

Anyways, the poll numbers are quite interesting.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

In many places people who would like to retire are unable to sell their home so don't have the funds to retire.

[anothertorres]

thanks for the answers.

My experience in Thailand was that most expats were quite friendly to each other. Seems based on the first few responses time may have changed...

sure, when you don't have a sense of humor. we're just having some fun on ya. jai yen yen, pal.

[anothertorres]

and i thought about it a little more and many of us have posted this before but... us expats seem *not* to be very friendly to eachother. i even tried to get all of us to create a campaign to at LEAST say hello to eachother when we pass eachother by on the street.

i give a smile to my fellow farang and 9/10, i get no smile back. so you might be right, times have changed...

[Pitbullman1]

I have seen a large influx of what I presume new residents to Thailand, especially when we go shopping at the Supermarkets, the farang's new wife or girlfriend looks as though she is about to give birth at any time. There are usually two-three shopping trolleys filled to the brim with shopping, steered by loads of relatives. Then at the checkout the poor white skinned farang has to open his wallet and pay for everything in cash.

What amuses me is that whenever you look at them to give them a friendly greeting, they turn their heads and pretend to go into the invisible mode. Is it because they are truly shy or have they been forewarned by their spouses not to speak to farangs? (The truth may come out schhh!)

Outside in the parking area is an old banger of a pick-up truck which the shopping is loaded onto. The Thais enter the truck leaving the poor farang to jump on board and take care of the shopping.

Edited October 17, 2009 by Pitbullman1

[lovelomsak]

dude, we're not rocket scientists here, we live in Thailand and drink beer. and one thing we most certainly do NOT do is, hang out with eachother so there is no way we know what anyone else is experiencing during these trying times

cannot see the humor sorry

[lovelomsak]

dude, we're not rocket scientists here, we live in Thailand and drink beer. and one thing we most certainly do NOT do is, hang out with eachother so there is no way we know what anyone else is experiencing during these trying times

cannot see the humor sorry

[anothertorres]

dude, we're not rocket scientists here, we live in Thailand and drink beer. and one thing we most certainly do NOT do is, hang out with eachother so there is no way we know what anyone else is experiencing during these trying times

cannot see the humor sorry

sucks to be you. you should try lightening up instead of assuming Thai Visa is going to be your intellectual depot of the day.

[TheGoodDoctor]

Westerners will just keep coming here in greater and greater numbers every year until the prices increase.

[lovelomsak]

dude, we're not rocket scientists here, we live in Thailand and drink beer. and one thing we most certainly do NOT do is, hang out with eachother so there is no way we know what anyone else is experiencing during these trying times

cannot see the humor sorry

sucks to be you. you should try lightening up instead of assuming Thai Visa is going to be your intellectual depot of the day.

I was only joking Edited October 17, 2009 by lovelomsak

[Rinrada]

I simply look around here in Koh Chang,it seems the tourist arrivals are decreasing since last year.

On the other hand i would guess that retired guys who come to live in LoS are about in the same number of the ones who are leaving.

Having a look at the votes it seems my perception is about right.

We were in K Chang 2 weeks ago and I tried hard to make the place look busy..paddys bar ...et all....just put the quietness down to quiet season...was about to have a look at the mountain water supply......but....found this

as it happens because of the floods it was Shut......

Nice wee place....

[kensingto]

Less foreigner I have seen, excluding the Asian.

[rocket2]

thanks for all the replies.

I guess the combination of the world economy and political strife have made Thailand less attractive than other regions. Are there people moving to the Isarn and other areas that are cheaper to live in rather than Pattaya?

[Lancashirelad]

Westerners will just keep coming here in greater and greater numbers every year until the prices increase.

err, they did already for many.

Take for example us English guys. 2004 say 72.8 bht v £1. 2009 say 52 bht v £1 that's a 40% rise in cost before factoring in other price rises in Thailand during that time such as hotel rates, cheese, taxi fares, etc.

[rocket2]

What about condo prices and house sales, how have these changed in the last year? Is there still construction occurring?

[cyb]

dude, we're not rocket scientists here, we live in Thailand and drink beer. and one thing we most certainly do NOT do is, hang out with eachother so there is no way we know what anyone else is experiencing during these trying times

A perfectly good question by the op (most likely directed at people who rely on tourism)

So anothertorres not a question you could in reality answer.

I have seen a marked drop in tourism over the last year or so and i think it will continue for sometime yet.

My point in the above post is that tourism promotes people thinking about moving here.

It was also somewhat a double poll re tourists and moving here.

Edited October 25, 2009 by cyb

[Birdman]

Tourism dropped by xx% since last year. That's a well known fact. It is recovering slowly.

Westerners to live here are increasing in certain areas and decreasing in others. I would say, that there are more lower and middle class farang couples now here at areas preferred by them, such as Samui, than before, but less single men.

[thaihome]

The only real fact I can go by is the number on my re-entry permit issued each year at about the same time (Oct) by the One-Stop Center over the past 5 years. As I’m sure everyone as noticed these numbers are consecutively issued and are a good indication on how many extensions have been issued through the year.

2005 – 10,XXX

2006 – 26,XXX

2007 – 27,XXX

2008 – 27,XXX

2009 – 28,XXX

Now granted these are only for people that qualify for using the One-Stop Center, so are somewhat skewed to BOI type businesses and projects. Nevertheless, you can see it has been somewhat level over the past 3 years. The downturn in late 2008 does not appear to have had any impact on the BOI type businesses or projects. For us, that is very true as we have added about 15 expats this year, taking our total up to about 40.

TH

Edited October 26, 2009 by thaihome

[TheGoodDoctor]

I wonder if all the guys spotting those signs can actually read Thai or do they just feel special taking a photo of it and coming to thai visa to show how privy they are about all things Thai.

[caf]

2 voters have said tourism has increased

do we know what province they are from; or maybe what planet

[ComicBum]

I am in the tourist business in Chiang Mai and I can tell you the market is DEAD!, everyone is suffering up here.

On the other hand I notice an increase in Farang taking up residence here,particularly families and couples.

I believe that since the advent of instance communication(internet) people (especially young) have clued-in about Thailand's increasing reputation as a 'rip-off' destination. The flip-side is that Thailand does offer good value for living compared to the (over) developed Nations of the world. Makes for a strong incentive to "wait out the (economic)storm" here and (maybe) save money to boot .