Foreign Arrivals Expected To Reach 16 Million This Year

[Bagwan]

I am surprised that anybody admits to being the Governor of TAT. I thought that the Thai way was that anybody accused of holding such a post immediately initiated a costly court case against anybody making such a suggestion, particularly if the alleged Governor had had his/her fingers in the till.

[kevinc]

Quote.....The number of foreign tourists this year is expected to reach 16 million as targeted if there are no serious political disturbances nor epidemics, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

....Erm tourists coming in 16 million

tourists never coming back??

...... tourists going out 16.1 million, (Ex pats included per annum)

[timekeeper]

and who would want to visit RED Central HQ in the current political climate?

Simple question: have you ever even set foot in Chiang Mai?

Simple answer: No

[Meridian007]

and who would want to visit RED Central HQ in the current political climate?

Simple question: have you ever even set foot in Chiang Mai?

I have, and the last time I went, I almost missed my plane home to Bangkok because of red-shirted rowdies blocking the roads and scaring my girlfriend. Until "great leader for life" Takki is taken care of, I will continue to warn people about venturing to that area. I was not impressed.

If the red shirts in Chiang Mai would follow the lead of their fellows in Issan, (who are more interested in peaceful demonstration on non-Thaksin related issues that I can agree with), I think they would see their tourist numbers increase again.

I thought both sides decided to put aside their rivalries in CM to promote tourism, (there was an article about that in the middle of last year), but then the calls for murder began again in the streets and on the radio.

I don't envy the governor, he has to spin things in a positive light to convince the world that Thailand is a good, safe place to visit. In general it's true, but we need to take the violent minority of both red and yellow sides, and lock them up in a room for a weekend. (including Thaksin)

[MegaMik]

They were wrong on both counts. With all of the strife and havoc, Thailand's unemployment is a tad over 1%, significantly better than most other countries.

And how do they reach that number?There are no social benefits for unemployed ao they don't register themselves when they lose their job.

There is second to none social security so most of the employed people are not registered also.

So how do they get their figure.Maybe another of those Abac polls who interview 23 people nationwide and base their conclusions on that result?

They did NOT, they called an agency for that poll, ATT tourism for none board, 100 ppl works there but one was fired. So the numbers are real.

[animatic]

and who would want to visit RED Central HQ in the current political climate?

Simple question: have you ever even set foot in Chiang Mai?

Simple answer: No

Simple answer; many times.

Watched the 2005 election cycle first hand.

Vote buying with rice, aggressive canvassers the whole ten yards.

Recently? Not in two+ years,

and much of that is because I would

not feel safe there in the present climate.

Not for any extended visit, pop in pop out maybe.

And not if I had any schedule to keep.

[britadders28]

and who would want to visit RED Central HQ in the current political climate?

Simple question: have you ever even set foot in Chiang Mai?

I have, and the last time I went, I almost missed my plane home to Bangkok because of red-shirted rowdies blocking the roads and scaring my girlfriend. Until "great leader for life" Takki is taken care of, I will continue to warn people about venturing to that area. I was not impressed.

If the red shirts in Chiang Mai would follow the lead of their fellows in Issan, (who are more interested in peaceful demonstration on non-Thaksin related issues that I can agree with), I think they would see their tourist numbers increase again.

I thought both sides decided to put aside their rivalries in CM to promote tourism, (there was an article about that in the middle of last year), but then the calls for murder began again in the streets and on the radio.

I don't envy the governor, he has to spin things in a positive light to convince the world that Thailand is a good, safe place to visit. In general it's true, but we need to take the violent minority of both red and yellow sides, and lock them up in a room for a weekend. (including Thaksin)

people on here act as if chiang mai is a quiet little village up north with thais that are not thais but nice, non racist, non violent etc.., wake up!!! there are more drugs here than most towns in south, reds violence, selling of daughters and the last time i visited was turning into bangkok!! shit hole!!

[Steve2UK]

and who would want to visit RED Central HQ in the current political climate?

Simple question: have you ever even set foot in Chiang Mai?

Simple answer: No

Simple answer; many times.

Watched the 2005 election cycle first hand.

Vote buying with rice, aggressive canvassers the whole ten yards.

Recently? Not in two+ years,

and much of that is because I would

not feel safe there in the present climate.

Not for any extended visit, pop in pop out maybe.

And not if I had any schedule to keep.

[hammered]

and who would want to visit RED Central HQ in the current political climate?

Simple question: have you ever even set foot in Chiang Mai?

Simple answer: No

Simple answer; many times.

Watched the 2005 election cycle first hand.

Vote buying with rice, aggressive canvassers the whole ten yards.

Recently? Not in two+ years,

and much of that is because I would

not feel safe there in the present climate.

Not for any extended visit, pop in pop out maybe.

And not if I had any schedule to keep.

Conversely I find the upcountry villages that I visit less poltically divided and any climate of fear decreased if there at all. At one point just pre-coup and just after those that kind of controlled things made it uncomfortable for anyone anti-Thaksin and during election campaigns it was extremely dangerous to say anything against the man or the chosen party to the point of death threats in my experience. Now the power of those who used to control things has dwindled and a lot more open talk goes on. A lot is pro-Thaksin from the old days but there is also a lot of other stuff. Some of those who used to be such strident Thaksin supporters and even maybe enforcers are a lot softer. Village life is hard and a water shortage or storm and a harvest usually means people have to work together and forget any poltical difference. The worries I hear are more about kids having sex too young, water problems, divorce becoming a regular occurance, and financial problems. Interstingly six months ago there were PTP signs on a number of houses and there were a plethora of red TV satellite dishes. Now there arent any PTP signs and I only actually saw one red TV dish although a few of the big black ones had appeared.

Admittedly I havent been going to villages where a red "school" exists and have heard from farmers and the dudes who drive pick-ups laden with vegetables from province to province in quite an amusing descriptive style that there are places with these where people "think differently from everyone else".

[JR Texas]

Will someone please define what they mean by "foreign arrivals."

Are they including each person that lands at the airport? (Some may just be in transit)

Are they only including people who actually enter Thailand?

Thanks.

[djlest]

This new government really is struggling to impress...

Perhaps by saying 16 mil tourists are coming - they can hide the inflated fuel taxes under the rug and say it was us instead...

Did you know that Thai visa runs were only invented to pay off Cambodia's Mafia...

How else can illegal imports be paid for anonymously without tracing it back....

answer? send the farangs for 30 day border crossings...

You don't seriously think Thailand would miss out on raping us at the embassy...

[LaoPo]

Will someone please define what they mean by "foreign arrivals."

Are they including each person that lands at the airport? (Some may just be in transit)

Are they only including people who actually enter Thailand?

Thanks.

The OP article speaks about "Foreign tourists" which is a flawed and unjust remark since the statistics use every border entrance card as a (new) tourist.

I wonder what they do with statistics of Business people, visiting the country multiple times in any year.

A friend of mine form Sweden enters Thailand on his way to China at least 8-10 times a year, always staying 1 or 2 days in BKK and than off to China; same on his way back to Sweden.

That's at least 16-20 entries alone and I know he fills his cards as "tourist"

Meaning: the 16 (or even 14 million) million tourists is nonsense.

LaoPo

Edited January 7, 2010 by LaoPo

[Thai at Heart]

Will someone please define what they mean by "foreign arrivals."

Are they including each person that lands at the airport? (Some may just be in transit)

Are they only including people who actually enter Thailand?

Thanks.

The OP article speaks about "Foreign tourists" which is a flawed and unjust remark since the statistics use every border entrance card as a (new) tourist.

I wonder what they do with statistics of Business people, visiting the country multiple times in any year.

A friend of mine form Sweden enters Thailand on his way to China at least 8-10 times a year, always staying 1 or 2 days in BKK and than off to China; same on his way back to Sweden.

That's at least 16-20 entries alone and I know he fills his cards as "tourist"

Meaning: the 16 (or even 14 million) million tourists is nonsense.

LaoPo

Of course they should change the way they calculate the figures however I am sure they don't want the shock.

Until they start to differentiate from the rather broad definition of tourist, it simply proves that any "plans" the TAT have can't even be measured properly. Do they dare to really find out how many "holiday making" tourists Thailand has? 10mn? 8mn? Less? They have people managing MICE, and want to make Thailand into some kind of holisitic/health spa centre. However, the moment they talk numbers all they discuss is 16mn.

If one considers that in the last couple of years SVB opened up which should have alone caused an increase in transit numbers and people staying for a day or two before flying on (assuming these people wouldn't have chosen to transit at DMK), to see that the numbers have gone down overall prove that the Thai tourism industry isn't in the most rosy of health. And no I don't believe that it is purely economically related, the downward move started 3 or 4 years ago.

[LaoPo]

Will someone please define what they mean by "foreign arrivals."

Are they including each person that lands at the airport? (Some may just be in transit)

Are they only including people who actually enter Thailand?

Thanks.

The OP article speaks about "Foreign tourists" which is a flawed and unjust remark since the statistics use every border entrance card as a (new) tourist.

I wonder what they do with statistics of Business people, visiting the country multiple times in any year.

A friend of mine form Sweden enters Thailand on his way to China at least 8-10 times a year, always staying 1 or 2 days in BKK and than off to China; same on his way back to Sweden.

That's at least 16-20 entries alone and I know he fills his cards as "tourist"

Meaning: the 16 (or even 14 million) million tourists is nonsense.

LaoPo

Of course they should change the way they calculate the figures however I am sure they don't want the shock.

Until they start to differentiate from the rather broad definition of tourist, it simply proves that any "plans" the TAT have can't even be measured properly. Do they dare to really find out how many "holiday making" tourists Thailand has? 10mn? 8mn? Less? They have people managing MICE, and want to make Thailand into some kind of holisitic/health spa centre. However, the moment they talk numbers all they discuss is 16mn.

If one considers that in the last couple of years SVB opened up which should have alone caused an increase in transit numbers and people staying for a day or two before flying on (assuming these people wouldn't have chosen to transit at DMK), to see that the numbers have gone down overall prove that the Thai tourism industry isn't in the most rosy of health. And no I don't believe that it is purely economically related, the downward move started 3 or 4 years ago.

I really don't get it why the TAT or the Ministry of Tourism supply the press with those figures all the time and also within a short time frame with CHANGING numbers.

First they admit that tourism numbers are going down (elsewhere on this forum) and guess what: a few weeks later they present the news that tourism is going to attract 16 million tourists

I have written on several occasions to a number of agencies, trying to get hold of statistics; it's laughable because the numbers you can get access to are old and dated.

I can't think of anything else that some hi-so people want to please others or are afraid for their jobs.

LaoPo

[Thai at Heart]

I really don't get it why the TAT or the Ministry of Tourism supply the press with those figures all the time and also within a short time frame with CHANGING numbers.

First they admit that tourism numbers are going down (elsewhere on this forum) and guess what: a few weeks later they present the news that tourism is going to attract 16 million tourists

I have written on several occasions to a number of agencies, trying to get hold of statistics; it's laughable because the numbers you can get access to are old and dated.

I can't think of anything else that some hi-so people want to please others or are afraid for their jobs.

LaoPo

I wouldn't mind if they could actually give an indication as to why they believe the stats. I mean they haven't even finished the high season for this year, and yet they are already proclaiming increases for next.

We have all sat around here and noticed that the 'tourist" numbers are full of double counts, include possibly millions of visa runs, plus measuring a Cambodian bus driver coming for 10 minutes in the same way as a billionaire soccer club owner. The lack of sophistication is so evident I am amazed they bother to print this type of number anymore.

So who is this 16mn number meant to impress? The banks? The press? IATA? If we can see through the stats I am sure they saw through them donkeys years ago.

It always worries me when bureaucrats in Thailand announce numbers without any apparent public questioning or scrutiny. There have been several finance ministers who knew their stuff and were willing to joust with journalists. I can't think of anyone who has been head of TAT who can be said to have an ounce of integrity or nouse.

[LaoPo]

Here's the wonderful and exciting website of OTD.

You don't know about the OTD? ....OTD = Office of Tourist Development

Well, that's (since autumn 2008) the successor of the well known and praised TAT who do not longer publish the touristic data for inbound tourism for Thailand:

http://www.tourism.go.th/index.php?option=...0&Itemid=25

WARNING: HOWEVER, I have to warn you that if you click on E-service and than E-Library of OTD the site (or that library) has been "Hacked By Whiteroot - Ottoman - Empire".

The page above, however, shows data from 1997-2006 and -some- data for 2008 are also available; how exciting and useful info!

To ask for further info for 2009 tourism data would be too much of course but there's info for January, February and March 2009 if you like:

International Tourists Arrival (By Nationality) Year2009

resp.

Jan: -11,87%

Feb: -23,18%

March:-12,09%

all versus 2008.

Here's the link but the rest you have to download yourself if you want more details

http://www.tourism.go.th/index.php?option=...iew&id=3122

LaoPo

Edited January 7, 2010 by LaoPo

[animatic]

They put pout these ridiculous numbers because someone has told them

this is in their job description to do it. Pretense and apperances are very big here,

so giving out a good positive though spurious appearance is like about making someone

feel more confident and even if the numbers are torn apart, many won't see the tearing apart,

and just the original numbers.

So a success on one level.

[salty]

Think of a number and multiply by the size of your underpants.

[Maestro]

Quoting when replying

Thai at Heart, LaoPo, etc:

Please quote only the part of a post to which you are replying, not complete lengthy posts or even multiple nested posts. From the Forum Netiquette:

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Thank you.

--

Maestro

[moetownblues]

They must be blind fold, in Chiangmai its very easy to count the tourists .

They are not many and huge Hotels are total empty , and still the idiots are building more giant hotel complex.

This can only be so in Thailand.

So true. I fly to and from Chiangmai to Melbourne every month. I travel standard economy class 28,000 baht on Thai Airways. On my last trip a couple of weeks ago I was told that all the ecomony class seats were full and I had to upgrade to premium economy 35,000 baht. (I have no idea what the difference is as the seats and service are exactly yhe same) My seat allocated was 71D at the very rear of the plane. When checking in I was informed that my seat had been changed to 60D this was because they had down scaled the size of the plane. Anyway when we got into the air I noticed that the plane was almost empty which was good for me and a number of others as we could lay down across 3 seats and sleep. Of the passengers on the plane I noticed that most appeared to be Indian. Correct me if I am wrong but isn't BKK airport a stop over between Australia and India. I don't know where they are getting thier figures from, maybe from Thai airways as they told me my plane was full