Population Segregation Of Tourist & Expat In Pattaya

[angustan]

Dear All,

I need some numbers and figures of the breakdown of tourist and expats in Pattaya for a project and if anyone does have some numbers, it will be greatly appreciated.

Total tourist/expat in pattaya per year: 100,000

Example: Russian 30% 20,000, British 15% 10,000

Thanks all

[allane]

I would be highly surprised if this sort of information is recorded anywhere. Pattaya does not have a wall around it, with passport control for foreigners going in and out. A few observations on my part:

- I think that if you look around on-line, you may get some indication of the number of hotel rooms in Pattaya. With that, you could assume whatever occupancy rate you wanted: (65% ?), though this varies by season.

- I don't know if Immigration keeps, and is willing to release, any statistics they may have regarding foreigners on Retirement Visas. And, there is no assurance that these people are actually in Pattaya at any particular time.

- most farang in Thailand greatly overestimate the importance of themselves and their fellow farang as a component of the Thai tourist industry. We farang are obviously the most visible, but in all likelihood, we are outspent by other Asians, Middle Easterners, etc. etc.

[somtampet]

I would be highly surprised if this sort of information is recorded anywhere. Pattaya does not have a wall around it, with passport control for foreigners going in and out. A few observations on my part:

- I think that if you look around on-line, you may get some indication of the number of hotel rooms in Pattaya. With that, you could assume whatever occupancy rate you wanted: (65% ?), though this varies by season.

- I don't know if Immigration keeps, and is willing to release, any statistics they may have regarding foreigners on Retirement Visas. And, there is no assurance that these people are actually in Pattaya at any particular time.

- most farang in Thailand greatly overestimate the importance of themselves and their fellow farang as a component of the Thai tourist industry. We farang are obviously the most visible, but in all likelihood, we are outspent by other Asians, Middle Easterners, etc. etc.

The op asked how many tourists and expats,not Farangs

[gotlost]

It has always been assumed that all expats in PATTAYA are tourist.

[LennyW]

Most of the Thais in Pattaya are in-commers too!

[angustan]

thanks guys, managed to find some numbers from the thai tourism website. I do know of quite a few oil company expats frequent Pattaya and probably need to include them in the total number as well. Anyone know roughly how of many of these are around? a rough estimate will do

Cheers

[eljeque]

Did the Thai tourism website inform you how they assimilated their data?

If not, do not use it for your project.

A friend of mine tried to do a study. He found the number of Russian tourists noted here to be 800,000 in 2008. He found that number to be a bit high. He went ot the TAT office and asked how Russian tourits came here last year. He was told "We don't know." He asked about the number in the paper. The response "Oh, that number. Well, we count everytime a tourist checks into a hotel as a new arrival."

But, what if the tourist stays in Pattaya for a few days, changes hotels, and then goes to another hotel elsewhere.

"That is three tourists"

So, actually how many Russian tourists really came to Pattaya or Thailand last year?

"We don't know."

Now, I am sure that the TAT actually does know how many Russians were given tourist visas and entry permits in 2008, but instead of reporting this number, and making it available to the public, they prefer to extrapolate another higher figure.

There are lot of foreigners who live her 1/2 year on tourist visas. Are they tourists or residents?

I know many people who live here on tourist visas for many years at time, traveling to Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, etc., for visas. They are counted as tourists by the TAT, but they are residents in everything but visa.

I wish you the best of luck , and please post your findings.