Another Fun Thai Statistic:

[danone]

http://www.komchadluek.net/breaking/read.p...en&newsid=68953

claiming that tourist arrivals increased 1.4 percent compared to the previous year so far ... ignoring that so many charter and other flights have been cancelled to mainly phuket ... proof again to be more than aware of official thai statistics ...

go ask the tourism industry yourself ... its nowhere near last year's situation ... quite upsetting how they always paint the rosy skies ... remember bird flue? didnt exist here first and people were dying away ...

[Dragonman]

http://www.komchadluek.net/breaking/read.p...en&newsid=68953

claiming that tourist arrivals increased 1.4 percent compared to the previous year so far ... ignoring that so many charter and other flights have been cancelled to mainly phuket ... proof again to be more than aware of official thai statistics ...

go ask the tourism industry yourself ... its nowhere near last year's situation ... quite upsetting how they always paint the rosy skies ... remember bird flue? didnt exist here first and people were dying away ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean there's an army of immigration clerks actually going through all those 20 million arrivals cards and entering in a computer why you're here. I'll have to take more care about where I tick next time.

[george]

Thailand way behind tourism target after tsunami

BANGKOK: -- Thailand, badly hit by the Asian tsunami last December, is well behind its target of attracting more than 13 million foreign tourists this year, Tourism Minister Somsak Thepsutin said on Thursday.

Tourist arrivals in the first half of the year rose 1.4 percent from a year earlier, but that was far below target, he said.

"We aimed to get 13.38 million tourists this year and the figures show we are still behind the target," Somsak told a Bangkok radio station. He said arrivals were running about 1.9 million behind target.

The number of tourists arriving at Bangkok airport, which accounts for 75 to 80 percent of visitor arrivals, rose to 3.86 million from 3.81 million in the same period last year, ministry data showed.

The monthly figures were choppy for the first half of this year, with January down 18.7 percent. That was just days after the December 26 tsunami killed 5,400 people and left 2,800 missing around the Andaman Sea coast at the height of the tourist season.

Arrivals rose in February and March, but slipped in April and rose in May, the data showed.

Somsak said the ministry was working on more campaigns to lure tourists from Chinese and other East Asian countries where fear of ghosts has kept many people away.

However, Europeans and American were coming in greater numbers.

The ministry would be given 700 million baht to mount campaigns if the cabinet approved a proposal at its next weekly meeting on Tuesday, Tourism Authority of Thailand chief Jutamas Siriwan said.

The campaigns would be aimed at tourists from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia who usually often during the May-October off-peak season, she said.

Several Chinese, Hong Kong and South Korean airlines have suspended flights to the resort island of Phuket, which saw a 66 percent plunge in tourist arrivals in the first half of this year, due to lack of passengers.

Thailand earned tourism revenue of about 400 billion baht last year, or 6 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Thai officials have said the country could lose about 30 billion baht in tourism revenue this year because of the tsunami.

--Reuters 2005-07-07

[The Gentleman Scamp]

How will this affect Thai's and farangs in Thailand as a whole?

Obviously coastal business will suffer but will things become cheaper or more expensive and is there anything we can do to help TAT that we are not doing already?

I want to help.

I want to do whatever it takes to improve the common Thai persons image of the farang man.

[WhiteShiva]

How will this affect Thai's and farangs in Thailand as a whole?

Obviously coastal business will suffer but will things become cheaper or more expensive and is there anything we can do to help TAT that we are not doing already?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is difficult to help people who don't want to change. If the hotels & resorts in places like Phuket had lowered their prices, even below cost, they would have been better of....... Instead, they expect to do business as usual, and complain that the tourists stay away.

I want to do whatever it takes to improve the common Thai persons image of the farang man.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Same here.

How about trying to promote Issan as a tourist destination. Plenty of things to see and do there, and the region & its people could certainly need the revenue. Probably more so than Phuket & co.

[danone]

How will this affect Thai's and farangs in Thailand as a whole?

Obviously coastal business will suffer but will things become cheaper or more expensive and is there anything we can do to help TAT that we are not doing already?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is difficult to help people who don't want to change. If the hotels & resorts in places like Phuket had lowered their prices, even below cost, they would have been better of....... Instead, they expect to do business as usual, and complain that the tourists stay away.

correct - price levels remain the same. I remember singapore airlines during the bird flue mania. could fly to europe for little over 20'000 baht. they had their machines full ...

its all money talks. thats why thais stay away from phuket - its a gangsters' biz down there.

so far thailand had always made the profits from other countries crisis'. vietnam, indonesia, cambodia - were there any problems in the neighbourhood, thailand was the profiteer.

not so this time. and they obviously dont know how to handle this.

[george]

Arrivals still well short of target

BANGKOK: -- The country is not expected to hit its tourist target of 13.4 million this year, and tourism authorities said the country has already lost Bt30 billion in tourism receipts since December’s devastating tsunami.

Tourism and Sports Minister Somsak Thepsuthin, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) executives, including governor Juthamas Siriwan, and private sector representatives this week discussed the state of tourism in the second half of the year and strategies for next year.

Somsak said tourist arrivals at Bangkok International Airport in the first half totalled 3.86 million, compared to 3.8 million in the same period last year – a rise of 1.4 per cent.

Despite the rise in Bangkok arrivals, the figures have fallen dramatically short of what was targeted.

The TAT has asked the Cabinet for an additional Bt700 million to mount promotional campaigns, in an attempt to turn things around in the second half of the year.

Ministers will consider the request when the Cabinet meets on Tuesday.

The campaigns would be aimed at tourists from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, who usually travel to the Kingdom during the May-October low season.

Since the tsunami, some Chinese, Hong Kong and South Korean airlines have suspended flights to Phuket due to a lack of passengers.

Phuket saw a 66-per-cent plunge in tourist arrivals in the first half of the year.

Apichart Sankary, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said the country’s tourism woes would be compound by the upcoming opening of Hong Kong Disneyland.

“Many Asian travellers will go to Hong Kong to experience the new magnet instead of coming Thailand,’’ Apichart said. “That means the country will receive many fewer tourists.”

To attract tourists back to Thailand, Apichart said the TAT should step up television and magazine advertising, as well as direct marketing through travel agents.

Thailand earned tourism revenues of about Bt400 billion last year – 6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

--The Nation 2005-07-08