Where Are All Tourists

[givenall]

Where are all tourists in Bangkok. Starting middle of the month suddenly the Tourists vanished.

The amount of business with tourists in MBK gone down to less than 25%. This is supposed to be high season and last few years, we had many tourist but this year is really bad

[gotlost]

There not in Chiang Mai.

[Thaddeus]

Perhaps they have been swept under the carpet.

[jcgodber]

HMMMMMM... Could it be the strong Baht?????

Thailand is no longer the bargain it once was

could it be the high prices for hotels???

[JUDAS]

They are obviously in TAT holding pens, about to be unleashed at a moments notice.

[kpmsprtd]

This year's (annual) trip has been delayed. It always happened in December or January. Best case this time around will be April or May. Money.

[BB1950]

There not in Chiang Mai.

They're not in Pattaya either.

Edited October 20, 2010 by BB1950

[steelepulse]

It's October. They're all queuing up at the airports for the November 1st raising of rates for "high season". Then they'll be here by the planeload for a record year ( at least that's what TAT keeps telling everyone) .

[ozzieovaseas]

HMMMMMM... Could it be the strong Baht?????

Thailand is no longer the bargain it once was

could it be the high prices for hotels???

Even so, the Aus dollar against baht is the best its been for a long time..expect a few aussie tourists in the upcoming weeks.

[rgs2001uk]

There not in Chiang Mai.

They're not in Pattaya either.

I was in Pattaya last weekend and it was the busiest I have seen it all year.

Certainly a lot of foot traffic, dont know if they are spending money or not.

Beach Rd in the evening was full of tourists as was Walking St, the mrs says the new Central also had many people wandering around.

The big service station just outside Bkk on the way to Pattaya is an indication to me of how busy Pattaya will be, last week the traffic was backed

up on the highway waiting to get parked, parking lot full of travel coaches and not a parking space to be had, could of course been heading to Rayong or Bang Saen for all I know.

[kuffki]

They all in the airport, because according to all the figures being releases by the gov tourists arrivals are up by 30%

But on a serious note, i think Thailand will find this high season more like a low season.

All of my friends who have been coming here for 10+ years are still coming this year, but the difference is they always stay for 25 days , where now they will stay only for 10 days due to exchange rate and prices for everything being up.

If my friends are any reflection of the general attitude of the tourists then the high season ,may last 1-3 weeks if that and all over

[kuffki]

There not in Chiang Mai.

They're not in Pattaya either.

I was in Pattaya last weekend and it was the busiest I have seen it all year.

Certainly a lot of foot traffic, dont know if they are spending money or not.

Beach Rd in the evening was full of tourists as was Walking St, the mrs says the new Central also had many people wandering around.

The big service station just outside Bkk on the way to Pattaya is an indication to me of how busy Pattaya will be, last week the traffic was backed

up on the highway waiting to get parked, parking lot full of travel coaches and not a parking space to be had, could of course been heading to Rayong or Bang Saen for all I know.

Traffic yes, more people NO.

Last weekend, driving around on fri and sat night, most bars were empty at midnight.

[lonewolf99]

HMMMMMM... Could it be the strong Baht?????

Thailand is no longer the bargain it once was

could it be the high prices for hotels???

Out of sheer curiosity I enquired last month about room rates at a good ? modern ? hotel on the beach in Jomtien.

I asked for rates for November. 05th to December 01st...inclusive........I hope you are sitting down when you read this....

A small standard room.....................................62,000 Baht....Bed and American Buffet Breakfast included......1,320 quid in real money. The cheapest deal they could offer me for the smallest room.............

For those that know the area its on Soi 1 beach road and has a star in its name..........

Thailand needs to wake up to the words "Bargain" "Haggling" and forget about losing face...that belongs to another era and another world........

Nuff said..................

Edited October 20, 2010 by lonewolf99

[kuffki]

HMMMMMM... Could it be the strong Baht?????

Thailand is no longer the bargain it once was

could it be the high prices for hotels???

Even so, the Aus dollar against baht is the best its been for a long time..expect a few aussie tourists in the upcoming weeks.

Yes the $ is good but the prices are almost 30% more on everything. Just as an example, this time of the year i always fly home to OZ and for the past 5 years always paid 18000 baht for return with THAI(they always had a promo)

This year they want 33 000 baht for the same dates.

Hotels have doubled their prices to cover the bad year, bars put up price on drinks, retailers put up prices on everything. So the holiday even though exchange rate for OZ is good, but prices up, so your $ buys less

In some places its so bad to a point that i can not even laugh. Buying those sticks with meat on the street, always was 10 baht, now they want 20 baht and i speak some Thai, for a tourist they would most likely try to charge 30baht

[nocturn]

I own a rental property on Koh Phangan that is booked December through March already.

While the customer demographic has changed, the numbers are much better than last year.

oh and rates went up this year.

[Jessi]

This is part of the reason "NO TOURIST" Foreigners are fed up with all the scams in Thailand and the word is spreading....LOS = Land of scams.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

Isan economy is too flush with B.

There are Supply v Demand issues to be managed.

[JAS21]

HMMMMMM... Could it be the strong Baht?????

Thailand is no longer the bargain it once was

could it be the high prices for hotels???

Even so, the Aus dollar against baht is the best its been for a long time..expect a few aussie tourists in the upcoming weeks.

Yes the $ is good but the prices are almost 30% more on everything. Just as an example, this time of the year i always fly home to OZ and for the past 5 years always paid 18000 baht for return with THAI(they always had a promo)

This year they want 33 000 baht for the same dates.

Hotels have doubled their prices to cover the bad year, bars put up price on drinks, retailers put up prices on everything. So the holiday even though exchange rate for OZ is good, but prices up, so your $ buys less

In some places its so bad to a point that i can not even laugh. Buying those sticks with meat on the street, always was 10 baht, now they want 20 baht and i speak some Thai, for a tourist they would most likely try to charge 30baht

We were in Koh Chang last week. Stayed at a couple of the bigger hotels, however we visited White Sands Beach area and enquired as to the price at some of the smaller places.....guess what...High Season started on Oct 1st at all of them...however they were discounting due to the bad weather!! TIT

[kuffki]

HMMMMMM... Could it be the strong Baht?????

Thailand is no longer the bargain it once was

could it be the high prices for hotels???

Even so, the Aus dollar against baht is the best its been for a long time..expect a few aussie tourists in the upcoming weeks.

Yes the $ is good but the prices are almost 30% more on everything. Just as an example, this time of the year i always fly home to OZ and for the past 5 years always paid 18000 baht for return with THAI(they always had a promo)

This year they want 33 000 baht for the same dates.

Hotels have doubled their prices to cover the bad year, bars put up price on drinks, retailers put up prices on everything. So the holiday even though exchange rate for OZ is good, but prices up, so your $ buys less

In some places its so bad to a point that i can not even laugh. Buying those sticks with meat on the street, always was 10 baht, now they want 20 baht and i speak some Thai, for a tourist they would most likely try to charge 30baht

We were in Koh Chang last week. Stayed at a couple of the bigger hotels, however we visited White Sands Beach area and enquired as to the price at some of the smaller places.....guess what...High Season started on Oct 1st at all of them...however they were discounting due to the bad weather!! TIT

Just another one to make your jaw drop.

There is a new hotel in Pattaya on soi Buakao.

Anyhow, my friend from OZ called me and asked me to go see them and see if i can get 9 rooms. I thought it was a little strange, but he said i tell you the story after.

Anyhow, off i went there. Before they even greeted me, first question was "where you come from?" Which i thought was little rude and strange but answered them. With a small smile they said "Oh that is ok, how can we help"?

So i asked for 9 rooms in mid November. And no surprise yes they had 9 and not only that but pretty much any of my choice. So i said thank you, i will come back to confirm.

Here is the story behind it. When my friend called , first thing they asked him was where he was from. To be smart and get a better rate he said Israel. They told him they were fully booked and no rooms at all.

I thought it was strange, so i called them and told them i was from India-answer no rooms

Called back an hour later and said i was from Dubai-again all booked.

An hour later, i was from Israel-again all booked.

An hour later, i said Pakistan-again all was booked.

Yet the place is empty and no bookings as i could book 9 rooms of my choice for November when i was from oZ

[ukrules]

A high season without any tourists is what this country needs, maybe then they will raise prices and finally realise in a year or two that this is not a good thing to do.

Money is in short supply in the UK where quite a few of the tourists come from, lots of people have been losing their jobs every week for more than a year now.

It's not so cheap to come all the way to Thailand for a couple of weeks and it's a long / expensive flight compared to going somewhere much closer to home for Europeans. A lot of people will go to other places which are nearer, just as warm and much cheaper or skip a winter holiday completely, after all it's only a luxury that you don't really need anyway.

Based on what I've seen in the entertainment industry in England where bars and nightclubs are closing down all over the country every week due to a drastic lack of customers I don't see why the same scenario won't happen here with a slightly delayed reaction until the 'high' season starts.

[RKASA]

I hear tourism from France is a bit off as well, but then they don't have to come all the way to Thailand to smell burning tires do they.

[Ulysses G.]

I will take a lot of flack for this, but Chiang Mai tourism is building up slowly like it always does a month before the Loy Katung holiday.

Will it be a banner year? No.

The world economy is terrible and the red shirts antics did not help anything, but it looks like it will not be too bad (barring any more widespread red shirt violence) and beggars can't be choosers.

[bulmercke]

I will take a lot of flack for this, but Chiang Mai tourism is building up slowly like it always does a month before the Loy Katung holiday.

Will it be a banner year? No.

The world economy is terrible and the red shirts antics did not help anything, but it looks like it will not be too bad (barring any more widespread red shirt violence) and beggars can't be choosers.

I admire your optimism. The bars of lower Sukhumvit were fairly dead last Friday evening although things did appear to pick up later on. Maybe the rain was also a factor.

[organic]

Is it the fault of hotel / bar owners though? Friends in the business have been forced to put up their rates in bad years by their landlords upping the rents. Either that or go out of business.

[mufcsamui]

Nobody in Samui

[SpoliaOpima]

It's still low season. You won't see any substantial numbers until after 25 Nov or so, with the bulk arriving in mid Dec and maintaining high numbers through mid March. So far this for 2010 arrivals are up 14% over 2009.

[tartempion]

people are flying somewhere else:

My flight this week to Abu Dhabi has only 2 cattle class seats available: (Y2, B1) Yesterday it was zero seats and probably tomorrow again zero, who knows?

10/28/10 11:20 AM F9 A9 R4 J8 C8 D8 W6 X0 Y2 B1 H0 K0 M0 Q0 L0 V0 U0 E0 T0

But two flights Abu Dhabi to Bangkok have plenty of room in eco fares Y, B, H, K, M, Q, L, V, U, E, T and business J,C, D, W:

10/28/10 9:40 PM J9 C7 D0 W0 X0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 Q0 L0 V0 U0 E0 T0

10/29/10 8:45 AM J9 C9 D9 W9 X9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 Q9 L9 V9 U9 E9 T9

[thedistillers]

The amount of business with tourists in MBK gone down to less than 25%.

Source?

[gotlost]

It's still low season. You won't see any substantial numbers until after 25 Nov or so, with the bulk arriving in mid Dec and maintaining high numbers through mid March. So far this for 2010 arrivals are up 14% over 2009.

Source????

[bkk_mike]

Out of sheer curiosity I enquired last month about room rates at a good ? modern ? hotel on the beach in Jomtien.

I asked for rates for November. 05th to December 01st...inclusive........I hope you are sitting down when you read this....

A small standard room.....................................62,000 Baht....Bed and American Buffet Breakfast included......1,320 quid in real money. The cheapest deal they could offer me for the smallest room.............

You can stay in Hong Kong (on the island) for that sort of money...

Personally, the simple fact that I haven't seen big queues at the immigration desk when I come in to the airport means either immigration is suddenly a lot more efficient than they used to be, or there's simply a lot less tourists.

On the good side, there's a lot less touts at the airport nowadays.