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Foreign Tourist Arrivals In Thailand Exceed Target In 2010


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Posted

Its also about the spending power of the tourist. Even the lowly backpacker is going to drop 30k plus and stay a month minimum. Those young single men from Iran and India looking??

Numbers mean little or nothing to what tourists put into an economy - or don't.

I'd take 1000 western backpackers over 4000 Indians, Iranians, Non gulf state Arabs and PRC Chinese.

I don't know about the taxi's - I've never had any serious problems but I'm not hanging out on Sukhumvhit. Taxi's in SaiTaiMai have become a headache though. All the guys up in my area save for one bad experience my gf sorted out in short order (by paying what we should have paid) have been great.

  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

17 million tourists spending money in Thailand in 2010

Well we all know this is not true, since Abhisits government tourists entering via border have to leave after 15 days instead of 30 meaning the figure will show twice as many tourists as there were before but its only the same tourist leaving and re entering.

Also the tourist visa was made free (because why? yes no tourists) so many foreigners staying or comming here longer than a couple of months have swapped to the 60 day free tourist visa if possible double entry rather than one of the other 90 day single or multiple entry visa's, thus inflated the actual number of tourists in Thailand.

Also the tourists that enter via a border have to leave in 15 days not 30 the figure does not show the fact that the tourist numbers will be up but the number of days they have stayed has dropped considerably maybe by 50%

Abhisit is misleading thais with these figures if there had been no change in the 30 day visa and back to back re entry and no change to the paid tourist visa the true number of tourists in Thailand would have been down on previous years by a considerable amount.

When Tourist have to leave in 15 days not 30 days 50% of the money they would have spent has left to,

My 1st post

Posted

http://tourism.go.th...tic/tourism.php

2010 Swampy arrivals

Jan 1,113,597

Feb 1,069,674

Mar 951,105

Apr 675,578

May 464,124

Jun 586,535

Jul 845,968

Aug 834,381

Sep 783,791

Oct 863,556

Nov 1,002,724

Dec 1,142,837

10,333,870

These figures were taken from the Tourist Police arrival report at Swampy. Only 5 million short of 15,300,000. Anybody think that 5 million arrived through Phuket and Chiang Mai? Maybe it is the same math that bars and restaurants use to total the check bin.

If you look deeper into those figures ( they will let you if you go to the headquaters and request) you will see that more than 40% of that figure are overnight stays only. They know exactly how long a visitor stays (or overstays) but the figure above is for folks who have gone through passport control while entering the Kingdom. If you compare the length of stay and chart it and compare with a chart of the Thai Baht's valuation you will see that every year floks stay less time in the Kingdom (average of 2 days 3 nights now).

The Russians, Chinese and the Arabs have kept the Kingdom's tourist and real estate industries afloat in the previous 5 years.

Posted (edited)

The world is changing, the people from Europe are finding the East a bit more expensive, when they go most are on a budget. they drink in local bars use local Amenities. that means Discos, Girly bars and 7/11s. The people from India. Korea. and the Arab states,and the Japanese, tent to go in the upper class hotels, stay together in organized groups and do not use the local Amenities. That does not mean that there are not the same amount of money spent, its just spent on the big tour operators , it does not help the local trades men/women, So maybe less people more money is spent.

Edited by Thongkorn
Posted (edited)

From a UK perspective, there is no doubt that Thailand has become much more expensive since 2008 as a result of the dive in the GBP/THB exchange rate. Prices have also increased here somewhat. I first visited (as a backpacker at that time) when the exchange rate was around 70-75 with lower prices so the value aspect here for Western tourists is way down.

Saying that, the flight I took from London to BKK (EVA Air) a few days ago was full, as have been previous ones taken (I visit the Kingdom 2/3 times per year) so clearly people are still coming here. Most of the people on the flight were Brits.

If you have a tracker mortgage and are employed, then this will have more than offset other issues such as food price inflation.

But public spending cuts and other measures to address the deficit haven't kicked in yet so it may be a somewhat different story in 12 months' time. Retirees on fixed incomes also continue to suffer from low interest rates.

My 2c.

Edited by MarkyM3
Posted

The world is changing, the people from Europe are finding the East a bit more expensive, when they go most are on a budget. they drink in local bars use local Amenities. that means Discos, Girly bars and 7/11s. The people from India. Korea. and the Arab states,and the Japanese, tent to go in the upper class hotels, stay together in organized groups and do not use the local Amenities. That does not mean that there are not the same amount of money spent, its just spent on the big tour operators , it does not help the local trades men/women, So maybe less people more money is spent.

true indeed. the number of asian tourists is huge now, and much fewer europeans. also the new herds don't speak much English or any thai, so they go on their guided tours, especially noticeable around yaowarat and sukhumvit.

Posted

another point to consider here is that someone travelling to many border countries eg cambodia would do so through thailand as it is probably the only or the cheapest way to get there. So you might have a number of people coming through the Thai airports but do they actually stay in Thailand ?

Posted (edited)
]These figures were taken from the Tourist Police arrival report at Swampy. Only 5 million short of 15,300,000. Anybody think that 5 million arrived through Phuket and Chiang Mai? Maybe it is the same math that bars and restaurants use to total the check bin.

International arrivals in Phuket in 2010 were 2.4 million for the first 9 months of the year (can't find for the full year). Huge numbers of people fly directly there from Europe and Asia. Not sure about Chiang Mai, not as much though. Samui does international as well. Add in over a million land crossings from Malaysians and you're not far off. Yeah a few of the crossings are double crossings from people who go to Cambodia or Laos and come back but the number is not that big.

Edited by DP25
Posted

This is likely the true method of calculation used by the TAT brigade, sadly. I remember peak tourist numbers of roughly 14 million being announced in the best years, and the place felt swamped, you couldn't move in nightlife areas of Phuket, Samui, Pattaya, Bangkok etc. Chiang Mai night market packed, weekend and night markets in Bangkok packed. 30 plus flights a day to Samui all full both directions. Hard to get a room in many places, even outside of high season. Now save for a high season week or 2, the place is a ghost town.

Great post! :)

Anyone who has been here a few years can attest to the above. Like Japhrodisiac says: "the place felt swamped".

It isn't anymore, no matter what TAT says.

Posted

:D

I find this hard to believe , it must be closer to 99 million this year and 333 million next year (Thai lucky numbers always work)

Posted

Ask anybody which country sends the most tourists to Thailand, and you will get every answer except the right one, Malaysia. Why there you ask?? Devout Muslims making runs up to the border to boink Thai girls ,then run back to Malaysia to become devout again...... Since they only stay at the border, as far as general tourism you can almost factor them out. Next take out the backpackers making border runs, and expats making 15 day visa runs, you will end up with a lot lower number then 15.6 million for the year.

Instead of mindless advertising campaigns, TAT should be focusing on what is wrong here in Thailand from a tourist's perspective. Every tourist that comes here and has a great time, in fact comes home and tells all his / her friends to come and visit Thailand. Every tourist that is fleeced, drugged, robbed, or clipped, will go home and tell his friends a different story......

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