Thailand Tourist Arrivals To Hit 20 Million This Year

[ginjag]

I wonder what planes they are using now...!?

Another 5 million tourists (for the rest of the high season) on the "remaining" 900 flights is roughly equivalent to 5500 people per flight??

Or are they coming in suitcases now too?

To be fair he did say charter flights rather than scheduled flights or buses, taxis, walk in, etc.

No matter !! All the taxis we work with have confirmed that CM was totally dead in Sept and even now Mid OCTOBER .. except for the backpackers who yes have been here in numbers at the 300 -400 Baht hotels ... but not big spenders at all and not good buss for the taxis or songtows at all ..ACCORDING TO THE TAXIS!!

All the increased tourists are the ones that responded to the ( up to 80%off goods in BKKsD.stores) ( OTOP goods) and the new Miracle Thailand promotion this year. It must have attracted a few more mil shoppers.

paying 80,000 bht airfare this was common sense.???? just see what the tourism promotion did for trade 3 cheers for TAT.

[firestar]

Bar and restaurant owners always seem to forget there are dozens of new bars and restaurants just like theirs opening everywhere.

I was in Ao nang not so long ago and the pizza restaurant owner was complaining about customer numbers being down, etc. I counted TWELVE pizza restaurants on that street, not so long ago there was two.

5 or 6 years ago how many international hotel chains in Pattaya? how many now? The city has doubled in size, head up to Buddha Hill see for yourself, and on every street bar bar restaurant bar restaurant.....

Few years ago you would see a few expats in soi buakhao but you barely saw a tourist past second road, now you see them all the way to Sattahip, on baht buses, scooters, walking along the road...

In Samui and Phuket it's the same situation new resorts and restaurants opening daily.

Everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Thai bashing is some posters favorite past time, but honestly I don't see how anybody can say with a strait face tourist numbers aren't significantly higher. If small business owner (of which I am one) want to know why it's getting harder they should look at the competition.

Edited October 15, 2012 by firestar

[IsaanUSA]

^ 100% exactly correct firestar. Nobody seems to understand how competition works.

[KKvampire]

As ever thai b*****t hype by the same b*****t government

Sent from my LG-P350 using Thaivisa Connect App

[frankold]

frankold, on 2012-10-15 10:44:20, said:

To be fair he did say charter flights rather than scheduled flights or buses, taxis, walk in, etc.

Really..??

So you can pick out where the word(s) 'charter flight' are mentioned in the original article can you??

What I see is:

"He said the number of tourists will reach the targeted 20 million, as the last quarter is the high season period, and 900 charter flights will also fly to Thailand."

Or are you reading something I am not...?

No comment...

[Nisa]

Even places like Koh Samet have become crowded and much more expensive. It wasn't long ago you could just head down there on the weekend without reservations and get a nice room for a great price.

The fee to enter the island has increased substantially for foreigners among other costs.

Personally I found the beaches on Samet disappointing and polluted by too many uncontrolled stray dogs to be an enticing destination.

There's just something off-putting about that when it comes to a relaxing beach holiday for me.

I was turned off the last time I went there too but it is still a close and easy destination to get away for the weekend (from Bangkok) but unless you make reservations well in advance now, it is impossible to get a decent room. The only thing available is the very high end (way over priced) or very crappy places. The only other close place was Koh Larn and that is just insane during the day in terms of crowds and even trying to just walk down the nicer beaches. Even going to Krabi and Phucket for a week in the middle of the rainy season a month or so ago proved over run with tourists. I've always avoided the hot tourist spots in the High Season but the lower season used to be fairly nice without the crowds. On the other hand, going to the seeder places like Cowboy or the small bars along Sukumvit that spring up at night, you'll only hear complaints about how much business is down. It really would seem Thailand is surely attracting a different level of tourists. Even those looking to party have changed and you can now find many young white faces at RCA which not long ago was almost all Thai and Kasson Rd also seems to be going through a transformation of catering to the higher end tourists or traditional tourist.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Nisa

[Nisa]

Bar and restaurant owners always seem to forget there are dozens of new bars and restaurants just like theirs opening everywhere.

I was in Ao nang not so long ago and the pizza restaurant owner was complaining about customer numbers being down, etc. I counted TWELVE pizza restaurants on that street, not so long ago there was two.

5 or 6 years ago how many international hotel chains in Pattaya? how many now? The city has doubled in size, head up to Buddha Hill see for yourself, and on every street bar bar restaurant bar restaurant.....

Few years ago you would see a few expats in soi buakhao but you barely saw a tourist past second road, now you see them all the way to Sattahip, on baht buses, scooters, walking along the road...

In Samui and Phuket it's the same situation new resorts and restaurants opening daily.

Everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Thai bashing is some posters favorite past time, but honestly I don't see how anybody can say with a strait face tourist numbers aren't significantly higher. If small business owner (of which I am one) want to know why it's getting harder they should look at the competition.

One only need look at the number of hotels (many huge) being built every year here to see there continues to be a significant increase in tourism. Seems like there is also a big trend in western restaurants and chains opening up too. Personally, I wish tourism would decrease and Thailand would not be moving forward so quickly but agree with you in terms of not seeing how anyone can seriously deny tourism doesn't continue to significantly go up.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Nisa

[jbrain]

Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015

These numbers seem to just roll off the tongues of these ministers, 15 million visitors so far this year? Someone forgot to tell the restaurant and bars, because all I hear is that it has been a quiet year! They may have had 15 million 'pass through' the airport transit lounges.

Chiangmai officials said that tourism was down something like 8% (cant recall exact figure) but it WAS down.

No doubt when Oct 2015 arrives Mr Suwat (if he is still in office) will say loud and clear, "we have had 1.5 Trillion visitors so far this year and are well on target to achieve the 2 Trillion I predicted three years ago"

Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015.

rev·e·nue/ˈrevəˌn(y)o͞o/

Noun:

• Income, esp. when of a company or organization and of a substantial nature.
  
• A state's annual income.
  

[Bramdaddy]

I didn't know passengers in transit counted as tourists.

[TruthEyes]

Hopefully I will be adding to that total over the coming year, if I can organise my life a little better.

[IsaanUSA]

Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015

These numbers seem to just roll off the tongues of these ministers, 15 million visitors so far this year? Someone forgot to tell the restaurant and bars, because all I hear is that it has been a quiet year! They may have had 15 million 'pass through' the airport transit lounges.

Chiangmai officials said that tourism was down something like 8% (cant recall exact figure) but it WAS down.

No doubt when Oct 2015 arrives Mr Suwat (if he is still in office) will say loud and clear, "we have had 1.5 Trillion visitors so far this year and are well on target to achieve the 2 Trillion I predicted three years ago"

Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015.

rev·e·nue/ˈrevəˌn(y)o͞o/

Noun:

• Income, esp. when of a company or organization and of a substantial nature.
  
• A state's annual income.
  

I think we all know what revenue is. However, can you please explain the point you were trying to make?

[WilliaminBKK]

I've been in the travel industry for more than 25 years, and from the airline perspective when these figures are released they are taken seriously even if they are known issues. Flight arrivals and load factors are on average 70-80%, carriers are still applying for landing rights into BKK & HKT. Low cost carriers are almost all serving Thailand.

Thailand is fairly transparent, yes they do count visa runs as they measure passport type as a hit, transit pax are NOT counted, airline crews are counted but are not in the west, infants are counted but not in the west, cruise ship passengers and crew are counted even if they don't disembark, oversea Thai workers more than 1 year abroad are counted based on residency, each country makes up their own rules. It could be worse the Philippines base it on residence so the 10 million oversea workers count as tourists when they return home for their yearly leave.

There are over 7000 hotels in the Kingdom that are online (OTA-Agoda/Expedia) with another 3000 that are smaller local hotels for a total of at least 10,000 hotels, the best guess is there are over 2,000,000 rooms available no one really knows or compiles the data however given the hotel industry report 65% occupancy it clearly shows tourism is strong and as another poster noted hotels are being built & opened daily.

Within the travel trade Thailand is considered major force with deep pockets & they support agent programmes globally, the TAT is one of the few Asian country's that sponsor trade & press fam trips. Thailand is usually the largest Asian country at the World Travel Mart in London & ITB in Berlin, usually a member of the Royal family attends the opening ceremony, they are able to attract loads of new business as tour ops can't lose offering tours and packages to Thailand.

Thailand is unique as a destination with repeat visitors, most see China/Japan as a single life-time trip, Hong Kong & Singapore are 2-4 night destinations whereas Thailand with it's multiple destinations has repeat traffic that works to their benefit and people stay for 7-10 days.

I've met with almost every Tourist Board in the region and they are green with envy and often chalk Thailand's tourism numbers to the large number of Thai restaurants abroad as mini tourism affiliates promoting the country.

IMO the glass is half full for tourism.

[Notstupid30]

I can now understand why they are up ...

Thailand to Host its First Formula One Race in 2014, Reports Freedom Asia

http://www.sacbee.co...st-formula.html

Edited October 16, 2012 by Notstupid30

[hellodolly]

I wonder what planes they are using now...!?

Another 5 million tourists (for the rest of the high season) on the "remaining" 900 flights is roughly equivalent to 5500 people per flight??

Or are they coming in suitcases now too?

To be fair he did say charter flights rather than scheduled flights or buses, taxis, walk in, etc.

No matter !! All the taxis we work with have confirmed that CM was totally dead in Sept and even now Mid OCTOBER .. except for the backpackers who yes have been here in numbers at the 300 -400 Baht hotels ... but not big spenders at all and not good buss for the taxis or songtows at all ..ACCORDING TO THE TAXIS!!

Taxis have never been a big thing in Chiang Mai. There is not that many of them. Talk to the Sawnghtell drivers and tuk tuk drivers they have been the main means of transportation for those with out vehicles.

[hellodolly]

frankold, on 2012-10-15 10:44:20, said:

To be fair he did say charter flights rather than scheduled flights or buses, taxis, walk in, etc.

Really..??

So you can pick out where the word(s) 'charter flight' are mentioned in the original article can you??

What I see is:

"He said the number of tourists will reach the targeted 20 million, as the last quarter is the high season period, and 900 charter flights will also fly to Thailand."

Or are you reading something I am not...?

No comment...

[hellodolly]

Even places like Koh Samet have become crowded and much more expensive. It wasn't long ago you could just head down there on the weekend without reservations and get a nice room for a great price.

The fee to enter the island has increased substantially for foreigners among other costs.

Personally I found the beaches on Samet disappointing and polluted by too many uncontrolled stray dogs to be an enticing destination.

There's just something off-putting about that when it comes to a relaxing beach holiday for me.

I was turned off the last time I went there too but it is still a close and easy destination to get away for the weekend (from Bangkok) but unless you make reservations well in advance now, it is impossible to get a decent room. The only thing available is the very high end (way over priced) or very crappy places. The only other close place was Koh Larn and that is just insane during the day in terms of crowds and even trying to just walk down the nicer beaches. Even going to Krabi and Phucket for a week in the middle of the rainy season a month or so ago proved over run with tourists. I've always avoided the hot tourist spots in the High Season but the lower season used to be fairly nice without the crowds. On the other hand, going to the seeder places like Cowboy or the small bars along Sukumvit that spring up at night, you'll only hear complaints about how much business is down. It really would seem Thailand is surely attracting a different level of tourists. Even those looking to party have changed and you can now find many young white faces at RCA which not long ago was almost all Thai and Kasson Rd also seems to be going through a transformation of catering to the higher end tourists or traditional tourist.

Also the tourists are changing. I have sat at coffee shops in the old city here in Chiang Mai and seen families walking by and women in pairs or groups. Thailand is slowly changing into a tourism destination to see the sights and not so much as a place for party time with cheap women. It will always have that but it is becoming less and less the reason for coming to Thailand. There are far more cultural different attractions with the ease of access in Thailand that people are catching on to.

[DocN]

You can believe what you like and of course, the incoming tourists have more choices in hotels, bars and restaurants than they had 20 years ago.

But no matter if you have 10 hotels, 100 hotels or 1000 hotels...every tour-operator or groundhandling agent who is not lieing to you (or themselves) will tell you the same thing: decrease in numbers! Last year and the beginning of this year (thanks to the excellent handeling of the flood situation >attention: sarcasm!<) the numbers were on a low and >yes< they are picking up now. But it is not hard to be going up from a record low!

[geriatrickid]

I suggest the doubting Thomases head over to a hotel booking site and see what is available for high season. Very slim pickings at the affordable quality locations. They are almost all booked up. That wasn't the case at the height of the financial meltdown and the aftermath of the Bangkok madness. I keep telling one of my friends what a crap hole Patong is and his laid back Thai response, is mmkay, so whay are our hotels almost all booked for Nov-March. How can I argue with that? All I know is I don't want to be in patong come Christmas and am desperately looking to get away to Cha Am or Hua Hin. or anywhere there is a clean beach. I'm having a devil of a time.

[simple1]

Even places like Koh Samet have become crowded and much more expensive. It wasn't long ago you could just head down there on the weekend without reservations and get a nice room for a great price.

The fee to enter the island has increased substantially for foreigners among other costs.

Personally I found the beaches on Samet disappointing and polluted by too many uncontrolled stray dogs to be an enticing destination.

There's just something off-putting about that when it comes to a relaxing beach holiday for me.

Somewhat off topic, but I agree with you and NISA. Koh Samet used to be a great location, but with the ever increasing numbers of tourists, day trippers, bars now playing music until 4 AM, large increases in room rates without upgrading the rooms, big increase in the number of dogs polluting the beaches, friendliness of the locals slowly fading etc I no longer visit Samet. It's disappointing as Samet used to be my favourite destination in Thailand for short breaks.

TAT is now targeting high volume packaged tourism which, in my opinion, will erode the attractiveness of Thailand for Western visitors and expats in the main holiday centres.

[jbrain]

Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015

These numbers seem to just roll off the tongues of these ministers, 15 million visitors so far this year? Someone forgot to tell the restaurant and bars, because all I hear is that it has been a quiet year! They may have had 15 million 'pass through' the airport transit lounges.

Chiangmai officials said that tourism was down something like 8% (cant recall exact figure) but it WAS down.

No doubt when Oct 2015 arrives Mr Suwat (if he is still in office) will say loud and clear, "we have had 1.5 Trillion visitors so far this year and are well on target to achieve the 2 Trillion I predicted three years ago"

Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015.

rev·e·nue/ˈrevəˌn(y)o͞o/

Noun:

• Income, esp. when of a company or organization and of a substantial nature.
  
• A state's annual income.
  

I think we all know what revenue is. However, can you please explain the point you were trying to make?

I understand some people have problems reading, so for yours and others' service.

The OP stated : Mr Suwat said the ministry goal for tourism revenue was set to reach Bt2 trillion in 2015

Lizardtongue commented :

No doubt when Oct 2015 arrives Mr Suwat (if he is still in office) will say loud and clear, "we have had 1.5 Trillion visitors so far this year and are well on target to achieve the 2 Trillion I predicted three years ago"

So clearly he DOESN"T know what is revenue.

[madmitch]

From a Phuket perspective.

On the surface it does look like tourist numbers are down and it is almost certainly the case for traditional tourists: Brits, Germans, Scandinavians and Australians.

But where the real difference lies is in the low season numbers. Big hotels used to be practically empty from May until October. Now they have much higher occupancy rates due to the influx of Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Russians and people from the Middle East.

There are dozens of tour buses on the roads at the moment with no discernible difference between low and high season. Their expenditure is different. The groups above, especially the Asians, don't spend in bars, they don't eat in local tourist based restaurants but they eat in a group in large places that specifically cater for tour groups, they shop in the souvenir shops that the tour buses take them to, many of their tours are per-paid and arranged by the tour companies so they don't spend at the local tour shops.

The tourists are here, they are just different. And it's a trend that will continue. Not good news for small business owners but great for the large scale operations, many of which are owned by the so-called elite. Yes, as always in Thailand, the rich get richer.

[IsaanUSA]

I understand some people have problems reading, so for yours and others' service.

Got it, thanks

[Nisa]

You can believe what you like and of course, the incoming tourists have more choices in hotels, bars and restaurants than they had 20 years ago.

But no matter if you have 10 hotels, 100 hotels or 1000 hotels...every tour-operator or groundhandling agent who is not lieing to you (or themselves) will tell you the same thing: decrease in numbers! Last year and the beginning of this year (thanks to the excellent handeling of the flood situation >attention: sarcasm!<) the numbers were on a low and >yes< they are picking up now. But it is not hard to be going up from a record low!

I believe the numbers were up 20% last year ... pretty much the opposite of coming off a record low.

[bigbamboo]

Bar and restaurant owners always seem to forget there are dozens of new bars and restaurants just like theirs opening everywhere.

I was in Ao nang not so long ago and the pizza restaurant owner was complaining about customer numbers being down, etc. I counted TWELVE pizza restaurants on that street, not so long ago there was two.

5 or 6 years ago how many international hotel chains in Pattaya? how many now? The city has doubled in size, head up to Buddha Hill see for yourself, and on every street bar bar restaurant bar restaurant.....

Few years ago you would see a few expats in soi buakhao but you barely saw a tourist past second road, now you see them all the way to Sattahip, on baht buses, scooters, walking along the road...

In Samui and Phuket it's the same situation new resorts and restaurants opening daily.

Everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Thai bashing is some posters favorite past time, but honestly I don't see how anybody can say with a strait face tourist numbers aren't significantly higher. If small business owner (of which I am one) want to know why it's getting harder they should look at the competition.

That's true. When the spas became popular every establishment became 'whatever... and spa'. When an OTOP village saw the next village was making a mint selling their product they wanted to make the same thing. Copy, copy, copy and sooner or later the market is saturated.

However, when you look around those numbers do seem amazing but this is supposed to be the year of miracles in Thailand after all.

[JSixpack]

Someone forgot to tell the restaurant and bars, because all I hear is that it has been a quiet year!

Restaurant and bar owners are notorious for poor mouthing. Always have been. Every year is worse than the last. None would be business if his poor mouthings were really true.

Similarly a thread with this topic, or indeed any topic w/ some positive news about Thailand, is predictably greeted with loud sneers and "I know better" based on an anecdote or two, no scientific surveys, and general ill will towards Thailand. In fact, you'll quickly find that the opposite of the good news true: in fact, Thailand is DYING! Pattaya DYING! Nobody ever talks to, say, the food court vendors at Central Festival. There a very different story will be heard.

Hence such a thread isn't worth reading (just read a few posts myself). Enjoy your venting and nonsense, gloom-and-doomers.

[DocN]

You can believe what you like and of course, the incoming tourists have more choices in hotels, bars and restaurants than they had 20 years ago.

But no matter if you have 10 hotels, 100 hotels or 1000 hotels...every tour-operator or groundhandling agent who is not lieing to you (or themselves) will tell you the same thing: decrease in numbers! Last year and the beginning of this year (thanks to the excellent handeling of the flood situation >attention: sarcasm!<) the numbers were on a low and >yes< they are picking up now. But it is not hard to be going up from a record low!

I believe the numbers were up 20% last year ... pretty much the opposite of coming off a record low.

As I said: believe what you like.

And if you actually believe any numbers, issued by official Thai- authorities, I guess this conversation (as many with you) will end right here!

[simon43]

As far as Phuket is concerned, MadMitch is spot on. At my 2 small businesses, (somewhere in Phuket where there are planes and something to do with people sleeping), I have noticed a definite downturn in the number of 'Western' guests, whilst there has been an increase in the numbers of Asian customers, especially those from mainland China, Hong Kong and Russia.

I'm lucky that my businesses are flexible enough to cope with this trend, (and it is definitely a trend).

(Sorry for being secretive about my businesses - I got my knuckles rapped by a Mod last time for being too precise....)

Simon

[rubl]

Maybe my maths is a bit wobbly but that's 100,000 bucks per tourist

You forget that by 2015 surely the tourist numbers will have doubled to 40 million. That makes 2 trillion only THB 50,000 each. Makes sense with Thailand trying and succeeding to attract quality tourists only

[laurentbkk]

When such comments come from any government people I take only half on it ..... everybody is suffering for very low tourists arrival this year , how come they count 15 millions so far ... those people stay in the country or just transit . Not to mention going often to the sea side many hotels are very empty or were empty during the last few months .... I guess they just want to show the people how good they are working with their money ... just powder in the eyes ... LOL

[bangon04]

It is so comforting to see that all those immigration landing cards I have filled out have been put to such good use. I would hate to think that they are just stockpiled in a huge warehouse somewhere and neglected....

Wouldn't it be much less fun if Thailand had a computerised immigration system...