Foreign Tourists Visiting Thailand Rise 14%

[HUAHIN62]

Just cross check the departure figures of the other countries and you will see the Thai figures are close. The figures will not be exactly the same as some people visit other countries on their way to Thailand, but it is close. I believe there are a shift in the type of tourist visiting Thailand. More Asians and families staying in upmarket hotels and less backpackers and single males. The hotel we are staying in in Chiang Mai have been fully booked since September and is full untill end January.

[sabye]

Tourism is down in the south of Thailand. On Lipe rooms are still available now when most years you couldn't get a room at all during ghe Xmas to New Years time. There are plenty of rooms available now.

[firestar]

i do not work for the airports or airlines i have no idea what airports can or can not handle.

what i do know is that BKK is a stop over for a number of airlines, not to mention BKK is one of 3 airports which are used to change over to fly into Cambodia.

Those going to Cambodia,using Air Asia, need to exit Suva airport(count as a tourist) to then go to Don Muang to get to Cambodia, and same on the way back.

So if Cambodian visitor numbers are up, so will Thai stats, though it does not mean those people actually stayed in Thailand.

Coincidentally, Cambodian tourism has picked up by some crazy number in the past years, and Thai authority's wasted no time to post tourist increase stats, only local business owners like myself, see nothing but decline, but i guess government stats are more "sure proof" than the actual accounts of business people

Sorry but I had to laugh at this... there is ONE Airasia flight a day going to Cambodia and the move to Don Muang was three weeks ago.

I spend 4 months of the year in Cambodia it is definitely picking up, but it's usually part of a wider tour very seldom to you see people coming to spend their whole trip in Cambodia

Anyway I am, like you, a business owner and the problem I see is that small business owners never look at supply, if you own a pizzeria and there is 5 were they use to be 1 well errr... business is going to go down. I still remember this conversation with a pizza restaurant owner in Ao Nang who complained business was down I counted TWELVE pizza places in the main street alone, few years ago there use to be two. flight to Krabi have multiplied it's impossible to say numbers are down. but you can't just open a bar/ restaurant put your Thai wife behind the counter and expect good business. It's different kind of customers these days taking over from the single middle aged white male who was happy with a Chang and a Kao Pad Moo.

[stoli]

I've always wondered if these "tourist" statistics take into account the thousands and thousands of foreigners, all over Thailand, that have to do visa runs, and I admit, I am one of them. Do I/we get counted as tourists four times a year? If so, that puts a big hole in their statistics.

Why would that make a difference? So, you are a returning visitor 4 times a year. Still counts as a visitor.They are not counting you as one, like a resident, as they shouldn't.

[khaowong1]

Their cooking the books.. If you were to believe all these tourist stats, in about 10 more years, the population will rise to 120 million people. 1/2 farang. You will have to pay a nominal fee to see an authentic Thai. The national dish will be; hot dogs and burgers.

[lemoncake]

i do not work for the airports or airlines i have no idea what airports can or can not handle.

what i do know is that BKK is a stop over for a number of airlines, not to mention BKK is one of 3 airports which are used to change over to fly into Cambodia.

Those going to Cambodia,using Air Asia, need to exit Suva airport(count as a tourist) to then go to Don Muang to get to Cambodia, and same on the way back.

So if Cambodian visitor numbers are up, so will Thai stats, though it does not mean those people actually stayed in Thailand.

Coincidentally, Cambodian tourism has picked up by some crazy number in the past years, and Thai authority's wasted no time to post tourist increase stats, only local business owners like myself, see nothing but decline, but i guess government stats are more "sure proof" than the actual accounts of business people

Sorry but I had to laugh at this... there is ONE Airasia flight a day going to Cambodia and the move to Don Muang was three weeks ago.

I spend 4 months of the year in Cambodia it is definitely picking up, but it's usually part of a wider tour very seldom to you see people coming to spend their whole trip in Cambodia

Anyway I am, like you, a business owner and the problem I see is that small business owners never look at supply, if you own a pizzeria and there is 5 were they use to be 1 well errr... business is going to go down. I still remember this conversation with a pizza restaurant owner in Ao Nang who complained business was down I counted TWELVE pizza places in the main street alone, few years ago there use to be two. flight to Krabi have multiplied it's impossible to say numbers are down. but you can't just open a bar/ restaurant put your Thai wife behind the counter and expect good business. It's different kind of customers these days taking over from the single middle aged white male who was happy with a Chang and a Kao Pad Moo.

so you saying BKK being a change over DOES NOT add anything to the tourist numbers stats provided by the gov?

and you saying that taxi drivers claim no people because too many taxi's, restaurant owners claiming no customers because there are

too many restaurants and bar owners, hotel owners all just do not understand the ONLY reason for not having customers is because there

are too many business?

Ok, why do not you explain to me why last week the numbers were 23 mill, but this week just under 22mill?

[prvtdetdave]

Well despite what they say, my work takes me to Pattaya 5-6 times during the high season.

From what I see the numbers in Pattaya have never recoverd fully since the yellow shirts closed the airport.

I believe what I see, not what I read.

[Pib]

Bernie Madoff always published great financial reports.

[chiangmaikelly]

Their cooking the books.. If you were to believe all these tourist stats, in about 10 more years, the population will rise to 120 million people. 1/2 farang. You will have to pay a nominal fee to see an authentic Thai. The national dish will be; hot dogs and burgers.

The OP is about tourism. It said nothing about population increase or country of origin or diet. I wonder what is cooked?

[soomak]

I've always wondered if these "tourist" statistics take into account the thousands and thousands of foreigners, all over Thailand, that have to do visa runs, and I admit, I am one of them. Do I/we get counted as tourists four times a year? If so, that puts a big hole in their statistics.

I don't think it would much of a difference.

Even if there are 100,000 such 'border runners' counted 4 times each, its only a 400,000 mistake, or 2% of the total. And I don't think there are 100,000 'border runners', probably less.

[lemoncake]

I've always wondered if these "tourist" statistics take into account the thousands and thousands of foreigners, all over Thailand, that have to do visa runs, and I admit, I am one of them. Do I/we get counted as tourists four times a year? If so, that puts a big hole in their statistics.

I don't think it would much of a difference.

Even if there are 100,000 such 'border runners' counted 4 times each, its only a 400,000 mistake, or 2% of the total. And I don't think there are 100,000 'border runners', probably less.

i think you would be surprised. take a visa run to Lao and see the amount of mini vans and buses every single day

[soomak]

If 20 million tourists generate a revenue of 500 billion baht, that's just 25,000 baht per tourist. That's a very low amount. Either the figures are wrong, or tourism in Thailand has become totally dominated by low budget Chinese, all included package tours. Most Europeans I know who come here on holiday spend 5-10 times that amount.

This is their quote:

"generating a total revenue of Bt 930 billion (US$31 billion)"

930 Billion / 21.8 million = 42,660 baht per tourist

And yes, I believe most Russians, Chinese and even Australians come on package tours for 4-7 days.

[chiangmaikelly]

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/69013/bustling-pattaya-celebrates-christmas-day/

The roads were congested and Shopping Malls were packed with shoppers in festive mood resulting in millions of Baht being taken over the counter. Many restaurants hosted Christmas Set Dinners and most were catering for three separate sittings.

[lemoncake]

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/69013/bustling-pattaya-celebrates-christmas-day/

The roads were congested and Shopping Malls were packed with shoppers in festive mood resulting in millions of Baht being taken over the counter. Many restaurants hosted Christmas Set Dinners and most were catering for three separate sittings.

Must of been tourists in their rental cars

[Mosha]

Well even the Andaman Club trips are down, judging by the reduced boat schedule over from the pier. Every hour mostly, and I've been across with only 5 other passengers on it.

[NamKangMan]

I've always wondered if these "tourist" statistics take into account the thousands and thousands of foreigners, all over Thailand, that have to do visa runs, and I admit, I am one of them. Do I/we get counted as tourists four times a year? If so, that puts a big hole in their statistics.

Why would that make a difference? So, you are a returning visitor 4 times a year. Still counts as a visitor.They are not counting you as one, like a resident, as they shouldn't.

Most tourists on holiday, and I used to be one, go out drinking in bars most nights of their holiday, and eating in restaurants for every meal. Also, doing activities in the day, such as sightseeing, visiting temples, shopping, island hopping, taking photos etc etc. We've all done it.

Visa runners, like myself now, just have a similar lifestyle like we would back home. Maybe go out one or two nights a week. Shop at the supermarket or local markets. Cook most dinners at home.

Sure, we are coming in on tourist visas, but for all intents and purposes, we are expats.

Thailand is counting us as high speding tourists, but in fact, we are the same as lower spending expats, just on a tourist visa.

Surely you can see how this would make a disparity between their inbound tourist numbers and the amount of baht earned from the tourism sector in the economy.

[TommoPhysicist]

I've always wondered if these "tourist" statistics take into account the thousands and thousands of foreigners, all over Thailand, that have to do visa runs, and I admit, I am one of them. Do I/we get counted as tourists four times a year? If so, that puts a big hole in their statistics.

I don't think it would much of a difference.

Even if there are 100,000 such 'border runners' counted 4 times each, its only a 400,000 mistake, or 2% of the total. And I don't think there are 100,000 'border runners', probably less.

Several of my pals do boarder runs every two weeks.

At least 5 of them, so they count as 130 tourists a year.

A hundred mini-bus do the trip from CM to Mae Sai every day, full of guys doing this.

Edited December 27, 2012 by TommoPhysicist

[NamKangMan]

I've always wondered if these "tourist" statistics take into account the thousands and thousands of foreigners, all over Thailand, that have to do visa runs, and I admit, I am one of them. Do I/we get counted as tourists four times a year? If so, that puts a big hole in their statistics.

I don't think it would much of a difference.

Even if there are 100,000 such 'border runners' counted 4 times each, its only a 400,000 mistake, or 2% of the total. And I don't think there are 100,000 'border runners', probably less.

You've obviously never stood in a que at a Thai Embassy in a neighbouring country.

The Thai Embassy in Vientiene closes the gate mid morning and does not allow any further entry. So, the que starts from before the Embassy opens.

Now multiply that by K/L, HCMC, PP, Singapore etc and then multiple that by 5 or 6 days of the week, then 52 weeks of the year and that's hundreds of thousands of people being counted as tourists, when in fact, they are living in Thailand as expats.

This does not take into account the people that visit friends and family back home, once a year, and get their first Thai tourist visa in their home country and the people living in Thailand that do the 15 day boarder runs.

In any case, by your own admission, the stats are out by 2%. If we add up all the percentages from all the people they count, but shouldn't, their stats are very inaccurate and we haven't even touched on whether they have misrepresented the real inbound tourist numbers.

Edited December 27, 2012 by NamKangMan

[Potosi]

Last year (despite the floods) was a record year. Phuket, Samui, Pattaya and most very popular destinations weren't flooded. A lot of headlines but a single month of floods hardly moves the needle when it comes to arriavls.

Pattaya was flooded by folks from Bangkok, and believe me that many, many would have prefered water. Did you know that Notre Dame, and the Louvre of Paris attract more tourists than the whole of Thailand?

[chiangmaikelly]

Last year (despite the floods) was a record year. Phuket, Samui, Pattaya and most very popular destinations weren't flooded. A lot of headlines but a single month of floods hardly moves the needle when it comes to arriavls.

Pattaya was flooded by folks from Bangkok, and believe me that many, many would have prefered water. Did you know that Notre Dame, and the Louvre of Paris attract more tourists than the whole of Thailand?

No they don't.

[millwall_fan]

The point is that, as someone said above, the demographics of tourists are changing. There are more women & families, more Russians, Indians, and, of course many more mainland Chinese. The Chinese are the ideal tourists from the ruling elite's point of view: they speak Chinese and usually no English, are happy to be shepherded around by their ethnic cousins in the Thai elite, spend their small amount of money in Thai/Chinese owned restaurants and shops, don't complain and are on the plane back to China before you can say 'that'll be 500 Baht, goodbye'

[chooka]

Gone up 1% in 6 days, or have they already released the November 2013 stats by mistake.

[chiangmaikelly]

The point is that, as someone said above, the demographics of tourists are changing. There are more women & families, more Russians, Indians, and, of course many more mainland Chinese. The Chinese are the ideal tourists from the ruling elite's point of view: they speak Chinese and usually no English, are happy to be shepherded around by their ethnic cousins in the Thai elite, spend their small amount of money in Thai/Chinese owned restaurants and shops, don't complain and are on the plane back to China before you can say 'that'll be 500 Baht, goodbye'

I can't figure your post out. Are you complaining? Or do you have one of those Chinese/Thai families like the rest of us fellows on Thai Visa and are rolling in the land of milk and honey?

[millwall_fan]

The point is that, as someone said above, the demographics of tourists are changing. There are more women & families, more Russians, Indians, and, of course many more mainland Chinese. The Chinese are the ideal tourists from the ruling elite's point of view: they speak Chinese and usually no English, are happy to be shepherded around by their ethnic cousins in the Thai elite, spend their small amount of money in Thai/Chinese owned restaurants and shops, don't complain and are on the plane back to China before you can say 'that'll be 500 Baht, goodbye'

I can't figure your post out. Are you complaining? Or do you have one of those Chinese/Thai families like the rest of us fellows on Thai Visa and are rolling in the land of milk and honey?

Neither. I am merely making an observation based on my experience in running a small business here, that I think is germane to the discussion taking place in this thread.

If you pressed me I am complaining as my business depends largely on English speaking tourists, though I am busy translating things into Chinese.

[chiangmaikelly]

The point is that, as someone said above, the demographics of tourists are changing. There are more women & families, more Russians, Indians, and, of course many more mainland Chinese. The Chinese are the ideal tourists from the ruling elite's point of view: they speak Chinese and usually no English, are happy to be shepherded around by their ethnic cousins in the Thai elite, spend their small amount of money in Thai/Chinese owned restaurants and shops, don't complain and are on the plane back to China before you can say 'that'll be 500 Baht, goodbye'

I can't figure your post out. Are you complaining? Or do you have one of those Chinese/Thai families like the rest of us fellows on Thai Visa and are rolling in the land of milk and honey?

Neither. I am merely making an observation based on my experience in running a small business here, that I think is germane to the discussion taking place in this thread.

If you pressed me I am complaining as my business depends largely on English speaking tourists, though I am busy translating things into Chinese.

A lot easier just buy the SET index funds. What did they go up this year? 36%? Working is too hard. The Thai economy is booming buy the stock exchange funds.