Number of tourists in CM in September

[anto]

There are Cities in Chiana like Kuming ( 6 million plus people ) and Jinghong ,only an hour by plane from Chiang mai .If the budget airlines star servicing that ,you can imagine the huge increas in Tourists fron China .

[Chiengmaijoe]

Is seems a good plan might be to orientate a business around our Chinese friends, if possible, like putting up signage in Chinese and if there is a menu, putting in a Chinese version of this.

Very practical and far too sensible a comment for TV.

if you walk around town you can see that quite a number of places have Chinese signage. Restaurants, massage, shops, tours, motorbike hire etc. A number are also employing Chinese speaking staff. But if you take it overall the last 3-4 weeks have been unusually quiet. Normally the whole of Aug is busy but this year it completely dropped off mid Aug.

Huen Phen is one place the Chinese have discovered. The place seems to be stuffed full of Chinese every day, even at the moment when there aren't that many around (compared to other months).

Hofbrahaus and Red lion both have their menus in about 8 languages, including chinese. I'm surprised many more don't. If you're in the tourist business you have to cater to the vast range of customers as best you can. Plenty of French, Spanish, Japanese don't read English or Thai so the more languages the better the chance of survival, I'd have thought.

[amykat]

We are just starting the greatest financial collapse the world has ever known!!! Baht to 50:1 USD; houses selling for 10,000 Baht in CM in less than one decade...... Tourism to drop to only 10,000 people; the 10,000 trillionaires to tour the globe.....

but don't worry, in 109 years CM will be the greatest destination the world has ever known!!!! so, you have that going for you....

So puukao,

Would you suggest I take some money out of the stock market, and save it to buy houses for 10,000 baht?? Or will I need gold at that point to buy those houses? I can't wait for your predictions ...even if I don't buy a bunch of houses. I would buy a new car at a better exchange rate, maybe some new furniture. And lots of extra services I have been doing without, since my finances crapped out, more or less. Hope it won't take a whole decade!!

Are you just one of those happy people who say things to make us others feel happy too? I will also be looking forward to more vacations. Do you have any idea what will be going on in Bali ...I quite like it there, might be a good time to move if houses are cheap there too??

[Take5]

There are Cities in Chiana like Kuming ( 6 million plus people ) and Jinghong ,only an hour by plane from Chiang mai .If the budget airlines star servicing that ,you can imagine the huge increas in Tourists fron China .

Thanks for all your comments, the situation is much clearer now.

Anto, according to your info Chiang Mai is well placed for a booming Chinese tourist industry in years to come, the changing face of Thailand

I guess a Chinese website builder is the way to go, they could include search engine optimization for China and as cmsally says: Weibo

[dave2]

re

I presume that's your place Dave2

oh dear oh dear oh dear !

fail

dave2

[Take5]

re

I presume that's your place Dave2

oh dear oh dear oh dear !

fail

dave2

sorry, my cynical side coming out

[dave2]

re

sorry, my cynical side coming out

no problem

but if you ever tell me if i dont

like it go home

ill set this cat on you

dave2

[Thailand]

So where can i get someone to translate my website into Chinese any ideas?

Search Google and you will find a few translation tools you can add to your website such as a simple button that will translate the whole site in to many different languages.

[Crazy chef 1]

Same same as every year.every year I hear that the current year is the worst for long time.get it real fellas- December til April= good business,rest of the year not really.if you want a good business the whole year don't depend on tourist get I nice mixture between locals and tourist.change the products and price you offer according to this.imho the only way to survive in a long term.

[FiftyTwo]

Install a web cam at the business.

Then you can see if they have customers or not.

I have known many absentee owners, where there where never customers when the owner was away.

[eyecatcher]

Quiet?

Been out lately?

City is packed with tourists, or do you think Chinese people are no tourists?

These past months seem unusually quiet. I think a lot to do with the hot European summer.

Friends of mine with tourist businesses in Europe have had very busy summer.

How you see it would depend on where you go and the type of business you judge it by. Loi Kroh rd is dead all year round other than between 11 pm and 1am possibly. I never drink there but it seems like there are just too many bars catering to a declining customer base. Similarly, massages places. I wouldn't be surprised that staff in a massage place say they haven't had any customers on any day of the year. One or two are busy but loads of them are just competing with each other , so one day so-so, one day quiet, I imagine.

CMJ is exactly right I think; it depends where you go and what businesses you are looking at.

Firstly I see it as a bumper “low season”;…no really! it currently far outweighs the last high season in numbers of customers and income. The influx of Chinese started 13 months ago; but many of you still talk about “the Chinese are coming”. Listen up folks they are here, they are spending and if you are not on the train now, sadly you will miss it.

I said it before, if you have a business you need to cater for the Chinese, in simple terms get your menus/brochures translated to Chinese. For us we pushed it a bit further and I have sent my receptionist of a Chinese speaking course; just 6 weeks and she can now speak very well with them.These tourists are going in groups of 4,5,6 everywhere and often there is only one of them who can speak a little English.

I have been collecting statistics since we opened 2yr ago, how many customers per week, nationalities, where they stay, what they buy, which days are busy/quieter. If I can generalise now I will tell you from my point of view what has happened in 2 years.

Our first year, we had many Japanese and Korean and middle class Thais, some farangs, not many, regular repeating expats, generally American citizens. I can say probably less than 20 Chinese. Then, August 2012, the area was over ridden, month after month until now (except Jan and Feb….the mega months) customers were increasing. However this was at the expense of the Japanese and Korean. They have gone, driven out I am sure. The Japs are a gentle race and I am sure the two together are like chalk and cheese, so the Japanese toursts coming to Chiang Mai are in decline.

The low season tourists are completely different to high season tourists; they are more thrisfty or simply cannot afford the high season travel and accommodation. You will find they don’t spend as much, and ask for discounts more often. As you know a foot massage is the cheapest option on a massage menu; so many taking this option now, but during December to july, my records show only 20. Farangs who come with their girlfriends are visibly shaken when the lady chooses something a little higher up the list; and similarly you can see the “cheap Charlie” frown from the lady if she has a foot massage courtesy of the soon to be “ex” farang. However that aside, every customer to us is potentially going to come back, tell their friends so we treat everyone as our favourite customer of the day.

When we talk to our Chinese customers, they often ask us about where to eat…they particularly ask for authentic thai restaurants, or vegetarian restaurants. Never have they asked for directions to a western food place/Italian…or surprisingly a Chinese restaurant. They want ice cream shops, salad bars….and all the fluffy fancy foodie places. When its not food they want to go to a spa or shopping.

When farangs come and ask the same question about eating places; they are also after the authentic thai experience and also Japanese restaurants and the vegetarian.

On no occasion has a Chinese person asked me to direct them to a city beer bar/restaurant or even an out of city beer bar. They don’t do that sort of thing.

If you have a place in the city catering mainly for western tastes, you will not benefit from the Chinese influx. If you don’t need them fine otherwise, you just need to try harder and harder to make your place stand out from the rest.

A big reason for the high turnover of businesses in the city is because they haven’t stuck it out and worked hard at it for the first 18 months. A hike in rent is often an excuse I don’t accept. Its down to management to develop/diversify and adapt to the market but blame somehow never rests with the manager.

It’s a hard uphill road, but there comes a month when you will be so pleased to actually see those red numbers in the profit column turn blue. And what a proud moment that it…..then the road gets easier…..dont they say making the 2^nd million is easier?

If you decide to take the plunge and open a business here, remember it needs customers and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Returning customers is bread and butter stuff.

Getting yourself set up on trip advisor imperative, the TA app tells you whats nearby, hotel, restaurant,shops everything and its free of course.no need to spend on advertsing these days. Register yourself a facebook account; its amazing now how everyone walks into every place and “checks in” on f/b. in effect the customers are inadvertently marketing your business…then they take a photo of the food you prepared for them…..and before you know it that burnt sausage is on websites all over China!

I also advise that you set up a business in an area where these Chinese with the money are in big numbers every month, not just late Oct to April….and that means the Nimmen/University/Huay Kaew area. As I imply there isn’t the high/low season divide here like in the city where the divide really is based on declining western travellers.

And if you want to compete with me in the spa/massage business then you are more than welcome, because seriously we cannot cope up here and we are all regularly turning away groups.

Good luck with what ever you decide.

[eyecatcher]

These past months seem unusually quiet. I think a lot to do with the hot European summer.

Friends of mine with tourist businesses in Europe have had very busy summer.

Be realistic...that's <deleted>, you book your summer holiday of a lifetime to Thailand in Jan feb mar,

Are you going to cancel or even say no let's not bother with thailand this year babe there is chance of 5 days sunshine in spain and its cheaper.

just think about it.....thailand in rain season far far far outweighs 24 degrees in europe

Sent via tin can and string after pigeon shot

[Take5]

Thanks Eyecatcher, that's really useful info.

I wonder what the prospect is for the old city. Is it just a matter of Nimmin being marketed better to the Chinese or are they more attracted to the modern side of the city?

[eyecatcher]

Its not the area that's being marketed at all. I do see the chinese tour buses outside the grandview,the tanin,the victoria,

Often but I guess its the same at a dozen hotels in the city.

It doesn't take long for them to find the cosmopolitan areas of pretentious shops and fluffy food places, and that's where they feel more at home.....or rather somewhere a little but above their normal station.

Life seems to be about being seen out and about in those upper echelons of society these days. Who am I to rain on their parade, I am just becoming more and more familiar with UNion pay

Sent via tin can and string after pigeon shot