Thai tourism doomed by political turmoil

[Benmart]

Tourism numbers down 10%,... No Problem: INCREASE prices 50%, make 40% extra profit from downturn!

The grapes are suddenly so sour. If the tourism numbers were up, I suppose those same grapes would be even more sour.

[Benmart]

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

I believe that it is a small percentage these days.

As evidenced by the confused couples in Pattaya.

The real amount of money brought into Thailand by mongers is uncounted and uncountable. However, if they ever did stop coming the effect would be very evident and very severe.

Yes, yes, of course you're right.

The whole economy of Thailand is reliant on ugly, singlet wearing "mongers" looking for the cheapest Chang and the most negotiable lady of the night.

Such folk are indeed the backbone of the economy..............

Yeah and my Mums the pope.

I wasn't aware the Pope was involved in any of this. The stereotype you mentioned is lost to me in that I see, but don't judge.

"Ugly is as ugly does".

[Loles]

Doomed or not this don't care yellow idiots, whose want to make Government without election,

or also don't care red idiots whose use poor and silly people to die for them.

[ggold]

Suthep seems to enjoy his role as old-timer rebel and a monk posed behind him on the screen. As if Buddhism plays a role in his protest and occupying of ministeries.

A conflictive type, this man and hope they arrest him today. If he doesn't make mess with Cambodians than he makes mess with his own people.

My wife told me the monk was there to protect Suthep! any assassin who might try to kill Suthep could miss and kill the monk instead, would be enough to stop said assassin?

[digibum]

While I think it's a bit of an overstatement that sex tourism - or any type of tourism - is the backbone of the Thai economy, I think there is a ripple effect to sex tourism that isn't accounted for. It's not about the few thousand baht that get exchanged for an evening, it's the number of guys who become sponsors and-or marry Thai women and then end up either supporting her family and-or making substantial financial commitments in Thailand (i.e. buying homes, cars, businesses, etc).

The numbers can be quite staggering. It's estimated that American immigrants send over $120 billion a year back to their home countries. Over $23 billion is sent from the UK. Worldwide, it could be as much as $500+ billion a year.

Thais simply figured out a better way. Don't leave your home country and get the money earned from someone else's work. No need to go to America and become a domestic or work in a restaurant kitchen when you can fire up the computer and meet a guy and have him send you and your family $1000 a month while you search for the next sucker.

Up in the provinces, it's almost become a legitimate vocational choice. A few years back they did a survey of school girls up in Issan and over 50% said they hoped to one day get a farang husband.

Again, it's not like support money would replace rice or rubber production, but I also think we lowball the effect of the tourism industry based on using average spend (on hotel, tours, food, and souvenirs) and length of stay. A guy who ends up sending his tilac 30,000 baht a month support when he goes back home, or the guy who has never set foot in Thailand who is sending the girl he met online 50,000 baht a month, isn't really reflected in the true revenue derived from sex tourism. TAT estimates his value only as $100 a day x 10 days of his holiday. The fact he's sending 12x that a year back to Thailand while he's back home doesn't enter the calculations.

And, yes, that's a pretty broad definition of sex tourism but just because a guy doesn't meet a girl in Nana Plaza doesn't mean that his main motivation isn't or wasn't initially driven by his desire for sex or love. And perhaps he didn't meet his wife through sex tourism but he probably originally started coming to Thailand because of sex tourism so . . . even many (if not most) legitimate relationships are in some way eventually a result of sex tourism.

But let's face it, how many expats in Thailand would have chucked it all back home and come to Thailand strictly for the weather and great food?

The girls making their money a few thousand baht per transaction are actually the low-end of the equation. The real money is landing the support payments and getting foreign money to start flowing back into Thailand without the tourist. To get someone to expatriate and invest significant sums into a country where they cannot legally own land or own more than 49% in a business is the long con.

If all of the money for houses and cars and gold chains and sick buffalo were to dry up tomorrow, and all of the expats who come here either specifically for the sex trade or who eventually settle in Thailand for a girlfriend or wife (not even necessarily linked to the sex trade in any way) quit investing in the Thai economy, I think there would be a very significant impact on the Thai economy. Not a devastating or crippling effect but nonetheless it would be felt across the entire Thai economy.

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

If you made this statement 15-20 years ago, you would have a point. These days it is a small part of the tourism industry. Just look at the number of single female tourists and couples (I really don't think they're here for the go-go bars) and the number of night spots that have little or nothing to so with so-called "sex tourism".

I think the domestic "sex industry" now dwarfs its tourist oriented counterpart by a long shot.

[Rob8891]

Doomed or not this don't care yellow idiots, whose want to make Government without election,

or also don't care red idiots whose use poor and silly people to die for them.

You don't care for the yellows and you don't care for the reds...

But you are certainly a fan of something!

[MB1]

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

You are joking It is but a drop in the ocean. Just because you are a monger; not everybody is like you. You need to get your facts straight. To start with Chinesa and Russians are not interested in the sex industry and they alone make up over 40% of the tourist trade.

How about you get your facts straight, you say Russia and China make up 40% of the tourist trade, TAT's figures from a media release 2013 say a lot different to your 40%, infact TAT says 2.7 million Chinese Tourists and 1.317 million Russian tourists from a total of 22 mill 303 thousand tourist arrivals to Thailand in 2012... That means from TAT's figures that your 40% is way out and nowhere near 40%...

.

Just so you know, Malaysia was just behind China with 2.5 million visitors, Japan 1.3 Million and Korea 1.1 million, they are not CHINESE...

It's easy to just type away and pluck a figure from nowhere and say 40% but it make people look foolish when they say "You need to get your facts straight" when the figures are quite easy to find if only you look for them....

Also to say that Russians and Chinese are not interested in the sex industry is IMO also a very foolish thing to say...

HTH...

http://www.tatnews.org/component/flexicontent/53-media-releases-2013/802-thai-tourism-arrivals-cross-22-million-mark-in-2012

[thaibeachlovers]

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

I believe that it is a small percentage these days.

As evidenced by the confused couples in Pattaya.

The real amount of money brought into Thailand by mongers is uncounted and uncountable. However, if they ever did stop coming the effect would be very evident and very severe.

Yes, yes, of course you're right.

The whole economy of Thailand is reliant on ugly, singlet wearing "mongers" looking for the cheapest Chang and the most negotiable lady of the night.

Such folk are indeed the backbone of the economy..............

Yeah and my Mums the pope.

Where did I refer to the <whole economy of Thailand>?

It's amazing that your mother is a man, it must be a miracle

[thaibeachlovers]

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

You are joking It is but a drop in the ocean. Just because you are a monger; not everybody is like you. You need to get your facts straight. To start with Chinesa and Russians are not interested in the sex industry and they alone make up over 40% of the tourist trade.

How about you get your facts straight, you say Russia and China make up 40% of the tourist trade, TAT's figures from a media release 2013 say a lot different to your 40%, infact TAT says 2.7 million Chinese Tourists and 1.317 million Russian tourists from a total of 22 mill 303 thousand tourist arrivals to Thailand in 2012... That means from TAT's figures that your 40% is way out and nowhere near 40%...

.

Just so you know, Malaysia was just behind China with 2.5 million visitors, Japan 1.3 Million and Korea 1.1 million, they are not CHINESE...

It's easy to just type away and pluck a figure from nowhere and say 40% but it make people look foolish when they say "You need to get your facts straight" when the figures are quite easy to find if only you look for them....

Also to say that Russians and Chinese are not interested in the sex industry is IMO also a very foolish thing to say...

HTH...

http://www.tatnews.org/component/flexicontent/53-media-releases-2013/802-thai-tourism-arrivals-cross-22-million-mark-in-2012

<Malaysia was just behind China with 2.5 million visitors>

And we know why Hat Yai is the destination of choice for Malaysian men, don't we .

[Songhua]

Suthep seems to enjoy his role as old-timer rebel and a monk posed behind him on the screen. As if Buddhism plays a role in his protest and occupying of ministeries.

A conflictive type, this man and hope they arrest him today. If he doesn't make mess with Cambodians than he makes mess with his own people.

My wife told me the monk was there to protect Suthep! any assassin who might try to kill Suthep could miss and kill the monk instead, would be enough to stop said assassin?

Ah, he's kinda like a big amulet.

[JulesMad]

Don't worry! TAT will 'massage' the numbers in their unique way, and you will see that the (TAT) numbers WILL go up

[cacruden]

The nationality whose tourism numbers would be most affected would be the Japanese. High value, high volume numbers which would be felt if these shenanigans continue.

[build6]

The nationality whose tourism numbers would be most affected would be the Japanese. High value, high volume numbers which would be felt if these shenanigans continue.

It depends on what kind of news keeps coming out of Fukushima. When the incident first occurred there was a noticeable uptick of Japanese speakers in Thailand... given the choice between political conflict I can stay out of by avoiding particular locations, and unseen, undetectable potentially lethal radiation I cannot really avoid because I can't trust the news, I know which I'd pick

Edited November 29, 2013 by build6

[mijan24]

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

You are joking It is but a drop in the ocean. Just because you are a monger; not everybody is like you. You need to get your facts straight. To start with Chinesa and Russians are not interested in the sex industry and they alone make up over 40% of the tourist trade.

Russians and Chinese not interested in the s#x trade - you must have researched this very well - did you manage to interview any of the Russian/Chinese ladies employed in the trade???.

Dare I say that many of the not so legitimate businesses are run and owned by the nationalities you mention-their tour groups visit premises they own and manage.

If you doubt this please do some more research and come back to us with your findings.

[mijan24]

Nonsense. Thai tourism is driven by the sex trade. When the newspaper and TAT start analyzing the Thai tourism industry honestly, to include the sex trade, then they can be taken seriously. The sex grade bolsters the Thai black economy like nothing else. Hats off to the girls , the backbone of the Thai economy.

You are joking It is but a drop in the ocean. Just because you are a monger; not everybody is like you. You need to get your facts straight. To start with Chinesa and Russians are not interested in the sex industry and they alone make up over 40% of the tourist trade.

Russians and Chinese not interested in the s#x trade - you must have researched this very well - did you manage to interview any of the Russian/Chinese ladies employed in the trade???.

Dare I say that many of the not so legitimate businesses are run and owned by the nationalities you mention-their tour groups visit premises they own and manage.

If you doubt this please do some more research and come back to us with your findings.

[Bpuumike]

TAT assured the world that here have been absolutely no cancellations due to the protests. 55555

If TAT say it then it must be true. Right?

[Bpuumike]

The nationality whose tourism numbers would be most affected would be the Japanese. High value, high volume numbers which would be felt if these shenanigans continue.

And Kh. S has announced they will.

I can only see one end to it.