Tourist Arrivals Well Down.

[womble]

Fear of ghosts in tsunami-hit areas and instability in southern Thailand exacted a devastating toll on Thailand's 2005 visitor arrivals.

Final figures for 2005 have not yet been released. However, some very significant clues are contained in the final figures for January-September, which were released last week and show total arrivals of 8.18 million, down 3.19% over the same period of 2004.

The final tally for 2005 is expected to be around the 10 million mark, well short of the target of 13.3 million and about the same as that recorded in the worst years of tourism this decade _ 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks, and 2003, the year of Sars and the US-led attack on Iraq.

The shortfall threatens to become another embarrassing political liability for the in-limbo Thaksin administration which coughed up record budgets for tourism revival in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, and is still struggling with the unrest in the country's three southernmost provinces.

It may also affect the future of TAT governor Juthamas Siriwan, who, in spite of reaching the retirement age of 60 this year, is rumoured to be seeking an extension of her four-year contract due to expire in September. Having developed close ties with Somkid Jatusripitak, the caretaker deputy prime minister, on the basis of her tourism marketing credentials, she needs to show results to justify the huge amounts spent last year.

Poor figures will put Thailand in a bad light relative to other Asean countries, nearly all of which reported arrivals growth last year: Singapore up 7.4% to 8.94 million, Malaysia up 4.6% to 16.43 million and the Philippines up 14.6% to 2.6 million. Thailand will land up in the same camp as Indonesia, another formerly high-flying destination when it was politically and economically stable.

An analysis of the visitor profiles for January-September 2005 (by country of residence), posted on the TAT website last week, provided clear indicators of the sources of and reasons for slowdown:

- A noticeable trend is a steep fall in first-time visitors to 3,211,225, down 23.77% over the same period of 2004.

- The key markets of Northeast Asia were worst hit. First-time visitors from China were down 25.51% to 335,674, Hong Kong -58.90% to 111,137, Korea -17.35% to 406,980, Taiwan -50.72% to 163,469, and Japan -23.49% to 312,845. First timers from another key market, Malaysia, fell 20.86% to 249,411. These markets are Thailand's top sources of visitor arrivals; in 2004, they generated a combined total of 5.5 million arrivals, or 48% of that year's total.

- Although all six source markets (except Hong Kong) did show considerable increases in repeat visitors, the overall total was not enough to compensate for the sharp downturns in first timers. In the Northeast Asian countries, tour operators reported that massive publicity about the tsunami-related casualties had generated a major fear of spirits and ghosts haunting the beaches of Phuket.

- First-time visitors fell across the board, with the exception of Brunei, Laos and Saudi Arabia. First timers from Europe were down 19.13% to 703,568 and the Americas -5.68% to 202,393. They were also down from other key source markets like India (-3.08% to 119,553) and Australia (-19.05% to 100,726).

- The country was saved largely by strong growth in repeat visitors (+17.24% to 4,975,258). In addition to those leisure travellers who are familiar with Thailand and keep coming back, there was strong growth in convention delegates (+397% to 433,409). Business travellers totalled 711,091, a statistically stagnant 'growth' of 0.14% over January-September 2004.

In 2005, the TAT spent a lot of time, money and effort to prop up visitor arrivals, especially from China. A number of senior delegations visited China to generate interest, based on the 30th anniversary of the opening of bilateral diplomatic relations. An agreement was also signed with Chinese tour operators for tourism promotion including tactical advertising campaigns designed to generate quick-fix results.

The statistics being publicised are the 'positive' ones, such as arrivals at Bangkok international airport in the first quarter of 2006, which are showing strong growth over the same period of 2005.

Much will depend on the final arrivals tally from Malaysia, Thailand's top source market. In January-September 2005, arrivals totalled 988,675, a fall of 3.4% over the same period of 2004. The fact that Malaysian arrivals at Bangkok airport are up indicates that there has been a decline in overland arrivals via the southern border points.

Imtiaz Muqbil is executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, an e-mailed feature and analysis service focusing on the Asia Pacific.

Bangkok Post

[Ulysses G.]

The shortfall threatens to become another embarrassing political liability for the in-limbo Thaksin administration which coughed up record budgets for tourism revival in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, and is still struggling with the unrest in the country's three southernmost provinces.

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

[KhunMarco]

The shortfall threatens to become another embarrassing political liability for the in-limbo Thaksin administration which coughed up record budgets for tourism revival in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, and is still struggling with the unrest in the country's three southernmost provinces.

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

Yup same blatently scam in Italy, every farking day on the news, the poultry market 's gone down the drain, millions of euros spent in vaccines, tourism to SE ASIA at a historycal minimum.

Now? They don't even remember what bird flu is.

Darned journalists, that's why I quit whatching and reading news. Fark them!

[Rinrada]

The shortfall threatens to become another embarrassing political liability for the in-limbo Thaksin administration which coughed up record budgets for tourism revival in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, and is still struggling with the unrest in the country's three southernmost provinces.

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

Yup same blatently scam in Italy, every farking day on the news, the poultry market 's gone down the drain, millions of euros spent in vaccines, tourism to SE ASIA at a historycal minimum.

Now? They don't even remember what bird flu is.

Darned journalists, that's why I quit whatching and reading news. Fark them!

On the other hand it could be that tourists, especially the ones who have been before are just giving it a miss....

Need a change from all those wee smiley faces and the rip off scams in national parks and 5 bt song tail punch-ups

Could say "away with the birds" but I wouldnt put it all down to them (Chuks are uz)

Anyway could be worse....Iraq,Afghanistan and Israel all used to have an up and coming tourist industry and I wouldnt blame their down fall to anything related to the "Da Vinci Code".......probably something in the camel meat

Report at the weekend that the airlines are worried about the World cup in Germany throughout the semi holiday period of June.

They recon that the many punters who would usually go abroad on their annual jolly will be quite happy this time to pull up the drawbridges,get in the beer and hit the sofa for the month....

Visions of empty Jumbos....do I hear £50 quid return??(business class..of course.. )

[sriracha john]

Record levels of expeditures at TAT + Near record level low tourist arrivals = Good bye Mrs. Juthamas

[elGrande]

- The country was saved largely by strong growth in repeat visitors (+17.24% to 4,975,258). In addition to those leisure travellers who are familiar with Thailand and keep coming back, there was strong growth in convention delegates (+397% to 433,409). Business travellers totalled 711,091, a statistically stagnant 'growth' of 0.14% over January-September 2004.

Bangkok Post

Wonder who these leisure travelers are? How many times can you visit a wat?

[sonthaya]

The shortfall threatens to become another embarrassing political liability for the in-limbo Thaksin administration which coughed up record budgets for tourism revival in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, and is still struggling with the unrest in the country's three southernmost provinces.

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

You are quite right there, just remember BBC and CNN with their reporting after the Tsunami, they both showed " fake " video as being Phuket completely erased, and the video was actually from Indonesia and Sri Lanka, they will do anything to get a "story"

Edited May 22, 2006 by sonthaya

[opothai]

thailand needs to get a few things in order i.e the horror stories about people exeeding thier visa's by the odd day or two and the severity of the punishment for a trivial crime,

crime against falangs is now a daily occurrance,

the petty rip offs and lack of concern from the authorities,

the lack of incentives to retire in los {to many regulations and red tape ]

the continual harrasment in night enterainment venues.

these may seem small but add them together and i'm conviced these will keep a significant number of tourists looking elsewhere, the world is a big place now with new destinations looking better every day, it is a competative market, and thailand needs to keep ahead of the game and not get complacent which unfortunately is a thai trait.

to gain a reputation takes years but it can be ruined in a a very short time.

back in 2000 every body that went could not say enough about the country and telling thier friends its a place not to be missed, but lately the attitude has changed from the very same people.

i have built in thailand and expect to retire there, i just hope that the country doesn't change to much from my orinal days over in los

[Rinrada]

The final tally for 2005 is expected to be around the 10 million mark, well short of the target of 13.3 million and about the same as that recorded in the worst years of tourism this decade _

History repeating itself but will they learn....me thinks..............NON

Anyway looks like there will be 3,300,000 happy holiday makers who have decided that they will NOT pay 200 bt to visit some poxy waterfall in the middle of nowhere and the ha bt buses in Patti might have to start contemplating putting their prices down to... say.......1 bt.....naw... be reasonable ...say 2 bt...a throw.....(and a smile and a BIG Kop kun krup)......but......

so whos for Blackpool this year?

[cclub75]

Yes it's not Thaksin fault : tsunami, bird flu.

But that's not the point.

When you have a crisis that might have a bad effect on tourism, what do you try to do ? You try to find counter mesures, to compensate.

So here is the program, especially for chinese tourists (but not only) :

-bars open 24h/24, party non stop, disco fever, booze and red bull

-opening of casinos

Voila. With thoses 2 easy solutions, tourists number will shot up.

TAT should ask itself : why a chinese tourist would come to a country where he can not drink after 2 AM, and can not gamble, and where he can find ghosts ?

Anyway, the whole "chinese" story is something of a myth, a dream of lazy minister : chinese people travel FIRST in their country (so huge). And when then have the money to go oversea... well I guess they'd rather choose a more "exotic" destination than Thailand !

Unless of course, you can offer them something special, some "special" attractions : giant and legal casinos.

[britmaveric]

so whos for Blackpool this year?

Chav holiday???

[game4shame]

so whos for Blackpool this year?

Chav holiday???

Blackpool = chavtastic. oi oiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

makes me want to vom thinking about it.

[Gumballl]

Tourism down??? I visited LOS 4 times during 2005... doesn't that count for something?

I think the OP is merely fishing for responses to his/her unsubtantiated comments. What do other folks call this scheme?.... trolling?

[Misplaced]

TAT useless?

When I arrived at Donmuang airport I had great help from the TAT booth (I think it was TAT). They bend over backward to help my wife and I with all sort of informations and willing to help to locate a hotel for 1 night which supplied breakfast and asked if needed any other help. With this kind of service, I will be glad to say that TAT at the airport is terrific.

I for one can't say TAT is useless

BTW, I do understand you're talking about over all general tourist to Thailand. I just wanted to tell everyone how excellent TAT service were at the airport.

[jdinasia]

that MAY have been a TAT booth ... then again it MAY have been a tourist info* booth that was only gonna book you into a hotel that paid commissions etc etc

[jdinasia]

Tourism down??? I visited LOS 4 times during 2005... doesn't that count for something?

I think the OP is merely fishing for responses to his/her unsubtantiated comments. What do other folks call this scheme?.... trolling?

No I call that an Article ... an accurate one apparently ...

[Misplaced]

that MAY have been a TAT booth ... then again it MAY have been a tourist info* booth that was only gonna book you into a hotel that paid commissions etc etc

Never thought of that but they were extremely polite though . Truthfully If you're polite, you can just about sell me anything (well, almost anything)

[Plus]

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

How many people outside the UK watch BBC?

China is the highest growing market and if TAT wants numbers they have to pander to Chinese tastes, and Japs, too, if they want their money.

[Ulysses G.]

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

How many people outside the UK watch BBC?

The BBC is watched internationally and the other international networks ran the Sky-is-Falling stories daily as well.

[Plus]

Do you seriously think that Chinese get their news about Thailand from BBC? Or even Germans or French for that matter.

Broadcasted internationally and watched internationally are two different things. BBC is broadcasted in Thailand, too, but how many people watch it? UBC subscription base is only 400,000 - less than 1%.

[sriracha john]

The issue of bird flu announcements is certainly one of hindsight.

At the time of these broadcasts, things absolutely appeared to be turning nasty. A year on, it's easy to say the reports were all crappy or some such adjective. Yet, it continues to spread and people continue to die, even in SE Asia. We still don't fully understand it's spread. It didn't develop, yet, into a world-wide pandemic... but then they didn't know that at the time, did they. Perhaps all these reports alerting people to the dangers, preventive measures to take, etc. played a role in stopping the pandemic. Certainly, educating the public did occur and that awareness has played a role.

How many people were saying the news reports at that time they were being broadcast, were crappy or erroneous or "chicken little" (or etc.) at the time?

precious few.... precious few were...

it's easier to predict a football game's final score after the game has already been played...

[CymruAmByth]

Having an old friend that heads up a company in the UK that sends circa 10,000 holidaymakers here, he has blamed his 6% downturn on last years bookings on the lack of the normal bombardment of TV tourism advertising in the UK.

Also...it seems even the big boys are feeling the pinch based on an ever-increasing number of 'DIY Travel Agents' choosing to compile their own holidays online rather than the old fashioned boring method of buying a package.

Can't speak for the rest of the globe, but that is the message coming out of one of the largest companies in the UK.

[tigerbeer]

maybe it has something to do with people not being able to find cigarattes in thailand? cause they cant see any shops selling em.

maybe their taxis cant get fuel after 10pm? hence end up being stuck somewhere.

maybe the visa rates have quadrupled over the past few years?

i can think of a 100 more reasons but don't want to waste your time reading them.

[Plus]

I think most tourists aren't even aware of these issues. Cigarettes are sold in a different way - who cares? Alcohol is not available after 2 AM - how many people can stay up past 2? How many taxis got stranded after 10 pm? Packaged tourists were not affected in any significant way.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.

[Joey Boy]

If Thailand ever was seen as a safe place, it isnt viewed as safe any more...

Look at all the media interest when a US girl gets murdered in Aruba, or a UK backpacker is murdered in AU.. These storys are followed up for months and months, because they are considered safe places for foreigners, and people are shocked as this does not usually happen.

If someone gets murdered in Thailand, the majority of time it doesnt even make the papers in the west.. Papers will only print storys that people are interested in, and its becoming that so common it isnt really news any more..

Pattaya for example, if a tourist knows when they are walking along beach road they have walked past the scenes of 3 or 4 murders in the last 2 years, is that going to make for a nice relaxed holliday stroll?

Or a tootle down the supermarket on the old 125, your going to need either eyes in the back of your head or a bullet proof helmet before long.

And in the taxi on the way home from Pattaya, real relaxing knowing 2 people have been executed and one person had their head cut off while traveling back to BKK in the last year

Thailand as an Asian family holliday destination

I wonder what Malaysias figures were like for 2005, how often do you hear about Tourists getting murdered down there?

Edited May 23, 2006 by Joey Boy

[Rinrada]

Last year, right before high season, the BBC ran daily stories for 3 months about the Bird Flu in SEA scaring the hel_l out of potential visitors.

Blame them for tourism going down, not Thaksin!

How many people outside the UK watch BBC?

according to records...550 Million homes.....so work it out..say 2.5 kids....

In five years, BBC Worldwide’s channels business has grown to reach more than 550 million homes*, offering a global platform for British talent and brands..

http://www.bbcworldwide.com/aboutus/corpin...hannels_01.html

[cdnvic]

Visions of empty Jumbos....do I hear £50 quid return??(business class..of course.. )

Doubt it. Last time tourist numbers dropped Thai Airways raised prices to solve the problem.

cv

[KhunMarco]

Visions of empty Jumbos....do I hear £50 quid return??(business class..of course.. )

Doubt it. Last time tourist numbers dropped Thai Airways raised prices to solve the problem.

cv

Must be the same managers of most of the new buildings in Pattaya

[britmaveric]

Visions of empty Jumbos....do I hear £50 quid return??(business class..of course.. )

Doubt it. Last time tourist numbers dropped Thai Airways raised prices to solve the problem.

cv

Also forgot eliminate routes from schedule to ensure you will fill those jumbos to capacity.

[sriracha john]

Not receiving enough tourists??? Just throw money at the problem... a LOT of money... and then justify it by saying the cost is worth it because tourism will prop up the economy which is losing out because of declining exports...

Juthamas is a brilliant magician.... or is that "clown"

TAT to request 900 million baht to spur tourism industry

BANGKOK, May 25 (TNA) - The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans to ask a further budget of Bt900 million to spur tourism industry in accordance with the government policy to use revenue from tourism business to make up the losses of income due to falling exports, according to Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.

"TAT is targeting to increase the number of visitors to 14.2 million persons from its previous target at 13.5 million--or a 25 per cent increase--which could eventually raise the revenue on tourism related business to Bt50 billion (about US$1.3 billion) from previous target of Bt45 billion (about US$1.17 billion)," he said.

---------------------

He feels there's no need to address the news that the reality of their actual number of tourist arrivals is a far cry from the dream numbers of their projections.

Just base the anticipated windfall on the projections... and keep right on spending, spending, spending...

Edited May 25, 2006 by sriracha john