Largest tourist intakes Thailand 2013

[MrWorldwide]

Country Million visitors

1, China 4.7

2. Malaysia 3

3. Russia 1.7

4. Japan 1.5

5. S Korea 1.3

6. Laos 1.1

7. India 1.0

8. Singapore .93

9. Australia .90

10. UK .90

11. USA .82

12. Vietnam .78

13. Germany .74

14. France .61

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Thailand#Top_20_Most_visiting_nationalities

Here in Oz, we know exactly where our daily bread is coming from - China. Seems there might be a few folk at TiT who feel the same way. Sane feedback welcome.

Edited March 8, 2014 by MrWorldwide

[Mudcrab]

Feedback on what exactly?

[Eric Behm]

According to TAT Thailand had 22 million Tourists back in 2012.

My Swedish and Norwegian friends have abandoned Thailand already,

The top year - don´t remember exactly what year, we had more than 600k Swedish travellers here.

Let me just say - I am not surprised.

But - I´ll stay here till the bitter end, nomatter how many Korean and Chinese people will hit me with their cameras. Long live the smartphones !

[David48]

At Swampy last week, there was a queue (a rather large one) of Taxis waiting.

NOT a queue of people waiting to take them.

[wym]

why should we care?

[BookMan]

Interesting stats OP

AN extra 2 million Chinese visitors in just one year.

[lazygourmet]

I am always wondering how do they make up all these statistics...

Is that by counting TM cards on arrival?

Or what else method?

Are these figures including each entrance of folks -like myself!- flying in/out of Thailand at least twice a month?!?

If that is the case, I did favor to those numbers by "visiting" Thailand 26 times in 2013...

[Shaunduhpostman]

Yes, very interesting. Had no idea there were that many Chinese coming here.

Also, as we all well know, seems the numbers of tourists are based on anyone entering the country for whatever reason. The high numbers of people from Laos would suggest that. The Laotians I see coming to or leaving Thailand when I do my 90 day non-O entry stamp run to the Laos border don't look like tourists. They seem more like people going for work or returning from work or going to do a bit of buying and selling for their businesses.

[wym]

For most nationalities, the true tourists far outnumber the visa-runners or cross-border marketers.

Since so few Chinese re-enter throughout the year compared to others, makes their dominance that much more impressive.

[Thai at Heart]

I am always wondering how do they make up all these statistics...

Is that by counting TM cards on arrival?

Or what else method?

Are these figures including each entrance of folks -like myself!- flying in/out of Thailand at least twice a month?!?

If that is the case, I did favor to those numbers by "visiting" Thailand 26 times in 2013...

Uh yes. That's exactly what they do.

Just wait for 2014. Chinese numbers will be way down. Protests and zero cost trips.

[tim armstrong]

Maybe the Chinese numbers also include Taiwan ? - large numbers of regular business visitors, and Hong Kong - both places may have been considered separate countries before, but I'm not sure ?

[MrWorldwide]

Maybe the Chinese numbers also include Taiwan ? - large numbers of regular business visitors, and Hong Kong - both places may have been considered separate countries before, but I'm not sure ?

Whilst I have no doubt that the numbers for the PRC would now include HK, I doubt they include Taiwan - that would be the tacit equivalent of Thailand accepting China's claim over a sovereign nation - a political football if ever there was one. Of course, currying favour with almighty China may well make more sense than courting a relative minnow like Taiwan ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Republic of India, Pakistan and Japan have formally adopted the One China policy, under which the People's Republic of China is theoretically the sole legitimate government of China. However, the United States and Japan acknowledge rather than recognize the PRC position that Taiwan is part of China. In the case of Canada^[21] and the UK, bilateral written agreements state that the two respective parties take note of Beijing's position but do not use the word support. The UK government position that "the future of Taiwan be decided peacefully by the peoples of both sides of the Strait" has been stated several times. Despite the PRC claim that the United States opposes Taiwanese independence, the United States takes advantage of the subtle difference between "oppose" and "does not support". In fact, a substantial majority of the statements Washington has made says that it "does not support Taiwan independence" instead of saying that it "opposes" independence. Thus, the US currently does not take a position on the political outcome, except for one explicit condition that there be a peaceful resolution to the differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.^[22] The United States bi-partisan position is that it doesn't recognize the PRC’s claim over Taiwan, and considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled.^[23] All of this ambiguity has resulted in the United States constantly walking on a diplomatic tightrope with regard to cross strait relations.

[MrWorldwide]

why should we care?

Who said you had to care ? If I see a thread on TV I have no interest in, I ignore it - I'd suggest you do likewise.

[MrWorldwide]

Interesting stats OP

AN extra 2 million Chinese visitors in just one year.

I think they're interesting, particularly in view of the number of complaints from certain quarters of TV re the high number of Chinese and Russian tourists year on year. I also find the numbers out of Malaysia and Singapore interesting given what those numbers represent as a percentage of their respective populations - even if a large number of said 'tourists' are actually buying goods for resale in their own countries, those are still impressive numbers. A cynic might suggest that a million of the 3 million (!) Malaysians crossing the border are going no further than the brothels of Sungai Kolok, but I wont be able to address that until I visit the border town later in the year. The life of an investigative reporter is never an easy one

[DP25]

Maybe the Chinese numbers also include Taiwan ? - large numbers of regular business visitors, and Hong Kong - both places may have been considered separate countries before, but I'm not sure ?

No, they don't. If you click on the link in the OP and look at the full list of 20 countries and not just the 14 posted here, both Hong Kong and Taiwan are listed separately. 580,000 people for Hong Kong and 500,000 for Taiwan

Edited March 10, 2014 by DP25

[wym]

So roughly 1/3 Chinese, 1/3 other Asian then 1/3 western.

So in coming years we'll be maybe 15% Chinese over half.

Edited March 10, 2014 by wym

[BookMan]

Maybe the Chinese numbers also include Taiwan ? - large numbers of regular business visitors, and Hong Kong - both places may have been considered separate countries before, but I'm not sure ?

Whilst I have no doubt that the numbers for the PRC would now include HK, I doubt they include Taiwan - that would be the tacit equivalent of Thailand accepting China's claim over a sovereign nation - a political football if ever there was one. Of course, currying favour with almighty China may well make more sense than courting a relative minnow like Taiwan ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Republic of India, Pakistan and Japan have formally adopted the One China policy, under which the People's Republic of China is theoretically the sole legitimate government of China. However, the United States and Japan acknowledge rather than recognize the PRC position that Taiwan is part of China. In the case of Canada^[21] and the UK, bilateral written agreements state that the two respective parties take note of Beijing's position but do not use the word support. The UK government position that "the future of Taiwan be decided peacefully by the peoples of both sides of the Strait" has been stated several times. Despite the PRC claim that the United States opposes Taiwanese independence, the United States takes advantage of the subtle difference between "oppose" and "does not support". In fact, a substantial majority of the statements Washington has made says that it "does not support Taiwan independence" instead of saying that it "opposes" independence. Thus, the US currently does not take a position on the political outcome, except for one explicit condition that there be a peaceful resolution to the differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.^[22] The United States bi-partisan position is that it doesn't recognize the PRC’s claim over Taiwan, and considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled.^[23] All of this ambiguity has resulted in the United States constantly walking on a diplomatic tightrope with regard to cross strait relations.

Both Hong Kong and Taiwan are listed separately on the list.

16th and 17th respectively

[MrWorldwide]

So roughly 1/3 Chinese, 1/3 other Asian then 1/3 western.

So in coming years we'll be maybe 15% Chinese over half.

At the risk of being pedantic, I don't know that passports are necessarily an accurate gauge of the number of 'western' tourists entering Thailand at any given time. Visit the centre of Sydney or Melbourne on a Saturday afternoon and you might be forgiven for thinking you've just landed in Singapore - if that sounds like xenophobia, it's echoed by other new arrivals to our largest city. Personally, I think its a good thing for Australia longterm.

Sydney has the largest number of Asian Australians of any city, and a particularly high concentration of Chinese Australians. Chinese Australians make up Sydney's fourth largest ancestry (after English, Australian and Irish), while the Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese are among Sydney's five largest overseas-born communities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Australian

Given our geography and relative prosperity, this trend has only been held back by the dinosaurs who formulated the White Australia Policy and politicians like Pauline Hanson. In any case, I wouldn't assume that anyone flying into Thailand with an Australian or British passport is 'western' in either appearance or outlook - the opposite can't be said of holders of passports issued by the PRC. FWIW, I believe many Australians will have Asian/Indian features by 2150.

[wym]

Yes, taken into account with both the "roughly" and the trend.

We farang are very quickly becoming less important in the world generally, and yes I also think that that's a good thing.

[Rimmer]

A post has been removed, flaming other members is against forum rules.

In using Thai Visa I agree:

1) To respect fellow members.

4) Not to flame fellow members.Flaming will not be tolerated. 'Flaming' is defined as posting or responding to a message in a way clearly intended to incite useless arguments, to launch personal attacks, to insult, or to be hateful towards other members. This includes useless criticism, name-calling, swearing and any other comments meant to incite anger.