Thai tourism industry leery of 'low-end' Chinese tourists

[tonbridgebrit]

As my wife said, Thais don't care much for Chinese, period. They take their behavior from China with them. That may include pissing and shitting in the streets.

"Thais don't care much for Chinese, period".

Is that because some of them have noticed that most of the rich Thais look the same as the people from China ??

(please, nobody take offence, I'm trying to be funny).

[Docno]

Examples: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/tourists-on-sia-flight-try-to-keep-30-sets-of-stainless-steel-cutlery-015213972.html

[stickylies]

"Maybe if they spent more money and didn't upset the better-heeled visitors from Europe, Chinese visitors would get some love from the tourism industry"

chinese, being asians and the XXL version of the thai as far as "social" behaviour is concerned - ie. looking down on most thai which they consider farmers - rarely upset europeans. they simply don't bother to subdue to thai customs which the thai don't like.

[lapd]

....but then what will all the Pattaya bus drivers with their diesel belching monstrosities with the ear splitting horns going down sois barely wide enough to fit them do? And the guys walking around with the flag with all the Chinese following them like puppies.

Edited June 22, 2014 by lapd

[freedom4life]

So typical of Thailand - let's piss off tourists in general.

Honestly, a Chinese person that has saved some money to cone to Thailand should be embraced as opposed to be now told that they are unwelcome.

The lack of vision and general uneducated thoughts and comments of so called Thai authority is astounding. TIT.

What they have to spend and what they do when they are there..doesn't balance-out, sorry.

[bander]

Why? Difficult to scam a Chinese low end tourist without money?

[Kru Baa]

Also, so called High - end tourist aren't going to come here to get ripped off. They didn't get rich by traveling around and overpaying for stuff.

[simon43]

... ie. looking down on most thai which they consider farmers - rarely upset Europeans

There is some truth in this. Many of the Chinese guests who stay at my hotel talk rudely to the Thai staff and treat my Thai ex (the actual owner of the hotel) as if she were the room maid, - whereas they are always polite and friendly when speaking with whitey me.....

[benny1616]

... ie. looking down on most thai which they consider farmers - rarely upset Europeans

There is some truth in this. Many of the Chinese guests who stay at my hotel talk rudely to the Thai staff and treat my Thai ex (the actual owner of the hotel) as if she were the room maid, - whereas they are always polite and friendly when speaking with whitey me.....

this means the chines doing right and they are not stupid like the huge majority of the thais wich only try to melk tourists.. i never have seen a eagle hunting flies or try to treat them well :-D btw talking bad about people you badly need to survive is the best sign how stupid the thais are. when i were the chines goverment i would stop chines visiting thailand. same for the russian goverment. this are the only nations still coming to thailand even in smaller and smaller numbers. anyhow, go ahead thailand destroying the tourism. keep on with this military dictatorship and earn what you deserve hahahaha

[airconsult]

Sorry for the quote mess up above but I'm fascinated, is there really a park they charge foreigners admission in Thailand? I've been here some time but not actually encountered that.

Parks, temples, tourist attractions in general.

When we have guests we advise them if there is dual pricing when we take them to places.

We simply say we will not patronize such places but we have absolutely no objection if you wish to.

@Thailand, that's what I do too.

@Gotalaugh, well unless you have never been to a Thai national park, some of the most popular temples (such as the Grand Palace), even some private attractions such as Ripleys Believe it or Not! Yes believe it or not, in Thailand they are able to charge you more based on racial profiling (because they never check locals ID's anyway and assume you are a foreigner based on your appearance alone) then I find it hard to believe you didn't realise just how prevalent dual pricing is in Thailand!

It's unfortunate because many of Thailand's neighboring countries either practice it in a far more limited manner and with smaller differences between the local and foreigner price (such as in Laos, where only a few temples and waterfalls etc. might attract a different price for foreigners compared to locals but then it's only the difference between 2000 Kip for locals, which is about 8 Baht, and 5000 for foreigners which is about 20 Baht), Vietnam, where only the Hue Palace charges a different amount (35000 dong for locals, 55000 dong for foreigners) but everywhere else, everyone is charged the same, whether it's the military museum in HCMC where admission is only 15000 dong or the reunification palace, where the admission price is the same or basically it's not practiced at all.

Out of all the countries in East Asia, only in Myanmar is dual pricing more prevalent than in Thailand, because over there many hotels, trains and domestic airfares cost more for foreigners than for locals although the gap is closing. There are probably hundreds of businesses (mainly tourist attractions), national parks and temples that charge different admissions prices for foreigners in Thailand than for locals - at the private ones, including some of the smaller temples flashing a Thai driver's license, work permit or similar usually gets you in for the local price, however, at the Grand Palace you would probably need a Thai ID card though. Some temples in Lampang, for example, which see very few visitors at all (not even local visitors), attempt to charge foreigners 20 Baht by putting up a sign in English but locals (or those that look like locals because they usually don't ask for ID) nothing. You probably won't be stopped at all, but flashing a Thai driver's license or other type of recognized ID and you can probably skip the admissions charge too. One wonders though what the rationale is behind charging the 5 westerners that might visit a Lampang temple every month 20 Baht (so the temple makes a grand total of 100 Baht a month!), which is just offensive given that both locals and foreigners will probably donate a much larger amount of money than 20 Baht anyway, without needing to be discriminated against when they first step onto temple grounds. I went inside one such temple once with my girlfriend (Wat Si Chum), nobody at the entrance cared (and I could have showed my driver's licence but I didn't bother because nobody asked me anything) although upon exiting the guy wanted 20 Baht but we just claimed we already made a donation (which we did, I think we put like 50 or even 100 Baht in one of the donation boxes).

Ha.... so used to the dual-pricing by now (still annoys me though).

I guess the funniest moment was a couple of years ago when my wife and I were in Paris and I took her to see Notre Dame - after we went in I whispered "Did you notice they didn't charge us anything?"

"Why not?"

"Because it's against church law to restrict entry into the house of God!"

Not that I'm in any way religious, but my wife took the point as well - it's disturbing to be charged entry into a temple rather than voluntary donation.

[me313]

Reading between the lines: The investors, namely the British, German, and French who purchase land in Thailand, object to the threat of Chinese who vacation in Thailand, just as they point fingers at Russians as being corrupt, mafia-ridden threats to their business hegemony in Thailand. "Low-end" tourists means not-investors, but as for low character, that does not depend on externals such as origin of country or how loud a tourist is when they are vacationing. Many French, German, and British people I have met living here are on the low-end of the human scale of dignity but they marry Thai women and act subdued and quiet, because they are insipid, lack imagination and personality besides cycnical humor, and they have learned to be quiet and obedient all their lives, very similar to Thai people. IN opposition to that are the loud Chinese who don't have their strong Euro and pensions to compete with the Euro investor schemes. They are tourists, and they get labeled "low" by the Europeans who fear Chinese, like the Russians, might begin to invest in Thailand and oust their control, and the Thais only repeat what they are told to believe by their cherished "investors". The emerging threat of China as a world power is what the real problem is here. That's what is between the lines of this lie about Chinese being "low" and Europeans being "high". I hope the TAT also recommends to it's banking and financial sector that the 1998 Baht crisis, with the pull-out of investors from countries like the above-mentioned "high" and "well-heeled" group, is still a potential and to be prepared for another bubble burst, with the "high" investors once again bringing all their lucrative earnings from Thailand back to Europe and out of Thailand. Don't be fooled by quiet seemingly polite behaviorism and ignore the smiling crocodile underneath.

Edited July 7, 2014 by me313

[Mooner]

_{Clean up the plastic bags, bottles and glass. Stop dumping stuff in anything that water flows in and you may receive more quality tourists. You reap what you sow!}

[Thai at Heart]

Reading between the lines: The investors, namely the British, German, and French who purchase land in Thailand, object to the threat of Chinese who vacation in Thailand, just as they point fingers at Russians as being corrupt, mafia-ridden threats to their business hegemony in Thailand. "Low-end" tourists means not-investors, but as for low character, that does not depend on externals such as origin of country or how loud a tourist is when they are vacationing. Many French, German, and British people I have met living here are on the low-end of the human scale of dignity but they marry Thai women and act subdued and quiet, because they are insipid, lack imagination and personality besides cycnical humor, and they have learned to be quiet and obedient all their lives, very similar to Thai people. IN opposition to that are the loud Chinese who don't have their strong Euro and pensions to compete with the Euro investor schemes. They are tourists, and they get labeled "low" by the Europeans who fear Chinese, like the Russians, might begin to invest in Thailand and oust their control, and the Thais only repeat what they are told to believe by their cherished "investors". The emerging threat of China as a world power is what the real problem is here. That's what is between the lines of this lie about Chinese being "low" and Europeans being "high". I hope the TAT also recommends to it's banking and financial sector that the 1998 Baht crisis, with the pull-out of investors from countries like the above-mentioned "high" and "well-heeled" group, is still a potential and to be prepared for another bubble burst, with the "high" investors once again bringing all their lucrative earnings from Thailand back to Europe and out of Thailand. Don't be fooled by quiet seemingly polite behaviorism and ignore the smiling crocodile underneath.

Hohoho.

Native Chinese bought all the land already.