Tourist arrivals in Trat Province drop by more than 50%

[retarius]

Koh Chang: Yesterday's destination, today, at tomorrow's prices...what's not to love?

[jpeg]

I don't understand why posters are ever concerned about tourist stats here. A massive drop must be good in so many ways for we resident sort of farang. Unless you're a bar beer 'investor', aka maengda/pimp, so called by the Thais?

[Robespiere]

Isn't it sad (and sickening) how willing the Yellows are to destroy their own country just to get their own way.

Their anti-democratic, semi fascist dystopia will never eventuate, but they seem hell bent on inflicting as much misery as possible on the country up until the hour of their own downfall.

Jeez, we still have old thaivisa pensioner red shirt shills on here?

Sorry mate, 38 year old investment banker with first hand experience of how the uncertainty caused by the coup is affecting capital movements.

Mr Buffet Jr.

The markets don't agree with you!!

The SET is up more than 10% since the coup and capital inflows very high!!

The SET is up by 10%...

Give Pridiyathorn Devakula a little time and he'll rectify that.

Pridiyathorn instituted capital controls to attempt to reverse a strengthening of the baht, but reversed the measure after the Thai stock market crashed, destroying US$20 billion of market value in one day. Pridiyathorn later noted that “This was not a mistake. Measures always have side effects. Once we knew the side effects, we quickly fixed it.... Just one day of stocks falling is not considered much damage.” He came under harsh criticism. Bratin Sanyal, head of Asian equity investments at ING in Hong Kong noted, "The one thing worse than an incompetent central bank is an incompetent central bank that flip-flops." Catherine Tan, head of Asia Emerging Markets at Forecast in Singapore, noted, "They are proving themselves to be very unprofessional. Their actions are very irresponsible. They have totally lost credibility... I don't see foreigners returning to Thailand any time in the near future. Markets now have no confidence in the government." The Export-Import Bank of Thailand also criticized the capital controls.

[jaywalker]

obviously many went to Trat province to spend few days around and heading to Cambodia before coming back to the kingdom as visa runners

but now since their entry will be denied because the crackdown...it was so logical

You're 100% correct. The ONLY reason I ever went to Koh Chang was because it was near the border & made for a nice weekend trip when doing a border run.

[carstenp]

Delievering a second class product and charging for first class, can only last so long!

Finally the visitors are starting to vote with their feet!!

Arrogance and the fall of a nation!!

Relax. We are not In the high season yet. I don't think thailand has to be worried. Tourists will come, just let it take some time and it will be sorted out.

Where I live, we see more and more new faces

Carsten, the figures are for the last 9 months, which includes 4 months of the high season Jan, Feb, Mar, April. The numbers are massively down

Sitting. Around giving it the Mai pen rai attitude is half the problem with this country

Do you specifically have a tourist related business in Trat and know different?

no i dont have business, but every time something bad is happen to Thailand, many tv members clap in there hands.

maybe the numbers are down in trat, but as another news was about the number is up in north east like loie, chang kain and so on.

maybe tourist a trying different places of Thailand. so again relax, it will all be good again

[beenhere2long]

Koh Chang: Yesterday's destination, today, at tomorrow's prices...what's not to l

koh Chang is without doubt the jewel in the crown as far as destination in Thailand goes,,,but you got to get past white sands beach...sounds like you did not.

[Time Traveller]

this has happened because Thailand is now focusing on the "quality" tourists. Anywhere more than 5 hours drive from an international airport is not going to get quality tourists who only have limited time before they must end their quality vacation to rush back to their quality jobs in their quality country.

Sorry but once you get rid of the independent traveller, places like Trat - Koh Chang, Koh Kud - they'll suffer the most.

It's a real pity for Trat businesses, but on the bright side, I don't think the quality tourists will care.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

obviously many went to Trat province to spend few days around and heading to Cambodia before coming back to the kingdom as visa runners

but now since their entry will be denied because the crackdown...it was so logical

You're 100% correct. The ONLY reason I ever went to Koh Chang was because it was near the border & made for a nice weekend trip when doing a border run.

Trat is not only Koh Chang, Koh Mak and Koh Kood are still very nice and if you want the best, the Soneva Kiri on Koh Kood is 112.000 THB per night at Christmas. Also many nice beaches 50-60 km south of Trat town with no tourists and very nice and cheap seafood available. Another plus in the area is that there are no Jet-skis disturbing you. West coast of Koh Chang I try to avoid these days.

[mrtoad]

this has happened because Thailand is now focusing on the "quality" tourists. Anywhere more than 5 hours drive from an international airport is not going to get quality tourists who only have limited time before they must end their quality vacation to rush back to their quality jobs in their quality country.

Sorry but once you get rid of the independent traveller, places like Trat - Koh Chang, Koh Kud - they'll suffer the most.

It's a real pity for Trat businesses, but on the bright side, I don't think the quality tourists will care.

Koh Kood caters more for high end there are some really nice resorts there. Real high end.

Some good one on Koh Mak. As HiSo has said, mainland Trat also has some wonderful places along the coast. It really is, along with Chanthaburi a great area to explore.

They have upgraded Trat Airport and it would be great if there was several flights in from different locations inside or outside of a Thailand the area still has a lot to offer, but they need to up their game, better ferry service, sort out the crap taxi situation, a better rubbish collection service and pull down some of the land encroaches. I'm sat on my balcony looking out a peaceful ocean as the sun goes down. It's quiet and serene, and unspoilt from the tourist areas.

Edited October 20, 2014 by mrtoad

[mrtoad]

Delievering a second class product and charging for first class, can only last so long!

Finally the visitors are starting to vote with their feet!!

Arrogance and the fall of a nation!!

Relax. We are not In the high season yet. I don't think thailand has to be worried. Tourists will come, just let it take some time and it will be sorted out.

Where I live, we see more and more new faces

Carsten, the figures are for the last 9 months, which includes 4 months of the high season Jan, Feb, Mar, April. The numbers are massively down

Sitting. Around giving it the Mai pen rai attitude is half the problem with this country

Do you specifically have a tourist related business in Trat and know different?

no i dont have business, but every time something bad is happen to Thailand, many tv members clap in there hands.

maybe the numbers are down in trat, but as another news was about the number is up in north east like loie, chang kain and so on.

maybe tourist a trying different places of Thailand. so again relax, it will all be good again

I'm not clapping hands, i think some though are underestimating how painful the high season could be, and I am not just talking about here. Let's see, but to sit, and wait and hope all will be okay is like burying your head in the sand. As for Loei, precisely what is the demographic of said "tourists"

[Jdiddy]

Plenty of shit happening in the world this year, its not 100% thailand's fault, those sanctions on russia and the beating their currency took for example would take a toll

[ttthailand]

Was in Pattaya last week and it sure was not busy. Second road from south all the way to the north roundabout was dead. The area around second road soi 2 had no one... I mean no one ! To be fair however they were doing some road work and making some dust. Soi LK had some locals hanging put but was quiet. Walking street had some business (walkers) but mostly Thai, Indian, Chinese and Russian. Very few western people around anymore .

I think the number of tourists is lower than I have seen in a few years but add to that 20% more bars and restaurants open and you have a disaster. I think there will be many businesses closing or up for sell this year.

[trainman34014]

What goes around comes around....and bites your arse. I thought the Thai's knew all about Karma !

[3mike26]

Extreme falls in tourist numbers calls for extreme measures, thai style: 200% price rises across the board. That should get the tourists lining up.

[MobileContent]

I was last week in Singapore and hotels were packed.

Went up to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and hotels are packed.

Went up to Kuala Lumpur and Bukit Bintang was packed and hotels overbooked on a Wednesday. Had luck and talked to the GM of a 4* star hotel and he got me a room.

Went to Jalan Alor and it was packed in KL. Have a friend currently in Bali and his resort is fully booked.

For all those people that say this is low season and thats the reason why the hotels are not packed in Thailand, sorry to say buy this is rubbish.

My favorite hotel on Sukhumvit is always fully booked before the trouble started by the end of last year. Now I can walk in and get a smoking room on the executive floor by just walking in at 11pm.

It was flooded with Indians, Chinese and Business executives last year at this time around.

Tourism in Bangkok is not recovering.

I am off to Krabi, Chiang Rai and Kanchanaburi next week and all three properties told me just drop by we have a smoking suite for you. I don't pay for those rooms but it would have been impossible to get those deluxe rooms with free upgrades last year at this time.

MICE business totally broke down in Thailand due to the marshal law. Several CEO's of which I work on IT and E-Commerce projects have pleaded with the current PM to drop the marshal law so that MICE visitors are able to have proper insurance when they go for a MICE function.

The whole tourism business is currently sucked up by Malaysia, VIetnam, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Was last week at the Amari Don Muang and they are fully booked. People fly in to Bangkok, stay one night at the Amari DM and fly out to Vietnam, Myanmar etc

OK TAT can still be happy as they count as tourists and spin the story but they just stay one night in Bangkok and then leave for other Indochinese destinations the next morning.

A lot of those travelers were Japanese and Chinese as Bangkok and Thai Air Asia have a lot of connections to Bali, Ho Chi Ming City, etc.

Edited October 20, 2014 by MobileContent

[MobileContent]

Extreme falls in tourist numbers calls for extreme measures, thai style: 200% price rises across the board. That should get the tourists lining up.

+1 you are correct but onyl for properties that are owned and managed by Thai's.

[jabis]

Cracking down on the spinoff parties based on the original full moon party...was kind of a death knell. That, along with the lack of security/safety for tourists, the high price of travel, and the publicity about the recent murders...not to mention martial law, all will have their effect.

I wonder how Sihanoukville is doing?

Cambodia had a growth of ~10% in international tourists, comparing 2013/2014 Q1 - while Q2 and Q3 same same but different (+-1%), interesting to see the rest of the year and Q1 of 2015.

[MobileContent]

I don't understand why posters are ever concerned about tourist stats here. A massive drop must be good in so many ways for we resident sort of farang. Unless you're a bar beer 'investor', aka maengda/pimp, so called by the Thais?

I work for 3 companies in Bangkok and they have over 750,000 tourist arrivals per year. They are not sex tourists and they normally go on tours for 7-14 days. We only loose the business for Thailand but redirect them to Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. They handle about 900 staffs and some Thai staffs will get fired but we will hire more staffs in other destinations outside Thailand.

For Phuket our bookings are still strong especially Khao Lak, Phi Phi but for Bangkok the numbers are very low for the high season. Bangkok is very much build on tourism and occupancy rates are below 50% for most hotels. High season is only linked to the Western market but its the Asian's that stopped coming. Nobody really cares about the few farangs that are coming to Bangkok but it's the Asian outbound market to Thailand. Indonesians stopped coming to Bangkok in big numbers and they have always filled up Pratunam for shopping, anytime of the year.

[MobileContent]

Delievering a second class product and charging for first class, can only last so long!

Finally the visitors are starting to vote with their feet!!

Arrogance and the fall of a nation!!

Relax. We are not In the high season yet. I don't think thailand has to be worried. Tourists will come, just let it take some time and it will be sorted out.

Where I live, we see more and more new faces

Carsten, the figures are for the last 9 months, which includes 4 months of the high season Jan, Feb, Mar, April. The numbers are massively down

Sitting. Around giving it the Mai pen rai attitude is half the problem with this country

Do you specifically have a tourist related business in Trat and know different?

no i dont have business, but every time something bad is happen to Thailand, many tv members clap in there hands.

maybe the numbers are down in trat, but as another news was about the number is up in north east like loie, chang kain and so on.

maybe tourist a trying different places of Thailand. so again relax, it will all be good again

LOL this is local tourism in the Northeast and has nothing to do with tourism in the Northeast. The only tourism figures up in the Northeast is Udon Thani as Lao people with their Bentley, Porsche, Benz are coming in the hundreds and buy anything money can buy.

I was in Mukdahan and That Phanom last week and the Australian of a beautiful resort told me the farangs are completely gone and he blames it on the warnings by foreign governments and marshal laws.

Do you really believe what the news is saying about Loei. Everything is spinning currently and you really can't trust anything what any government agency is saying.

[bentarm44]

I don't understand why posters are ever concerned about tourist stats here. A massive drop must be good in so many ways for we resident sort of farang. Unless you're a bar beer 'investor', aka maengda/pimp, so called by the Thais?

I work for 3 companies in Bangkok and they have over 750,000 tourist arrivals per year. They are not sex tourists and they normally go on tours for 7-14 days. We only loose the business for Thailand but redirect them to Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. They handle about 900 staffs and some Thai staffs will get fired but we will hire more staffs in other destinations outside Thailand.

For Phuket our bookings are still strong especially Khao Lak, Phi Phi but for Bangkok the numbers are very low for the high season. Bangkok is very much build on tourism and occupancy rates are below 50% for most hotels. High season is only linked to the Western market but its the Asian's that stopped coming. Nobody really cares about the few farangs that are coming to Bangkok but it's the Asian outbound market to Thailand. Indonesians stopped coming to Bangkok in big numbers and they have always filled up Pratunam for shopping, anytime of the year.

Thanks for the post mobile, interesting reading for me.

I also have stopped going to Bangkok, first time was 2001; the last was 2012.

No plans to ever again, swampy's close enuf.

[Ve37]

Yes .

The Junta are now pro active covering up so much stuff-

Thats nothing .

There are as far as reports reveal -

Six western deaths in road accidents

2 suicides *(doubts)

2murders

Its really so not funny anymore

I've also been observing (from various news outlets) crime up significantly,...and TAT saying people should feel safer under PDRC backed policies, like martial law. To counter the huge losses in International arrivals, a new Domestic Travel tax policy has been implemented,...which will raise the numbers, but not the income, because Domestic Travelers usually travel cheap,...especially travel by the Bangkok Elitists who demand to pay last Century prices for services from their fellow less fortunate Thai.

A hard tourist season may precipitate unrest,...maybe even a counter revolt among non-Elitist military members,...although the leadership is dominated by Elitist (PDRC) sympathizers.

[SoilSpoil]

Krabi was quite busy last week. Lot of Chinese and Russians. I just loved the Chinese tour groups with microphones ruining my Koh Hong trip.

[Ve37]

For Phuket our bookings are still strong especially Khao Lak, Phi Phi but for Bangkok the numbers are very low for the high season. Bangkok is very much build on tourism and occupancy rates are below 50% for most hotels. High season is only linked to the Western market but its the Asian's that stopped coming. Nobody really cares about the few farangs that are coming to Bangkok but it's the Asian outbound market to Thailand. Indonesians stopped coming to Bangkok in big numbers and they have always filled up Pratunam for shopping, anytime of the year.

Been hoping Phi Phi would not be too strong on my visit this coming high season,...overall, the islands there would be so much nicer with less of everything international. So,...although I hope for a better season in North Thailand, would love to a 50% drop in the Phi Phi area.

Koh Tao will likely be strong, as people flock to see the murder scene. Have they started the night time Murder Scene Tours yet?

[Time Traveller]

I was last week in Singapore and hotels were packed.

Went up to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and hotels are packed.

Went up to Kuala Lumpur and Bukit Bintang was packed and hotels overbooked on a Wednesday. Had luck and talked to the GM of a 4* star hotel and he got me a room.

Went to Jalan Alor and it was packed in KL. Have a friend currently in Bali and his resort is fully booked.

For all those people that say this is low season and thats the reason why the hotels are not packed in Thailand, sorry to say buy this is rubbish.

My favorite hotel on Sukhumvit is always fully booked before the trouble started by the end of last year. Now I can walk in and get a smoking room on the executive floor by just walking in at 11pm.

It was flooded with Indians, Chinese and Business executives last year at this time around.

Tourism in Bangkok is not recovering.

I am off to Krabi, Chiang Rai and Kanchanaburi next week and all three properties told me just drop by we have a smoking suite for you. I don't pay for those rooms but it would have been impossible to get those deluxe rooms with free upgrades last year at this time.

MICE business totally broke down in Thailand due to the marshal law. Several CEO's of which I work on IT and E-Commerce projects have pleaded with the current PM to drop the marshal law so that MICE visitors are able to have proper insurance when they go for a MICE function.

The whole tourism business is currently sucked up by Malaysia, VIetnam, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Was last week at the Amari Don Muang and they are fully booked. People fly in to Bangkok, stay one night at the Amari DM and fly out to Vietnam, Myanmar etc

OK TAT can still be happy as they count as tourists and spin the story but they just stay one night in Bangkok and then leave for other Indochinese destinations the next morning.

A lot of those travelers were Japanese and Chinese as Bangkok and Thai Air Asia have a lot of connections to Bali, Ho Chi Ming City, etc.

Exactly, Singapore (expensive) and Malaysia hotels are packed right now. And Thailand (very cheap) hotels are empty. It doesn't take a genius to figure out Thailand is saying <deleted> to everyone.

[Ve37]

Krabi was quite busy last week. Lot of Chinese and Russians. I just loved the Chinese tour groups with microphones ruining my Koh Hong trip.

Russians in Krabi? Didn't want to hear that. Did you hear of any "shake-downs" yet?

[MobileContent]

Isn't it sad (and sickening) how willing the Yellows are to destroy their own country just to get their own way.

Their anti-democratic, semi fascist dystopia will never eventuate, but they seem hell bent on inflicting as much misery as possible on the country up until the hour of their own downfall.

Jeez, we still have old thaivisa pensioner red shirt shills on here?

Sorry mate, 38 year old investment banker with first hand experience of how the uncertainty caused by the coup is affecting capital movements.

Rubbish!

If those are the reasons then this would be the figures for the whole of Thailand and not just Trat.

However, it was the red shirts indiscriminately lobbing hand grenades around and spraying a crowded market with automatic gunfire.,...... Not yellow shirts.

If anything is going to have a direct effect on a localised situation, it is that kind of behaviour.

Now the blame starts with the red shirts. As far as I know it started this time with the Yellow shirts. If the red shirts would be now on the streets under the current Yellow Shirt government they would be shot at side

What has now happened its exactly what Suthep wanted only its Prayuth that heads the reforms which are totally rubbish if you just follow his action on the Koh Tao investigations. I am sure that Prayuth and Suthep has a deal from the beginning but no worries tourism figures will hit Koh Samui badly over the next 6 months but no problems they can just fire the Burmese workers or report them two days before wages are getting paid.

Blame the red shirt for everything you want but when it comes to influential people you find more of them in the South as you find them in Isaan or in Chiang Mai because those people are going on the tourism dollar.

.

[iReason]

agencies to quickly stimulate local tourism and launch measures to regain tourist confidence in visiting Thailand.

hmm just as quickly as they screwed it up it will never happen inside a decade

I was in Samui when they booted Thaksin.

It took a good 3 years to see any light at the end of the tunnel.

And I think it never really fully recovered...

But heck, they didn't have "Martial Law Tourism" or "Ebola Free Thailand" then.

Although, they did put up big signs that read; "Amazing Thailand, It will Amaze You"... (True)

Edited October 20, 2014 by iReason

[mrtoad]

Both Red and Yellow and their leaders are partly responsible, Thailand since 2006 has been riddled it's street protests and political violence. Whatever way you spin it, people see it on TV and they thinks it's unsafe. People in the US , Europe, Aus and UK aren't really interested in the politics of Thailand, they are interests in safety, security, quality and value. Whatever, the news is riddled with scams, deaths, murders, violence and other unpleasant things. Quite frankly, I thnk people are just fed up of it, and see the place as a basket case.its sad really that the tree of a few, will impact on so many. Maybe, a hard season will make some of these people reevaluate their values, and understand why Thailand was popular in the fist place. Trat has a lot to offer, and is one of the cleaner and less shambolic tourist spots in Thailand, but the locals will need to understand that they have got to make the place welcome for the tourists, and not just see them as a Mark.

[Tony125]

Isn't it sad (and sickening) how willing the Yellows are to destroy their own country just to get their own way.

Their anti-democratic, semi fascist dystopia will never eventuate, but they seem hell bent on inflicting as much misery as possible on the country up until the hour of their own downfall.

Jeez, we still have old thaivisa pensioner red shirt shills on here?

Sorry mate, 38 year old investment banker with first hand experience of how the uncertainty caused by the coup is affecting capital movements.

Rubbish!

If those are the reasons then this would be the figures for the whole of Thailand and not just Trat.

However, it was the red shirts indiscriminately lobbing hand grenades around and spraying a crowded market with automatic gunfire.,...... Not yellow shirts.

If anything is going to have a direct effect on a localised situation, it is that kind of behaviour.

It was Yellow shirts blocking axcess all over Bangkok for months and even fired shots in some places---I was in Laksi when they marched by an area and one of their security guards fired in air because watchers were jeering the protesters marching by.He was seen on camera and was later arrested. It is not just a case of Trat not having tourists but I had friends come for a visit in Pattaya and bangkok and there were few other guests in their hotels. They wanted to ban in/outs say they were going to ban overstays for years or life well then they left and told their friends and no amount of "all is forgiven come back " is going to suddenly change things. They were hasselled and just rather take thier money and try someplace else more accomodating.

[Emster23]

To rephrase the old adage "Money walks and BS talks"

Maybe TAT can somehow crow about Pattaya not being down this much?