Foreign tourist arrivals in Thailand drop in October

[Tatsujin]

mmmmm ... sounds like they don't know why tourist numbers have dropped ... perhaps they might want to take a step back and look at the massive amount of negative press Thailand has received over the past few years ... murders, rapes, corruption, scams, suicides, curfews, coups ... the list goes on ... and never changes.

As for those unknown (oh so high quality) Chinese tourists, that's simple, the visa fee was waived (from August to October).

And slowly I think the Chinese are going to move in on Thailand and take control, just like the Russian's have

Slowly? lol

The Chinese have been colonizing here for generations ...

[razer]

This time last year BKK could have been nuked off the planet and TAT would still be publishing positive tourism growth.

[casindonet]

Don't worry the numbers will be up soon....TAT calculators to the rescue

[RustBucket]

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f

Great news.

Keep dropping and dropping until Thailand realises we are not second class humans compared with Thais... we are in fact essential for the survival of this country.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Possible serial killer on Koh Tao and they are covering it up.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Yes, let the 10 mio or so Thais that work in the tourist industry suffer, because some BiB f*****ed up the Koh Tao investigation.

With that attitude I hope your cheese business will go down the drain and your suppliers will cheat you as much as they can. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/776941-ripoffs-go-right-to-the-top/

Personally.... I don't give a damn about what you think.

People are being murdered here in Thailand and all we get is a wall of silence from all these so called sufferers.

If the people who are really suffering gang up on the minority who are covering these crimes up want to continue.... Then they deserve it.

At the end of the day.... if all these people cared so much about those who line their pockets (tourists), they will stand up for what is right. To protect these people and at least preserve their income.

The fact that they just take it on the chin is enough in my opinion to say they do not deserve it.

As far as my cheese making business is..... I am making loads of money and it is expanding by the month to the point I will have a full on factory within 2 years...... and why?????..... Because the Thais have been ripping people off on the price of cheese from the word go.

I can undercut the Thais by 30% and am still making loads of money and it is getting bigger by the month Currently at 450,000 a month profit on cream cheese alone,,, If I go national supplying Makro, Big C and Tesco, we are talking 30 million a year.......... so dream on pal.

Edited November 19, 2014 by RustBucket

[SRC]

The decrease in tourism to Thailand is not only because Thailand's picture abroad is not so idyllic anymore.

Nowadays, travelling simply does not make sense anymore, except for eating a double burger for half the price than home, and that's it. Besides that, there is no reason for travelling, definitely not culture. The money culture is all the same. A bit more or less smiles from country to country, who cares.

Travelling is not an adventure anymore, it is not exclusive anymore, it is not for understanding new things anymore. There is no reason nowadays for international travelling except getting a new visa for a country that wants people to fly around in the world for visas. And even that travelling will sleep off. lol

Wow This is sure a sad point of view. Life is what you make it. Perception is one of the only things we have any control over. I'm sure traveling and living abroad is just as interesting and adventurous as it once was. If one has a good perspective.

[lapd]

The numbers sound about right. Chinese and their herd mentaility are notorious for being easily scared away as they were by the coup last year. Now starting to come back apparently.

The Russian Ruble is way down from last year so the 23% drop makes sense.

I would rather have herds of Chinese in their buses than I would Russians.

Edited November 19, 2014 by lapd

[lapd]

I would be interested to see hotel occupancy rates as these would probably give us a better indication of what is going on especially with the recent immigration changes as i assume there are less border runners now.

As i posted earlier, 75 room hotel has only 8 room in comparison last year it was full.

A 16 room hotel, has 3 rooms.

The bigger one rooms go for 2500/night the smaller one 900/night.

So pretty even in terms of occupancy, about 10% across both levels,

Still way too early into high season to draw any conclusions from that.

Edited November 19, 2014 by lapd

[lapd]

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f

Great news.

Keep dropping and dropping until Thailand realises we are not second class humans compared with Thais... we are in fact essential for the survival of this country.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Possible serial killer on Koh Tao and they are covering it up.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Yes, let the 10 mio or so Thais that work in the tourist industry suffer, because some BiB f*****ed up the Koh Tao investigation.

With that attitude I hope your cheese business will go down the drain and your suppliers will cheat you as much as they can. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/776941-ripoffs-go-right-to-the-top/

Personally.... I don't give a damn about what you think.

People are being murdered here in Thailand and all we get is a wall of silence from all these so called sufferers.

If the people who are really suffering gang up on the minority who are covering these crimes up want to continue.... Then they deserve it.

At the end of the day.... if all these people cared so much about those who line their pockets (tourists), they will stand up for what is right. To protect these people and at least preserve their income.

The fact that they just take it on the chin is enough in my opinion to say they do not deserve it.

As far as my cheese making business is..... I am making loads of money and it is expanding by the month to the point I will have a full on factory within 2 years...... and why?????..... Because the Thais have been ripping people off on the price of cheese from the word go.

I can undercut the Thais by 30% and am still making loads of money and it is getting bigger by the month Currently at 450,000 a month profit on cream cheese alone,,, If I go national supplying Makro, Big C and Tesco, we are talking 30 million a year.......... so dream on pal.

Haha...95% chance this is BS because anyone who does business in Thailand knows this is not AT ALL how things work there. If a foreigner is successful taking away business from locals that NEVER goes unnoticed or unanswered. Haha....better educate yourself better before trying to bs people.

Edited November 19, 2014 by lapd

[daveAustin]

As soon as they start bludgeoning the Chinese, they'll stay home too.

[Bakeman]

Not that I make a drop in the bucket but I departed in October and will be back with a different plan of action. No more working and playing the Visa/Work Permit Game. When I return next time it will be with a retirement Visa and hopefully with less of a headache.

[Thai at Heart]

They had an extra 250k Chinese arrivals month on month, and they don't know why.

Hmmmm

Like to enlighten us then ????

Actually , where does it even say that they do not know why ???

He must be reading a different Story!

500 take away 299 approx 200, my apologies not 250k.

If this trend continues they end up with a 2.4mn increase for a calendar year. Wouldnt it be worth investigating if this is an anomaly or a sustainable increase?

[RustBucket]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

f

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Yes, let the 10 mio or so Thais that work in the tourist industry suffer, because some BiB f*****ed up the Koh Tao investigation.

With that attitude I hope your cheese business will go down the drain and your suppliers will cheat you as much as they can. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/776941-ripoffs-go-right-to-the-top/

Personally.... I don't give a damn about what you think.

People are being murdered here in Thailand and all we get is a wall of silence from all these so called sufferers.

If the people who are really suffering gang up on the minority who are covering these crimes up want to continue.... Then they deserve it.

At the end of the day.... if all these people cared so much about those who line their pockets (tourists), they will stand up for what is right. To protect these people and at least preserve their income.

The fact that they just take it on the chin is enough in my opinion to say they do not deserve it.

As far as my cheese making business is..... I am making loads of money and it is expanding by the month to the point I will have a full on factory within 2 years...... and why?????..... Because the Thais have been ripping people off on the price of cheese from the word go.

I can undercut the Thais by 30% and am still making loads of money and it is getting bigger by the month Currently at 450,000 a month profit on cream cheese alone,,, If I go national supplying Makro, Big C and Tesco, we are talking 30 million a year.......... so dream on pal.

Haha...95% chance this is BS because anyone who does business in Thailand knows this is not AT ALL how things work there. If a foreigner is successful taking away business from locals that NEVER goes unnoticed or unanswered. Haha....better educate yourself better before trying to bs people.

Man.... you know nowt about business in Thailand.

The majority of cream cheese in this country is Kraft chemically enhanced product.

There aint nobody doing it because it is alien to them.

Hahahahahaha.

Laugh as much as you like, but cream cheese is huge here at the moment with creanm cheese frosted cakes etc.... My customers are bakers.

No Thai can come close to my quality and price.

How to beat a Thai in Thailand..... beat them on quality and price.... they can't touch you.

YOU KNOW NOTHING PAL.

EDIT: By the way... I have been going 2 years now and not a single person has started up against me. Says a lot really... If i was making pizzas, I would be copied within weeks... NO... i am making cheese. Most Thais wouldn't even know what cheese tastes like

I ill continue to rise and no Thai will have a clue how to stop me.

Edited November 19, 2014 by RustBucket

[retsdon]

When we were last through Swampy in October, I'd never ever seen it so quiet at immigration. The Thai passport line was the longest in the hall. I'll be interested to find out how it is when Mrs R goes back in December. Me, I'm going elsewhere for my break for the first time in about 15 years......

[CapeThai]

I wonder how many vacancies on Koh Tao?

I personally don't give a sh#t about Koh Tao or it's statistics. All I know for a fact is me, NOR anyone I know will contribute one baht towards it's economy or to enrich the "guilty" in the September 15 murders profiting from this Island from Hell.

They can go rot in Hell !!

[mitsubishi]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

f

]

As far as my cheese making business is..... I am making loads of money and it is expanding by the month to the point I will have a full on factory within 2 years...... and why?????..... Because the Thais have been ripping people off on the price of cheese from the word go.

I can undercut the Thais by 30% and am still making loads of money and it is getting bigger by the month Currently at 450,000 a month profit on cream cheese alone,,, If I go national supplying Makro, Big C and Tesco, we are talking 30 million a year.......... so dream on pal.

Haha...95% chance this is BS because anyone who does business in Thailand knows this is not AT ALL how things work there. If a foreigner is successful taking away business from locals that NEVER goes unnoticed or unanswered. Haha....better educate yourself better before trying to bs people.

Man....

Laugh as much as you like, but cream cheese is huge here at the moment with creanm cheese frosted cakes etc.... My customers are bakers.

No Thai can come close to my quality and price.

How to beat a Thai in Thailand..... beat them on quality and price.... they can't touch you.

EDIT: By the way... I have been going 2 years now and not a single person has started up against me. Says a lot really... If i was making pizzas, I would be copied within weeks... NO... i am making cheese. Most Thais wouldn't even know what cheese tastes like

I ill continue to rise and no Thai will have a clue how to stop me.

As much as I respect your European ballsyness be careful! The Thais are experts at undercutting and copying us mate.

[ggold]

They had an extra 250k Chinese arrivals month on month, and they don't know why.

Hmmmm

Like to enlighten us then ????

Actually , where does it even say that they do not know why ???

He must be reading a different Story!

500 take away 299 approx 200, my apologies not 250k.

If this trend continues they end up with a 2.4mn increase for a calendar year. Wouldnt it be worth investigating if this is an anomaly or a sustainable increase?

it's all in the statistics! You would have to see if it continues to see if it is a sustainable increase or not.

[CapeThai]

to thesetat2013

The UK wasn't mentioned. It was Europe. There are other countries beside the UK in Europe, you know.

I think the Brits slightly pissed them off with the British Investigation Team on the Koh Tao case came over here..

[CapeThai]

Great news.

Keep dropping and dropping until Thailand realises we are not second class humans compared with Thais... we are in fact essential for the survival of this country.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Possible serial killer on Koh Tao and they are covering it up.

I could not agree more... smoke them out !!

[Robert2006]

What do you expect? I think government figures are on the high side. Japan has trashed the yen with all the money they are printing. The Russian ruble is taking a big hit over sanctions, the Euro is also down so what do you expect. If China goes through a bubble well all bets are off the table and some of these over produced/priced condos could collect dust for a long long time. Tourists cannot create money out of thin air like governments do. Most are over extended borrowing money to travel. A lot of older people now no longer save money for their children to spend.

I think you are correct, the low tourist numbers are to a degree affected by the political trouble and the crime in Thailand but I think it’s more about the world going back into recession. The economies of the world are interconnected and it looks like we’re all going into a slow down together. Less money will be floating around for non-necessities like tourism.

Oil consumption is falling off a cliff and that usually marks the beginning of an economic downturn. Russia relies heavily on its sales of oil and gas (I think its 40% of the GDP) so the Rubble is getting hammered. Japan just expanded their monetary base by the equivalent of 3 trillion USD so the Yen has been massively devalued; everyone else is devaluing to keep up with the Japanese which strengthens the Baht against other currencies. The situation could easily morph into a full blown currency war were everyone starts to devalue to get the export edge.

Consumer spending is down in the US and Europe, when consumer spending is down in the west China’s manufacturing slows, when that happens China stops buying raw materials and that hurts exporters like Australia. China is sitting on a massive real estate bubble which is getting ready to pop so they won’t be building for a while and that is going to slow the economies for a lot of countries that export raw materials.

For myself the economic slowdown is not the number one concern my main apprehension is that we are in the middle of similar conditions that in the past started two world wars. The financial system is insolvent; that insolvency could manifest itself at any time exposing the banks as the main culprits, the bankers need a big distraction away from the financial debacle they caused. The banking cartel would benefit immensely from a new world war, they will finance (both sides) with money they create out of thin air and loan at interest, they desperately need that money to get their financial houses back in order and maintain the control over the world that they have achieved. It’s going to be an interesting decade to observe as these situations sort themselves out.

[CapeThai]

I wonder how much of the decrease is due to elimination of visa runs....

I am not happy tourist numbers are down. Local people are hurting financially. And it seems that crime against farangs is up in violence and/or robbery departments. If some can't get money via normal hustles, not that great a step to cross over to theft. Little to fear in punishment or law enforcement. Come to think of it, I can see police also profiting from crimes as criminals would have to share some of the loot with BIB to get back on street again...

Then they should get their house in order and start by putting a STOP to organised cover-ups regarding Hi-So Thai's murdering and raping foreign tourist on Koh Tao to begin with !!

This is the beginning of the end for the Thai tourist industry, them as well as many other people just don't realise it yet !!!

COME ON LOS, GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER BEFORE YOU LOSE IT ALL !!!

[thaibeachlovers]

I' surprised with the rouble in the toilet because of EU/US financial sanctions that the Russians are still here....I'm in Pattaya and they are all over the place....to be honest the place seems busy s perhaps it is picking up for the high season.

I didn't manage to get to Walking St couple of weeks ago, but apart from their enclave on that Naklua beach where the huge hotels are and in Central, didn't seem to be too many of them about.

Hasn't stopped prices going up to Russian levels though. Restaurants are noticeably more expensive than a couple years ago.

[Thai at Heart]

They had an extra 250k Chinese arrivals month on month, and they don't know why.

Hmmmm

Like to enlighten us then ????

Actually , where does it even say that they do not know why ???

He must be reading a different Story!

500 take away 299 approx 200, my apologies not 250k.

If this trend continues they end up with a 2.4mn increase for a calendar year. Wouldnt it be worth investigating if this is an anomaly or a sustainable increase?

it's all in the statistics! You would have to see if it continues to see if it is a sustainable increase or not.

Well one would assume it maybe a one off with a holiday crossing months possibly.

But I can't believe they just throw this massive number in and have no reason why.

[thaibeachlovers]

I wonder how much of the decrease is due to elimination of visa runs....

I am not happy tourist numbers are down. Local people are hurting financially. And it seems that crime against farangs is up in violence and/or robbery departments. If some can't get money via normal hustles, not that great a step to cross over to theft. Little to fear in punishment or law enforcement. Come to think of it, I can see police also profiting from crimes as criminals would have to share some of the loot with BIB to get back on street again...

Last time crime against farangs in Pattaya went up was when Thaksin got into power and cracked down on the farang bars. There was a noticeable surge in the crime rate as many Thais previously making money in the bar scene lost their jobs.

IMO, if the prices in Pattaya go back to more reasonable levels, the usual Pattaya visitors will be back in greater numbers- it's just got too expensive in last few years.

[thaibeachlovers]

Great news.

Keep dropping and dropping until Thailand realises we are not second class humans compared with Thais... we are in fact essential for the survival of this country.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Possible serial killer on Koh Tao and they are covering it up.

If you think farangs are essential for survival of Thailand you are sadly mistaken. Tourism officially counts as around 6% of the economy, and farangs are probably a very small part of that %.

However, it is no excuse to treat farangs so badly.

[thaibeachlovers]

I wonder how many vacancies on Koh Tao?

I personally don't give a sh#t about Koh Tao or it's statistics. All I know for a fact is me, NOR anyone I know will contribute one baht towards it's economy or to enrich the "guilty" in the September 15 murders profiting from this Island from Hell.

They can go rot in Hell !!

Back in the 90s Tao used to be a reasonably pleasant island to visit, though the beaches were not that great.

But the last time I passed by on the ferry it had buildings on every available surface. IMO it deserves to lose all it's tourists for environmental destruction.

[Strangebrew]

But TAT said they were Flocking here or were they meaning Not F-cking coming here any more. And no clue to as why? Me think it is time TAT pulls there collective heads out of there Hinny's And start "wait for it" THINKING!!!! New concept Huh?

[Alan653]

This is great news.

Can only hope that TAT and the rest of the "biggies" in Thailand,

start to realize they cannot keep lying about these numbers any more,

especially since it is now getting to years end.

Hope Koh Tao looses the most!

[RustBucket]

Great news.

Keep dropping and dropping until Thailand realises we are not second class humans compared with Thais... we are in fact essential for the survival of this country.

I hope they lose all their tourism.... serves them right.

Possible serial killer on Koh Tao and they are covering it up.

If you think farangs are essential for survival of Thailand you are sadly mistaken. Tourism officially counts as around 6% of the economy, and farangs are probably a very small part of that %.

However, it is no excuse to treat farangs so badly.

I didn't say farangs.... I was on about tourism (tourists)

Big diffrence.

Tourists bring 2.2 trillion into the Thai economy from outside the country.

Annual government spending is 2.2 to 2.5 trillion per annum.

They are already creaking at the seams with a 700 Bn baht loss on the rice scam and having to issue bonds to plug the hole.

So tourists are responsible for providing this country with around the same amount the government needs to run the country..... remove that outside income and Thailand is in the crapper.

But don't take my word for it.. Tourism is also responsible for over 3 million jobs.

Nice to see you are optimistic.... what will thyey do?.... grow and export 2.2 trillion of extra rice and rubber a year?

Edit.

Not to mention when it goes away, it usually never comes back, so that amounts to 2.2 trillion every single year, less in the economy.

It will end up with the same boom and bust as Spain which now needs an EU bailout seven times bigger than Greece... Spain was booming back in the 80s and 90s.... I was there regular in those decades, it was thriving with tourists.... I last went there in 2006 and it is a total ghost town.

Edited November 20, 2014 by RustBucket

[madmitch]

BP has stated that October arrivals are UP by 6.1%. This article states it's DOWN by the same amount.

It is now surely official that you can't believe any of the tourism statistics produced by any Government agency or the Thai press in whatever language!

[harryfrompattaya]

Thai bath is again to high for Europe,44,5 for 1 euro 8 months ago,now 40,5,10% down,be clever!!!

Europe is having a hard time with the ecomony People have less money to travel