Foreign tourist arrivals in Thailand drop in October

[Equalizer]

Witnessed them in the coach loads at floating market. Not one of them had a plastic bag on the way out. NO ONE bought anything. One gain with Chinese tourists and this is Suvarnabhumi Airport. ''Landing fees''.

Why bash tourists of any nationality who choose to minimise their spending whilst on a visit? Is not this the reason why many expats have chosen to live in LOS, largely because it is relatively inexpensive? Who bashes them for their 'cheapness'? Certainly not I.

Live and let live, all to their own etc.

Basically because the topic is about tourism, tourism is a business, business needs financing. Quite simple really. Ex pats or long term visitors ''off shore etc etc'' contribute to this business more than any Chinese tourist. Also i am siding with the small Thai business who's livelihood is to cater for the ''tourist''. Russians come here and stay 5 or 6 to a one bed apartment with a 100baht budget per day. The Chinese come here on cheap tours and spent virtually nothing. These tourists do not even spend enough to cover the cost of their own waste disposal, these tourists probably end up costing Thailand money for goodness sake.

[inwardglee]

Nowadays, travelling simply does not make sense anymore ...

or maybe you're just jaded ... what about the hundreds of million of people that have never had an overseas holiday ... it's still very exciting to them.

Yes, sitting in an airplane is exciting a few times, then seeing oneself in bizarre circumstances like being shipped like sheep, being of a huge crowd, even on holidays, is all exciting to see ... but people will get tired of that experience.

See stocks of airlines and of travel companies, they are tanking ... even in an extreme bull market ... because just of that.

Travelling is not exciting enough anymore. The balance of excitement and annoyance does not stand straight anymore. The effort for travelling is not worth the money.

I am not the first one with that perception, but nowadays it is more true than any time before:

Willst du immer weiterschweifen?


Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah.


Lerne nur das Glück ergreifen,


denn das Glück ist immer da.


Gestern fing ich an.

Goethe

Do you continue always wander?

View, the good is so close.

Only the lucky get to take that happiness is always there.

I started yesterday.

[lapd]

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.

He's just bs'ing anyways. Trying to undercut or copy is too much work. Depending on the business and how much money they think you have, there are many many different ways they can correct the situation. Anything from using gov't contacts for flat out extortion to hitting you with a bunch of new fees, adding more hoops for you to jump through, import duties. Any local partners you many have and usually require to do business will eventually try take the business away. Any legitimate legal contracts you may have are not of much use. If it came to a legal challenge the legal system will generally rule in favor of Thais over foreigners anyways. There are all sorts of things they can do. Of course there is also the occasional story of a successful businessman being shot in the head by a helmeted motorcycle driver that is never found. Usually at least one of those stories a year. That is often the easiest least expensive option.

The smartest foreign businessmen in Thailand are the ones you NEVER hear about. Hint, going on Thaivisa bragging would not put you in that category....lol.

Edited November 20, 2014 by lapd

[rametindallas]

However, visitors from key market like Russia plunged 23.2% in October and showed zero growth for the first 10 months.

Much of the world has imposed embargoes and trade restrictions on Russia over its invasion and occupation of Ukraine's Crimea region. The Ruble has dropped by more than 40% this year against the Dollar and I suppose a similar drop against the Baht. Everywhere is getting too pricey for Russians these days.

[visionchaser45]

Tourism numbers will continue to slide as dissent continues to grow and "attitude adjustments" become more common. You are welcome to disagree, but mark my words.

[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.

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.

Fair enough about "farangs". Most people seem to forget that farangs are only a small proportion of overall tourists though.

However, I doubt the Malays or other Asians will stop coming regardless, unless their economies go bust.

Nice to see you are optimistic

I'm not optimistic at all. Thailand was so badly run in the TRT years, it's not surprising that things are bad, and I don't see how they can reverse it..

However, making it easier for farangs to stay long time would be a start. I doubt anyone knows how much farang residents/ expats put into the economy, but it's probably very substantial, and making it harder to stay, as they are doing isn't helping.

[metisdead]

A post containing a link to Bangkok Post has been removed as well as a reply.

[konying]

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 believe the official figure is now at around 10% but i would doubt that, considering the amount of small business operators who do not declare their earning or have a registered company.

Love it or hate it but tourism contributes A LOT.

Hotels, shops, restaurants, hookers and their families, airline, hospitals etc.

Take out tourism out of tourist towns like Pattaya, Phuket, Samui and those city's simply would not survive, will go bust and turn into ghost towns.

Thai air, would most likely also fold, so will the number of hands out increase in Isaan.

Hospitals like Bumrungrad and BH in Bangkok, specialize mainly in foreigners.

Yes you have Chinese, but how much to they spend and where do they spend it?

[A1Str8]

That's weird. How did that happen? Myanmar workers might have a hand in it.

[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.

I believe the official figure is now at around 10% but i would doubt that, considering the amount of small business operators who do not declare their earning or have a registered company.

Love it or hate it but tourism contributes A LOT.

Hotels, shops, restaurants, hookers and their families, airline, hospitals etc.

Take out tourism out of tourist towns like Pattaya, Phuket, Samui and those city's simply would not survive, will go bust and turn into ghost towns.

Thai air, would most likely also fold, so will the number of hands out increase in Isaan.

Hospitals like Bumrungrad and BH in Bangkok, specialize mainly in foreigners.

Yes you have Chinese, but how much to they spend and where do they spend it?

I've always believed that tourism contributes far more than the official stats. How can anyone calculate what mongers spend, as it's all undeclared? Same for expats buying girlfriends/ wives houses and cars etc