Roundup 2014: Ups and downs of Thailand's tourism industry

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ROUNDUP 2014
Good times, bad times
PHOOWADON DUANGMEE
THE NATION


Police and soldiers on horseback patrol Sanam Luang Square and the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The Thai capital experienced a slump in tourism in 2014 following a series of political uprisings.

As we approach the end of 2014, we take a look back at the ups and downs of this year's tourism industry

BANGKOK: -- For most of us, the Year of the Horse has cantered past with unseemly speed but for the tourism industry, and especially Thai tourism, it's barely gathered enough steam to merit a trot. Much of that, of course, can be blamed on the political uprisings in Bangkok and upcountry earlier in the year and the subsequent coup and imposition of martial law. And while life goes on much as usual for the majority of those living in the Land of Smiles, tourists are still staying away.

Our capital city also appears to be losing its charm and magic. Bangkok had championed Travel + Leisure's World Best Cities for three consecutive years since 2011 but failed to make it into the Top 10 Best Cities in the magazine's latest survey.

Proof of that demise lies in the numbers of international tourist arrivals to Thailand in 2014.

East Asian tourists - who are "hypersensitive" to the situation - have avoided visiting Thailand this year. That means we missed more than 580,000 Chinese tourists, 246,000 Japanese and 150,000 from South Korea - and we still have another week to go.

In an attempt to woo more Chinese tourists and reverse the slump, the military junta waived visa fees for Chinese and Taiwanese from August to October. It helped but not to the extent the authorities had hoped.

European tourists, however, are more adventurous than Asian folk. While many Chinese and Koreans changed their plans to visit Thailand due to the political situation, the Europeans continued to arrive. Admittedly most of them were young travellers and backpackers rather than the big spenders. They don't care much about demonstrations or martial law provided the sun is shining, the sea is blue, there's plenty of cheap beer at the ubiquitous 7-Elevens and lots of inexpensive pad thai and other Thai dishes on the streets.

Like Thai tourists, they were surprised when the junta ordered a "beach clean-up" along the coast from Hua Hin in Prachuab Khiri Khan to Patong in Phuket. "Trespassers" - meaning everyone from masseurs to those renting out daybeds and umbrellas - were removed, giving the public beaches back to the people.

More than 4.8 million Europeans made it to Thailand between January and October, up from 4.7 million over the same period last year.

But not all is rosy on the tourist front.

According to Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the total number of international tourist arrivals topped 19.7 million by October, a staggering three-per-cent down on the 21.6 million during the same period last year.

About 26.7 million international tourists visited Thailand in 2013, a figure that's unlikely to be reached this year.

For the airlines, 2014 has been a busy year though not everyone has benefitted.

Unsurprisingly the most active airline has been the low-cost carrier AirAsia, which earlier in the year introduced direct flights from Bangkok to Asia's three most popular destinations - Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul. The budget flight on a brand-new Airbus A330-300 quickly had the premium airlines feeling the heat. Thai Airways International, which operates between Bangkok and Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, has run a string of tempting promotions. But while a return ticket on the national carrier is going for B16,395 to any Japanese destination, AirAsia's ticket on the Bangkok-Tokyo route costs just Bt8,000 if you book now to travel in May.

And so the battle in the sky continues.

In addition to these South Korean and Japanese routes, AirAsia is also operating more domestic and regional flights - Chiang Mai to Surat Thani and Krabi to Guangzhou in China to name just two. Little wonder that the airline came home with the World's Best Low-Cost Airline Award for 2014.

Bangkok Airways also experienced a positive 2014. Billed as the "boutique airline" for its special and luxurious treats, the airline won "World's Best Regional Airline" and "Best Regional Airline in Asia" at the recent Skytrax Awards. The airline has also made Chiang Mai its second base and offers direct flights between Chiang Mai and Phuket, Chiang Mai and Udon Thani and Chiang Mai and Mandalay.

Like Bangkok Airways and AirAsia, Nok Air added more colour to the sky by introducing four Bombardier Q400 NexGen aircraft to its fleet. Seating up to 86 passengers, this Canadian-made turboprop doesn't need a long runway and Nok Air plans to approach less-frequented provinces with small airstrips like Nan, Lampang and Phrae. The airline is also aiming to provide more competition on regional routes and beyond and has placed an order for 15 craft in the Boeing B737 family.

The most disheartening news of the year came from Malaysia Airlines, which cut many of its flights following the disappearance of flight MH370 on March 8 and the downing of MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17.

Unlike the airlines, the country's hotels have kept a low profile in 2014, though despite the quiet, there has been some movement on the home front.

The Regent Group continued to look to the future by opening the Regent Cha-Am Hospitality School (RHS) in Phetchaburi province. Aleenta Phuket Resort & Spa launched The Edge restaurant to offer locals and visitors a world-class gourmet experience and Jahn, the award-winning restaurant of the Conrad Koh Samui Resort & Spa, introduced Thailand's Black Ivory Elephant Coffee to its guests. The coffee itself is created through a process whereby the coffee beans are naturally refined by Thai elephants at the Golden Elephant Triangle Foundation in Chiang Rai province.

Bikes - motorised and pedal - also came to the fore in 2014.

Many motorbike enthusiasts had fun exploring Thailand on such big beasts as the BMW K1200 and Ducati Monster, while those who prefer to move under their own steam were delighted when the State Railway of Thailand introduced a Bike Train Carriage for group trips over the weekend. The carriage is available for rent (Bt4,350- Bt8,370), and boasts bicycle racks and seats for 30 passengers travelling with their bikes. Many airlines are now cyclist-friendly too. Bangkok Airways, for example, is letting cyclists load their bikes for free until March and Suvarnabhumi Airport is encouraging biking thanks to a cycling track around its perimeter.

And with the Asean Economic Community getting underway next year, opening the door to a potential 600 million people to travel freely around member countries, international bus routes have been introduced connecting Bangkok to Phnom Penh in Cambodia and to Luang Prabang in Laos.

However, with an increasing number of people able to access cheap travel, annoying incidents have become par for the course and are likely to continue.

The latest occurred earlier this month when a Chinese woman threw a cup of hot water at an AirAsia flight attendant on a flight from Bangkok for Nanjing. Apparently, the honeymooner was furious at not being seated to her husband. While sympathetic passengers offered to move to accommodate the couple, the dispute quickly turned into insults and threats. Sympathy soon gave way to fury, not least on the part of the other Chinese passengers on the flight, as the AirAsia captain turned the plane round and returned to Bangkok.

As we enter the Year of the Goat, we cannot help wonder what 2015 will have in store. In the meantime, welcome to the Land of Smiles!

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/travel/Good-times-bad-times-30250475.html


-- The Nation 2014-12-24

[simon43]

whereby the coffee beans are naturally refined by Thai elephants

Well, I suppose that is a polite way to put it, but quite frankly you have to have a soft head if you're willing to pay the high prices for this load of elephant dung

[rasmus5150]

Chinese Tourist are "hyper sensitive"?

Give me a break......

[connda]

Start shaking-down Chinese tourists and see how that works on decreasing tourist numbers. Obviously farangs aren't welcome anymore, Indians and Middle-Easterns never were, so let work on alienating the Chinese, well, imho.

[UncleE]

It's hard to believe there hasn't been at least a 30% drop in "real" tourists or let's just say "real tourist room nights". Compared to the basically white skinned mix who used to come and park in Thailand spending $100 / night for a room, the Chinese stay a couple nights. So my guess is although arrival numbers may be down only slightly, the total number of room nights and spend per room night is waaay off the mark. Being in the hotel / restaurant biz for 25 years, I think I have a fairly good feeling for these things along with my friends in similar businesses.

And it is true, lower end places seem to be fairing better than properties in the over $50 USD price range.

The other thing to look out for in the numbers provided by the government, they've traditionally had trouble distinguishing from "real" tourists and "long stay tourists" who simply do visa runs etc. Those folks don't really contribute to the tourism market per se.

Let's hope the year of the Goat does pan out better.

[yellowboat]

TAT and the rest of the Thai goverment tried to change something that works. tourism in Thailand, for the sake of the wealthy few.

[jabis]

I know of kopi luwak / kopi luang - but I doubt kopi chang would be a better mill for the outcome

[KhnomKhnom]

The stats on the effect of tourism on the Thai economy run around 10% of the total. Significant but not catastrophic even if cut in half for a year, and it was not. All this thaivisa palaver about the importance of tourism is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

The latest estimate of how many expats LIVE in Thailand is 200,000. That strikes me as infinitesimal in terms of over 66 million living here.

Again, all this thaivisa palaver about the importance of expats is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

Expats are a pimple on the behind of Thailand; control your egos.

[mok199]

when will these idiots realize they never did it right, and they will, never get it right..until they get some new ideas and ideally some western people into help this failing tourisim industry, correct the core issues,or this once paradice will just get worse''pay your people better and mabey they will treat the tourists better,but'prices here rise and rise but the holiday experience just gets worse'..sawadee no crap

[yellowboat]

when will these idiots realize they never did it right, and they will, never get it right..until they get some new ideas and ideally some western people into help this failing tourisim industry, correct the core issues,or this once paradice will just get worse''pay your people better and mabey they will treat the tourists better,but'prices here rise and rise but the holiday experience just gets worse'..sawadee no crap

Look at Disney and Universal studios efforts in China. Thailand floated the idea of having something similar in Thailand, but with the corruption and poor political environment, it never got any serious consideration.

Many of us who have done work for major theme parks, use to have second homes in Thailand, but that time has passed with the tighter visa regulations.

[rickirs]

2013-12-07

Yuthachai Suntornratanavej, president of Inbound Tourism Association, predicted "If the rallies last longer than next week, the number will decline by as many as 40 per cent."

Deja vu

[John1thru10]

This article in The Nation, only emphasizes how censored media is in Thailand under this leadership.

[sjjmmi]

No ups only downs

[JOC]

The stats on the effect of tourism on the Thai economy run around 10% of the total. Significant but not catastrophic even if cut in half for a year, and it was not. All this thaivisa palaver about the importance of tourism is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

The latest estimate of how many expats LIVE in Thailand is 200,000. That strikes me as infinitesimal in terms of over 66 million living here.

Again, all this thaivisa palaver about the importance of expats is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

Expats are a pimple on the behind of Thailand; control your egos.

Who pissed on your cornflakes today??

And a Merry Christmas to you too Sir!!

[hscottbennett]

"According to Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the total number of international tourist arrivals topped 19.7 million by October, a staggering three-per-cent down on the 21.6 million during the same period last year."

Am I the only one who had a problem with this part of the article? I wouldn't call a 3% change staggering and I wouldn't call the decline from 21.6 to 19.7 3%... I'd put it closer to 9% which is still a surprisingly low decline given the events taking place this year.

[jabis]

The stats on the effect of tourism on the Thai economy run around 10% of the total. Significant but not catastrophic even if cut in half for a year, and it was not. All this thaivisa palaver about the importance of tourism is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

The latest estimate of how many expats LIVE in Thailand is 200,000. That strikes me as infinitesimal in terms of over 66 million living here.

Again, all this thaivisa palaver about the importance of expats is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

Expats are a pimple on the behind of Thailand; control your egos.

Have you heard of the fact that between 60 000 to 80 000 households bring 100% of the income tax to the Kingdom?

[keskeseksa]

There may be many reasons for the drop in tourists in Thailand but the biased or exaggerated reports from the corporate press and equally exaggerated warnings from foreign embassies regarding potential dangers play a leading role in this slump. It is clear that for many Western countries, the former regime was more suitable for their self interests. It is clear that the new government is doing its best to act in the interest of the majority of the Thai people, so it is not surprising that those foreign countries do not like this new government and are trying to undermine it with bad publicity such as being undemocratic and dangerous for tourists.

[jabis]

Also have you heard that the annual spending budget draft of 2,400,000,000,000THB happens to include a profecy estimate of 1,440,000,000,000THB (0.01% reduced from this estimate upon TAT manoevers) revenue from tourism altogether?

I'd suppose those trillions are of no consequence

[lil fluffy clouds]

"Industry", how I dislike that word, makes it sound like a meat packing plant, which I guess in many ways it is....

[Jim walker]

Thailand have been robbing raping murdering scamming tourists for years and they expect them to return with their families Thais had their chance many years ago to welcome tourists with open arms and help them spend their money on things they want to do and want to visit even though they have to pay more at the entrance because they are not totally welcome because they are foreign, but now plenty flights to Asian countries who make tourists feel welcome and they can hire a jet ski without having to take out a mortgage to pay for a old scratch caused by hitting an innocent tourist having a swim in the open sewer, welcome Not to Thailand foreigner, we hate you so much.

[Jim walker]

I know a couple of students from my town in the UK who are taking their gap year touring Asia and are not going to include Thailand in their schedule as they are looking at the prices and recon it’s too expensive to spend any length of time here so possibly living not quite as cheap in Thailand as it used to be regarding price check students, how cheap do low end tourists need things to be

[jabis]

I know a couple of students from my town in the UK who are taking their gap year touring Asia and are not going to include Thailand in their schedule as they are looking at the prices and recon it’s too expensive to spend any length of time here so possibly living not quite as cheap in Thailand as it used to be regarding price check students, how cheap do low end tourists need things to be

I'd suppose that the internet presence of many agencies, hotels etc is present - people have stopped doing the legwork, thinking it's the best rate they can get (and in many occasions that holds true) - but if you only live by what you see in reservation machines, you haven't even begun to scratch the surface as to why Thailand still is a viable option to come have the fun - coin has two sides usually - here it's exposure vs. (expats view) mad rates. Can't blame them for looking at visibly cheaper alternatives, but would encourage more on the security side of things [and no I'm not implying Thailand is safe nor unsafe - just general pondering]

[Alwyn]

"According to Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the total number of international tourist arrivals topped 19.7 million by October, a staggering three-per-cent down on the 21.6 million during the same period last year."

Am I the only one who had a problem with this part of the article? I wouldn't call a 3% change staggering and I wouldn't call the decline from 21.6 to 19.7 3%... I'd put it closer to 9% which is still a surprisingly low decline given the events taking place this year.

I was scrolling through to see if anybody noticed the Thai maths.. 3% my arse!

[fish fingers]

A large portion of what keeps Bangkok going is the Hotel Sector - new investment, white collar work, foreign jobs, designers and architects, taxi's, food supplies, restaurants, maids and dry cleaners etc

Thats completely screwed atm

[fish fingers]

Plus Thai's have not treated tourists very well over the last few years' as their affluence has grown (partly out of tourism)

Now Cambodia is stealing 15% of the travellers since 2013 and Burma is about to grab a huge chunk too.

[perdido]

TAT and the rest of the Thai goverment tried to change something that works. tourism in Thailand, for the sake of the wealthy few.

care to elaborate on your postulate ?

[bangon04]

No ups only downs

and not a mention of Koh Tao - obviously we all imagined it...

[Ulic]

The stats on the effect of tourism on the Thai economy run around 10% of the total. Significant but not catastrophic even if cut in half for a year, and it was not. All this thaivisa palaver about the importance of tourism is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

The latest estimate of how many expats LIVE in Thailand is 200,000. That strikes me as infinitesimal in terms of over 66 million living here.

Again, all this thaivisa palaver about the importance of expats is just that, palaver and weakly supported suppositions.

Expats are a pimple on the behind of Thailand; control your egos.

Personally I think you miss the point with ex-pats and there value to the tourism economy. With the average European tourist

coming for two weeks and the average Chinese tourist coming for 4-5 days even if you average the tourist stay to 10 days

an ex-pat staying 365 days a year is the equivalent to 36 tourists. You also have to take into account they are here in the low season

and help smooth the peaks and valleys. While they don;t help the hotel industry they fill condos and houses driving the Thai

construction industry. With a minimum of 800 k a year needed to qualify, this is a significant amount of money.

[route8]

Thais in general,especially TAT, haven,t got a clue

about how they are perceived by foreigners

including those millions planning their Asian

holidays every year.

The authorities here seem to think that the Country is perfect in every way offering Tourists

the ultimate destination.

Whilst Thailand is indeed a beautiful Country, what they,the authorities, fail miserably to understand is that when planning their holidays

Tourists have many other Asian Countries to choose from.....so until there is a change in attitude it can be expected that numbers will continue to fall, and tourists will visits countries

where they are genuinely welcomed,without the

two faced greed and deceit that prevails here.

[Bullie]

Did the OP actually say "they come for the cheap beer"? Prices in general on the Islands are as high as or higher than in the centre of Amsterdam, my hometown.