Despite economic slowdown, tourism is booming with sharp increase in arrivals

[mango66]

Quote: "with the exception of tourism industry which saw a sharp increase of 29.6 percent of tourist arrivals number 2.69 million".

Well the small businesses here in Patong aren't seeing them, or at least not seeing the money they should be spending. Many are struggling and reckon that the "high season" never really got started and the "low season" has been here for a couple of months.........

Never mind, always some farang willing to "invest" in a failed business as witnessed in my Soi just recently.

tell him, put a billboard in Chinese - mandarin : Chinese toilett available!! 5

[Suffinator]

Daily clap trap.

[Fat Haggis]

There's an article in the BP that is stating that the number of guests from Europe and Russia is down by 30% and they're having to promote cut price deals for Thais in hotels in Pattaya..

Someone is telling porkies!!

[lavender19]

And for the first 13 days of March, tourist arrivals shot up to 11 million people representing 27.6 percent jump, said Mr Krisda Jinavijarana, head of the Fiscal Economics Office.

Eleven million people arrived in just thirteen days, if we are to believe him, no wonder that beach was crowded !

Is there anyone left back home in China ?

Or is there simply a worrying shortage of locally-manufactured decimal-points, for officials' use, in public-announcements ?

He must have worked for the T.A.T at some time spouting stupid numbers like that/

[Fat Haggis]

The mentality is quite amusing on TVF.

While tourism was recovering after May 22nd, 2014 the comments were "The Junta have destroyed tourism" and "The tourists have made it clear that they don't support a military take over"

When tourist levels reached its highest level ever in December, 2014 and is continually on the rise the comments are "Is it Monday already" or "These are not the quality tourists Thailand want"

Amazing (falangs in) Thailand.

Nothing positive to say so dismiss this success with utter nonsense.

Luckily I present facts as opposed to beliefs to back my argument.

Well done on the Junta for being able to recover the tourist industry from the near death plunge it was in pre May, 2014.

djjamie - beleave you aren't a chinese tourist,

you beleave tourist arrivales counted by banks !!

or you prefer TAT ?

or you trust our eyes ??

I never seen so many hotels vacant and bitterly waiting for guests !!

"" TOURISTS ""

Well, here's a FACT... the article in today's BP about Hotels in Pattaya offering up to 50% reductions fort Thais during the week is due to a 30% drop in European and Russian Tourist numbers.

It's all very well stating figures as facts, and please Jamie, can you prove as a fact about the magical 7% you keep harping on about whilst you're at it!! ??

Fact is there's more tourists arriving, according to TAT, tens of thousands of Chinese, but they're not spending, so there's still a lower revenue being put into the Thai economy.

That's a false economy, unless they're spending levels increase, whooppy doo they've had more arrivals, the economy isn't prospering through that increase!!.

[xylophone]

Quote djjamie: "Amazing (falangs in) Thailand. Nothing positive to say so dismiss this success with utter nonsense.

Luckily I present facts as opposed to beliefs to back my argument"

The problem here is that the facts do not tell the story, or not the story that will benefit Thailand anyway. A bit like you opening a big store and proudly exclaiming that you had 1000 people come through the door on the first day..................and when asked what profit you made, you have to say none whatsoever, because no one spent anything!

It's not the numbers that count (sorry about the pun) it is what they do for the economy and the Thai people in general.

I remember analysing the performance of a regional sales team a few years ago and the manager was proudly going over the fact that they had an extremely high number of what are called "prospects" (i.e. people who are seen as prospective buyers) yet despite this the sales team were doing very poorly indeed as regards sales made and profitability. Numbers for numbers sake is a waste of time, and when I got him and his team round to understanding what constituted a "quality prospect" then things started to turn round.

Having the quantity is fine, but having the quality is the endgame and if you can merge the two, then you are on a win-win situation. The problem here is that even though the tourist numbers may be up, the spending certainly isn't, and that's what benefits businesses here, not just the numbers at the turnstiles.

[Fat Haggis]

A bit like being a used car salesman that can't make a sale!! All very good when the boss asks you how was things today, and you say " yeah we had lots of people looking at cars, x y and z" and then when he asks " so how many were sold? " it's quite embarrassing to say "well none" and even more so when saying, "but I almost sold one".

The real irony is that several months back the TAT were pulling out the stops and marketing towards "High end/Quality tourists" and looking towards the Asian countries at the same time..

I'd call this an epic fail, there should be a figure that is aimed for in generated tourist revenue, and not tourist numbers, failing to reach target in tourist revenue is a fail, window shoppers are fine, and makes your shop look busy, but when that till doesn't ring and there's no ka-ching, it's not good for business!!

[ExPratt]

Well I don't know where they have all gone , but they don't appear to be in Pattaya. Naklua road normally has quite a few Tourists going up and down going to bars and restaurants. Got the baht bus up To Festive Mall and from Naklua to festival mall , some bars were empty some had 1 or 2 , Chairs on the beach I'd hazard a guess less that 10% taken. It may be livelier at night , going out this weekend

I stayed here for a year in 2004/05 and have come here more or less every 3 or 4 months to meet up with friends. I don't believe I have ever seen it this quiet, We saw a couple of "Parties" of Chinese in Festival but even that was dead around Lunchtime

Maybe the TVF members who live in Pattaya full time see it diferently

Edited March 31, 2015 by ExPratt

[heybruce]

The mentality is quite amusing on TVF.

While tourism was recovering after May 22nd, 2014 the comments were "The Junta have destroyed tourism" and "The tourists have made it clear that they don't support a military take over"

When tourist levels reached its highest level ever in December, 2014 and is continually on the rise the comments are "Is it Monday already" or "These are not the quality tourists Thailand want"

Amazing (falangs in) Thailand.

Nothing positive to say so dismiss this success with utter nonsense.

Luckily I present facts as opposed to beliefs to back my argument.

Well done on the Junta for being able to recover the tourist industry from the near death plunge it was in pre May, 2014.

Well done djjamie, I think this is the first time you've presented a referenced, on-topic fact! Referring to it in the plural, "facts", is a stretch, but at least it's progress.

Of course, as many posters have pointed out, hordes of tight-fisted Chinese tourists aren't helping the tourism businesses. Do you have any hopeful facts on tourism revenues?

[Daniel Ingalls]

.....Thailand needs to focus on quality, not quantity. Chinese's are not big spenders, they are tight with their money. Europeans, Americans, Auzzies, etc. ect. are spenders. This is the positive cash flow.