Chinese elevate to status of ‘quality tourists’

[coulson]

So Quality is only defined by money?

What about the fact that they.....

Will not queue but push to the front, are ill mannered, aggressive, pick their nose, noisy and have no consideration.

Horrible people and the Honk Kong Chinese would agree!

At the end of the day they are better for the economy than penny pinching fat farang pensioners. They come to Thailand, spend money, and leave within 2-3 weeks. This is the sort of crowd Thailand wishes to attract, not farangs who try to put their nose into everything.

What about that 'Ramadan' crew (since we're coming into season) filling the hospitals and hiking up the prices on Soi 4, oh wait they don't count bell-ringing in their figures.......I digress!

Exactly who is better for the economy is not entirely clear, and how TAT have determined their new found love for their Northern Neighbours what is being discussed, not evening antics!

[sambum]

Oh so quality is measured by spending power? !

What about the fact that Chinese tourists are...

Ill mannered, push in front, noisy, pick their nose and are uncouth!

Must have learnt that from the English tourists...pretty good copiers the Chinese.

Sounds more like the Russians to me!

[Peterbkk7]

Who wants more of these crass, loud tourists in Thailand??

This country really does not have a clue. This makes me sick.

[coulson]

I think Turkish tourists spend the most money. Haven't met any turk who spent less than 10k baht a day here. They are hated by other groupers for inflating the prices in go-go bars, they are known to pay mediocre girls 3-4k baht for short time.

As long as they leave the good ones

[PaPiPuPePo]

What is it that makes people so uptight about these facts ? --and they are facts.

They are the same facts reported by other governments all around the world.

These are the very latest figures just released 15/4/2015---The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) just released new data on tourist spending in 2014. Last year international tourism generated over $1,245 billion around the world. Tourism is obviously a huge moneymaker for countries that are top travel destinations, but some tourists spend more than others.

Unsurprisingly, Chinese people spent the most when traveling abroad, spending a total of $165 billion in 2014....1/

Unsurprisingly it would seem to everyone but the farang bar experts who see it all as a great plot by Thailand Gov-- but their not going to be fooled by it all----they haven't seen one Chinese guy buy a bar girl a house---so how can it be correct. I guess the United nations are also in on this plot.........

http://www.businessinsider.com/tourists-from-these-countries-spend-the-most-when-traveling-abroad-2015-4

Interesting that you can be so smug and condescending, but you don't even see that you're mistaking TOTAL expenditures for PER CAPITA (i.e. per tourist) expenditures.

The OP refers to the latter; commenters disputed that Chinese tourists would be spending that much per tourist, then you trot out TOTAL spent per country with no regard to how many tourists that represents.

Open mouth, insert foot.

Interesting also that no one else (at least four pages hence) noticed this obvious mistake of yours.

During my many trips to Chiang Mai, I've seen two things: one, via the owners of the GH I regularly stay at--they stopped advertising online because of the many poorly-behaved and cheapskate Chinese tourists who, for example, would request hot water pots for their instant noodle meals in their rooms. But then when changing money I'd often see Chinese tourists changing pretty big sums; hard to say of course how often they're changing money, but it's possible they're skimping on food (which is hilarious and yet pathetic it being Chiang Mai, THE place in tourist-pipeline Thailand to get delicious and cheap food), so they can blow big sums on...who knows, gambling? Gold? Happy ending massages?

Regardless, the first line gets to the heart of it (confirmed by the other article posted by a member early on): "quality" actually does mean quantity--spent. The hypocrisy is also rather pathetic, being so blatant.

[sambum]

So Quality is only defined by money?

What about the fact that they.....

Will not queue but push to the front, are ill mannered, aggressive, pick their nose, noisy and have no consideration.

Horrible people and the Honk Kong Chinese would agree!

At the end of the day they are better for the economy than penny pinching fat farang pensioners. They come to Thailand, spend money, and leave within 2-3 weeks. This is the sort of crowd Thailand wishes to attract, not farangs who try to put their nose into everything.

Your whole post suggests that you indeed think that quality is indeed defined by money, as English 1 suggests.You are saying that as long as they come to Thailand, spend money, and leave within 2 - 3 weeks, they can behave in the most diabolical way, and it doesn't matter?

And yes, I am one of those fat farang pensioners that you are so critical of, but I and all my friends and acquaintances probably spend more in a week than these Chinese spend in a month, and that is EVERY week of the year - year in year out, so I'm afraid that if you think we are "penny pinchers" you are very much mistaken - plus I don't know of 1 person that would fit this bill:-

"Will not queue but push to the front, are ill mannered, aggressive, pick their nose, noisy and have no consideration."

I am originally from the UK, and we actually invented queuing! Where are you from by the way?

Edited May 28, 2015 by sambum

[tonbridgebrit]

So Quality is only defined by money?

What about the fact that they.....

Will not queue but push to the front, are ill mannered, aggressive, pick their nose, noisy and have no consideration.

Horrible people and the Honk Kong Chinese would agree!

At the end of the day they are better for the economy than penny pinching fat farang pensioners. They come to Thailand, spend money, and leave within 2-3 weeks. This is the sort of crowd Thailand wishes to attract, not farangs who try to put their nose into everything.

Your whole post suggests that you indeed think that quality is indeed defined by money, as English 1 suggests.You are saying that as long as they come to Thailand, spend money, and leave within 2 - 3 weeks, they can behave in the most diabolical way, and it doesn't matter?

And yes, I am one of those fat farang pensioners that you are so critical of, but I and all my friends and acquaintances probably spend more in a week than these Chinese spend in a month, and that is EVERY week of the year - year in year out, so I'm afraid that if you think we are "penny pinchers" you are very much mistaken - plus I don't know of 1 person that would fit this bill:-

"Will not queue but push to the front, are ill mannered, aggressive, pick their nose, noisy and have no consideration."

I am originally from the UK, and we actually invented queuing! Where are you from by the way?

Yes, there are fahrang pensioners who live in Thailand permanently, and who spend money, and don't cause problems.

However, I'm going to say that some fahlang pensioners do cause problems, and are almost penniless and staying in Thailand. These men don't tend to stay in Pattaya, the rent in Pattaya is not so cheap. These men tend to stay away from Pattaya, Bangkok and Phuket. These people live on whatever government pension, rent out houses for four or five thousand baht per month, and go out drinking about once a week. They do the rest of their drinking in their own homes, and buy their food from the local supermarket and cook at home. I don't have a problem with such people, but some of them abuse and shout at Thais in the bars they drink in. They speak Thai because they've lived in Thailand for years, but are bitter and angry because they have little money, they are forced to watch tourists turn up and who spend good money. These men can't get retirement visas because their pension/income is not big enough, and must try to get tourist visas, this just causes more anger and bitterness.

These are, surely, 'tourists' or foreigners that Thailand does NOT actually want ? And unfortunately, there seems to be a growing number of them.

[spidermike007]

Impossible to know how much a tourist spends. The only time I see Chinese spending anything is at the food court at Tesco as the food is so cheap it's almost free. Or at Ko Larn when we witnessed them trying to barter beach chair fees to 20 baht instead of paying the 100.

This article is ridiculous and they must of sample department store purchases of hand bags and extrapolated.

This has not been my experience. Whenever I go to the expensive seafood restaurants on the beach, the Chinese tourists are the ones ordering lobster, king prawns, and other delicacies. They spend a lot of money on these meals. Thousands of baht. I am the one watching my budget, not the Chinese I encounter.

[realfunster]

I saw a couple of quality tourist punching on at swampy a couple of weeks ago.

Standard issue tour group...not sure who started what but saw the bloke punch a lady...who immediately gave him a couple of solid ones back.

Followed by the shouting and shoving etc of the rest of the group.

Give the cops credit though they soon settled them down.

That an interesting anecdote. Not dissimilar to when I went for lunch in my office recently and noticed a 'flag bearer'. Tourists around? Surely not in an office complex? But behold 50 Chinese tourists milling around. In the 5 minutes for me to order and get my coffee, a Chinese man and woman had managed to engage in a blazing, high-volume row in the lobby to the bemusement of Thai & Expat alike. Building security were required to resolve the problem. Not seen any tour groups in the month since....thank God.

Anyhow, back to the OP - it's clearly <deleted>. The vast majority of CN tourists are on a 'budget' and organised tours. On my daily commute , I drive past loads of them every morning staying in THB 1-2k shared hotel rooms being ushered into their tour bus.

[mikemac]

What is it that makes people so uptight about these facts ? --and they are facts.

They are the same facts reported by other governments all around the world.

These are the very latest figures just released 15/4/2015---The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) just released new data on tourist spending in 2014. Last year international tourism generated over $1,245 billion around the world. Tourism is obviously a huge moneymaker for countries that are top travel destinations, but some tourists spend more than others.

Unsurprisingly, Chinese people spent the most when traveling abroad, spending a total of $165 billion in 2014....1/

Unsurprisingly it would seem to everyone but the farang bar experts who see it all as a great plot by Thailand Gov-- but their not going to be fooled by it all----they haven't seen one Chinese guy buy a bar girl a house---so how can it be correct. I guess the United nations are also in on this plot.........

http://www.businessinsider.com/tourists-from-these-countries-spend-the-most-when-traveling-abroad-2015-4

Interesting that you can be so smug and condescending, but you don't even see that you're mistaking TOTAL expenditures for PER CAPITA (i.e. per tourist) expenditures.

The OP refers to the latter; commenters disputed that Chinese tourists would be spending that much per tourist, then you trot out TOTAL spent per country with no regard to how many tourists that represents.

Open mouth, insert foot.

Interesting also that no one else (at least four pages hence) noticed this obvious mistake of yours.

During my many trips to Chiang Mai, I've seen two things: one, via the owners of the GH I regularly stay at--they stopped advertising online because of the many poorly-behaved and cheapskate Chinese tourists who, for example, would request hot water pots for their instant noodle meals in their rooms. But then when changing money I'd often see Chinese tourists changing pretty big sums; hard to say of course how often they're changing money, but it's possible they're skimping on food (which is hilarious and yet pathetic it being Chiang Mai, THE place in tourist-pipeline Thailand to get delicious and cheap food), so they can blow big sums on...who knows, gambling? Gold? Happy ending massages?

Regardless, the first line gets to the heart of it (confirmed by the other article posted by a member early on): "quality" actually does mean quantity--spent. The hypocrisy is also rather pathetic, being so blatant.

Thank you for exposing this rather embarrassing mistake by Mr Know It All.

I must admit I did not pick up on it but I did work out he was nothing more than a smug and condescending troll.

[JakeSully]

All government's lie.

Some just lie less convincingly than others.

[cookee68]

They talk some shit, first they make posters and leaflets on how to behave, then now they are quality tourists because they spend a lot, nobody spends more in the bars than the British, so are they quality tourists, It goes to show that the old saying about Thailand is true, and that is MONEY NUMBER ONE.

[Stargeezr]

Corruption! Corruption and more Corruption. Oh!, did I read that the Chinese

are magically now much better tourists than they were less than one year ago?

Amazing!

Next I will hear that the Russian tourists are also vastly improved, and are no

longer rude and abrupt, and of course they have all said that they will never

go into the country Ukraine except as a tourist as well!

Oh and Pigs will fly , starting tomorrow!

Wow I must becoming cynical!

[fareastguy]

Guess no surprise that tourism minister's definition of 'quality' tourist is how much they spend.

I'd like to see the "evidence" that she used to back-up her figures..

From reading the post it seems she say's a lot... but where's the proof.

[BSJ]

Why does TVN run this when it's pure and utter BS?

[ExPratt]

All government's lie.

Some just lie less convincingly than others.

Yes, but this is not so much Lying as BSing. Its like being cornered down the pub by some pissed up psycho telling stories

[JakeSully]

All government's lie.

Some just lie less convincingly than others.

Yes, but this is not so much Lying as BSing. Its like being cornered down the pub by some pissed up psycho telling stories

Yes and I'm wondering how they are spending that much baht when the majority of Chinese are living like this. Yes I know there are quite a few millionaires that love spending money abroad but they are more interested in American/ Australian or Europe where they can get Citizenship and Passports than a trip to Thailand:

Edited May 29, 2015 by JakeSully

[Bung]

I flipped through a few channels on tv last night and saw an ad from SCB the gist of which is "please bank with us, we are all trying to learn to speak chinese"

Telling.

[boomerangutang]

Perhaps the person crunching the numbers mixed up total revenue with average per-person revenue.

Chinese pay for package tour from China. They want everything to be pre-paid for, they like to bundle in herds, and they spend little while in Thailand - compared to farang tourists. They buy a few things, but it's small stuff like a t-shirt. The average farang tourist spends much more daily. And then there are farang expenditures on bars, sex and dowries ('sin sod') which is money which doesn't show up on the TAT ledger. Add to that; long-term farang spending on vehicles, houses, and payments to relatives of their wife/g.f.

The myth of the big-spending Chinese tourist can be filed away with the Thai government notion that some long tail boats, tethered to bridges with their motors running, will rid Bangkok of floods.

[Bung]

Do the chinese tourists come here to live? buy homes, condos and have them built, Buy new cars, motorcycles, appliances? Send their kids to international schools? Buy everything they need? Take care of their Thai partners families?

Add that up and compare it to some cosmetics bought in a department store and see which people are the real "quality tourists"

[khunano]

Here's a little question for the TVF members: In all of your visits to Thailand, have you ever been subjected to a survey or questionnaire regarding your spending during your stay?

I have never divulged this information, and I have never heard of it being collected.

This begs the question of how the Tourism Ministry makes up determines these average tourist spending figures, by country of origin.

This is exactly what I am wondering as well. How do they assess these figures? Or does Nong Lek have to report to the Tourism Ministry how much she was paid after she had spent the night with me....

[mike324]

I wouldn't equate $$$ spend with quality tourists.

[PaPiPuPePo]

What is it that makes people so uptight about these facts ? --and they are facts.

They are the same facts reported by other governments all around the world.

These are the very latest figures just released 15/4/2015---The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) just released new data on tourist spending in 2014. Last year international tourism generated over $1,245 billion around the world. Tourism is obviously a huge moneymaker for countries that are top travel destinations, but some tourists spend more than others.

Unsurprisingly, Chinese people spent the most when traveling abroad, spending a total of $165 billion in 2014....1/

Interesting that you can be so smug and condescending, but you don't even see that you're mistaking TOTAL expenditures for PER CAPITA (i.e. per tourist) expenditures.

The OP refers to the latter; commenters disputed that Chinese tourists would be spending that much per tourist, then you trot out TOTAL spent per country with no regard to how many tourists that represents.

Open mouth, insert foot.

Interesting also that no one else (at least four pages hence) noticed this obvious mistake of yours.

Thank you for exposing this rather embarrassing mistake by Mr Know It All.

I must admit I did not pick up on it but I did work out he was nothing more than a smug and condescending troll.

I don't think he's a troll, trolls try to incite responses; he want to have the last word.

Condescending, for sure. (I can be too but I make sure to have my facts straight first )

His next post:

"Seriously phoenixdoglover .... does your brain really go into overload trying to work this out ??........amazing.

I will try to explain part of it---but it just may prove to be just to Technical to take in."

Now that's condescension!

I think, however, it's best to not make the following elementary mistakes in English when being so smug:

"....they assume its from the Chinese"

"... its a tourist from Mongolia doing it."

(especially after choosing Mongolia so that you can show off that you googled an obscure currency some naive TVF member will think you know the name of because you've spent months on the grasslands riding horses and wrestling lol.)

"Each countries banks.."

"If there buying in more................." (two for one right there)

And then more smugness:

"There are also a few other ways------but these do not need to concern you, because you have a hotline to the real source of info, ---The guy on the bar stool next to you--.."

followed by more "I right good English" mistakes:

"-and your both in agreement..."

"......now.....who's round is it......"

Yep, I can be a grammar Nazi, but only with smug, condescending, obviously native speakers.....

[sunshine51]

Why does TVN run this when it's pure and utter BS?

Slow news day & space to fill?

[lostoday]

Guess no surprise that tourism minister's definition of 'quality' tourist is how much they spend.

I'd like to see the "evidence" that she used to back-up her figures..

From reading the post it seems she say's a lot... but where's the proof.

I understand you don't like Asian (and Thai in particular) people but... Chinese people spent the most when traveling abroad, spending a total of $165 billion in 2014. The luxury market has become increasingly dependent on Chinese shoppers, who spend the most at designer stores in top destinations like London. High-end retailers like Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton employ Chinese translators at their stores to stay competitive.

While this is Thailand as far as tourism is concerned what happens in London also happens in Thailand.

http://www.businessinsider.sg/tourists-from-these-countries-spend-the-most-when-traveling-abroad-2015-4/#.VWeOQc-qqko

[Praematura]

The poorest of the poor Chinese come to Thailand on zero cost tours. These numbers are based on what they spend on handbags, etc not what they spend in the local economy. Research zero cost Chinese tour groups.

BBC had a show describing the approximate 30% decline in Chinese tourists when the cost of these zero cost package tours increased slightly in South Korea. These tourists spend all their funds shopping.

I came across this article touching on Thailand and what these tourists spend.

http://tourismindustrytrends.alaji.com/2014/08/are-chinese-tourists-spending-more-or.html?m=1

[Broeno]

Average Chinese tourist buy the whole package in China. Flight, hotel, tours, entance, meals and whatever. Any money comming out of their pocket later is at a foodcourt because its cheep.

So calculating the way the minister does, they spend about 40 baht a day when they are here.

[thesetat2013]

This is just a "chinese tourist are great for thailand, we can all make money, dont complain about their behaviour" announcement. Interesting that indians spend more than australians! How do they know what each nationality spends? They love throwing figures around.

Indeed! One has to wonder just how they come up with these figures? I can understand being able to trace passports to hotels and get estimates from that. But how could they possibly know how much a tourist from a specific country is spending here. I mean, really? Surely they can't be following them around shopping. Or to restaurants. Or anywhere really.

So these numbers are possibly reported by tour guides at best. Even then they could not and would not be able to keep track of the spending of a tour group. Seems that this report is to put Chinese in a better light considering all the trouble they cause.

Or, to put TAT into a better light by promoting Chinese so heavily.

I think I will save my opinion for the end of fiscal year reports to see if tourism met their expected quota to show how true this is or for them to make more excuses when said report is made public.

[thailand49]

This is just a trend due to their large population. China is not a democracy and their people can not come and go as they please. Thailand through a agreement requires no Visa for them and many are coming on inexpensive tour groups that are all inclusive of everything. For a first time traveler this is great especially for the factory workers who their employer are providing many of these tours now.

But many of the Mainland Chinese I have spoken to said if given a choice they would not return again. This is not rocket science but in time things will run it's course Many want to go to Western countries like the U.S. and knowing China.. it is not going to happen...that is why you do not see large tour groups numbers like you see in Thailand.

In time Thailand people will learn the hard way... beware of what you wish for???

[JakeSully]

It could just be appeasement propoganda to create illusion of friendship with the Chinese in stark contrast to cold relations with the United States after the coup and usurping of democracy twice in ten years.

That and the fact that China is expanding it's territory and wants to expand down to Thailand for rice fields and fresh water, both which they won't have enough of in 20 years or so. Pretty much a repeat of Thailand siding with the Japanese in the World War II. It's ok Prayuth, the Chinese will take good care of Thailand just like Tibet.