Chinese tourists boost Thai economy but stir outrage

[rubyjuan]

Chinese are brutal...Yesterday, I was at Don Mueng...The Chinese tourists have taken over (not in a good way, either)..I've lived years in both countries and I can say that Chinese, are "rough" (trying to polite here)

[rubyjuan]

Chinese are brutal...Yesterday, I was at Don Mueng...The Chinese tourists have taken over (not in a good way, either)..I've lived years in both countries and I can say that Chinese, are "rough" (trying to polite here)

[tonbridgebrit]

Thailand the hub of Quality Tourists...

The major problem is that Thailand is no more a Quality destination. Only the smile is here, but behind the scenes, it all about scams and garbage

"The major problem is that Thailand is no more a Quality destination". Was Thailand ever a quality destination ? Surely, the scams have been there for ages ? Well, maybe the scams were not there in the beginning, but that was before any mass tourism ?

[oslooskar]

perhaps Thai's should learn to accept other countries culture as everyone is expected to respect theirs.

Or perhaps the Chinese should learn to do in Rome as the Romans do.

[tonbridgebrit]

There's a lot of people who like to say things like "Thailand, you reap what you sow", and "Thailand, you'e made your bed, now sleep in it".

I think we need to get real here. There has been a huge increase in the number of Chinese tourists in Thailand during the last fifteen years. Now then, ten years ago, what was Thailand supposed to have done ? Surely, it would have been crazy and mad to have started a policy back in 2005, where Thailand was to reduce the growth in numbers of Chinese tourists ?

Thailand, today, is still a place for a vast number of sex tourists. Most of the Chinese tour groups are actually not sex tourists. Okay, sex tourism. As everybody knows, whenever a Thai person goes to Australia, Britain, or Europe, well, the locals will think of sex tourism and prostitution whenever they see a Thai person. This causes a small problem when mega-rich Thais send there children to universities and colleges in those places, and the locals start thinking about sex bars when they see those young Thais.

What was Thailand supposed to have done back in 1985 ? Was Thailand supposed to have stamped out sex tourism back then ? Do the Thais feel uncomfortable when Thailand is regarded as a brothel for Europe, America and Asia ? Do the Thais feel uncomfortable when their country is a holiday camp for the Chinese ? What's worst ? Being a brothel for foreigners, or a holiday camp for foreigners who might be a bit rude and impolite ?

[optad]

That article is surely trolling this forum

[BSJ]

The wife had 2 shops (Beach Rd and Pattaya Park) in Pattaya selling men's, women's and kids clothes a lot of it touristy type hat's T-shirts and board shorts and I can tell you for a fact the Chinese tourists hardly ever stepped foot in either! Sure there was some....and to be fair the Pattaya Park shop was setup primarily to serve the Russian's...but the bus loads on Beach Rd were herded to the speedboats to go to Ko Larn with no time to browse the nearby shops. And when I say bus loads we are talking many many buses.

So this animal they call a "free-spending Chinese tourists" my wife never encounted!

We sold out. No point in running a business when your only making beer money!

[LawrenceN]

from the OP:

' "We had problems with some Chinese who defecated anywhere, so I asked the guides to explain to them that rules must be respected in Thailand," Chalermchai told AFP'

I LOL'd. No disrespect intended to Mr. Chalermchai.

[optad]

The wife had 2 shops (Beach Rd and Pattaya Park) in Pattaya selling men's, women's and kids clothes a lot of it touristy type hat's T-shirts and board shorts and I can tell you for a fact the Chinese tourists hardly ever stepped foot in either! Sure there was some....and to be fair the Pattaya Park shop was setup primarily to serve the Russian's...but the bus loads on Beach Rd were herded to the speedboats to go to Ko Larn with no time to browse the nearby shops. And when I say bus loads we are talking many many buses.

So this animal they call a "free-spending Chinese tourists" my wife never encounted!

We sold out. No point in running a business when your only making beer money!

That seems to be the trend for the bulk of Chinese tourists globally. Group movement and reassurance in numbers. Need fifty plus to go abroad. Independence of movement and individual expression is not really a general tendency as of yet. The exceptions may be weighty but too hard and erratic to build a business around.

Consider Chinese students abroad. They cloister and seek same. Actually, they can be so innocuous most cities do not even know their numbers until a problem appears and then it is seemingly an endemic situation for public officials to fix.

They are culturally attuned to the mega-plexs and the Thais like them too. That will be an obvious aspect of growth. Reinvest there!

Sorry BSJ for launching from your post but 'boutiques' or that point of difference style shopping is exactly what they do not want!! Good on you for having a crack and getting out well.

Edited July 5, 2015 by optad

[captspectre]

Another Thais looking down their nose at their neighbours non-story.

spitting in the streets, defacating in the street? have the authorities been to sukhumvit soi three between sukhumvit and the bumrungrad hospital lately? the whole area smells of urine and has been that way for months!

[Dante99]

Wake up, wake up.

Do you really expect the Chinese-Thais who run this place will take steps against the Chinese?

[JakeSully]

The Chinese who actually have money to be tourists have absolutely nothing to gain from Thailand.

They would rather take their money and go to Australia or USA where they can get anchor babies and Australian/ American passports for their tourism money investment. The fact that they're busy making Pattaya/ Phuket into Hong Kong without giving people Resident Alien cards unlike Philippines SRRV or Malaysia 2nd home programs isn't going to help in the long run.. look at how many condos are for sale and no one buying.

I know a couple of euro/ american/ japanese tourists that prefer other places to Thailand now as they get more for their money.

[lvr181]

At the moment, we have some Chinese tourist groups and a few don't have hygiene or other basic etiquette habits. When they come as individuals, we can teach them, toilet train them and show them how to cook good wholesome Thai food.

"good wholesome Thai food" - a bit of an oxymoron I think.

[spidermike007]

"Chinese tourists do not create problems for us. They are nice tourists," said Srisuda Wanapinyosak, an executive director at the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

"But sometimes there might be cultural misunderstandings as we have different cultures," she admitted before running through the tips laid out for the Chinese in the new manuals.

​Does the term politically correct coward come to mind?

I actually prefer most Chinese tourists over the Russian tourists they are replacing. At least they are fairly pleasant and fun loving. Loud maybe, but so were the Russians. And instead of surly, we are getting fairly pleasant. I will take that exchange any day. What I do not like are new trends, like huge tour buses on Samui. The ring road is already congested. If the island had real leadership, instead of Ramnate Jaikwong, as mayor, things like this would not be happening, as there would be policy with vision. The buses would be left on Don Sak, and natural gas minivans would be used in their place. And there would be public transportation in place. Samui is one of the few island resorts in the world, with no public transportation. That remains a black eye, on the face of the local leaders, and demonstrates a legendary lack of vision and leadership. There are occasion where traffic backs up for many kilometers, while one of these monster buses attempts to make a turn into a smaller lane, that was not built for these monoliths. Do the police do anything? Of course not. The Samui police are there only for decoration, and to provide unsuspecting tourists an appearance of safety, and to collect personal revenue.

[dontoearth]

At the hotel where I live the manager shook his head quite sadly and said they may not continue taking chinese tours. "NO MONEY!" They are called the Zero Tourist. They don't buy anything they don't have a pre-paid coupon for in the tour package. Everything in the package is bid out at the lowest dollar so hotels, restaurants, etc. think they are going to make up the cheap bids on extra sales. Good Luck with that as they say. It does make the tourist they have lost out on look a lot better...as someone said.

[Thai at Heart]

Another Thais looking down their nose at their neighbours non-story.

spitting in the streets, defacating in the street? have the authorities been to sukhumvit soi three between sukhumvit and the bumrungrad hospital lately? the whole area smells of urine and has been that way for months!

That's the Chinese tourist? I think u might need to look elsewhere.....

[mercman24]

reply to post 27, have you ever had young kids dying for a pee. i bet we all have, i think is was a young girl and some sad person just had to take a pic of her. and post it.

[dageurreotype]

Hmmmmm....let sensibilities prevail here while everyone needs to be reminded...in Capital Letters....SOME CHINESE

Cheers

'Some' Chinese is an oxymoron

[Gillyflower]

Just been reading an article on the Chinese tourist in Paris. Going up by millions every year. They DO shop - in the boutiques de luxe and it is said that they drop $1000-1500 at a time. Unfortunately they only seem to carry a lot of cash and are the very easy target for east European pickpockets. In fact it is quite a problem for the Paris cops. However they rarely make a complaint, because they are always part of a tour group and do not have the time to spend 2 hours at the cop shop. However no complaints about them peeing in front of the Mona Lisa or at the Arc de Triomphe (the tomb of the Unknown Soldier).

Edited July 6, 2015 by Gillyflower

[dageurreotype]

At the hotel where I live the manager shook his head quite sadly and said they may not continue taking chinese tours. "NO MONEY!" They are called the Zero Tourist. They don't buy anything they don't have a pre-paid coupon for in the tour package. Everything in the package is bid out at the lowest dollar so hotels, restaurants, etc. think they are going to make up the cheap bids on extra sales. Good Luck with that as they say. It does make the tourist they have lost out on look a lot better...as someone said.

Pragmatically speaking, they may have to. The equally reviled Russians were seen off as their currency went down the pan. The ever growing hoards of Chinese will ultimately have a devastating effect on those from other countries who've paid for a relaxing holiday and don't want to spend it with the Chinese and their 'culture'. So the question is, what could possibly see an end to the Chinese masses? Nothing as far as I can see. So they here to stay and the Thais despise them and the Chinese don't care. The Thais are stuck with them. ALL of them

I agree if they'd spread themselves a tad thinner they'd be more tolerable ..

[nakhonandy]

I love the phrase "boost Thai economy"

For the selected few possibly!

I see hundreds of them in Jomtien and Pattaya but practically none of them spend any money in the local establishments!

They only go to preordained places arranged by the tour companies.

These are not the rich Chinese that spend large quantities of money, they exist of course but do not come in tour groups.

Ask any local business how much they gain from these tourists, they know the reality better that TAT.

They should adapt to Thai culture as we all should do, when in Rome etc.

[soalbundy]

I feel outraged already and i haven't even been boosted yet.

[chris55566]

can i call bull on that 5000 baht a day thing ive just spent more then that on the villa price in the trips at 50quid a pop and spending money at night im calling BS

[tonbridgebrit]

At the hotel where I live the manager shook his head quite sadly and said they may not continue taking chinese tours. "NO MONEY!" They are called the Zero Tourist. They don't buy anything they don't have a pre-paid coupon for in the tour package. Everything in the package is bid out at the lowest dollar so hotels, restaurants, etc. think they are going to make up the cheap bids on extra sales. Good Luck with that as they say. It does make the tourist they have lost out on look a lot better...as someone said.

Pragmatically speaking, they may have to. The equally reviled Russians were seen off as their currency went down the pan. The ever growing hoards of Chinese will ultimately have a devastating effect on those from other countries who've paid for a relaxing holiday and don't want to spend it with the Chinese and their 'culture'. So the question is, what could possibly see an end to the Chinese masses? Nothing as far as I can see. So they here to stay and the Thais despise them and the Chinese don't care. The Thais are stuck with them. ALL of them

I agree if they'd spread themselves a tad thinner they'd be more tolerable ..

Surely, the hotels picked up good money from the payments the Chinese tourists made before they entered Thailand ? The hotel would rather have it's rooms occupied by Chinese tourists (any tourists) rather than have empty rooms ?

There's actually talk about what happens in some of those hotels. Basically, a joint Chinese-Thai venture is set up, and they build a hotel. Once it's built, the joint venture will sell holidays using their travel agents in China, hence the reason why the hotel is packed with Chinese tourists. Yes, when the hotel was being built, the intent was to make money from Chinese tourists. Tourists from Europe and other places were regarded as a bonus.

Anyway, all this talk from ThaiVisa posters about there being too many Chinese tourists. Well, what solution do people think is the way forward ? How about they target all the visa applications from Chinese tourists, and they throw one-third of the applications into the bin ? Get rid of the ones who are staying in the more down-market hotels ? Who reckons that such an absurd idea should be carried out ?

[thaibeachlovers]

Thailand the hub of Quality Tourists...

The major problem is that Thailand is no more a Quality destination. Only the smile is here, but behind the scenes, it all about scams and garbage

Can we assume that you neither live in, nor visit Thailand?

BTW, if you had visited here recently you would be able to complain also that the "smile" is no more. Sad, but true.

[freedom4life]

Well they certainly test the patience of Chiang Mai motorists when they nonchalantly walk out into the oncoming traffic and then STAY THERE !! It's absolutely incredible to watch.

Last night in the complete darkness about six of them decided to cross the road which they did very unhurriedly forcing three lanes of cars to slow down!

And a few days ago I was coming out of Chiang Mai University gates and a group of them decided simultaneously to stand right in the middle of the exit blocking the entire exit

As I approached I thought surely they will start to move aside but NO. I was right in front of them when they slowly decided they should move to one side.

Exactly the same phenomenon on Pattaya Beach walkway when they all stand in groups taking up 100% of the walkway and you have to do literally tap on people's shoulders to move aside.

You were way too soft...

[hawker9000]

At the hotel where I live the manager shook his head quite sadly and said they may not continue taking chinese tours. "NO MONEY!" They are called the Zero Tourist. They don't buy anything they don't have a pre-paid coupon for in the tour package. Everything in the package is bid out at the lowest dollar so hotels, restaurants, etc. think they are going to make up the cheap bids on extra sales. Good Luck with that as they say. It does make the tourist they have lost out on look a lot better...as someone said.

Pragmatically speaking, they may have to. The equally reviled Russians were seen off as their currency went down the pan. The ever growing hoards of Chinese will ultimately have a devastating effect on those from other countries who've paid for a relaxing holiday and don't want to spend it with the Chinese and their 'culture'. So the question is, what could possibly see an end to the Chinese masses? Nothing as far as I can see. So they here to stay and the Thais despise them and the Chinese don't care. The Thais are stuck with them. ALL of them

I agree if they'd spread themselves a tad thinner they'd be more tolerable ..

Surely, the hotels picked up good money from the payments the Chinese tourists made before they entered Thailand ? The hotel would rather have it's rooms occupied by Chinese tourists (any tourists) rather than have empty rooms ?

There's actually talk about what happens in some of those hotels. Basically, a joint Chinese-Thai venture is set up, and they build a hotel. Once it's built, the joint venture will sell holidays using their travel agents in China, hence the reason why the hotel is packed with Chinese tourists. Yes, when the hotel was being built, the intent was to make money from Chinese tourists. Tourists from Europe and other places were regarded as a bonus.

Anyway, all this talk from ThaiVisa posters about there being too many Chinese tourists. Well, what solution do people think is the way forward ? How about they target all the visa applications from Chinese tourists, and they throw one-third of the applications into the bin ? Get rid of the ones who are staying in the more down-market hotels ? Who reckons that such an absurd idea should be carried out ?

The solution? That train left the station long ago.

The mistake was made when Thailand began disincentivizing western tourists with their proliferating scams, their police extortions & pee tests, ludicrous non-enforcement WRT thai-on-farang crime, their increasingly non-compliant taxis, their "special" pricing for westerners, their immigration game show, their swelling greed & exploitive, mercenary attitude toward westerners, etc., etc., etc. They needed, badly needed, a replacement for those they'd chased away. And that's where the Chinese come in. I don't think many Thais are all that happy with the trade, but too late to cry about it now. They're stuck with it. You have to feel sorry for the apparent few that no doubt saw this coming.

'Was amused to read one member's post about how the Chinese now coming as members of the tour groups would one day return (the richer ones, anyway) individually and spend lots more money. I doubt it. In the main I think, the more well-to-do Chinese aren't going to be choosing Thailand as their holiday destination just as many or most western tourists are bypassing Thailand now: they'll have lots of choices and be going somewhere else.

[GOLDBUGGY]

They spend $160 a day here! That sure surprises the Hell out of me! In my country we would be are lucky if they spent that in a month. Tighter with a Buck than a Nuns...well you know.

Since we got them on a spending spree......when are those Casio coming? For the Chinese, they can always install a few of those Spittoons in the Casio and like they had in those Wild West Saloons. Maybe impose a 200 Baht Fine for everyone that misses. That should make the Spittoon Guy happy if he gets to keep the fine money after cleaning up. Hell! For that money! I will even take this damned job myself if nobody else wants it.

[Stargeezr]

I have to agree with my friend who lives in Thailand, as he watches

the Chinese tourists when they are in his area of Thailand. He has observed

their behavior, and says the Chinese pamphlets are helpful, but wished that

China would have given their outbound people these pamphlets while they were

in China. The groups that my friends observed, tend not to shop in many places

that they travel to, so it seems that maybe only a few business and hotels

are benefiting from their visits. I guess Thailand's TAT should do a long

survey and then tell the truth of the survey findings, Poot Jing Jing!

For now Thailand should be happy to get whatever tourists that they can.

I doubt that many people from Greece, or even all that many from Russia

will be visiting Thailand any time soon. What I noticed during my last

visit was that there were not many people from Spain and Italy in

Thailand last year. Has anyone noticed that as well?

[BernieOnTour]

They will harvest what they are seeding...

The normal Thai has absolutely no stake in this Chinese tourism.

Further or later, they will realize that the same is happening to them as happened before in the Dominican Republic: International (in this case: Chinese) chains syphoning off all tourist money to abroad, erecting a oligopoly and destroying the smaller local tourism industry. These Chinese tour groups come here with all inclusive offers, already paid in China, the hotel, the transport, the innercountry tours and shows all paid to the Chinese companies in Renminbi, staying in hotels,which are more and more PRC China owned.

Even the employment rate is not benefitting: most tour guides are Chinese from the mainland, only 1-2 "token Thai" tour guides employed...

And the next desaster with the next group of quality tourists is just around the corner: Especially in Pattaya, more and more Indian tourists flooding the city, walking in groups of at least five in the middle of the street, as if there is no other traffic. ... And looking down on the Thai, because they consider themselves superior. - their behavior in shops and restaurants is accordingly...