Chinese, Russian tourists not ‘preferred’, says Phuket poll

[Lite Beer]

Chinese, Russian tourists not ‘preferred’, says Phuket poll

The Phuket News

Despite being the largest tourism source market to Phuket for years, China scored only 2 per cent of all votes cast.

PHUKET: China has ranked among the least preferred source countries of tourists to Phuket, according to a Phuket News online poll.

Despite being the largest tourism source market to Phuket for years and despite the poll allowing respondents to choose up to three “preferred tourist” options, China scored only 2 per cent of all votes cast.

Tourists from Russia and Eastern Europe fared little better, garnering only 3pc of all votes cast in the poll, which ran for two weeks.

Worst preferred in the poll were tourists from India and the Middle East, which each scored only 1pc of votes cast, despite the Tourism Authority of Thailand targeting those source markets with campaigns and roadshows in recent years.

Even tourists from Asean nations took a hit in the “preference league”, with only 6pc of votes cast in favour of tourists from “Elsewhere in Asia (Malaysia, Korea, Japan, etc)”.

The top choice among respondents were tourists from “Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, etc)”, with 24pc of all votes cast, followed by tourists from Western Europe (19%).

Australia placed third in the preference poll, scoring 17pc of votes, followed by the United Kingdom (14pc) and North America (12pc).

For the full poll results, click here.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/chinese-russian-tourists-not-preferred-says-phuket-poll-53379.php

-- Phuket News 2015-08-01

[khwaibah]

All those top quality tourist premoted by TAT.

[Oigs]

No surprises . Manners go a long way.

[jpinx]

How about some kind of "reverse poll" to decide if Thailand is the most preferred destination amongst those countries?

[huahinjoe]

The top choice among respondents were tourists from “Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, etc)”, with 24pc of all votes cast, followed by tourists from Western Europe (19%).

Australia placed third in the preference poll, scoring 17pc of votes, followed by the United Kingdom (14pc) and North America (12pc).

Farang missed, wow... Chokdee

[LivinginKata]

Really no surprise with this poll.

[ColdSingha]

this is gonna be tough for TAT to spin

[Just1Voice]

this is gonna be tough for TAT to spin

Trust me, they'll find a way. They'll reverse the chart and say the Chinese are in the top 2% of favorite tourist.

[smedly]

No surprises . Manners go a long way.

no surprise really, Indian tourists sitting in a bar - one coke 5 straws - one barfine 5 (deleted) I have seen the managers of many bars ask Indians to leave because they refuse to buy a drink

[Kerryd]

Talking to various bar/business owners in Pattaya and they've commented on how business has been down for the last few years despite the number of people on the street. However it's been noted that where once upon a time (when businesses where doing far better) most of those people seemed to be Euro/UK/American/Australian/Canadian, now it's predominately Indian/Chinese/Middle Eastern. Lots of bodies on planes, in hotels and on the street, but not spending anywhere near the same kind of cash.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same survey in Pattaya and ended up with the same results. I was going to say that "quantity" doesn't always better "quality" but then again, many of those "once upon a time" tourists weren't exactly very high quality themselves.

Interestingly, it appears from that article that 86% of the "preferred" tourists are from that "once upon a time" group. Not really a surprise though as the people in the "preferred" group are generally earning much more on average than the rest, and tend to spend a lot more as well. From a purely business point of view of course you'd prefer the customers that are freer with their cash.

[piewarmer]

so who were the people polled?

[vogie]

so who were the people polled?

Wan King the manager and <deleted> King his secretary

[Sviss Geez]

so who were the people polled?

Presumably anyone who chose to take part in The Phuket News' online poll as per the link.

[balo]

No surprises . Manners go a long way.

You mean money goes a long way . Thats why Scandinavia is on top of this poll .

I would imagien a Norwegian tourist are willing to spend at least 10 times more than an average Chinese tourist.

[Just1Voice]

so who were the people polled?

5 bar girls, 1 moto taxi driver, and 2 som tam sellers.

[simon43]

Presumably anyone who chose to take part in The Phuket News' online poll as per the link.

I wonder if they also ran this poll in their Russian edition of their newspaper.

Considering that the people who read The Phuket News are likely to be 'Western' expats and 'Western' tourists, the results of that poll are hardly surprising.

[fiddlehead]

I would imagine if you asked the same poll in a Chinese forum, or Russian forum, your answers would be quite different.
Quite biased to be asking an English newspaper who they prefer to work with.

[FangFerang]

I am shocked. A poll with believable results, It must have been an anomaly...

[Gsxrnz]

No surprises . Manners go a long way.

no surprise really, Indian tourists sitting in a bar - one coke 5 straws - one barfine 5 (deleted) I have seen the managers of many bars ask Indians to leave because they refuse to buy a drink

I've seen them being refused entry.

[Beechboy]

Surely the UK is part of Western Europe?

We therefore rank no.1 with ease

These polls are a bit ill-conceived and badly conducted but they often seem to come up with the right conclusions.

Look who comes bottom and align this with some of the stories you here.

[SOTIRIOS]

...the ones with the clout....the ones that will take no sh*t......not welcome.....

....the only ones that will 'pay and go'.....welcome....

[soalbundy]

Surely the UK is part of Western Europe?

We therefore rank no.1 with ease

These polls are a bit ill-conceived and badly conducted but they often seem to come up with the right conclusions.

Look who comes bottom and align this with some of the stories you here.

Brits always refer to the continent as Europe as if the UK is somewhere else, part of the BS myth of '' our island way of life'' started by Churchill.

[soalbundy]

No surprises . Manners go a long way.

no surprise really, Indian tourists sitting in a bar - one coke 5 straws - one barfine 5 (deleted) I have seen the managers of many bars ask Indians to leave because they refuse to buy a drink

I've seen them being refused entry.

The UK immigration should take note of how it's done

[Nigeone]

No surprises . Manners go a long way.

no surprise really, Indian tourists sitting in a bar - one coke 5 straws - one barfine 5 (deleted) I have seen the managers of many bars ask Indians to leave because they refuse to buy a drink

I've seen them being refused entry.

Yes me too on several occasions

[Gillyflower]

Soalbundy

Or else they just refer to it as THE CONTINENT. Like they always say the English Channel, when it isn't at all.

[gandalf12]

Be intersting to see TAT's spin on these figures. Probably be reversed to suit them self

[Howiehotspur]

That's crazy , surely they know that these Chinese spend over 5000 bht a day on average !! ... ?.

[Alwyn]

Western Europe 19% - UK 14%... Is UK not in Western Europe now?

[robertthebruce]

on the plus side with the ''Chinese'' they all go about in Herds, so at least you can avoid them, just avoid where they go, and thats easy....

No Nation is perfect, but the ''Nordics' are normally the best... (well in my opinion)....

[Shiver]

They are figures I find easy to believe, except for Japanese, and maybe Koreans too - I thought tourist establishments would love their spending habits (of the very few visitors that I've met that I'm making that assumption on).

Or do Japanese do the "straight from coach to hotel and follow the lady with the flag to direct you to photo op sites and then back to the coach" type thing?