question? are all the illegal and legal immigrants listed as tourist??

that would really boost the tourist numbers.

There's alot of tourists around central Bangkok and Kao san rd at the moment. They look like transit tourists or low spending types

The expensive shops are empty, Robinsons is doing a brisk trade with Indians. ( discounts).

Rents are skyhigh but people keep having a go. Many businesses around me in Thonburi are going bust.

Ive never seen so many businesses go under as is the case now. Overheads are way too high. Thais arent spending money and foreigners are mostly on a tight budget .

Thailands tourism industry is basically a pig dressed up with lipstick.

All quantity no quality.

The Thai government always puts the Khaosan Road crowd down, and they keep coming in droves. They should just embrace them and be done with all the silliness.

You do not control your business. Your customers do. You only manage it.

"My own research in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia since the mid-1990s shows that as backpackers tend to consume local products (food, coffee, beer, cigarettes etc), stay in small guest houses, and use locally owned ground transport, more of their expenditure is retained in-country than in conventional mass tourism." Mark Hampton thegaurdian.

Off course the tourist numbers are up, and the Chinese do spend more per day than

Western/Farang tourists but what TV readers forget is the Chinese are mostly here

on 4 day junkets while Western/Farang tourists are here for 2-3 weeks often longer.

Also the Chinese are on package tours, traveling to all the tourist sights (devastating

bathrooms) and even following there group leader up and down Walking St. (gawking)

but eat and drink at the package tours arranged venues. So while many of these tourists

stay at 4-5 star hotels and do all the tourist things, (drown snorkeling, injured in speed

boat collisions) they do not eat/drink at the normal venues frequented by Western/Farang

tourists. So those are the ones we see struggling, and going bankrupt. The Chinese

tour groups negotiate for whole hotels, and drive grinding deals. So while Thais love

them, they also hate them. Not much meat left on the bone.

Record number of Chinese tourists, most on fully paid all in tours, Of course little gets into the Thai economy but to the big hotels and coach tours since its already all paid for in China before they leave.

Carry on celebrating TAT at this rate next year will be even better numbers but less tourist businesses.... im sure the Chinese and Thai Elite wont care a jot and carry right on doing what they do. .... they will care when the natives get restless though, which is of course inevitable.

Here's where the 30 million projection comes from.

(17,500,000 / 7 months) * 12 months/year = 30 million.

However, there is the small matter of a bombing in August. It has been reported this resulted in a decline of 1.33 million tourists,

So the 30 million is just "pre-bomb" optimism.

There's alot of tourists around central Bangkok and Kao san rd at the moment. They look like transit tourists or low spending types

The expensive shops are empty, Robinsons is doing a brisk trade with Indians. ( discounts).

Rents are skyhigh but people keep having a go. Many businesses around me in Thonburi are going bust.

Ive never seen so many businesses go under as is the case now. Overheads are way too high. Thais arent spending money and foreigners are mostly on a tight budget .

Thailands tourism industry is basically a pig dressed up with lipstick.

All quantity no quality.

The Thai government always puts the Khaosan Road crowd down, and they keep coming in droves. They should just embrace them and be done with all the silliness.

You do not control your business. Your customers do. You only manage it.

"My own research in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia since the mid-1990s shows that as backpackers tend to consume local products (food, coffee, beer, cigarettes etc), stay in small guest houses, and use locally owned ground transport, more of their expenditure is retained in-country than in conventional mass tourism." Mark Hampton thegaurdian.

Agreed. The much maligned backpackers keep a lot of small businesses open, these small businesses employ a lot of Thai people, and these people spend their money in the local economy keeping many more people employed. In Chiang Mai I hear a lot of complaints about the Chinese and cries of "Where are the backpackers?".

I know a guy who runs a well known Lebanese restaurant operation in Bkk. He pays 600,000 baht per month for his larger location and pays 550,000 a month for his smaller Sukhumvit location. How does anyone make a profit with this kind of rent? When all of his expenses are added up, he probably pays $1000 a day, to stay open, per location. Amazing. The landlords are sure doing well. And the tenants?

This ranks with the article "Thailand aims to be a high income country in the next ten years". What Kool-aide are these people drinking and how do I get some?

Here we go again, pass me the puke bowl.

With more arrivals, some Thais can prepare for a bigger culling season on tourists

More drownings, accidental balcony trips, attacks by non-thai scapegoats, beatings, purse snatching, rape and everything else that keeps the bottom dwelling part of the community alive!

I really dont understand why they had to lie all the time like this with the numbers and figures?

Hands up please for anyone in possession of a working brain that believes any of this stuff.

I really dont understand why they had to lie all the time like this with the numbers and figures?

They believe it keeps the natives less restless. However, the poster citing his som tam lady sucking it up, together with my Thai professor neighbour don't work in the tourist economy and believe everything coming out of Prayuth's mouth. The Thais working the little local tourist businesses currently going to the wall, not so much.

Why are they so modest ... Just bang the number up to 50 mill. right away

I mean, who dosent want to see some terrorist action or getting harassed by Immigration, not to mention the dear RTP - I guess the sky is the limit ...

I guess I'm one of few lucky ones. Going on five years Pattaya now and yet to be harassed or felt terrorized until going back to see family in Canada, going through customs there, and eventually having the misfortune of getting dinged by an OPP radar sniper.

Hell, was as if I'd held a gun to somebody's head for driving just 17 k over the limit, and thought the kid was gonna pee himself. Hate to tell you what that one cost. Yes by God some are hard done by with the added expenses and fear of their own shadows in this place.

What really may be a record...is the amount of misinformation disseminated about tourism by Thai authorities...

High volume - Low Value.

Mass Chinese and Indian tourism is HURTING the Thai Tourist industry.

The land of empty condos's

More trumped up crap from TAT. The traders hate the Chinese they are as tight as a Fish's arse.

Known worldwide as The Jews Of The East

i drove a car from mabprachan lake to the bottom of walking street a few times this last 3 weeks and did the trip in 20 minutes......there and back. including navigating the fallen tree at num chai this morning. try doing that a couple of years ago-even on a scooter. i expect it was possible because all these new tourists were all queued up on beach road behind raised red flags waiting to board a speedboat.

Here we go again...............Straight from the SPIN Factory.

Yeah, there may have been increased airline routes transiting via BKK heading into fall and winter months, whereby any person that sets foot on Thai soil, even if only to walk 200 meters to board another flight, gets tallied as an arrival. And you can be cure they are counting local Thais that drive or bus to another town for whatever reason in their tourism numbers.

Well, they are just about to lose this frequent tourist. The new "crackdown" on visa exempt border runs crimps my style since my plans are last minute and I may or may not stay another 30 days and the flexibility of being able to plan on the fly was great. If I can still do the 30 day extension by just paying at a local immigration office, that might work. But Thailand is pretty much not doing much to enhance my tourism experience

Thailand set for record tourism year

Yes, record year for whom?

For all small thai entrepreneurs in the tourism industry?

Have spoken with many here on my island.

They are not so cheerful.

Record high or record low?

Record lows, a friends wife is in the hotel business & has been for a decade, her comments are always on lower tourism, A relative of mine has a shop in silom & foreign customers are at new lows & even thai custom is low as lack of money from tourism means less money for thais linked to that sector.

All these official figures are complete guff ... thailand lost a lot of face & a lot of appeal in last few years .

I think they are counting arrivals and departures to get a number like 30 million.

My theory of Thailand enjoying a good Winter season at least is, look at all of the troops

fighting in various places. I see a lot of military basing in the middle east or on ships while fighting

ISIL or some other terrorist group. I see enough unrest in a few places that will have many people

taking a break and coming to Thailand, Vietnam, and other warm to hot countries for their

Winter R and R. I will be going to Thailand this year as I have just enough savings to be able

to spend a month or 2 away from the cold. I think that there are still enough people in the cold countries

that will get away from their Winter, even though the economy is getting worse.

Just my thoughts, I guess.

There's alot of tourists around central Bangkok and Kao san rd at the moment. They look like transit tourists or low spending types

The expensive shops are empty, Robinsons is doing a brisk trade with Indians. ( discounts).

Rents are skyhigh but people keep having a go. Many businesses around me in Thonburi are going bust.

Ive never seen so many businesses go under as is the case now. Overheads are way too high. Thais arent spending money and foreigners are mostly on a tight budget .

Thailands tourism industry is basically a pig dressed up with lipstick.

All quantity no quality.

Chinese Thai landbanking everywhere, forcing rents up closing small operators, wellcome KFC, Burger King, BIg C, multi complex malls, this is a Walmart happening in Thailand.

Walmart screwed America and closed down small operators its happening here although it's a different type of dew.

Cost of living here , power , food, rents going through the roof .

Yesterday I was talking to a nice old massage lady who has a little tent on the beach near some 5 star resorts. She told me last year she was flat out with 5 or 6 customer per day. For five days in a row now she has not had a single customer.

Workaday Thais are losing their cars, businesses and home. Unless that situation is remedied, and quickly, civil unrest is assured.

Yeah, some civil unrest will surely help the tourist industry!

Yesterday I was talking to a nice old massage lady who has a little tent on the beach near some 5 star resorts. She told me last year she was flat out with 5 or 6 customer per day. For five days in a row now she has not had a single customer.

Workaday Thais are losing their cars, businesses and home. Unless that situation is remedied, and quickly, civil unrest is assured.

A big event looming on the not too distant horizon could easily be the catalyst for that.

Especially as it is quite likely to be used by the ultra hard liners as a reason ( excuse ) to shut down social media and restrict/ force the "temporary" closure of what they refer to as " entertainment venues".

I don't suppose anyone will mind if it is for a day or so - but I suspect that such controls will prove far too popular ( with those doing the controlling) and useful to be lifted once in place.

Just imagine, no Internet, Facebook or Line, only the government controlled TV stations, wall to wall coverage of the Amart signing books of condolence, the buffaloes well and truly back where they belong.

They're daft enough to try it...

Yesterday I was talking to a nice old massage lady who has a little tent on the beach near some 5 star resorts. She told me last year she was flat out with 5 or 6 customer per day. For five days in a row now she has not had a single customer.

Workaday Thais are losing their cars, businesses and home. Unless that situation is remedied, and quickly, civil unrest is assured.

Yeah, some civil unrest will surely help the tourist industry!

Thailand is basicaly self employed for the local people.

Chinese tours are guided by their own tour guide to only venues that would be Thai Chinese owned , they are also mean spenders but take the word of the tour guides when they take them to a shopping venue (thats controlled by them) to get quality and discount after the tour has finised. shopping at each venue they are loaded back into the bus while the tour guide picks up his commission. I know this as I worked in the industry in NZ.

This is not good for the local workers and street vendors only screws them.

So the 28% of the 30 million tourists only good for the big rich boys.