International tourist arrivals rise 15%

[webfact]

International tourist arrivals rise 15%
TTR Weekly


International tourist arrivals to Thailand reached more than 9 million from January through March this year, reports the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Photo: TAT

BANGKOK: Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports reports international tourist arrivals to Thailand reached more than 9 million during January to March, this year, an improvement of 15.45 per cent.

China supplied more than 2.6 million visits to Thailand during the first quarter, up a staggering 31% improvement over slightly more than 2 million visitors in the first quarter of 2015.

Released late last week, the ministry’s data showed the country attracted 9,038,893 international visits during the first three months of this year compared to 7,829,153 visits during the same period last year.

Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said tourism continued to expand in the first quarter of this year, which would drive the number of international travellers to reach 32 million by year’s end.

“The number of foreigners visiting the country is rising steadily. Thailand’s focus now is on enhancing the image of Thailand to be a quality leisure destination through Thainess. At the same time, we need to ensure a balance between tourism growth and its social and environmental impact.”

The ministry data is based entirely on foreign arrivals counted at immigration checkpoints (land, sea and air). It does not reflect accurately how many leisure travellers visit the country; just trips made by foreigners. It will include foreigners working in Thailand, retirees, business visitors and cross-border trade visits of more than 24 hours duration.

The minister added that sports related travel is an emerging trend focused on mountain biking, marathons, golf, tennis and sailing. Learning the skills of Muay Thai has also been identified as a reason for visiting Thailand.

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/international-tourist-arrivals-rise-15-57173.php


-- Phuket News 2016-04-26

[worgeordie]

This from TAT,so MUST be true

regards Worgeordie

[djjamie]

Ahhh, facts that go against the narrative some desperately wanted us all to believe. Must be time to denounce or discredit these facts.

Maybe the "Bank of Thailand" is in on the conspiracy as well!!

Edited April 26, 2016 by djjamie

[lkv]

Maybe the "Bank of Thailand" is in on the conspiracy as well!!

Correct. One has to look at the legitimacy of many institutions nowadays in Thailand.

[johng]

The ministry data is based entirely on foreign arrivals counted at immigration checkpoints (land, sea and air). It does not reflect accurately how many leisure travellers visit the country; just trips made by foreigners. It will include foreigners working in Thailand, retirees, business visitors and cross-border trade visits of more than 24 hours duration.

[iReason]

^^^

Absolutely correct johng.

It's a BS numbers game. And it is a lie.

30 million tourist arrivals last year?

That breaks down to 57 arrivals per minute, 24/7, everyday, for the entire year of 2015.

Right.

Edited April 26, 2016 by iReason

[AsiaCheese]

Almost 30% Chinese zero-dollars visitors. And the cost (environmental etc.) vs. profit (funneled to outside Thailand) is?

Oh, this is so TAT...

[phantomfiddler]

But look at the class of what is turning up ! One oilrig worker was worth 50 of these dregs of Calcutta, Bombay, and Peking

[little mary sunshine]

Cheap China packages, not bringing

Much money to Thailand...using all

Resources, jamming streets and

Polluting everything.

[klauskunkel]

32 million tourists by year's end? Utterly preposterous, there simply aren't that many people outside of Thailand!

[skildpadden]

Nice to see that 2.6 million of these wonderful tourists from our friends in the North. I am in general easy going, but literally being pushed aside by a screaming horde of Chinese tourists running amok in Big C, really tests my patience for these visitors.

The numbers will include foreigners working in Thailand, retirees, business visitors and cross-border trade visits of more than 24 hours duration. I would not be surprised that the cross border trade accounts for a high number of those visitors. It would be interesting to see how many hotel nights are booked by foreigners and then comparing it to arrival numbers. I hear more and more stories of Westerners stopping only one night in Thailand before heading to other places in SEA.

In general I always treat any stats coming from TAT or Ministry of Tourism and Sports with not only a grain but the whole block of salt.

[emilymat]

I wonder if TAT realise that you simply cannot go on for ever saying tourist number are continually increasing. They are laying a rod for their own back because, at some point, the bubble (whether real or not) has to burst.

[Sooo Upto Me]

I wondered when Kobkarn was gonna release more drivel on the latest tourist arrival figures.

Havnt heard from her for a while.

[Ulic]

Judging from the Chinese tour bus traffic here in Jomtien/Pattaya these figures are not only

accurate but everyone of them has a Pattaya drive through on its itinerary.

[Jimbo2014]

Prawns are down 20%

[Usual Suspect]

It's now the start of Low-season..it is every year at this time..but somehow this year tourist numbers are up..?

Have a look around many of the resort towns around this booming nation..I think if members of the TaT did actually take a tour, & actually walked around asking the street-vendors

about tourist numbers, & how their trade was this year.. they'd then get a clear message...The resorts are the quietest they've been for years.

Plus if the number of westerners are down, so is the income (real spending money) they bring with them.

(& remember the Thai logic..less tourists means price-hikes to compensate.)

[Srikcir]

Ahhh, facts that go against the narrative some desperately wanted us all to believe. Must be time to denounce or discredit these facts.

Maybe the "Bank of Thailand" is in on the conspiracy as well!!

I offer a similar chart from http://ieconomics.com/thailand-tourist-arrivals-forecast

Travellers (not just tourists) seem to peak about the same time every year.

[DrTuner]

They'll hit the limit soon, there's only so many blue buses you can put on the road.

[Lukecan]

Lol so many jealous westerners here. Do you people realize that china has 2.3 million dollar millionaires? Not all chinese tourists coming in are cheap charlies.

[lkv]

Lol so many jealous westerners here. Do you people realize that china has 2.3 million dollar millionaires? Not all chinese tourists coming in are cheap charlies.

Lol. The Chinese millionaires are going to Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Canada, Maldives(if they want beach) etc.

You think they fancy the rats running around on sois?

[little mary sunshine]

Chinese millionaires are off to Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Honolulu

NYC.....not Pattaya!

[Lukecan]

Its actually the opposite way around, the farangs in thailand are the lowest of the low in their country. Chinese coming to Thailand are from a higher social strata back home. I was in shangri- la last week, saw a lot of chinese tourists.

Friend of mine runs a bar in Bangkok, he told me the biggest spenders are Turkish, Arabs and Japanese, he also added some of the chinese spend a lot too. The ones pinching pennies are usually British, French etc.

[phoenixdoglover]

In a related post, the Finance ministry revealed estimated revenue figures for Q1: 405 billion baht from 9 million visitors.

We rarely get proper revenue estimates from TAT/Ministry of Sports & Tourism. There's probably a reason for that.

Quick calculation shows per person revenue of 45,000 baht.

This is actually not so good, as typical past values are more like 50,000 baht.

Could be a glitch, or could be a reflection of lower spending tourists and so-called "zero dollar" tours.

[Lukecan]

If you want to see the zero spenders, go to hostels, nearly all of them are farangs who backpack on 10$ a day.

Big ballers are Turkish, Arabs and Japanese.

Penny pinchers = Indians, British, French, Russians.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Lukecan

[heybruce]

Anyone know where these tourists are? Any stories of overbooked hotels and resorts?

Edit: Never mind. I just read the end of the full article:

"The markets that showed improvements were: Cambodia (+43.94%); Hong Kong (+32.27%); Myanmar (+31.70%); China (+29.10%); Laos (+17.91%); Brunei (+14.82%); the Philippines (+10.86%); Malaysia (+8.82%); Singapore (+8.42%); Indonesia (+6.47%); Japan (+5.11%); South Korea (+3.05%); and Vietnam (+2.96%)."

Every country that sent more tourists is in east Asia or southeast Asia. By extension we may assume western countries sent fewer tourists.

I think it's safe to assume the average Cambodian "tourist" isn't spending as much as the western tourists that used to come here.

Edited April 26, 2016 by heybruce

[TKDfella]

Ahhh, facts that go against the narrative some desperately wanted us all to believe. Must be time to denounce or discredit these facts.

Maybe the "Bank of Thailand" is in on the conspiracy as well!!

I offer a similar chart from http://ieconomics.com/thailand-tourist-arrivals-forecast

Travellers (not just tourists) seem to peak about the same time every year.

TouristArrivals2016.jpg

Yes and another point too. The % increase is about the same. Nov. to Jan 2012 = 1.54, Sept. to Dec. 2012 = 1.52, Sept. to Dec. 2014 =1.53, Sept. to Feb 2016 =1.52. Not including the 2013/2014 massive low as that probably reflects the problems at that time. Hmmm, makes me wonder if someone has calculated that a figure of 1.5 is the figure to stick to

[wabothai]

I am sure TAT's trumpet Kobcarn does not have the slightest idea how many real tourists are coming into the country.

[gandalf12]

32 million tourists by year's end? Utterly preposterous, there simply aren't that many people outside of Thailand!

It is projected that there will be 10 billion visitors for Christmas and New Year

[Nicolas32]

And Thais are finding it hard to put food on the table and the reason Tesco /Big C are slashing prices and doing buy one get one free .. then on top of this finding it hard to repay housing and car loans ..

Edited April 26, 2016 by Nicolas32

[phoenixdoglover]

Ahhh, facts that go against the narrative some desperately wanted us all to believe. Must be time to denounce or discredit these facts.

Maybe the "Bank of Thailand" is in on the conspiracy as well!!

I offer a similar chart from http://ieconomics.com/thailand-tourist-arrivals-forecast

Travellers (not just tourists) seem to peak about the same time every year.

TouristArrivals2016.jpg

Yes and another point too. The % increase is about the same. Nov. to Jan 2012 = 1.54, Sept. to Dec. 2012 = 1.52, Sept. to Dec. 2014 =1.53, Sept. to Feb 2016 =1.52. Not including the 2013/2014 massive low as that probably reflects the problems at that time. Hmmm, makes me wonder if someone has calculated that a figure of 1.5 is the figure to stick to

Well done!

There is an obscure science of numbers, which makes it possible to identify "fudged" sequences with a fair degree of accuracy. Human beings don't pick random values; they have numerical biases, and it shows up in things like fraudulent expense reports.

Could be the Thai figures are "illustrative'.

Edited April 26, 2016 by phoenixdoglover