Tourists flooding into Thailand - some islands "twice as much as last year"

[Mook23]

On Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 8:42 AM, DM07 said:

Lies, lies, lies and more hot air!

The fundamentals of Thainess aka Greng Jai or FACE. 

[CaptainPeacock]

On 12/14/2016 at 5:44 PM, Taco said:

Total BS.  Business is down this year for sure and those coming have less baht to spend.  Full moon party day in Koh Phangan. Yes backpackers around but most restaurants slow.  Plenty of motorbikes still for rent.  Some hostels full but most not.  Only places busy are 7-11 selling ham and cheese toasties and big Changs.  10 new family marts and 7-11s opened or under construction now on Phangan in the last year, all sucking the local business's potential income.

 

...

[fruitman]

On 14-12-2016 at 10:52 AM, ChrisY1 said:

I had the misfortune to visit the Similan Islands a couple of weeks back....a group thing arranged by my wifes friends....

Speedboat from Phang Nga...seats along the side for 40 people...750hp on the back of this crap heap....1 hr later arrived at one island and there would have been 40-50 similar boats....and they all spewed out Chinese tourists.....just masses of them on a beach about 100m long.

Absolute and total destruction of such a beautiful environment.....the Thais, in their quest for more money,  sure know how to wreck a place!!

 

Thnaks for the info, my wife's friends also plan to book that trip for us soon....

 

I've been on a similar boat to koh tsao once, i had to sit inbetween the seats with a steel railing in my back while the boat jumped on the waves....While we arrived at the snorklingbay there were 500 other snorklers and all the fish had gone of course...when i looked underwater i only saw divers. 

 

On the way back the captain thought it was cool to drive full speed very close along the overhanging rocks to scare us a bit..i never knew those boats can go that fast with 4 250 hp outboard motors.

[tomacht8]

On 12/14/2016 at 5:44 PM, Taco said:

Total BS.  Business is down this year for sure and those coming have less baht to spend.  Full moon party day in Koh Phangan. Yes backpackers around but most restaurants slow.  Plenty of motorbikes still for rent.  Some hostels full but most not.  Only places busy are 7-11 selling ham and cheese toasties and big Changs.  10 new family marts and 7-11s opened or under construction now on Phangan in the last year, all sucking the local business's potential income.

Also plastic raincoats and umbrellas are currently the top seller.

[Bureaucrat]

20 hours ago, RTH10260 said:

Hmm - scores of tourists?  Just tried to get a 60 day tourist visa from my local Thai consulate (Switzerland). But the embassy changed the rules since last year and want a number of extra documents, not just a confirmed return flight.  Now they want to see an advance hotel booking too. And if like me with a private accomodation, I ought to have shown them a written invitation from my host. Or in the case of staying at the home of my wife a copy of her Blue House Book. Of course she does not keep that one here in Switzerland. As a good visitor to Thailand over the last twenty years, I suddenly have to prove that I am not only a good but a very valued one, by providing bank account copies that show me having at least CHF1000 aka approx THB40000 in the account over the last three months (while my airline booking shows me using business class). For all this they now need five days to process the paperwork rather than three until now.

 

Happy detail: CHF40 visa fee waved, but for a CHF10 processing fee.

 

So now I will fly into BKK and get a 30 day stay without visa and associated paperwork and then apply for a 30 day extension at immigrations.  TiT.

 

I guess the autorities want to convince the long staying quality tourist that they are welcome, with each page more of paperwork the more.

Yes this is interesting news. The Thai's greed for money is preventing tourists from coming here. What do you do when your tourist numbers are low? You make it more difficult to get a visa of course - Thai wisdom! It reminds of my bottle of wine story. We bought the same very nice very cheap bottle of wine from one off the farang supermarkets. One day it was gone from the shelf and I asked the female assistant where is the wine? and she looked at me with a cruel sadistic smile and said "we not have anymore" and laughed. If it sells stop selling it, this common Thai business practise.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Bureaucrat

[spidermike007]

Pure, complete, and utter fabrication, as usual from the TAT. From everyone I talk to, tourism is way, way down for this time of year. Many resorts are not sold out for the peak holiday season, as usual. Little P. and his tourism minister continue to do a tremendous job of sabotaging the once lucrative tourism industry. Go ahead, and continue your inane policies. There will be entire strips of vacant hotels, sooner, rather than later. They have done such a great job of discouraging the high spending Western tourists. Now, they are busy discouraging their sacred Chinese tourists. 

 

At a time when the neighboring countries are doing a very good job of improving their facilities and offerings, and making it easier for tourists to visit, Thailand continues to lag far, far behind. The lack of english skills, the kind of knowledge and experience to satisfy true five star tourists, who demand sophisticated F & B staff, and world class wine lists, the lack of cultural offerings such as great jazz, theatre, ballet, independent film, and other forms of intellectually stimulating entertainment, just do not exist here, nor is there any desire to bring them here, or offer them. 

 

Thailand is truly at a tipping point. On alot of levels, they are losing their way. The once great tiger of SE Asia, is becoming a minor pussycat. Do the authorities even see this? If they do, will they acknowledge it? And if they do, will they have the creative juice to do something about it? So far, the answer is a resounding NO. The current leaders and band of ministers appear to be in way, way over their heads. 

Edited December 17, 2016 by spidermike007

[balo]

Maybe TAT are talking about some remote islands that has doubled up from 5 tourists to 10 ?  

 

[Mook23]

6 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

the lack of cultural offerings such as great jazz, theatre, ballet, independent film, and other forms of intellectually stimulating entertainment, just do not exist here, nor is there any desire to bring them here.

Exactly why i left indeed. Intellectual vacuum. I feel sorry for the ambitious thai i know. Trapped in this uniform, generic, rigid society. 

[mcfish]

Pure, complete, and utter fabrication, as usual from the TAT. From everyone I talk to, tourism is way, way down for this time of year. Many resorts are not sold out for the peak holiday season, as usual. Little P. and his tourism minister continue to do a tremendous job of sabotaging the once lucrative tourism industry. Go ahead, and continue your inane policies. There will be entire strips of vacant hotels, sooner, rather than later. They have done such a great job of discouraging the high spending Western tourists. Now, they are busy discouraging their sacred Chinese tourists. 
 
At a time when the neighboring countries are doing a very good job of improving their facilities and offerings, and making it easier for tourists to visit, Thailand continues to lag far, far behind. The lack of english skills, the kind of knowledge and experience to satisfy true five star tourists, who demand sophisticated F & B staff, and world class wine lists, the lack of cultural offerings such as great jazz, theatre, ballet, independent film, and other forms of intellectually stimulating entertainment, just do not exist here, nor is there any desire to bring them here, or offer them. 
 
Thailand is truly at a tipping point. On alot of levels, they are losing their way. The once great tiger of SE Asia, is becoming a minor pussycat. Do the authorities even see this? If they do, will they acknowledge it? And if they do, will they have the creative juice to do something about it? So far, the answer is a resounding NO. The current leaders and band of ministers appear to be in way, way over their heads. 

It's easy to make the assumptions your making as an anonymous poster . The usual statement starting with 'all the people I know"
Is about as meaningful as the the TAT statements.


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[spidermike007]

16 minutes ago, mcfish said:

It's easy to make the assumptions your making as an anonymous poster . The usual statement starting with 'all the people I know"
Is about as meaningful as the the TAT statements.


Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

 

 

Do you work for the government? Are you trying to justify your position? What accusations did I make, that cannot be backed up with reams of evidence? Bring it on. Let us see what can and cannot be proved. I know many owners of restaurants, bars, and several GM's at five star resorts. They are all saying the same thing. Did you just presume I was making this stuff up?

[mcfish]

 
 
Do you work for the government? Are you trying to justify your position? What accusations did I make, that cannot be backed up with reams of evidence? Bring it on. Let us see what can and cannot be proved. I know many owners of restaurants, bars, and several GM's at five star resorts. They are all saying the same thing. Did you just presume I was making this stuff up?

Not at all but they could be shitty bars. I was in walking street last night and it was pounding and the beer garden had no seats around the bar and a waiting list for tables even though it was freezing on the water.

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[Bonobojt]

Thailand is losing its appeal slightly, whether its because of its sex tourism reputation or tourists being killed or beaten up, overcrowded Chinese tourists on buses are taking a lot of space  etc .. its kind of the unadventourus choice now, because most people who go to SE Asia go to Thailand, its been the main hotspot for the last decade, Bangkok's BTS can get so overcrowded its crazy and annoying ...I can see why people might choose other Asian countries to see instead of Thailand, people move on, want to experience a different culture, or go to a poorer less touristy country like Myanmar or Cambodia, I hear Laos is like what Thailand was 10 or 15 years ago. 

 

Terrorism has slightly increased in Thailand too,

 

as a traveller I would love to travel around Thailands less touristy or non touristy towns around the country, get the real thai local experience, that appeals to me a lot, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, the islands ... no thanks, 

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2016 by Bonobojt

[bodymassagemyfriend]

46 minutes ago, mcfish said:

It's easy to make the assumptions your making as an anonymous poster . The usual statement starting with 'all the people I know"
Is about as meaningful as the the TAT statements.


Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

Its a bit vague but nothing more than a forum testimony what's wrong with that? You dont have to give a passport ID to given an opinion on a forum. Does not have the same scope as TAT so it does not require the same level of credibility.

[mcfish]

Its a bit vague but nothing more than a forum testimony what's wrong with that? You dont have to give a passport ID to given an opinion on a forum. Does not have the same scope as TAT so it does not require the same level of credibility.

Nothing wrong with it at all I was just putting it into perspective.

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[bodymassagemyfriend]

26 minutes ago, mcfish said:

Not at all but they could be shitty bars. I was in walking street last night and it was pounding and the beer garden had no seats around the bar and a waiting list for tables even though it was freezing on the water.

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The difference is that Spidermike's opinion reflect an assement over a lenghty period , while what you did is just sampling the data at 1 point in time . 'last night' only can tell for last night , not last week not last month.

You can't defeat a global statistics with only 1 sample. 1 sample statistically means nothing its just noise in the data.

[bodymassagemyfriend]

On 13/12/2016 at 11:15 PM, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Why would you base your tourist numbers on hotel availability as some members are trying to point out? Thailand has oversupply of hotels and it's quite possible that numbers have indeed doubled comparing to last year.

Tourist visa in/out should be a better metric. 

However you could apply a correction factor , same as if you consider spending , twice as much income with a 50% inflation ( just a dummy exemple ) would actually means something like 1.5 more tourists.

[bodymassagemyfriend]

On 14/12/2016 at 1:02 AM, oldlakey said:

Well Russians, I should have guessed as temperatures have dropped to minus 53 degrees in Siberia last week

Good news indeed for your good mate who owns a guesthose in soi 12

As for the daily discount, a not to be missed once in a lifetime opportunity to hone your bartering skills

Does your mate offer storage facilities for their fur coats, hats, boots and gloves or do they leave them in left luggage at the airport,  to be collected on the way home , just curious

For what i have seen with Russian ( i did stay in ViewTaly 3 several years ) The ladies buy their food at the local market / 7 eleven . Eat at cheap open market so i would barely consider them as tourist as they generate as much income as locals. The plans is to leave there , not spend there. I did talk to a girl young girl from Siberia and she told me everything was expensive in Siberia , even milk, so they are definitely not high spender. High spenders do not complain about the price of milk. Also given that Russian are communautarist , like chinese they will do business with each other whenever possible.

[evadgib]

The only thing 'twice as much' here is the cost of a room :)

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, mcfish said:

Not at all but they could be shitty bars. I was in walking street last night and it was pounding and the beer garden had no seats around the bar and a waiting list for tables even though it was freezing on the water.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

 

 

And poor five star hotels? And what about the outstanding restaurants? It is always busy around the holidays. But, in years past nearly every resort was booked solid. In many restaurants is was nearly impossible to find a table. The bars were packed out. Things have changed. Many people are hurting now. Ask around. Ask people who are in the tourist trade how this season compares to many precious seasons. I am not making this stuff up. I do not have an agenda here.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, mcfish said:

It's easy to make the assumptions your making as an anonymous poster . The usual statement starting with 'all the people I know"
Is about as meaningful as the the TAT statements.


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You said one thing that could be debated all day long, when you said it is about as meaningful as the TAT statements. Nothing on this planet is less meaningful than what that agency says. No truth ever emanates from that organization. That is for certain. 

[mcfish]

 
 
You said one thing that could be debated all day long, when you said it is about as meaningful as the TAT statements. Nothing on this planet is less meaningful than what that agency says. No truth ever emanates from that organization. That is for certain. 

Any body who has spent 5 minutes browsing TV Will know it's the most hateful forum in south East Asia or maybe the most hateful forum.. Period!
I would honestly go with the TAT before taking advice from a forum full of hate.. But that's just me

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[cornishcarlos]

Just had a quick trip over to Samui for a night. Stayed in Bophut next to Fisherman's village. Our hotel had 22 rooms out of 54 occupied !! Not sure what their usual occupancy rate is at this time of year but nowhere was overly busy...

 

[baboon]

Meanwhile:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/959042-only-2-visa-exempt-entries-at-border-crossings-per-calendar-year-effective-dec-31st/

Clearly they must be doing well if they are going to start potentially turning people away...

[spidermike007]

14 hours ago, mcfish said:

Any body who has spent 5 minutes browsing TV Will know it's the most hateful forum in south East Asia or maybe the most hateful forum.. Period!
I would honestly go with the TAT before taking advice from a forum full of hate.. But that's just me

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk
 

 

Nah. It  is simply a forum of expression. Some do not like the freedom of expression. We need a place to vent. Some have thin skin, and take that personally. Many of us love the country and it's people, but see it's foibles, and like to discuss them. It would be the same anywhere. There many be some hatred on here, but relatively little.

[spidermike007]

14 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

Just had a quick trip over to Samui for a night. Stayed in Bophut next to Fisherman's village. Our hotel had 22 rooms out of 54 occupied !! Not sure what their usual occupancy rate is at this time of year but nowhere was overly busy...

 

 

My guess is that their normal bookings would be in the 75% range for this week, and from Dec. 20th, to about the 4th of January they would be at 100%. 40% occupancy is, way, way below normal for peak season. But, I think the flooding had alot to do with that. There must have been 1,000's of cancellation due to the timing of that natural fiasco. It was a real tragedy for the local tourism industry, which would normally be enjoying a real boom this time of year. 

Edited December 18, 2016 by spidermike007

[mcfish]

 
Nah. It  is simply a forum of expression. Some do not like the freedom of expression. We need a place to vent. Some have thin skin, and take that personally. Many of us love the country and it's people, but see it's foibles, and like to discuss them. It would be the same anywhere. There many be some hatred on here, but relatively little.

Wrong! There is a deep resentment for everything Thai and genuine hate.
Just about every thread reflects that.

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[ChrisY1]

16 hours ago, mcfish said:

Any body who has spent 5 minutes browsing TV Will know it's the most hateful forum in south East Asia or maybe the most hateful forum.. Period!
I would honestly go with the TAT before taking advice from a forum full of hate.. But that's just me

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk
 

I really think you should learn to read Thai....then have a look at Pantip forum.....then you'll know what forum hatred is!

[manfrommanteo]

Yeah, right. I have a friend who has a shop in Au Nang/Krabi. She says it's horrible, very few tourists and the ones who are there are cheap and spending no money. The ones from China (you know, the quality tourists) are the worst according to her.

[spidermike007]

21 minutes ago, manfrommanteo said:

Yeah, right. I have a friend who has a shop in Au Nang/Krabi. She says it's horrible, very few tourists and the ones who are there are cheap and spending no money. The ones from China (you know, the quality tourists) are the worst according to her.

 

 

It is apparent by now that by courting the Chinese tourists, and virtually ignoring the Western tourists, the current administration is sabotaging an industry that has taken four decades to build. Talk about myopic. Talk about a complete lack of vision. Talk about a lack of experience, and appointing the wrong people to the wrong positions. It is a blunder of historic proportions, and unfortunately millions will lose their jobs over time, and billions will be lost on four and five star hotel investments. Perhaps a decade or two from now, they will teach about this stage of history in tourism industry classes, and it will be a lesson in what not to do.

[spidermike007]

Nah. It  is simply a forum of expression. Some do not like the freedom of expression. We need a place to vent. Some have thin skin, and take that personally. Many of us love the country and it's people, but see it's foibles, and like to discuss them. It would be the same anywhere. There many be some hatred on here, but relatively little.

Wrong! There is a deep resentment for everything Thai and genuine hate. 
Just about every thread reflects that. 

 

I still disagree. Sure, there are some constipated individuals on here with little to say, who simply complain. But, I am consistently pleased with the amount of intelligent, well spoken, articulate thought presented here on this forum, and not a day goes by that I do not learn something from it. Just keep your mind open. An open mind is a beautiful thing.