Thailand is struggling to handle its tourism boom

[webfact]

Thailand is struggling to handle its tourism boom

Business Insider UK

Thomson Reuters

 

Thailand's success in attracting huge numbers of tourists has put some infrastructure for handling the influx under pressure, an economist with the World Bank said on Monday.

 

"Bottlenecks are building up in destinations like Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Phuket, while infrastructure still hasn't expanded," Kiatipong Ariyapruchya said.

 

The economist also said that new destinations inside Thailand "must be introduced and monitored closely to support sustainable tourism".

 

The industry has remained resilient despite a 2014 coup and a wave of deadly bombings in August this year that killed four Thai tourists and injured dozens, including foreigners.

 

Full story: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/thailand-struggling-handle-tourism-boom-090518055.html

 

-- YAHOO! News 2016-12-27

[Suttisan]

This is odd,  I was in Thailand a month a go, the hotels I stayed in in Bangkok,  Samet and chiang mai were mostly empty. 

[JAG]

This is odd,  I was in Thailand a month a go, the hotels I stayed in in Bangkok,  Samet and chiang mai were mostly empty. 

The infrastructure under pressure is the one dedicated to creating and issuing ever more optimistic forecasts....

[BSJ]

I was back on the 20th and stayed in Bangkok for 2 nights and judging from the breakfast crowd there was mostly Thai folk who where corporate or government people.  Regular tourists were thin on the ground.   Maybe the World Bank have been reading TAT reports!

[taichiplanet]

i arrived last week at Swampy at 1am, foolishly thinking that it would be a breeze to get through immi. It took an hour as must have been 5 plane loads of Chinese tourists in front of me.So maybe the infrastructure under pressure is the one catering to 1 Baht tourists (apparently no such thing as zero Baht tourists in Thailand anymore ).

[alfalfa19]

well, they are indeed struggling, i can't argue with that. 

[Brer Fox]

From what I have seen the only infrastructure services struggling is the immigration counters at airports. For all travellers not just tourists.

There simply isn't enough of them (or officers manning them). Both arriving or leaving.

[chainarong]

1 hour ago, taichiplanet said:

i arrived last week at Swampy at 1am, foolishly thinking that it would be a breeze to get through immi. It took an hour as must have been 5 plane loads of Chinese tourists in front of me.So maybe the infrastructure under pressure is the one catering to 1 Baht tourists (apparently no such thing as zero Baht tourists in Thailand anymore ).

This is where the bottle necks are happening , when you see the front foyer and reception area of an hotel being used as the dinning room over flow, because of over lapping bookings of the quality tourists , U know its time to give that hotel a miss, after using as our BKK base for the past 12 years as well..........................................................................

[klauskunkel]

Quote

Thailand is struggling to handle its tourism boom

"We don't have enough scam artists to handle the increased numbers of tourists," a TAT spokes person said. "How can we create a leveled holiday experience for our visitors?"   

 

[Rhys]

I thought they put in more toilets in the  airports..

[Searat7]

The main airport is 10 years old already and has yet to be expanded despite numerous announcements. I will believe them when I see the expanded facilities.

The BTS is more crowded than usual during the day...I think they need to look at frequency of trains....I think they are cutting back too much from rush hour frequency.

[Elkski]

are hotel lobbies being sued as dining areas? or sarcasm?

I read that 1-5am is busy time at swampy due to china tourists arriving.   how long is their flight?  5 hours... so they leave after work and arrive 1-5am  get on bus and dont need a hotel that night  

[impulse]

9 minutes ago, Searat7 said:

The main airport is 10 years old already and has yet to be expanded despite numerous announcements. I will believe them when I see the expanded facilities.

 

Last week when I flew in, there were gazillions of cranes actually working on the grounds.  If it's window dressing, it could be mistaken for a bona fide project.

[Lupatria]

This was much needed “news” as no one I talked to in the industry was aware there is a boom. 

 

                                      

[Sphere]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

...its tourism boom...

 

The sound of an implosion?

[i claudius]

Well all i seem to see these days in Pattaya are weekend tourists from Bangkok , overseas tourists seem a bit thin on the ground .

[kiwikeith]

3 hours ago, Suttisan said:

This is odd,  I was in Thailand a month a go, the hotels I stayed in in Bangkok,  Samet and chiang mai were mostly empty. 

 

Yes very odd, when I stayed at the Indra in BK last week the booking agencies said only one room left but there were plenty available over the phone.

The only infrastructure under pressure in Chiang mai will be the Chinese Thai hotels and tours.

 

incidentally I checked the Thai Visa 75% off for members online and find I can book direct to hotels cheaper.

[spidermike007]

Absolute, complete nonsense. Every statement in that article was ridiculous, except the lack of expansion of highways, trains, or transportation in general.

 

I have a friend who recently stayed on Samui. He stayed at a resort that has 54 rooms. Normally, they are 100% booked, from about Dec. 20th, to about January 5th. This year, they only had 22 rooms filled. They are down 60% for the peak season. Many resorts are experiencing similarly alarming numbers. These hotels counted on the government to support them, when they spend millions on their properties, and the government has let them down, once again. They continue to drop the ball, at every opportunity. 

 

They trot out these projections, every time they get scared, and see the numbers dropping. Who was it that said, if you tell the people something often enough, eventually they will believe it? Well, not us. We are not buying your simpleton lies. Tourism is declining by the day. Perhaps 50 years from now, in a hospitality industry class at a university here, they will discuss how Thailand lost the golden egg of Western tourism. Those tourists, unlike most Chinese tourists, spent anywhere from $100 a day, to over $1,000 a day. They brought real money into the country, and in exchange, were treated with utter and complete disregard, scammed, disrespected, and abused. Eventually, most said no more. Thailand thought the country was something very special, and that nobody would ever say no, or find alternative places to visit. The fact is that there are countless other spots, that offer better service, more expertise in food and beverage (especially wine), reasonable import duties to sustain a luxury goods market, better training, and far better english skills. Thailand simply lost sight of the big picture, and had very little vision, with regard to big spending tourists, who need to be catered to, instead of scorned.  

 

The real solution is about encouraging tourists, and ex-pats, from countries that spend real money, to come here and visit. That message seems to have gotten lost, in the fervor to court the Chinese tourists, many of whom do not spend much money at all here. So, what happened? The Western tourists started to decline in number, and the genius minds at the TAT decided it was time to "lure" the Chinese. They came. But, they did not spend much money. Hotels, restaurants, gift shops, jewelers, galleries, spas, massage shops, bars, and countless other businesses suffered, and will continue to suffer from this extreme myopia, on the part of the officials in charge of tourism. Oh well. Can't say they were not warned. 

 

It is a real shame, as I find most Thai people to be quite lovely, friendly, warm, helpful and fun to be around. I am sure many feel the same way.

Edited December 27, 2016 by spidermike007

[The Dark Lord]

SadlySpiderMike, you are absolutely spot on in your summation of the decline in tourism in what used to be one of the most sought after destinations for exotic ( and erotic) getaways. 

 

I am am happily married to the current Mrs Dark Lord who is an indig of these parts and we retired here about four years ago. The decline in standards that we have seen over this relatively short time is forcing us to reconsider spending our autumnal years here with me being increasingly hounded and her having to defend me or listen to my gripes about the state of things. 

 

Life is is too short to embrace all that bull droppings.

 

as my Father used to say "you make your bed , you lie on it" it I do not suppose that holds true as the clowns taking the decisions to make tourism figures fall ( in terms of ££ per tourist capita per day) will undoubtedly have already had their nest feathered and the pain will be shouldered by the ever forgiving masses.

 

shame!

[Nurseynutcase]

I live in Phuket and everywhere I go the local businesses are struggling.

The beaches are quiet and the hotels are nearly empty.

So sad for what used to be a very vibrant island.

Bring back the beach beds and there may be some improvement in numbers.

[true blue]

Think they are all in Chiang Mai roads are like a parking lot restaurants are heaving malls full must admit it gets very uncomfortable here at holiday time.and winter had not arrived this year temperature not dropped yet

[GeorgeCross]

tourists have finally arrived in Hua Hin over the last week, which all though pleasant right now, is a shame for Hua Hin as over the last decade i'd considered it one of the last remaining places that still had a "high season" that ran from October to March.

 

This year it's looking like it's joined the ranks of 2 week high seasons as well 

 

oh well can't say you wasn't warned Thailand..

[retarius]

In the past 6 weeks I have been to Bangkok twice and to Pattaya twice. I had no problem getting a discounted hotel room and the hotels were fairly empty. On Jomtien I stayed at a place with a hundred or so room of which about 8 were occupied. I was in Pattaya Central last week, again no problem with getting a deeply discounted room, and the bars, excepting those directly on Beach Road were empty. I was in Krabi two months ago….same story, cheap rooms and few customers. 

[IMA_FARANG]

That's funny as I live in a residence in Bangkok that also rents rooms daily. wekly, and monhly to many tourists.

I have lived there over a year and they still do a steady business in short perod ( less tahn a week stay) tourists.

They do NOT pitch their business to the 5 star luxury torist  trade that wants the swimmong pool, the nightclub, and such.

Instead the pitch their busines to the middle rank tourists, many from Asia, including Europeans also who want a good quality clean and plesent  room at a moderate price, but also are getting  good service and a friendly staff during their stay.

There is a restaurant downstairs that serves Thai. Thai-Chinese, and international food.

This place is near a shopping mall and they provide a tuk-tuk service free of charge to that Mall and the narby MRT station for guests.

They do a steady year-round business.

I believe it is because they give the mddium renage tourists good qualitty and friendly service in a nice location and do not rely on the "luxury tourists" for their busines.

To me, that is how you can make a good steady income on the "tourist trade"  business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nong38]

Sooner or later the penny will drop, the propaganda and reality are not the same and figures can be used to mean whatever you want them to.

The biggest thing Thailand could do to boost tourism is to take care of the ones that come and encourage them to come back, a start would be to stop ripping them off at every opportunity. It might seem strange to the culture in this part of the world but someone thinks they have been ripped off they make a mental note not to come back, there are plenty of other places to visit.

[Krataiboy]

Thailand is struggling to handle its tourism boom

 

No it's not. It's struggling to attract the "right" kind of tourists from the developed world who will spend lavishly or an experience which is worth remembering and going back for. 

 

Sadly, Thailand is rapidly falling to the bottom of this league table, with results which - despite all the buffalo dung pumped out by the twerps at TAT - are all too clear to see for anyone who lives here.

 

I've never known our seaside town - a popular holiday haunt for Thais and falangs -  so quiet. There's hardly a falang tourist in sight, whereas normally,at this time of the year the place is jumping.

 

I gather it's the same in most once-popular country and seaside destinations and for the same reasons - partly the depressed state of the world economy but also, sadly, due to the Thai penchant for allowing unrestricted development, gross mismanagement and rampant bribery and corruption to kill the geese that lay the golden eggs.

 

There's hardly a tourist resort I have visited in Thailand over the past two decades which hasn't been turned into a dirty, polluted disgrace in the gadarene rush by developers and unscruplous business owners to cash in while the going's good.

 

Fine in the short term, but the long-term damage is plain to see in places like Phuket (where last time we drove out - in sheer disbelief at what had happened to the place in a few years - even faster than we drove in) and Koh Samui, once a tropical paradise and now a giant rubbish dump. I could go on, but most of you will have seen the carnage for yourselves.

 

As for the World Bank's conclusions that some "new destinations inside Thailand must be introduced . . .  to support sustainable tourism", one shudders to think what horrors will overtake the few remaining unspoiled tourist attractions if they are thrown to the commercial wolves.

 

It's time to put quality before quantity, otherwise Thailand will find itself struggling not with a boom, but to stop its tourist industry from going bust.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Krataiboy

[Honthy]

I am not sure. Massage salons, restaurants, bars and even hotels are complaining. They say these days that they have as many customers as they had off-season. If these cannot see those   attracting huge numbers of tourists , then where they are hidding?

 

On the other hand, Thailand has never invested back a single Baht from this revenue. Hotels are normally hopelessly old and stale. It is quite normal that they build a nice hotel and let it work. No replacement no maintenance. They are just money making machines. A tourist who spends money here, wants to get the best for his money. If he gets more for his money he will come back. Should not, he and his friends will choose another destinations. 

[StefanBBK]

We just went for a couple days to bang saen. Close to bangkok, mainly domestic tourists, excellent fresh seafood. I have never seen the place so empty as now.
We also visited quickly Silverlake vineyards and a kart track nearby. Same there, extremely few people around.
Only place jammed were the roads.
To me it looks like another low "high season".

[Khon Kaen Dave]

When i read the statistics put out by the TOT from the minister,it feels like listening to Tokyo Rose,or Lord Haw Haw(if anyone knows who these two were.)lord Haw Haw Haw( William Joyce i believe) was hanged.

[Stargeezr]

Six  more  days   then   I  too   will  join  the  Caos  that is  Thailands

High  tourist  season,  with  15 cms  of  snow  on  the  ground,  I  am 

ready  for  the heat  of  Bangkok.