Tourism made up 17 percent of GDP last year

[webfact]

Tourism made up 17 percent of GDP last year

 

 

BANGKOK, 16 February 2017 (NNT) – The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has reported that the travel sector generated 17 percent of the nation’s revenue last year with 130,000 people visiting the nation daily. 

Permanent Secretary for Tourism and Sports Pongpanu Sawetarun revealed that in 2016, the nation earned 2.51 trillion baht from tourism, up to 17.7 percent of the entire GDP. Hotels, food and beverage, transport and sports businesses benefitted the most from the strong figure. 

In January of this year, 4.8 million foreigners came to Thailand, 4.89 percent more year-on-year and have already spent 253 million baht. Most were from China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Lao. 

A notable spike was seen during the Chinese New Year period with 37,000 Chinese travelers entering the country daily. It is expected 10 million Chinese tourists will visit in 2017.

 

-- nnt 2017-02-16

[Eligius]

Here we go again. The fabulous numbers of tourists flocking into this Paradise of freedom and fun called Thailand.

 

There are now billions of tourists coming here - in fact, even aliens from Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and beyond are clamouring to come to Thailand for their holidays.

 

The TAT and Tourism Minister are proud of all these visitors!

[rkidlad]

If true, that's a huge amount of much needed cash. You might wanna tell the police and government the perks of welcoming tourists and taking good care of them. Make them want to come back. Maybe another photo shoot of some 'farang' old boy in Pattaya with his fun-time-girl being named and shamed. 

 

Word of mouth is so important in business. Advertising for new tourists is a lot more expensive. Business 101. 

[johng]

4.8 million per month !    how many plane loads is that per day ?

[NCC1701A]

1 hour ago, johng said:

4.8 million per month !    how many plane loads is that per day ?

" While the A380-800 is certified for up to 853 passengers (538 on the main deck and 315 on the upper), achievable with a one-class configuration, Airbus references a "comfortable three-class" 544-passenger configuration in their marketing material however only Air France has come close to that number with 538 seats."

 

so best case with an extremely large aircraft would be:

 

4.8 million per month /538 seats =8921 flights/ 30 days=297 flights per day.

297 flights per day /24 hours = 12.3 flights per hour.

 

60 minutes divided by 12.3 flights per hour = 1 flight every 4.87 minutes.

 

Here is more than one International airport in Thailand so multiply 60 minutes by the number of airports for a more realistic capacity. (not really equal airport capacity)

 

assuming they were all very large aircraft. many are not, more like 300 seats per flight.

And not assuming some tourists drive to Thailand.

 

"Up to you" if you think this is possible.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2017 by NCC1701A

[impulse]

58 minutes ago, johng said:

4.8 million per month !    how many plane loads is that per day ?

 

You're neglecting the many who cross the land borders for a day (or week) of shopping, a few weeks working in a brothel, or a few years of indentured servitude on fishing vessels.  In fact, I suspect a lot of their "foreigner" arrivals are the ones who work in the tourist areas.

[johng]

19 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

"Up to you" if you think this is possible.

Thanks for doing the Maths   must be a lot coming in over land borders.   for "working holidays"  as @impulse suggests.

[DrTuner]

Used to be something like 6% just a few years back, no? 17% is possible if the other parts of GDP have crashed. Guess what happens when the tourists move to the next destination.

Edited February 16, 2017 by DrTuner
17 not 16

[johng]

According to Wiki   swampy was the 20th  busiest airport in 2015  with 52,808,013 passengers

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic

[NCC1701A]

3 minutes ago, johng said:

According to Wiki   swampy was the 20th  busiest airport in 2015  with 52,808,013 passengers

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic

so 52,808,013 divided by 365 days = 144, 679 per day or 6028 per hour on average.

 

Of course they all show up at once when its your turn to go through immigration. :)

 

 

 

[NCC1701A]

maybe they have begun to count these unfortunate souls:

 

" Separated from her family while escaping to Malaysia, she said she was caught by traffickers and held for weeks in a filthy and brutal jungle camp near the Thai-Malaysian border with dozens of others. Her captors told her a Rohingya man was willing to give her freedom if she agreed to marry him."

 

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2017/02/rohingyan-girls-forced-become-child-brides-fleeing-malaysia/

 

sorry a little off topic.

[khunpa]

And now, due to one new hotel which just opened, they are targeting Muslims who are expected to flood in by the millions. (maybe even billions)

 

 

 

[Brer Fox]

For what it is worth (which might be nothing in the scheme of big numbers of Thai tourism) I was talking in Hanoi yesterday with a large Vietnamese tour company which had just stitched up a deal with another large international travel company which intended redirecting a large percentage of their prospective quality Thailand tourists to Vietnam instead of Thailand. Some of the reasons seem to be resort pollution, safety on roads and boats and scamming and risk of personal harm. Seems some tour operators involved in bringing tourists to Thailand are tired of getting bad customer feedback and having their reputations hurt. Looks like they are telling people there are better places to go.

If this is true then Thailand will need to work hard to make up the numbers in people and money from the "Cheap Charlies" from Malaysia and China.

In many respects it seems TAT is asleep at the wheel as exampled with their dreams of durian Kit Kat and Pokemon Go to bring in tourists. I doubt they have a clue what is really happening behind the scenes.

[Shawn0000]

8 hours ago, rkidlad said:

If true, that's a huge amount of much needed cash. You might wanna tell the police and government the perks of welcoming tourists and taking good care of them. Make them want to come back. Maybe another photo shoot of some 'farang' old boy in Pattaya with his fun-time-girl being named and shamed. 

 

Word of mouth is so important in business. Advertising for new tourists is a lot more expensive. Business 101. 

 

Yes, and while the latest sexpat was getting shamed another 100,000 Chinese tourists went home happy and spread the word.

[Prbkk]

4 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

For what it is worth (which might be nothing in the scheme of big numbers of Thai tourism) I was talking in Hanoi yesterday with a large Vietnamese tour company which had just stitched up a deal with another large international travel company which intended redirecting a large percentage of their prospective quality Thailand tourists to Vietnam instead of Thailand. Some of the reasons seem to be resort pollution, safety on roads and boats and scamming and risk of personal harm. Seems some tour operators involved in bringing tourists to Thailand are tired of getting bad customer feedback and having their reputations hurt. Looks like they are telling people there are better places to go.

If this is true then Thailand will need to work hard to make up the numbers in people and money from the "Cheap Charlies" from Malaysia and China.

In many respects it seems TAT is asleep at the wheel as exampled with their dreams of durian Kit Kat and Pokemon Go to bring in tourists. I doubt they have a clue what is really happening behind the scenes.

I happened to be at Manila Airport when Mrs Aquino was passing through on a tour of inspection.I waved and she waved back. More significantly she went to the loo, decided it wasn't clean enough and promptly sacked the Director.

Maybe...perhaps in the wildest of dreams, the current Minister in Thailand might like to pose as an economy class non-Thai arriving passenger and see just what a complete <deleted> nightmare the place has become. 

[wakeupplease]

Boy with that many arrivals should be loads of cash around, but there ain't is there unless its been?

[berybert]

12 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

" While the A380-800 is certified for up to 853 passengers (538 on the main deck and 315 on the upper), achievable with a one-class configuration, Airbus references a "comfortable three-class" 544-passenger configuration in their marketing material however only Air France has come close to that number with 538 seats."

 

so best case with an extremely large aircraft would be:

 

4.8 million per month /538 seats =8921 flights/ 30 days=297 flights per day.

297 flights per day /24 hours = 12.3 flights per hour.

 

60 minutes divided by 12.3 flights per hour = 1 flight every 4.87 minutes.

 

Here is more than one International airport in Thailand so multiply 60 minutes by the number of airports for a more realistic capacity. (not really equal airport capacity)

 

assuming they were all very large aircraft. many are not, more like 300 seats per flight.

And not assuming some tourists drive to Thailand.

 

"Up to you" if you think this is possible.

 

 

Do the airports run 24/7 in Thailand ? I know they don't in the UK.

[bluebluewater]

17% of total GDP??   I don't think so.

 

Should that be the case however then good 'ol Thailand has a new NUMBER ONE as the country with the highest GDP from tourism which is as it should be seeing how everyone on the planet is on there way here.

 

(b4 all you fellers go wiki this up - I'm just kidding)

Edited February 16, 2017 by bluebluewater

[chopin2]

Didn't they recently state that the thai economy isn't dependent on tourism anymore, due to strong performans from other sectors? With 17% of GDP, a downturn of arrivals will hurt.

[mtls2005]

I guess it would be nice to see the details. Do this figure include "domestic" tourism? Medical tourism?

 

Efforts to increase capacity, while talked about, are still years away. And it might be wise to investigate, understand the ramifications (environmental, societal) of increasing the tourist numbers, and to plan accordingly.

 

But I can understand the Junta's desire to grow the tourism sector. Ya takes what ya can get.

[chiang mai]

14 minutes ago, chopin2 said:

Didn't they recently state that the thai economy isn't dependent on tourism anymore, due to strong performans from other sectors? With 17% of GDP, a downturn of arrivals will hurt.

It's good to have a second  string to your bow, if exports are down then tourism can compensate, and (vica verca).

 

And I don't know if it's 4.8 million a month or what it is but I do know it's not a small number, I know that from reports that Mrs CM gives me daily of the large numbers of Chinese tourists and others that visit a tourist attraction where she works.

 

Most importantly though, that's a lot of foreign currency being sold to buy Baht, the current continued rise in the value of THB would suggest government numbers may not be wrong.

 

 

[ChrisY1]

The 17% may well be close to the mark....indicating the massive downturn in the country' economy that seems to be -7% give or take given ~7%--10% was usually the figure given for tourism in the past

 

[chiang mai]

19 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

The 17% may well be close to the mark....indicating the massive downturn in the country' economy that seems to be -7% give or take given ~7%--10% was usually the figure given for tourism in the past

 

FWIW I've been reading and quoting circa 13% for the past year or more hence 17% is a reasonable rise, a jump from7/10% to17% would be a doubling of capacity that would show up everywhere and it hasn't, albeit Chinese tourists are like locust sometimes..

[ChesneyHawkes]

In January of this year, 4.8 million foreigners came to Thailand, 4.89 percent more year-on-year and have already spent 253 million baht. Most were from China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Lao. 

 

Some kind of mistake with the maths here. If 4.8million people spent 253million baht that would equal about 50.70 baht per person.

 

I'm guessing that it should be 253 billion spent considering the fact that 2016 tourism income totalled 2.51 trillion baht.

 

Maybe I'm to assume the TAT are just making things up again?!

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, berybert said:

Do the airports run 24/7 in Thailand ? I know they don't in the UK.

Then it shows you know <deleted> about most airports in the UK

[JayBird]

17% of gdp from one source is very dangerous. If one critical thing happens and tourism drops it would be a disaster.

 

I hope they are trying to encourage growth elsewhere.

[Jonmarleesco]

For a country so reliant on tourism, that isn't a lot. Still, the durian kit kats might catch on, and increase the numbers severalfold ... or might have the opposite effect.

[spidermike007]

No. Incorrect. The entire country is suffering from a declining tourism industry. And that will not change. It is a permanent declining trend. For a hundred valid reasons. As I stated previously:

 

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. 

 

The neighbors are trying too hard, and making too much effort, and investing money. Thailand is not. Though this topic relates mostly to tourism, in a way it pertains to ex-pats living here too. And I too am considering other spots. Currently the top spot under consideration seems to be Spain. So much culture, great wine, alot of fascinating places to visit nearby, reasonable real estate, a language I speak, and a reasonable standard of living. The other spots in this region offer too much similar nonsense, and bad infrastructure. Too many "so called leaders" in this region too, who lack creative juice, nor do they care one iota for their people. And the really hot weather, which seems to be getting hotter, and drier, is not all that appealing, as I get older. Thailand is making no steps whatsoever, to improve upon itself. On alot of levels, it feels like it is either standing still, or more than likely going backwards. Frankly, the biggest draw at the moment is being close to my wife's family, the food, the relatively pleasant people, and the weakening of the baht. But, I dislike the government, and the level of ignorance being perpetrated by the fabulously inferior educational system here does not appear to bode well for the future of the place. I also despise the practice of face, and the staggering level of cowardice that accompanies that weak, pathetic quality. 

 

It is a real shame, as I find most Thai people to be quite lovely, friendly, warm, helpful and fun to be around. There are many aspects of life here, that I truly enjoy. I am sure many feel the same way. Just wish the country was not moving backwards, (and was instead moving forward under the leadership of progressive minds) due to a system of meritocracy, and a complete lack of forward looking vision. A nice dream indeed.

 

Moving the country forward? I think not. More like "Moving Thailand backwards at an alarming pace".

[chiang mai]

2 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

No. Incorrect. The entire country is suffering from a declining tourism industry. And that will not change. It is a permanent declining trend. For a hundred valid reasons. As I stated previously:

 

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. 

 

The neighbors are trying too hard, and making too much effort, and investing money. Thailand is not. Though this topic relates mostly to tourism, in a way it pertains to ex-pats living here too. And I too am considering other spots. Currently the top spot under consideration seems to be Spain. So much culture, great wine, alot of fascinating places to visit nearby, reasonable real estate, a language I speak, and a reasonable standard of living. The other spots in this region offer too much similar nonsense, and bad infrastructure. Too many "so called leaders" in this region too, who lack creative juice, nor do they care one iota for their people. And the really hot weather, which seems to be getting hotter, and drier, is not all that appealing, as I get older. Thailand is making no steps whatsoever, to improve upon itself. On alot of levels, it feels like it is either standing still, or more than likely going backwards. Frankly, the biggest draw at the moment is being close to my wife's family, the food, the relatively pleasant people, and the weakening of the baht. But, I dislike the government, and the level of ignorance being perpetrated by the fabulously inferior educational system here does not appear to bode well for the future of the place. I also despise the practice of face, and the staggering level of cowardice that accompanies that weak, pathetic quality. 

 

It is a real shame, as I find most Thai people to be quite lovely, friendly, warm, helpful and fun to be around. There are many aspects of life here, that I truly enjoy. I am sure many feel the same way. Just wish the country was not moving backwards, (and was instead moving forward under the leadership of progressive minds) due to a system of meritocracy, and a complete lack of forward looking vision. A nice dream indeed.

 

Moving the country forward? I think not. More like "Moving Thailand backwards at an alarming pace".

 

I encourage you to take a drive from Mae Rim along the Samoeng Road, it's the road that leads into the mountains and has shed loads of tourist attractions on both sides of the road, along with a national park etc. If you were to do that you'd see the elephant camp parking lot is choka all day long, choka with grey minibuses and tourist coaches, typically over 100 separate means of transport parked up and waiting for their guests to finish their tour. You'd see the same thing at other tourist attractions, all day long, every day long, to be honest I've not seen things as busy as this before. So I don't know where you're looking, if you're using an anecdotal single hotel in Samui as your measure, best look somewhere else as well.

[Yme]

I originally suspected that this is domestic and international. In that case there would not be much change to the past. About 10/11 per cent for international and 6/7 per cent for domestic would sound about correct.

 

Then again, it does say "130,000 people visiting the nation daily" which would be 47.450 million people. Far above the total of foreign tourists claimed. Placed against the claimed income this equates to an average of Bt52,898 ( US$1,511) per person.

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by Yme