Thailand foreign tourist arrivals up 4-5 percent in H1 2017 - minister

[webfact]

Thailand foreign tourist arrivals up 4-5 percent in H1 2017 - minister

 

Chinese tourists wait to board a sightseeing boat at a pier at Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand, October 3, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/Files

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The number of foreign tourists visiting Thailand rose by up to 5 percent in the period January to June 2017, the country's tourism minister said on Wednesday, compared with the same period last year.

 

Tourism, along with exports, is one of Thailand's main economic sectors and is a big employer in the Southeast Asian nation.

 

Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said Thailand saw around 18 million tourist arrivals in the first half of 2017.

"Right now it is around 18 million," Kobkarn told Reuters, adding that the figure was partly driven by medical tourism.

 

With its world-class hospitals, Thailand, and in particular the capital Bangkok, is a medical hub that caters mostly to visitors from the Middle East and countries in Asia, as well as expatriates from Europe, Australia and North America.

 

Thailand expects to welcome a record number of foreign tourists in 2017.

 

(Reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-12

[clockman]

Medical Hub.? Caveat Emptor!

[idman]

And that figure is bolstered only by the fact that Thailand now is crawling with Chinese tourists. They are like ants at a picnic, ya can't get rid of them all. Take away their numbers and I bet the real figures would show a different result.

Sent from my SM-T805 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[saakura]

All is well, end of the year total tourist arrivals will exceed 36 million!!!. Next year target is 40 million. Great achievement by TAT, General and the lady minister. 

[tso310]

Well I entered twice in Q1. Our younger daughter and partner also entered twice during a visit in Q1 from the UK. I take full responsibilty for the rise in UK numbers.

[Joebuzz]

Love the photo!  Chinese tourists wait to board a sinking ship on sewage river!

[Dave67]

Medical , sports , quality , Hub

[amdy2206]

Up every year. Hooray!!!! Before long, at this rate, there will be more tourists than Thais. Where do they get the data from???

[BuckBee]

chinese numbers are helping but western tourism and long staying tourism is down HUGE amounts. As for medical tourism being significant numbers I can't see that, thailands hospitals are a lottery on good/bad smart/stupid and poorly priced, that from personal experience of poor diagnosis/treatments and recently seeing a friends brother die after poor diagnosis and missing fact he had untreated diabetes and ended up brain dead due to incompetent staff/doctors .
Dental surgery can be ok here but hospitals big big risk .

[hugh2121]

Pattaya seems pretty quiet to me and it's the holiday season in Europe. No traffic jams, no checkout queues.

[hugh2121]

2 hours ago, BuckBee said:

chinese numbers are helping but western tourism and long staying tourism is down HUGE amounts. As for medical tourism being significant numbers I can't see that, thailands hospitals are a lottery on good/bad smart/stupid and poorly priced, that from personal experience of poor diagnosis/treatments and recently seeing a friends brother die after poor diagnosis and missing fact he had untreated diabetes and ended up brain dead due to incompetent staff/doctors .
Dental surgery can be ok here but hospitals big big risk .

My Thai gf recently had a bout of headaches that started early every afternoon. She went to the local hospital in Sri Racha where the doc said it was migraine and told her to lie down in a dark room. 

I know the symptoms of migraine and she certainly did not have them. I sent her for MRI scan which showed an ear infection. Ear cleaned, infection treated with antibiotics, no more headaches.

Medical tourism? Buyer beware!

[Nitepassage]

Great, Nice Spin!

Tell this fantastic news to the shop owners that are closing up shops at an alarming rate.

The current "Quality Tourists" sure are not spending any money that the local vendors can see. Just look around and ask the shops or even employees at the big stores...

[loong]

Quote

The number of foreign tourists visiting Thailand rose by up to 5 percent

UP TO 5 percent!

Up to is meaningless.

0.0000000001% is included in up to 5%

[Happyman58]

7 hours ago, hugh2121 said:

My Thai gf recently had a bout of headaches that started early every afternoon. She went to the local hospital in Sri Racha where the doc said it was migraine and told her to lie down in a dark room. 

I know the symptoms of migraine and she certainly did not have them. I sent her for MRI scan which showed an ear infection. Ear cleaned, infection treated with antibiotics, no more headaches.

Medical tourism? Buyer beware!

Just getting off the beaten track here but i have to say this I went to a doctor here for blood pressure check amongst other things I have since named this doctor i went to see Doctor Pill He gave me a pill for everything I had that many pills i did not know which one was which one Thought Omg is this guy a doctor or not? I think i even got a pill for talking lol Makes you wonder the standard of training at universities for doctors here in Thailand

[BuckBee]

7 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

As to the dental that is just as bad, if not worse.

 

I had one dentist tell me that I required several fillings and after consulting with another dentist back home they confirmed I had no cavities.

 

The dentist in Bangkok was about to drill several teeth just to make a buck. 

 

No ethics or morals here whatsoever. 

Much the same but easier find recommended dentists via friends and as long you have idea of your dental condition and here for better pricing you can do ok. hospitals are super risky (life risk), very inexperienced doctors who actually lack gumption to be any good plus no morals or ethics lol .

Amount of thais I seen who had excessive diagnosis tests or minor ops & 40,000bt bills for no need is shocking, thai lady I worked with was diagnosed with cancer, she met my sister who a british doctor with almost 3 decades experience and after advise and more test she actually had bladder endometriosis  which treated cheap and easy, hospital she went to had her lined up for 100grand surgery and already spend over 50K, it just shocking, even I guessed from her symptoms it possibly endometriosis, I wouldn't use a doctor here unless absolute emergency as incompetence and malpractice is beyond belief plus denied point blank even when caught out 100%, .

[Belzybob]

12 hours ago, amdy2206 said:

Up every year. Hooray!!!! Before long, at this rate, there will be more tourists than Thais. Where do they get the data from???

I'll give you a hint, they need to coat their digits with Vaseline first.

[phantomfiddler]

Class of foreign tourist arrivals down 15%  Where are all the oilfield trash, the big spenders ???

[Redvic]

On 12/07/2017 at 10:57 AM, saakura said:

All is well, end of the year total tourist arrivals will exceed 36 million!!!. Next year target is 40 million. Great achievement by TAT, General and the lady minister. 

Yeah right. More TAT lies. 

 

On 12/07/2017 at 10:57 AM, saakura said:

All is well, end of the year total tourist arrivals will exceed 36 million!!!. Next year target is 40 million. Great achievement by TAT, General and the lady minister. 

 

[TheLobster]

Meanwhile, tonight I stopped at a Family Mart near Bangrak on Samui. TBH it looked quite busy and I was surprised. When I got to the check out there were 2 Russians there and they had a total goods of 105THB which they paid for. As they left the other 6 or 7 then left also and followed them without buying anything. 

 

I expect that they will probably be arrested tomorrow for shop lifting ............. or that is their idea of a night out.