Thailand welcomes 17 million foreign visitors in first half of 2017

[rooster59]

Thailand welcomes 17 million foreign visitors in first half of 2017

Thammarat Thadaphrom

 

 

BANGKOK, 15th July 2017 (NNT) – Seventeen million foreign tourists visited Thailand in the first half of 2017, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. 

Pongpanu Svetarundra, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, this week chaired a press conference to announce that the tourism industry performed well in the first six months of this year as the country welcomed more than 17 million visitors from overseas, while generating more than 870 billion baht. 

According to him, the number of tourists increased by 4.41% and revenue increased by 6.05% year on year. 

Pongpanu said the month of June saw the widest margin with 11% growth in the number of tourists. 

Most of the revenue generated came from East Asian, European, North American, and South Asian tourists. Chinese visitors contributed up to 240 billion baht, followed by Russians and Malaysians. 

The Permanent Secretary is confident that the Thai tourism industry will continue to thrive in the second half, thanks to economic recovery in USA, Europe, and China. 

 

 

-- nnt 2017-07-15

[carstenp]

Well done. Thailand is still a Tourist hub after all 

 

 

[MarkusAUST]

I reckon they must be counting them when they get off the plane, again in Immigration and a third time as they pass through Customs.

[Moti24]

".....the country welcomed more than 17 million visitors from overseas, while generating more than 870 billion baht."

 

 That's just over 50,000 Baht per head.  I'm sure the Chinese won't be spending that amount on their zero $ tours, and they'll be a big part of those 17 Million.  Either there's some seriously rich tourists turning-up, or those figures are the usual TAT fantasy news feed.

[Lupatria]

Reminds me to the song "10.000 Chinese step inside a bar"

[the guest]

To be honest, whatever the Ministry of Tourism and Sports say, I take with a huge lump of salt. 

[clockman]

It should read. Welcomes there money!

[williamgeorgeallen]

4 hours ago, carstenp said:

Well done. Thailand is still a Tourist hub after all 

 

 

hub of lying about statistics. has madam TAT been on holiday? have not been getting the usual inflated monthly head counts.

[carstenp]

28 minutes ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

hub of lying about statistics. has madam TAT been on holiday? have not been getting the usual inflated monthly head counts.

It's fun because everybody is complaining about its a lie, every time the numbers get out. Who to believe you or TAT ?

 

some say 50000 a head used in the economy on there vacation. Do we now if they stay 1 day or 3 weeks. We don't know right

 

we can all say it's a lie, but do we have figures to back the statement up?

 

on the other hand, who cares, if they lie or telling the trues 

 

I don't, properly because I have living here  for 6 years now

Edited July 15, 2017 by carstenp

[williamgeorgeallen]

9 minutes ago, carstenp said:

It's fun because everybody is complaining about its a lie, every time the numbers get out. Who to believe you or TAT ?

 

some say 50000 a head used in the economy on there vacation. Do we now if they stay 1 day or 3 weeks. We don't know right

 

we can all say it's a lie, but do we have figures to back the statement up?

 

on the other hand, who cares, if they lie or telling the trues 

 

I don't, properly because I have living here  for 6 years now

of course it is impossible to get actual stats which is why they can lie all they want. i have been following tourist numbers for 10 years as i have a vested interest in it. the numbers continued to go up 1 million per yer regardless of floods, military coups etc.  there is just no way it can be true.

[BuckBee]

Just looking at holiday locations and general business in thailand points to decline in financial gain from tourism, visually looks quieter to me when travelling & I know lot of people who did visit have moved on to other countries. 

Financial figures for chinese seem likely total garbage , if they accounted for half it would be 100K a head and as most come on tours they hardly spend anything besides small change on knick-knacks . They didn't hand out free tourist visas for several months because of constant growth lol, tourism is a long way off a boom, speaking of boom even the sex tourism and nightlife is on a low.

[impulse]

They probably got the better part of a million coming back in when they back pedaled on the recently announced crackdown on guest workers, who had quickly made a mass dash for the borders

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by impulse

[petermik]

9 hours ago, clockman said:

It should read. Welcomes there money!

If upon arrival we emptied our wallets,purses in the bins provided and returned swiftly home they would be much happier.......

[Sydebolle]

That's a staggering THB 51'176.47 per head - more than any European tourist destination. 

Don't get me wrong but someone in TAT is cooking the books very professionally. 

I - for one - see only cheap group tours of mostly Chinese origin, the department stores being roamed by some of them without bags and pouches, not dining in all those restaurants - so what on Earth are you talking about here? Restaurants are empty (apparently the bankruptcy number increased from 1'000 to 2'300 within a year); hotels offer rock-bottom goodies and planes are half-full with fares barely meeting the operating costs. 

Tourism is not a matter of capita but an issue of expenditure-per-capita. The specialists at TAT need to understand first, that tourism is to be seen through the tourist's eyes and there are valid reasons, why the caucasian piece of cake is getting smaller - by absolute numbers and not only in comparison to its Asian counterpart.
Percentages are indicative but not decisive; bills and people are paid in Baht and not in percentages. There are only two products philosophies, either volume OR yield. Regretfully the Thai tourism product slid away from yield in to volume whereby the volume profit could not reach the previous yield result. 

Yet here Thailand is in good company; the very same happened to Spain, Italy, Greece and the Philippines - just to name a few. 

Ridiculous closing hours of entertainment places and booze bans after booze bans turn tourists on vacation away. Picture this, you arrive on Tuesday for a 10 days break, the only weekend in between is booze banned for a reason not applicable to non-Buddhists. Pattaya is, among other things, known for its nightlife and not for "nature", butterfly parks and ice-cream parlours. While you don't have to advertise the red light offerings just ignore it - from a PR point of view. 
If I am on vacation I might want to have a beer in the afternoon at the beach - beer is available from 11am to 2pm and then again from 5pm until midnight; i.e. legally speaking the afternoon beer o'clock as well as the night cap after midnight are illegal.

Go figure! 

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

If I am on vacation I might want to have a beer in the afternoon at the beach - beer is available from 11am to 2pm and then again from 5pm until midnight; i.e. legally speaking the afternoon beer o'clock as well as the night cap after midnight are illegal.

Maybe, Thailand wants to compete with Saudi Arabia in the religious pilgrimage tourism sector, and is adapting its laws to be attractive to that tourism segment.

[madmitch]

I don't disbelieve the arrival numbers, especially as they are believed to include every tourist entry but hotel bed nights and numbers in the country at any one time are almost certainly down, due to the 4 day Chinese replacing the 2 week Europeans. 

 

[Prbkk]

Why then is the Hotels Association so desperate to close down AiRBnb?

[jaywalker]

Errrr. They seem to be off by 1.2 million visitors.

-------------------

BANGKOK – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor aims to improve Thailand’s earnings from tourism as a global top seven, while revealing that 18.2 million tourists had visited the Kingdom during the first half of 2017.

 

http://www.pattayamail.com/thailandnews/new-tourism-target-tat-governor-180738

 

 

[JSixpack]

6 hours ago, Moti24 said:

".....the country welcomed more than 17 million visitors from overseas, while generating more than 870 billion baht."

 

 That's just over 50,000 Baht per head. 

 

3 hours ago, BuckBee said:

Financial figures for chinese seem likely total garbage , if they accounted for half it would be 100K a head and as most come on tours they hardly spend anything besides small change on knick-knacks .

 

3 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

That's a staggering THB 51'176.47 per head - more than any European tourist destination. 
 

 

Our ace TVF Economists have only a naive, childlike way of determining tourist-related income. Not much business experience around here. The article didn't say spent at all. It said generated.

 

Maynard Keynes verified the concept of the “multiplier effect” in his economic studies in the 1930s. The concept has perhaps the greatest applicability in the tourism industry.

 

Tourists spend money on travel, lodging, food and beverage and in retail stores thus creating direct income, government revenue (taxes) and employment. There are more effects such as money spent on supplies, inventory replacement, and all the other products and services that supply the place where the tourist spends. All of these subsequent places are classified as indirect or multipliers of the original dollars spent.

 

Numerous studies have been conducted that reveal for every dollar a tourist spends anywhere from $3 to $10-plus additional dollars of expenditures are generated into the economy.

Just think about sources of state revenue more directly labeled taxes, or in the case of tourism, taxes paid for by nonstate residents. . . . There are the tolls, gasoline taxes, taxes on retail purchases, taxes on alcoholic beverages, general sales taxes, taxes on rental cars, etc., etc. These “taxes” form a large input to the revenue taken in by the state . . . .

     --https://bangordailynews.com/2011/02/18/business/tourism-dollars-are-essential-to-state’s-economy/

 

3 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

I - for one - see only cheap group tours of mostly Chinese origin, the department stores being roamed by some of them without bags and pouches, not dining in all those restaurants - so what on Earth are you talking about here?

 

And we're falling back on the ol' TVF Golden Egg Layers Theory of Thai Economics. The mother of all Golden Goose threads was back in 2003, BTW, when Thailand was supposed to return to the Stone Age because it dared raise visa fees. Looks like you'll need to open your eyes, 'cause the quarterly reports say that Chinese are contributing appreciably to the bottom line. Sorry.

 

Improved performance of existing projects e.g. at CentralWorld, CentralPlaza Lardprao, CentralPlaza Pattaya Beach, etc., supported by spending from foreign tourists mainly from China and Korea during their summer travel season. . . . On a q-o-q basis, revenues from hotel operation increased by 6% thanks mainly to higher occupancy and room rate at Hilton Pattaya Beach Hotel with occupancy high at 92% in the third quarter, enhancing RevPar up 4% q-o-q as a result of an increasing number of Chinese and Korean tourist visits during their travel season in July-August. . . . continuing growth in hotel business with higher occupancy in this quarter on the back of increasing number of foreign tourists visiting Hilton Pattaya Beach Hotel. . . . However, the food court at CentralFestival Pattaya Beach experienced revenue growth, driven by higher traffic from tourist visits in the third quarter.

Central Pattana PCL, Performance Overview: Overall economic condition in 3Q15

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by JSixpack

[Moti24]

13 minutes ago, JSixpack said:

 

 

 

Our ace TVF Economists have only a naive, childlike way of determining tourist revenue. Not much business experience around here. The article didn't say spent at all. It said generated.

 

Maynard Keynes verified the concept of the “multiplier effect” in his economic studies in the 1930s. The concept has perhaps the greatest applicability in the tourism industry.

 

Tourists spend money on travel, lodging, food and beverage and in retail stores thus creating direct income, government revenue (taxes) and employment. There are more effects such as money spent on supplies, inventory replacement, and all the other products and services that supply the place where the tourist spends. All of these subsequent places are classified as indirect or multipliers of the original dollars spent.

 

Numerous studies have been conducted that reveal for every dollar a tourist spends anywhere from $3 to $10-plus additional dollars of expenditures are generated into the economy.

Just think about sources of state revenue more directly labeled taxes, or in the case of tourism, taxes paid for by nonstate residents. . . . There are the tolls, gasoline taxes, taxes on retail purchases, taxes on alcoholic beverages, general sales taxes, taxes on rental cars, etc., etc. These “taxes” form a large input to the revenue taken in by the state . . . .

     --https://bangordailynews.com/2011/02/18/business/tourism-dollars-are-essential-to-state’s-economy/

 

 

And we're falling back on the ol' TVF Golden Egg Layers Theory of Thai Economics. The mother of all Golden Goose threads was back in 2003, BTW. Looks like you'll need to open your eyes, 'cause the quarterly reports say that Chinese are contributing appreciably to the bottom line. Sorry.

 

Improved performance of existing projects e.g. at CentralWorld, CentralPlaza Lardprao, CentralPlaza Pattaya Beach, etc., supported by spending from foreign tourists mainly from China and Korea during their summer travel season. . . . On a q-o-q basis, revenues from hotel operation increased by 6% thanks mainly to higher occupancy and room rate at Hilton Pattaya Beach Hotel with occupancy high at 92% in the third quarter, enhancing RevPar up 4% q-o-q as a result of an increasing number of Chinese and Korean tourist visits during their travel season in July-August. . . . continuing growth in hotel business with higher occupancy in this quarter on the back of increasing number of foreign tourists visiting Hilton Pattaya Beach Hotel. . . . However, the food court at CentralFestival Pattaya Beach experienced revenue growth, driven by higher traffic from tourist visits in the third quarter.

Central Pattana PCL, Performance Overview: Overall economic condition in 3Q15

 

 

 

 

Most of your posts are just slagging off other TV members.  You must be bored stiff with nothing to do all day.  Find yourself a hobby, like stamp collecting;  it might calm you down a bit.

[JSixpack]

1 minute ago, Moti24 said:

Most of your posts are just slagging off other TV members.  You must be bored stiff with nothing to do all day.  Find yourself a hobby, like stamp collecting;  it might calm you down a bit.

Anytime's good for a laugh, mate. Thanks!

[dinsdale]

Edited July 15, 2017 by dinsdale

[Dave67]

Tat Noun. 1. Rubbish, junk. Abb. of tatty. 

Used to refer to the kind of junk sold by crafty Cockneys to unsuspecting tourists in central London.

[Redline]

Where do they get these numbers from?  Half the places don't pay taxes and still use paper and pencil.  I'd sure like to see the formula

Edited July 15, 2017 by Redline

[Redline]

93,000 people a day?  Apparently they count the workers that cross the border and back every day.

[impulse]

12 hours ago, Redline said:

Where do they get these numbers from?  Half the places don't pay taxes and still use paper and pencil.  I'd sure like to see the formula

 

I'm not claiming they post accurate numbers, but it's pretty easy to count up all the passports that have been scanned into the immigration computers.  

 

And there are businesses that make money selling data on how much an "average" tourist spends, sliced and diced any way you're willing to pay for it.  Add up credit card receipts and ATM withdrawals, apply a well researched (?) fudge factor for cash sales, and they can come pretty close.  Again, that doesn't mean I agree or disagree with their posted numbers.  But the methodology is well accepted.  And it doesn't depend on locals reporting honestly to taxation bureaus.

 

For those dissing the Chinese, try waiting in an airline ticket line to fly to China and see how much they have crammed into their luggage.  They don't spend it the same way we do, but they do spend it.  Only makes sense since the import duties on luxury goods are so much higher in China than in the Euro and N. American countries.  I have Chinese friends who fund their entire trips by smuggling back and selling a few watches or handbags or cosmetics.  That all adds up, even if they're on a no-dollar tour.  (Edit:  BTW, they recently require credit card companies to report any international purchases by Chinese citizens over around $150.  I suspect fewer of my friends will be sailing through customs when they have charged $10,000 in watches)

 

Edited July 16, 2017 by impulse

[Cadbury]

20 hours ago, petermik said:

If upon arrival we emptied our wallets,purses in the bins provided and returned swiftly home they would be much happier.......

Plus you would be much safer. Thailand, the Asian hub of fatal and injurious accidents. 

[clockman]

Due to greed and corruption, the golden goose is dying. The amount of tourists dying, and regarding tourists as a cash cow. They never learn!

[Cadbury]

25 minutes ago, clockman said:

Due to greed and corruption, the golden goose is dying. The amount of tourists dying, and regarding tourists as a cash cow. They never learn!

If someone told me that every person employed in every arm of the Thai civil service was on the take I would believe them. Corruption and greed will totally consume the country some time in the future. What happens when the time comes that there is no outside the civil service who has money left that can be extorted.

Like the saying goes:

Greed in the end will fail even the greedy.

[wgdanson]

On 7/15/2017 at 3:48 PM, clockman said:

It should read. Welcomes there money!

No it should say Welcomes THEIR money!