Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

Local Hua Hin and regional Thailand news articles and discussion.
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Stargeezer
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

Post by Stargeezer »

The latest I heard about Chinese tourists in the Chiang Mai area .
My Thai family says they were at a Buffet restaurant, and when a Chinese tour arrived,
they went to the plates section , took their plates to the food area, and started scooping
the sea food with their plates. That made the food spill on the counter, but it was not picked up by the tourists.
The place was a mess when the tour left, but their guides paid for all the food they ate and what they
left on the floor and the counter areas. My Thai family and others were disgusted by this type of
behavior, but the restaurant owner, said, " Oh well , we got paid for their wasteful manners, so
Mai Pen Rai" I guess this is the new way for Thailand to tolerate the Chinese , who do not have
much in the way of Civilized manners. When I was in China on 3 of my tours, I was not too impressed with some of
them. Their country manners rivaled my country cousins, who like spitting every where, taking a leak
anywhere, picking their noses, and other disgusting traits. I do hope to see some programs in China, that will educate
their mass of people to try act civilized when away from China, but I certainly will not hold my breath.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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What about people takinga dump on the street, children I could forgive, but not adults.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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Thailand expects visits by over 10 million Chinese tourists this year
This was expressed by Ms Srisuda Wannapinyosak, deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) for marketing yesterday.

She said tourist arrivals from China to Thailand has considerably risen during this year’s first quarter and could probably exceed 10 millions by the end of this year.

She said 7.9 million Chinese tourists arrived last year.

According to The NNT, of that 10 million tourists, about three million Chinese tourists were reported to come as tour groups.

The rest would travel on their own and be considered quality tourists who might spend an average of 5,000 baht per person per day or some 50,000 baht per person per trip.

The TAT is confident that its marketing plans have been carried out effectively and has granted special awards for Thailand’s popular tourist attractions and activities among Chinese tourists, including the ”2016 People’s Choice Awards Voted by Chinese Tourists.”

The TAT will encourage prospective visitors from China to rate their favorite tourist attractions and activities in Thailand and get the chances to win trips to this country, she added.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thaila ... ists-year/
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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I worked in China for several years. Asa nation they are impossible, in groups difficult, in one on one situations I found them polite, kind and VERY loyal.The Chinese I worked with were all university graduates and they werea joy to work with.
Then 'Out on the streets"it was a whole lot different.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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She said tourist arrivals from China to Thailand has considerably risen during this year’s first quarter and could probably exceed 10 millions by the end of this year.
They need to keep increasing just to keep up with the local fatal accident rate! :rasta:
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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Give it some time and there will be a jaw dropping announcement that although tourist numbers have grown to 20 million+ yearly, revenues from tourism have dropped. Group tours never generate the revenue that independent travel does. As we've seen in the north, establishments owned by mainland Chinese have been set up, group tours steered to them, and the majority of revenue goes right back to mainland Chinese interests.

There's probably a statistic somewhere but I would guess an independent traveling family of 4 put the same amount of money into the local economy as 12-15 tour group people. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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Thailand expects huge jump Chinese tourists
Tourist arrivals are expected to rise 17.8% in the last quarter of 2016 year-on-year, the Tourism Council said on Monday, driven mostly by an increase in Chinese visitors.

Tourism accounts for about 10% of Thailand's GDP and has been a rare bright spot for Southeast Asia's second-largest economy which has been dragged by sluggish exports and domestic demand.

The forecast comes as Thailand expects to welcome a record 33 million visitors this year.

Chinese tourists can't seem to get enough of Thailand, with visitor numbers surging over the past year.

A wave of bomb blasts in Thailand's central south and far south over the past month appear to have had limited impact.

Last week, the central bank cut its forecast for tourist arrivals by 400,000 to 33.6 million this year due to the bombings and a crackdown on so-called zero-dollar tours, or extremely cheap package tours, among other issues.

The October-December quarter is the high season when hoards of tourists descend on palm-fringed beaches and raunchy bars and visit its many gilded Buddhist temples.

"The last quarter is a high season for us. It's the season when tourists from China, Europe and other regions come most," council president Ittirit Kinglek told Reuters.

"We are expecting higher numbers of arrivals than last year mainly due to Chinese travellers."

The council expects at least 600,000 Chinese arrivals during next month's "Golden Week" holiday.

Last year, Thailand attracted 7.93 million Chinese, a record high. This year, the council expects around 10 million Chinese.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/new ... to-chinese

Thought: Have no idea how they can crack down on 'zero dollar tours', most Chinese book any pay for everything in advance in China to Chinese companies, they certainly do not descend upon local bars and restaurants. So Thailand doesn't really benefit at all from more Chinese tourists - aside from the minister of tourism who can have a good self-stroke over higher numbers passing through airports and produce reports which generate bullshit articles like this one.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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buksida wrote:Thought: Have no idea how they can crack down on 'zero dollar tours', most Chinese book any pay for everything in advance in China to Chinese companies, they certainly do not descend upon local bars and restaurants. So Thailand doesn't really benefit at all from more Chinese tourists - aside from the minister of tourism who can have a good self-stroke over higher numbers passing through airports and produce reports which generate bullshit articles like this one.
My son has recently been up North, training with a large group of Chinese for 4 hours each day. The activities the Chinese undertook outside of the training were immense every day, and well above my son's budget.

I agree they don't drink themselves silly every night, but whether or not they are spending in Thailand has to be debatable. Regardless of where they paid for these tourist attractions, surely the operator of each activity within Thailand must be getting paid.

I would suggest that paying for just one activity (even with group discounts) would be more than the average Brit for example spends on beer each night. These guys were doing 3 or 4 activities every day.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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They come on package tours with Chinese guides which include these activities, all paid for in advance, usually to Chinese managed/operated companies.

Take a look at the tourist street in Chiang Mai - rammed with Chinese but how many of them are frequenting the local places? They go on their pre-paid tours during the day and shop for trinkets in the market, that's about it.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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OCT-DEC is the high quarter??, that has NOT been the case in the past JAN-MAR has been highest quarter.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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Well, the guys and girls my son was with were frequenting river rafting, zip lining, bungy jumping, riding those 4 wheel motor cycle thingys, shooting range etc., etc. If those are all Chinese owned, fair play to them - great business sense.

I'm not really talking about what they do in evenings, it's what they do during the day when they disappear on their tour buses. These guys were living life to the full during the day, and I'd hate to think what each day was costing, even with group discounts.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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Well, the following is how a lot of it is done:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tou ... ork-halted

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tou ... s-momentum

Huge zero-dollar tour network grounded, funds frozen

Authorities on Friday impounded 2,155 buses and froze bank accounts containing 4.7 billion baht held by the country's biggest "zero-dollar tour" network including OA Transport Co and 381 firms.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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HH has not been a destination for the big, and i mean big , groups. 200+. inevitably tey will look for new destinations, i wonder if Blu point will be an attraction. one thing you don't hasve to worry about, they will not crowd you out ofyour local beer haunt
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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Yes, I've read about the zero-dollar schemes. What I don't know is what percentage of visitors are zero-dollar, and what percentage are like the group my son was with. As with everything, we hear about the bad, but rarely does anybody report anything positive.

Bad = good news. Good = not worth reporting.
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Re: Chinese tourists (and their habits) surge into Thailand

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oakdale160 wrote:HH has not been a destination for the big, and i mean big , groups. 200+. inevitably tey will look for new destinations, i wonder if Blu point will be an attraction. one thing you don't hasve to worry about, they will not crowd you out ofyour local beer haunt
Surprising, because the airport certainly has the capacity to take charter aircraft. I would guess the price of Hua Hin hotels is a major factor.

When I go to Chiang Mai, low price, decent, high capacity hotels are everywhere. We get visitors, and its hard to find a decent high capacity hotel for twice the price.
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