Thailand tourism situation

Local Hua Hin and regional Thailand news articles and discussion.
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buksida
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by buksida »

T.I.G.R. wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 11:34 am this is the slowest year I've ever seen there.... The place is virtually dead ....
But ... but ... but, tourist numbers are up - TAT stats say so ... :duck:
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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So late April, and into May my dear mother was in HH.
She stayed (as always) at Peung Phen hotel..so she can walk to most places easily.
In the 3 weeks she was here she never saw anyone in the pool, every day maybe 1 other guest would be on the loungers.
But my mum (the old bat) is very astute..& she speaks her mind..(OMG it's embarrassing sometimes).
1st thing she noticed was the shabby mess on Poolsuk Rd..nothing has been dome to tidy the area since her last visit.
2nd..(same subject, different area) was the pier-area..Just a ramshackle mess she said..again quick to flatten things, but no plan afterwards. She say's there should have a nice esplanade here years ago.
Now mother got on her soapbox (oh dear, here we go!)
She say's HH needs making tourist-friendly, but it needs Farangs to damn well tell the Thais the areas of concern..
..Because the Thais just address every issue with Mai-pen-rai.
My mum STILL finds it hard to walk down the 'Hilton Rd' or Poolsuk, the traders have edged out onto the pavement so
every tourist has to walk in the road.
She say's manhole covers are broken, rubbish is piled up on the pavements thru' the day.
She would love to see the railway station, but her only option is to pay for a tuk-tuk..why?..'cos there's still no footbridge to allow a safe crossing of Petkasem Rd.
She scowls at the menu prices on Poolsuk now..saying the meals there are the same price as on the piers now!
(Before a meal next to the temple wall would be 80/90b plus rice...now on Poolsuk the average is double that)

Next she started on the subject of spending money..
...She took her travellers cheques back home with her..! (& spent her cash)
She said by the time I've paid the exuberant T/C fee, then got a crappy exchange rate, there's no money to buy anything 'cos the greedy Thai government has fleeced me wicked..!
Then she was not happy with having to submit her Passport, and/or E-mail address/telephone number.

Well there's more, BUT the message from my dear old mum is She's not coming again..!
In her opinion, over the last few years Hua Hin has become both greedy & messy, with no concerns for tourist welfare, or safety.

Well OK, that's just my mums take on what see took on board over her stay, a view from one individual.
Some of what she say's we all know about, but maybe other tourists accept it all..OR
Maybe they also think like my old dragon..??
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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My mum comes for 3 months every year (she's 93). The first time she was here and saw a broken paving slab, her remark was "Someone needs to report that to the council"! She couldn't understand why I was laughing.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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The posts by US and HHTel are excellent. These 2 ladies see HH through the eyes of visitors, not as ex-pat residents who have, like it or not, come to accept the lethargy of the country as being normal. As time goes by, more and more destinations are working to make themselves more welcoming and attractive while Thai stagnates. There is a certain amount of condescending comments about Chinese tourists but I can imagine that Thai people may prefer this type of tourists. They come for short visits, spend a little money but do not tell Thai how it should do this or that.
HH would prefer to be what it started out as--A weekend resort for wealthy Bangkok Thai people. The devastation of the BB area is not careless or accidental, it is a signal.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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This photo posted today by the Thailand Tourist Police re-enforces what I've been saying about definition of tourists. The caption says something about officers mingling with tourists on the beach. I doubt any of those photographed would go anywhere near a Binthabat Bar for example.
33475190_792160920973463_5569712554365681664_o.jpg
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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I walk the beach to Takiap every day and there was probably more on the beach today than the past 2 weeks combined.
Night market has been fairly busy the past couple of nights, but still very quiet on the bar/restaurant scene.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by caller »

redzonerocker wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 8:44 pm I walk the beach to Takiap every day and there was probably more on the beach today than the past 2 weeks combined.
Night market has been fairly busy the past couple of nights, but still very quiet on the bar/restaurant scene.
Public holiday tomorrow and Bkk is relatively quiet. Yesterday morning we turned left on to the Petchaburi Road from Sukhumvit 55 (Thonglor) and we didn't see another car until we got to Asok. That doesn't happen often.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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It seems to me that those who could took Monday off to make it a four day weekend. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by Nereus »

And this is sure to help:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Beach made famous in movie to close due to tourist damage

https://au.news.yahoo.com/beach-made-fa ... 45244.html

Once a pristine Thai paradise, the secluded bay made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach” has been exhausted by mass tourism. Now it’s getting a break.

After Friday, the daily influx of dozens of boats and thousands of visitors unsuccessfully scrambling for an unspoiled view of Maya Bay’s emerald waters and glistening white sand will end.

The attraction is being closed for four months to give its coral reefs and sea life a chance to recover.

Thailand has promoted unfettered tourism for decades and the onslaught on Maya Bay, which is on Phi Phi Leh Island in the Andaman Sea, has only picked up pace in recent years. Authorities now say they are striving to balance profit and conservation and the closure will happen every year.

It is part of a rethink happening globally about unrestricted tourism that brings in big dollars but damages historic sites, harms the environment and often alienates locals.

Many of Thailand’s marine national parks are closed from mid-May to mid-October during the monsoon season but because of Maya Bay’s popularity, it hasn’t had a break since a Hollywood crew set foot on its sands in 1999 to film the dark backpacker tale based on a novel by Alex Garland. Its corals have been decimated by the suffocating clouds of sand and sediment churned up by speedboats.(those pesky tourists should not be allowed to bring their own boats :? )

“I tried to push this campaign for many, many years, but you know in Thailand we are a tourism industry country and we need a lot of money, so before not so many people listened,” said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine biologist and member of a government committee on development and the environment.

“It should have been done 10 years ago but at least it has been done,” he said.
Thailand had about 35 million international visitors last year, a five-fold increase in little more than two decades.

Shi Pengfei, among the last tourists to visit Maya Bay before its closure, said he had no idea that there would be so many people on the beach.

“I feel that there are so many people here,” said Shi, from Henan, China. “The government’s plan to close off the beach for a few months is only natural because the ocean needs a break, a chance to recover, so that the next generation can have a better and even more beautiful destination.”

But locals aren’t entirely happy. The head of the Phi Phi Tourist Business Association, Watrapol Jantharo, said he was surprised when the closure was announced in March by Thailand’s National Parks and Wildlife Department.

He said locals were under the impression that Maya Bay would only be closed to boats, while visitors would still walk to the bay from the other side of the island.

“We are not against protecting our environment,” he said. “We know full well that Maya Bay is our important resource, like a rice field to a farmer, but we wish there are more communications about the government’s plan before the decision was made.”
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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Already being discussed here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=35994
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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Big Boy wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:11 am Already being discussed here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=35994
Ok, sorry. Please move it or delete.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by Mikeyb »

I was in Hua Hin last month and agree the general tourists are down. I stayed at the Hilton and most of the tourists now are Chinese tour groups or Indian families. There is also a handful of golfers which is why I was there.
The bars are still lively later on but mostly with expats who live there.
Anyways I still love the place as it's not as crazy as other places and has enough going on.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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Mikeyb wrote: Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:47 pm The bars are still lively later on but mostly with expats who live there.
An interesting observation - is this really the case?

Maybe they don't need tourism after all.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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I've been talking with a flower-girl this week (& last night also)..She told me she's never known the bars be so empty..all the way around the 'Bintablock' she said "no Farang".
(A good indicator of nightlife-trade is to ask the street-traders themselves)
Last week An Irish friend & myself took a walk round the 'block'..and yes, it was dead... even the big bars such as Panama were empty,
Last night 69 bar on Binta had no customers all night, Tina bar on the corner was lucky, she had about 15 folk in as I went home..These large bars are paying big rent each month (or should I say the Farang 'sponsor' is)..They're the ones that this slump may well hit first.
But as the PMG assures us on the TV each Friday evening..Tourism is at an all time high..
...Well it maybe is elsewhere in the LoS, but it's not looking that rosy down here in H.H.
But it is after the low-season, so numbers are always down this time of year.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by buksida »

That's always been my point, observation and talking with those working directly in the tourist industry is a far better indicator of the real picture than some manipulated stats from politicians trying to justify their jobs.
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