Thailand tourism situation

[T.O.M.]

Direct from the horse's mouth....

We...or rather my wife....run a tourist related business (not a bar) and have been doing so for 16 years.
Customers are to 90% Europeans...mainly from the Nordic Countries.
This years peak season....2 last weeks of 2018 and 2 first week of 2019 was 25% better than last year....both when it comes to number of customers and actual takings. (and NO it was not zero last year).
Worst season was 2014/15 and since then it has slowly improved....until we got a really good increase this year.
So it not all doom and gloom.
The problem is the high/peak season is getting shorter and shorter.....and if it fails for some reason,(SARS. Coup or Exchange Rate) it is a uphill battle for the rest of the year....

[buksida]

We...or rather my wife....run a tourist related business (not a bar) and have been doing so for 16 years.

Good for you, we have had the totally opposite experience and have seen this year as the worst ever in terms of tourism. The resort I live next to is empty at the moment, the owner said it is the first time he has ever seen it this quiet in 'peak season', he has lived and run businesses in Thailand for 30 years.

[caller]

I'm not buying into those figures at all. I'm just not seeing it on my travels. Where are they all, where are they all going?

Did anyone read about the spat pre-Christmas in Phuket between tourist businesses and TAT? Business groups were saying that tourists numbers and hotel occupancy rates were way down and the Govt. must intervene - TAT were insisting all was well.

The only place I have been to that was packed with tourists, was Siem Reap, in Cambodia, just after Christmas. People were even queuing to get into restaurants.

[caller]

The problem is the high/peak season is getting shorter and shorter.....and if it fails for some reason,(SARS. Coup or Exchange Rate) it is a uphill battle for the rest of the year....

The exchange rate can't really be affected much more, can it? It's being cited elsewhere here as the reason for the number of falling tourists, which is logical. Maybe you have just tapped into a rich stream of Nordics, who are possibly least affected by the poor exchange rate affecting most currencies?

[LolaBeltran]

There is one indicator that I have been observing for a while now which may or may not be an indicator of a tourist slump. . .perhaps just an indicator of a change in advertising practices? Billboards. On my drive home from the north this morning, I counted FOURTEEN empty giant billboards between Fly Now and the center of Hua Hin. Also, no stats, but I am seeing fewer of those generic one to two metre square signs that used to pop up along the road by the dozens for some business or the other and then disappear a few weeks down the line.

[T.O.M.]

The problem is the high/peak season is getting shorter and shorter.....and if it fails for some reason,(SARS. Coup or Exchange Rate) it is a uphill battle for the rest of the year....

The exchange rate can't really be affected much more, can it? It's being cited elsewhere here as the reason for the number of falling tourists, which is logical. Maybe you have just tapped into a rich stream of Nordics, who are possibly least affected by the poor exchange rate affecting most currencies?

The explanation is more likely that the Nordics, when times and exchange rates were better....12-15 years ago...bought second homes here. So they "have" to come, but their stays are getting shorter....and it is not the extended family anymore,,,,simply too expensive.

[caller]

The explanation is more likely that the Nordics, when times and exchange rates were better....12-15 years ago...bought second homes here. So they "have" to come, but their stays are getting shorter....and it is not the extended family anymore,,,,simply too expensive.

That may be so, but I was really referring to the fact you said that your customers were European, mainly Nordic. But if the seasonal visitors are your customers, then fair enough.

[StevePIraq]

I took a visiting friend around a few places this morning.
Monkey Mountain was almost empty and so it should be, it is a filthy dump, with rubbish all over and buildings dilapidated and decaying.

Khao Takiab beach was jam packed this morning with foreigners, hardly a Thai in sight. Sea Terrace restaurant totally full at 11:00am

Definitely no shortage of tourists. The beach itself was filthy with black sand and piles of seaweed.

[HHTel]

I remember Takiab beach when I first came here. Prior to the hotels and the bar/restaurants. There was one mobile bar/restaurant. I used to go there late afternoon to chill out and watch the squid boats leaving harbour. Never ever saw a foreigner in those days.

[caller]

Definitely no shortage of tourists.

I'd agree with that now. It seems people are waiting later to come here. I guess there's a reason - probably price?

[StevePIraq]

I guess the Chinese New Year pushes the numbers up a lot however I didn't notice any Chinese at the beach.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/tra ... spartanntp

Bangkok has emerged the most popular destination for travelers in Asia-Pacific during the Lunar New Year period, the world's largest annual human migration, which is currently underway.

The Thai capital reclaimed the top spot this year as the most popular travel destination in online booking platform Agoda's list of top spring festival destinations 2019, knocking last year's winner Tokyo to second spot, followed by Taipei.

[caller]

In the article from the BP that Buksi posted about the strength of the Thai baht, there was an interesting snippet about the effect on tourism, here:

In January alone, the number of international arrivals that used Atta member services plunged by 11.6% to 492,907, down from 557,305 in the same month of last year.

Statistics show big drops from Middle Eastern countries, which dipped 47% year-on-year; Africa, which contracted 28%; the US, down 20%; Europe, a loss of 12%; and China, down 11%.

Now okay, the reportage is confusing, but if annual figures, what do they say about Thailand's official figures for tourist numbers?

[buksida]

It appears that TAT is counting every single foreign 'arrival' across every Thai border as a tourist. Be they airport transits, Khmer families, Burmese workers, farang visa runners, Malay's popping over for the weekend - they all make some government minister look better when he submits his fabricated report.

[STEVE G]

I come in to Thailand every 12 weeks on average and there are now always long queues at immigration of mainly what appear to be Asian tourists, I suppose Chinese. I remember in the past, sometimes there being almost no queues at all but I haven't seen that for years now.
I can only suppose that these Asian tourists aren't interested in beach resorts because you don't see them around Hua Hin.

[caller]

Interesting that Emirates is dropping it's daily service between Dubai - Bangkok - Sydney. Last year Thai Airways cut services to and from various Australian destinations.