Foreign tourists top 20 million in first half of year

[webfact]

Foreign tourists top 20 million in first half of year

 

 

BANGKOK, 19th July 2018 (NNT) - The number of foreign tourists reached 20 million in the first half of the year, an increase on the same period last year of 12%, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. 

Tourism revenue has totaled a trillion baht, an expansion of 15%. The largest number of tourists remains from China followed by ASEAN countries. The overall tourism sector in the second half is also growing fast due to the expansion of foreign economies such as the United States, China, Japan, and the European Union, which is benefitting Thai tourism. 

The Tourism Ministry remains confident that the overall number of tourists for the entire year will meet its target of 37 million, in addition to its revenue target of 2 trillion baht. It also expects domestic tourism activity to generate up to a trillion baht. 

Meanwhile, the Bank of Thailand is in the process of studying the financial activity of tourists to determine whether cash flow is leaving the country and its effects on Thai businesses. The results of the study are expected to be released next month.

 

-- nnt 2018-07-19

[anon537687643]

“Cash flow is leaving the country”.. ?? Uhh . So tourists taking money out? Typical nonsense paragraph!


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[CGW]

China is too expensive for Chinese tourists, so they send them all to Thailand, wonder why? 

[DrTuner]

2 hours ago, markaoffy said:

“Cash flow is leaving the country”.. ?? Uhh . So tourists taking money out? Typical nonsense paragraph!

They probably mean the Chinese near-zero-dollar tour operators that take all the profits back to China after gang-raping Thailand. Will be an interesting report.

[Darkside Gray]

How many made it back home alive!

[kcpattaya]

Pure nonsense in my opinion.

[Sir Dude]

It's not the local Thais that are making money from all these Chinese. On top of that, it appears many of these places must just be ghastly to visit now with all the milling tours and buses.

[alant]

Good to hear there are loads of tourist spending loads of money.

Very few in my area and a lot of shops closing, I think they must be relocating to where all the tourist now go.

[spidermike007]

The real question that nobody within this hapless administration seems to be asking, is how many tourists are enough? And how many can we handle? At what point will the immigrations services, the airports, and the cities and tourist locations become unbearable, due to lack of development of services, and infrastructure, to support a never ending growth in this sector? 

 

In oder to support 40 million tourists a year, the country needs to spend a fortune improving services, training multi lingual tourism personnel, improving traffic and public safety, figuring out a way to make the police do actual police work, improving clean up and environmental services, etc. Is any of this being done, in this never ending thirst for more and more tourists?

[BestB]

It’s interesting to note , just days after major disaster and over 7000 room cancellations it turns out that tourist numbers are booming 

[Vacuum]

57 minutes ago, Darkside Gray said:

How many made it back home alive!

Ouch!

[mikebell]

Chinese come to Thailand for shrimp buffets and boat trips on stormy waters.  How long can it last?

[toofarnorth]

1 hour ago, Darkside Gray said:

How many made it back home alive!

My thoughts too Darkside , and not just drowned and upside down in buses but how many are here from other countries that have no intention of leaving just yet . I am thinking of dark skinned teachers . I am serious this is not some Big Joke.

[johnc925]

Two words.. "compound math" ..  there is no doubt this is still a soft economy... the baht performances evidence... hyperbole is also quite evident...

[Happyman58]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

The real question that nobody within this hapless administration seems to be asking, is how many tourists are enough? And how many can we handle? At what point will the immigrations services, the airports, and the cities and tourist locations become unbearable, due to lack of development of services, and infrastructure, to support a never ending growth in this sector? 

 

In oder to support 40 million tourists a year, the country needs to spend a fortune improving services, training multi lingual tourism personnel, improving traffic and public safety, figuring out a way to make the police do actual police work, improving clean up and environmental services, etc. Is any of this being done, in this never ending thirst for more and more tourists?

Look at the bright side Mike  The scammers are smiling  The corrupt cops are smiling The hookers are smiling The cabbies are smiling  Everybody is smiling in the LOS

[Odysseus123]

1 hour ago, BestB said:

It’s interesting to note , just days after major disaster and over 7000 room cancellations it turns out that tourist numbers are booming 

Yes-you touch the crux of the matter.

 

20 million?40 million?80 million..?

 

Eeny meeny miny moe...pick a number out of the hat.

[ajarnmarc]

At times it seems that the tourism authority has decided the best way to boast tourism, 

after some disaster has taken place, that results in massive booking cancelations, 

is to simple come out with a report shortly after claiming percentages higher than the previous year or years, to state that tourism is continuing to improve,

and Thailand on target for the year end tourism figure.

Which I'm still trying to figure why these numbers mean anything to the average reader.

I might be missing something, but I never see other countries displaying their tourism figures, 

especially so frequently.

The locals get an idea how the tourism is before any so called report has a chance to come out, 

so it's not like the shop owners need or care what the reports read, they already know what the truth is, 

based on how their businesses are doing...?

One might think that the Thailand Tourism Authority would take the figures they receive, 

and work with those figures to help make improvements internally, i.e transportation, hospitality, 

and infrastructure, which can continue to support the data, to help provide the best services for whats so very vital to the country...tourism.

[joecoolfrog]

On 7/20/2018 at 3:22 AM, spidermike007 said:

The real question that nobody within this hapless administration seems to be asking, is how many tourists are enough? And how many can we handle? At what point will the immigrations services, the airports, and the cities and tourist locations become unbearable, due to lack of development of services, and infrastructure, to support a never ending growth in this sector? 

 

In oder to support 40 million tourists a year, the country needs to spend a fortune improving services, training multi lingual tourism personnel, improving traffic and public safety, figuring out a way to make the police do actual police work, improving clean up and environmental services, etc. Is any of this being done, in this never ending thirst for more and more tourists?

I said much the same a couple of years back , the answer to your question is that nowhere near enough is being done to sustain such numbers. I did read recently that the TAT minister has acknowledged the problem but your guess is as good as mine as to how much of the budget actually gets spent on infrastructure rather than replacement Mercs.

[AdamTheFarang]

On 7/20/2018 at 2:57 AM, Sir Dude said:

It's not the local Thais that are making money from all these Chinese. On top of that, it appears many of these places must just be ghastly to visit now with all the milling tours and buses.

Thailand want quality tourists so they go from sex pests to zero Baht.

[AdamTheFarang]

Time for a cabbie in BKK story of returning a massive wad of cash, diamonds, Visa Cards and Passports to a first time couple visitingThailand just to round off the day.

[mok199]

im afraid Thailand is a write off...open the white sand lagoons, open the historical caves ,open the amazing temples and let the money flow...but stop whinning about the Chinese abuse ....you own this thailand

[bkk6060]

On 7/20/2018 at 9:22 AM, spidermike007 said:

The real question that nobody within this hapless administration seems to be asking, is how many tourists are enough? And how many can we handle? At what point will the immigrations services, the airports, and the cities and tourist locations become unbearable, due to lack of development of services, and infrastructure, to support a never ending growth in this sector? 

 

In oder to support 40 million tourists a year, the country needs to spend a fortune improving services, training multi lingual tourism personnel, improving traffic and public safety, figuring out a way to make the police do actual police work, improving clean up and environmental services, etc. Is any of this being done, in this never ending thirst for more and more tourists?

I do not agree as the people who are mostly coming here care less about that.  They are use to it in their countries in fact Thailand is better in some regard.  It is like the dirty beaches.  Many of these countries beaches are much dirtier.

 

With this, I was in BKK last week never have seen so many people over the past 10 years.  All the major center city malls were packed daily, people walking around everywhere.  Many carrying bags and shops busy. Could not even walk the isles of MBK there were so many people and it was the middle of the week.

 

Believe it or not I think this place is in the infant stages of a major tourist boom.  They say double it by 2030.  I bet even before that.