Tourism in northern Thailand decimated: Worst in ten years say hoteliers

[dave moir]

8 hours ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

I've looked more into the reasons why this kind of reporting is extremely misleading. They are quoting the Northern Chapter of the Thai Hotel Association. 
This is a club of 64 (!) hotels, most of them very long established. Places like the Orchid Hotel, Chiang Mai Gate, CM Plaza Hotel, Dusit Princess, Suriwongse, Holiday Inn, M Hotel (formerly Montri), Imperial Mae Ping, Lotus PSK, Phucome, Flora Creek (formerly Kritsada Doi Resort), Prince Hotel, etc. etc. So in short these are all hotels that were also around 20-30 years ago, (with some 5-Star newcomers like the Meridien and Anantara) For reference, the full list is here: http://www.thaihotels.org/16779806/northern-upper

It would be an understatement to say that Chiang Mai tourism is not the same as it was 20-30 years ago. No longer a couple dozen entrenched hotels dominate the market. A quick look on Agoda shows 5,274 hotels , hostels and other accommodation providers. Booking dot com: 2,084. 

So there are now THOUSANDS of options for tourists to stay in Chiang Mai. Most of these did not even exist '10 years ago' as stated by the old guard hotel operators. 
There is probably an interesting and relevant article / headline to be found in there, about the changing landscape of tourist accommodation in the North, but a whine about 'the worst for 10 years' on tourist numbers certainly isn't it. 

I wish fewer journalists let themselves be fooled so easily. One thing the Hotel Association does well is issue press releases and do seminars and interviews. So the laziest of journalists will have something to print.

Doesn't really matter how many hotels there are now in Chiang Mai the plain fact is tourism is down! Chiang Mai is like a ghost town any day and night of the week high or low season!

[randy723]

my friends that come here at least once a year are not coming down and want me to meet them in Vietnam 

[Mansell]

Decimated actually means one tenth......according to these figures it is more like 20 to 40 percent.

[michaellee]

First all, fix the taxi rip off throughout the country. Starting from Phuket and all the way upto Chiang mai. 

[marcusarelus]

5 minutes ago, michaellee said:

First all, fix the taxi rip off throughout the country. Starting from Phuket and all the way upto Chiang mai. 

Who would you suggest fix it?  

[Elfin]

41 minutes ago, fordguy61mi said:

Chinese people are some of the rudest I know of. They aren’t considerate to anyone but themselves.

From my experience, I agree with you Fordy, and a total lack of manners by most of them too!

[JAG]

8 hours ago, MartinKal said:

It is hard to understand why the authorities have allowed things to get so out of hand.

Perhaps because, instead of the steps which you - wisely- suggest; they have spent the last few years taking bungs to allow pollution, taxi/red song-thaw rackets, widespread jerrybuilding of resorts and unfettered Chinese "Zero Baht" package tourism. 

 

Chiang Mai is now, as a tourist destination, utterly b*gg*red. Many other tourist destinations in the Kingdom are heading the same way. Corruption, gouging, scam collusion and ignoring pollution have killed the industry. I suspect it is too far gone, and facing too stiff competition, to recover.

[Mansell]

9 hours ago, Mikisteel said:

Vietnam for the family holiday this year. Suggestions welcome. Family friendly.

Depending on how old your kids are....we were there in May and had a great time. Hotels have the best buffet breakfasts in Asia in my opinion. DaNang is fun with the sea, and Hoi An down the road forty minutes. But I always enjoy Hue, and you can take the train from DaNang there, but make sure you don't do what I did and booked a train at 1am instead of 1pm. Train runs nice and slow along the South China Sea right into Hue. When I have time I will post the hotels we stayed in. Also DaNang has the Bana Resort in the mountains for a day visit....great for the kids and you....about 6 kilometers on the ski lift type gondola....buffet lunch is included and it is great with over 70 choices. Most of of the things are included in the price, and you can book it through your hotel. They overcharged us for one of the kids and the tour guide told me and they refunded the balance at the hotel.....very impressed by that honesty because I had no idea. Everywhere we stayed they bent over backwards to make us happy. They would even walk out to the street a 150 feet to flag down a taxi for us.....and a ten to fifteen minute journey cost 40 baht. One hotel had a free shuttle bus to the beach which was private for three hotels.....fabulous.

I flew on AirAsia four people for 18,000 baht to DaNang. Also Mexican and Indian food was great and cost 650 baht for four of us. Good luck.

[essox essox]

10 hours ago, emptypockets said:

 

just shows one can NOT believe all reports CAN ONE???

[Mavideol]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

But the TAT and the Thai Ministry for Tourism and Sports continue to paint a rosier picture than what businesses - and ordinary tourists - are experiencing on the ground. 

nothing new here, we all know TAT always projects estimates and forecasts to the highest levels, not once they provided true numbers

[Mavideol]

the owner of the bar next door doesn't appear to be concerned, he says his income will not drop, less customers he charges double to the ones going to his place

[aspenbkk]

10 hours ago, Mikisteel said:

Vietnam for the family holiday this year. Suggestions welcome. Family friendly.

Plenty Clean Places there Hoi ann up the coast that way Nice smiling people decent exchange rate a Lot Less Expensive than Thailand .

[ChipButty]

13 minutes ago, Mansell said:

 Everywhere we stayed they bent over backwards to make us happy.

They use to do that in Thailand a long time ago

[Traubert]

1 hour ago, peixotorms said:

I wonder why...

Check out No 6.

 

Vietnam still the land of milk and honey everyone? ????

 

 

[marcusarelus]

8 minutes ago, aspenbkk said:

Plenty Clean Places there Hoi ann up the coast that way Nice smiling people decent exchange rate a Lot Less Expensive than Thailand .

Didn't the pound go from 36 to 29 in Vietnam in the past few years?  Is that a decent exchange rate?

[BritManToo]

58 minutes ago, randy723 said:

my friends that come here at least once a year are not coming down and want me to meet them in Vietnam 

I'd go, direct flights for 1,500bht.

You'll save that much on beer in 1 or 2 evenings out.

[worgeordie]

2 hours ago, khunpa said:

Well if the place is covered in dangerous smoke 4-5 months per year, then no wonder people do not come here or never return.

 

We had to leave our home this year due to it and I doubt any tourists during the smoke season will ever return. Who wants to spend their holiday in the worlds worst air pollution.

 

 

It will be the same next year,as nobody will do anything to stop it,

 as it has been for years now,only every year getting worse.not looking forward to it.

there's now 3 things that are inevitable...taxes,death,and smoke in Chiang Mai. 

regards worgeordie

[BritManToo]

36 minutes ago, Mansell said:

I flew on AirAsia four people for 18,000 baht to DaNang. Also Mexican and Indian food was great and cost 650 baht for four of us. Good luck.

I flew on AirAsia one person for 2,300bht to Da Nang (last week).

[meshborg]

Ive been going to Thailand for over 10 years and it gets worse every year,too many Chinese tourists,too much traffic,too much pollution,prices go up.Its just crap now and im not going back.

[cracker1]

I thought that Thai people have been trying for many years to drive the foreigners away ?

• Difficult to get a fare priced ride from the airport to the city.
• Difficult to avoid an argument with a taxi driver.
• Difficult to get to your destination with a red truck.
• Almost impossible to see a policeman on the streets.
• Almost impossible to get a policeman to answer the phone, especially after dark.
• Easy to get ripped off by taxi's without meters
• Extremely unsafe driving practices unmonitored by police.
• Passport and Visa difficulties.
• And now a most unfavourable exchange rate,

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, fordguy61mi said:

Chinese people are some of the rudest I know of. They aren’t considerate to anyone but themselves.

 

The Chinese people that Thailand attracts are, but I've seen Chinese in more up-market countries who are perfectly well behaved. Thailand attracts the trash.

[adammike]

10 hours ago, rodknock said:

how can that be, the big guy says tourist is up.

is he wrong, or misinformed, or another i am the boss and is what i say.

Keep up it's only Pattaya, Phuket and now CM that's suffering a downturn,the rest of the country is one big sunny upland.

[Xavnel]

I reside in Chiang Mai. 

My eye test, seeing for myself,  can see that there are noticeably less tourists than the year before.

Some friends do I know that work in the bar industry have told me that the high season amount of customers is what the low season used to be..  and I can see for myself, many, many bars with very few customers.

And I can see the numbers declining even more.

[moontang]

Vegas was built on good and cheap, just like BKK.  Vegas was ruined by corporate greed, but they do considerably better at the high end, which Thailand fails miserably at, and Vegas is a gold mine as a convention place, delivering a predictable quality experience... and now quality weed is legal...I just talked to a friend I met in 2010, after he had walked from Panama to the US border... and was granted asylum as a refugee from Cuba. He just started a union bartender job at Wyn Encore in LV... excellent pay and benefits.  So the LV economy is humming along, but most of the fun was ruined. Meanwhile I went to Sukhumvit to a bar whose rent is astronomical, and the bartender was a lot more like a rude retard, than anyone, who could be a good host for a beer or three. 

[moontang]

40 minutes ago, Xavnel said:

I reside in Chiang Mai. 

My eye test, seeing for myself,  can see that there are noticeably less tourists than the year before.

Some friends do I know that work in the bar industry have told me that the high season amount of customers is what the low season used to be..  and I can see for myself, many, many bars with very few customers.

And I can see the numbers declining even more.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the bars started dying about the same time the good promotions disappeared. The Thais are permanently stuck in the denial stage while only shooting themselves in the feet at every possible turn. 

 

But in other news, I finally figured out why so many food vendors are pushing hot dog like, low quality processed crap that would likely cause prison riots if served to us prison inmates... The explanation is that all the food stolen from the kiddie school lunches has to be resold to maximize the profits of the corrupt. 

[Traubert]

I only visited Chiang Mai once for five days.

 

No  smoke problem while I was there but to be honest it was boring and expensive. so I'm not going back for those reasons.

[mmushr00m]

They put all their eggs in one basket, China.

TAT failed to understand that the popularity of Thailand for the Chinese was sparked by a movie about a road trip in Thailand, Lost in Thailand. They failed to understand the chinese market as well, it's all about being trendy and eventually they will move on. (Another example, mongtong durians).

Worse TAT failed to understand the implications of how the Chinese tourist will affect other foreign tourists. Sounds racist but the truth is when the hordes of chinese tourist are around it's not a pleasant experience.

 

[Parsve]

In my little part of Thailand there have not been any change of farrangs or tourists for the last five years. Still only me.

[Trevor Collins]

Will you please not use the word decimate to describe the reduction of tourists in Chiang Mai? This word means to reduce by a factor of 10%.

 

The word you need to use is annihilation. 

[wreckingcountry]

They put all their eggs in one basket, China.
TAT failed to understand that the popularity of Thailand for the Chinese was sparked by a movie about a road trip in Thailand, Lost in Thailand. They failed to understand the chinese market as well, it's all about being trendy and eventually they will move on. (Another example, mongtong durians).
Worse TAT failed to understand the implications of how the Chinese tourist will affect other foreign tourists. Sounds racist but the truth is when the hordes of chinese tourist are around it's not a pleasant experience.
 

Lazy TAT.. typical Thai attitude thinking the so called “Chinese explosion “ would continue and never end and Thailand didn’t have to do anything ! Attitude that runs through everything! Mai pen rai


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