Virus shaving tourism in half, minister says

[holy cow cm]

I feel just so sad there are not umpteen hundreds of thousands of Chinese in CM now. I’m going to cry just like Apirat the army general did. 

[bkkcanuck8]

1 hour ago, Soikhaonoiken said:

TAT, you have no need to worry, in a well known news paper today an article from Kbank, stated the virus and the lack of tourist is having little affect on Thailand GDP, and if the situation last for more than 6 months it may have a slight effect, so what is it TAT..... make your minds up... 

Tourist numbers will be off for quite some time... even after the virus has burnt itself out people will not just return to traveling en mass...  it will take a few years for it to go back to normal.

[JHolmesJr]

Even half seems like an optimistic outlook. The only people

who would travel to Thailand right now are those who probably

cant get a refund...or those who keep telling themselves we'll be alright,

or those who like holidaying under huge amounts of stress. This infection

has now crossed into local transmission....its irrelevant whether the Chinese are

around or not.

[bkkcanuck8]

4 minutes ago, JHolmesJr said:

Even half seems like an optimistic outlook. The only people

who would travel to Thailand right now are those who probably

cant get a refund...or those who keep telling themselves we'll be alright,

or those who like holidaying under huge amounts of stress. This infection

has now crossed into local transmission....its irrelevant whether the Chinese are

around or not.

And stubborn people like me... I was not going to let a little coup in Trinidad stop one of my vacations... so a little thing like a virus would not have stopped me either ????  Of course I am now older and supposedly wiser ...

 

 

[Beggar]

1 hour ago, Soikhaonoiken said:

TAT, you have no need to worry, in a well known news paper today an article from Kbank, stated the virus and the lack of tourist is having little affect on Thailand GDP, and if the situation last for more than 6 months it may have a slight effect, so what is it TAT..... make your minds up... 

I have the same feeling. They look at a couple of days and start to panic. But the year is not over yet. 

 

"Tourist numbers from February 1-9 were down 43.47 per cent, he said, and among Chinese visitors 86.55 per cent." 

[Gweiloman]

1 hour ago, saengd said:

A poster recently ran a thread about the financial impact of expats on the population and on GDP. The conclusion was that even with the most generous rate of giving, the impact on GDP if all farang expats left, was negligible, less than 1.5%

1.5%? I doubt that very much. I would be surprised if it was even close to 0.15%

[JHolmesJr]

25 minutes ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

And stubborn people like me... I was not going to let a little coup in Trinidad stop one of my vacations... so a little thing like a virus would not have stopped me either ????  Of course I am now older and supposedly wiser ...

 

 

 

do whatever your heart tells you....I dont think this thing is going to stop until

it has run its course....outlook is grim....meanwhile Tokyo is thinking just like

you....theyre going ahead with the olympics. God help us.

[Fex Bluse]

4 hours ago, DrTuner said:

That's still 13.45% too many Chinese.

????

Edited February 13, 2020 by Fex Bluse

[Gene1960]

2 hours ago, elliss said:

 

     They are a legend in Pattaya , three in one .

 

 

It depends on the area. In Phuket I see rich Indian families in pretty upscale hotels. Boat Lagoon Karma is full of them. My friend let his villa in Laguna to an Indian family for a couple of months. Two huge villas in Vanich Ao Yon are occupied by Indians. And rich Russian families with children and nannies are seen here too in beachfront villas. 

[saengd]

3 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

1.5%? I doubt that very much. I would be surprised if it was even close to 0.15%

 

[ukrules]

5 hours ago, saakura said:

It makes huge sense to replace each 60,000 Baht farang supporting 6 family members (10,000 Baht per person per month spending) with a potential 6000 Chinese & Indians spending the same 10,000 Baht in 4 days and go back home. 

No - it makes zero sense at all.

 

You don't get rid of a huge chunk of paying customers and replace them with other customers when you have the capacity to serve them all at the same time without them interfering with each other.

 

Only a complete moron would turn people away when there's still plenty of spaces left to sell, and when I say spaces left to sell I'm talking about seats on airlines and empty hotel rooms.

 

 

[mike787]

Adding to the news is the Immigration issue resulting in many expats leaving for good combined with the immense almighty thai baht...yep, very few people here.

[PatOngo]

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/coronavirus-could-infect-two-thirds-of-globe-top-scientist-says-20200214-p540pc.html

 

I predict that tourism will be even better shaved than khun Noi at the Jock Itch bar on soi 8!

[Lacessit]

6 hours ago, saakura said:

Agree that unsustainable mass tourism fro m China, India etc have ruined the environment. Just as decades of farang sex tourists and sexpats have contributed to social ills.

Get real, farangs are a tiny fraction of the paid sex in Thailand. Just about every Thai male I know is at it, and that's been going on for centuries.

 

[Lacessit]

6 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

I’m not so sure if the average Thai is susceptible to our ideas or if they even care. 
What I do believe is that the authorities are well aware of the rubbish and Thai bashing going on here in this forum. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was true but the bulk of it is just absolute nonsense. It wouldn’t surprise me if immigration comes down progressively harder on the long stay expat like us. 
Contrary to what many on here claim, the typical tourist, Asian or otherwise face no issues coming here for a holiday. 

You may be right. My observation of Thai attitudes in northern Thailand is Prayut and his cronies are loathed and despised. I don't know if we have contributed to that, possibly not. However, it is convenient to blame unrest on us.

[SpanishExpat]

„We might also propose that the Cabinet allow entrepreneurs who run businesses in the entertainment area to stay open until 4am, but we must first survey the operators and tourists to get their opinions.”

 

Didn‘t this Clown and his whole delegation go to Italy last year on the tax-payers expense just to see, how longer opening times in bars/clubs etc flourish the tourism ?

 

 

Ahhh I forgot..the real reason what a few days of luxury fun along with visits in the luxury boutiques to please their wifes traveling with them !!!!

Edited February 13, 2020 by SpanishExpat

[AndrewMciver]

Bring back street food !!!!!!!!!!!

[Oziex1]

Alright already, we get it how many stories, how many statements do we need to inform us there is a problem with tourism brought about by a virus. 

[findlay13]

12 hours ago, CGW said:

Which village is missing it's idiot today? April, he is kidding himself at best! somehow I doubt the first thought for the Chinese, after being in quarantine for months and surviving will be a holiday in Thailand!

I was thinking the Mad Hatter  from Through the looking glass myself.

[sandrew33]

Having the Health Minister berating western tourists likely didn’t help on 2 fronts. 
 

1. It demonstrates a genuine dislike for western tourists; and 

 

2. it sent pictures around the world of the health minister wandering about handing out masks and yelling about how dangerous things are without said masks - not exactly an image one wants of their next holiday destination ???? 

[pookondee]

By not putting an outright ban on ALL incoming Chinese (like other countries have done)

they have surely made ALL other prospective tourists to Thailand have second thoughts.

 

I guess the Thais are thinking since many other countries banned entry to the Chinese, then Thailand will pick up those extra tourists who would of gone somewhere else.

 

So, by allowing the few dwindling Chinese tourists in now, they have essentially scared off many thousands of westerners that would of came.

 

Who would want to travel through Thai airports?

especially Swampy, when there are Chinese coughing and hoiking everywhere.

 

good luck to em keeping their Chinese buddies

 

[saengd]

4 hours ago, mike787 said:

Adding to the news is the Immigration issue resulting in many expats leaving for good combined with the immense almighty thai baht...yep, very few people here.

Expats on Thaivisa Forum regularly threaten to leave Thailand for good for a variety of reason but very few ever do, their reasons include pollution, excessive heat, excessive drought, immigration rules, unsafe banks, dirty streets and beaches, a strong baht, military rule, traffic road deaths, the grass is greener in Cambodia, Vietnam, the PI and Malaysia, it's Wednesday, my mate said I should!

[The Deerhunter]

12 hours ago, thequietman said:

Blah blah blah, change, blah blah blah, take care, blah blah blah, hub.

 

All empty words. Thailand, the country of talk with no substance. ????

 

Hub of "blah blah blah blah blah"?

[saengd]

19 minutes ago, sandrew33 said:

Having the Health Minister berating western tourists likely didn’t help on 2 fronts. 
 

1. It demonstrates a genuine dislike for western tourists; and 

 

2. it sent pictures around the world of the health minister wandering about handing out masks and yelling about how dangerous things are without said masks - not exactly an image one wants of their next holiday destination ???? 

That's nonsense, think about it. The guy was doing a publicity stunt by handing out face masks in the street and some foreigners, coincidentally Europeans, rejected the offer and he got upset and mouthy. That rejection could have come from anyone, it just happened to come from some Europeans. Had that rejection come from an Australian, a South African, a Japanese or even a Chinese, his response would have been exactly the same. The guy doesn't hate western tourists, he hates anyone who rejects his offer in public of the free face masks he was offering, it could have been any nationality.

[klauskunkel]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“The Tourism Authority of Thailand will need to work harder in the second half to compensate for the first,”

Yup, put your back into it, Phiphat me lad.

[spidermike007]

Pipat is a man of such incompetence, such insincerity, such an inability to take responsibility for anything his agency, this horrible administration, and the army has caused, that he is totally lacking any and all credibility. Anything he says should be immediately dismissed as nonsense. Look after public safety? Since when is that a concern of yours?

 

Corona is just the latest in a series of cascading reasons why tourism has fallen off the cliff. The army has been sabotaging higher quality tourism for 6 years now and assuming the Chinese (Quantity over quality) are the final solution. When inferior minds make extraordinarily dumb decisions, they rarely ever take responsibility for the aftermath. Dumb and dumber. The TAT and the army. 

 

At least now the Thai people know who to blame for their catastrophic losses. 

[FinChin67]

Quote

“We expect the situation to pick up in April and will be discussing with Airports of Thailand ways to manage flight schedules for Chinese tourists to reduce airport congestion,” Phiphat said.

No, you don't need to do this. Once China recovers from the virus (and nobody knows when yet) they have other priorities than traveling to Thailand on zero baht tours. You should know that if you have received latest info from your puppeteers in Beijing.

[Homburg]

15 minutes ago, saengd said:

That's nonsense, think about it. The guy was doing a publicity stunt by handing out face masks in the street and some foreigners, coincidentally Europeans, rejected the offer and he got upset and mouthy. That rejection could have come from anyone, it just happened to come from some Europeans. Had that rejection come from an Australian, a South African, a Japanese or even a Chinese, his response would have been exactly the same. The guy doesn't hate western tourists, he hates anyone who rejects his offer in public of the free face masks he was offering, it could have been any nationality.

His derogatory remarks were reported in Western press as referring to "dammed farang".  If he didn't hate westerners then he might have said "dammed tourists".

[jesimps]

Never mind, extending Songkran by two days will have them flooding back (no pun intended).

[Isaan sailor]

“Thailand’s Outrageous China Push Shaving Tourism in Half”.  There, I fixed the title for you.