Virus shaving tourism in half, minister says

[apetryxx]

Most tourists have no idea that the moronic 2-5 no alcohol sales limitation exists until they ask for a glass of wine with their late lunch. What? Huh? You’re joking right? And a myriad of other anti-tourism hoops to jump through then they wonder why Thailand is off the list of desirable vacation spots. Duh!

[yellowboat]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“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.

Try talking to a Chinese person.  This month is going to be a total write off and maybe March too.  Many will want to get caught up at work before going on a holiday.  This obsession with Chinese tourists is not good for Thailand.  Plenty of farang wondering around Saigon.  When Vietnam gets out too far in front, cha cha will announce sweeping reforms and then congratulate himself for great forsite and swift action as always.  

 

Try opening the country for business.  Fill up those 4 star hotels.  Allow two month visa exempt with at least one extension.   

 

The Shinawatras never had to control tourism like the junta.  

[soalbundy]

13 hours ago, BobbyL said:

so we want to put the priority on tourist safety

 

Yeah, right. 

 

 

because that hasn't been a priority up till now

[newnative]

  '...work harder in the second half...'  What a joke.  I don't see any heavy lifting being done.  Not a single, new idea presented--just the easy waiver of visa fees.  How much hard work did that take?  Still only focused on the Chinese and Indians; again taking the easiest path.  

[soalbundy]

Have a word with immigration officials at swampy about letting a few in without the third degree interrogation.

[adammike]

9 minutes ago, apetryxx said:

Most tourists have no idea that the moronic 2-5 no alcohol sales limitation exists until they ask for a glass of wine with their late lunch. What? Huh? You’re joking right? And a myriad of other anti-tourism hoops to jump through then they wonder why Thailand is off the list of desirable vacation spots. Duh!

Us older Brits are used to the pubs not being open in the afternoon.

[sucit]

Time to double prices then. 

[RichardColeman]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

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

I imagine the next line was, "but we fully expect a spring in the later half of the year to reach a 5% growth target"

[kwak250]

Next week there will be reports of record number of tourists arriving in Thailand.

Which country will be next we have had Indians.

My guess is free visa for Africans.

[30la]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“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.

You're running Pipat again, forget your dreams and start doing your job WELL!

[30la]

4 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Next week there will be reports of record number of tourists arriving in Thailand.

Which country will be next we have had Indians.

My guess is free visa for Africans.

Maybe then Ebola also arrives! ????

[outsider]

Shaving? You people were chopping blocks off it and were doing quite a good job of it too! The coronavirus merely added the finishing touches. Enjoy reaping what you sowed. Som nam na.

[Fairynuff]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

 

“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,”

So in April they’ll be coming back in such huge numbers that nobody will notice the egg on his loss of face. If this idiot actually got the job, imagine what the ones were like that didn’t!

[cardinalblue]

I guess they have never heard of working smarter than harder....

 

but they might be intellectually c.....

[spiekerjozef]

What virus does he mean?

Corona isn't responsible for that and they know it very well

[Isaan sailor]

Fewer Chinese hordes can only help Thailand.  Enjoy the absence.

Now if only they can bring the Baht down to Earth...

[hotchilli]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“There’s also been the news about the speedboat collision in Phuket in which several tourists were killed, so we want to put the priority on tourist safety.

Yeah social media is unfortunately against you yet again!
The priority on safety was promised after the last boat disaster... but seems to have been largely ignored!

Tourists have longer memories than the tourist ministers!

[Rookiescot]

Maybe stop turning away westerners at the airport because "You come Thailand too mutt".

 

[sahibji]

mr minister do not worry. you are not alone in this. whole of asia is in this same boat.

[catch104]

Also self inflicted wounds when a minister target Farang for not wearing mask.

1st, its a xenophobic remark because it target farang only, and not everyone including Thais.

2nd, and more important, if wearing mask is compulsory, waooo, it means the virus is wide spread.. very re-assuring and will for sure be a big boost for the inbound of tourist.

As a matter or fact, being involved in tourism business, we just had huge cancellation on Bangkok arrivals (approx. 500 pax this month) and our agent directly pointed out this very smart and wise remark by the minister. How smart was it. 

Can anyone take a responsibility for this??

[Millcx]

14 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

Shaving is normally a delicate procedure with a sharp blade. This virus has taken a machete to tourist numbers.

Virus or not it was automically going to be a decimated tourist industry .. They are pampering to the Chinese and Indians so why not for the Europeans Aussies and yanks ... They are the ones spending money ... How many of these people are in the industries that have the same experience as Hunter Biden 

[ThaiBunny]

1 minute ago, Millcx said:

How many of these people are in the industries that have the same experience as Hunter Biden 

Being screwed by Eastern Europeans?

[amykat]

never mind

 

[Don Aleman]

Many, maybe most tourists are still going somewhere just not to Thailand. Once they get somewhere else and realize how much cleaner /safer/fun it is many/most ? won't be coming back to dull/dangerous/shabby Thailand. 

[bkkcanuck8]

1 minute ago, Don Aleman said:

Many, maybe most tourists are still going somewhere just not to Thailand. Once they get somewhere else and realize how much cleaner /safer/fun it is many/most ? won't be coming back to dull/dangerous/shabby Thailand. 

No, more often than not in a situation like this... people don't go somewhere else after cancelling a trip during an oncoming pandemic.  The longer it goes on, the more their behaviour will be adjusted - at least for a while into the future (could be years). 

[bendejo]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

We expect the situation to pick up in April

oh jeez, this is where he got it from

Quote

President Donald Trump suggested that the new coronavirus would “go away” in April

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/02/will-the-new-coronavirus-go-away-in-april/

 

More than one virus spreading rapidly around the globe these days.

 

 

[Guderian]

If the Thais are going to stay at home, too, due to fear of the virus then the reduction will be more than 50%. People tend to forget that internal Thai tourism is a huge business, it's not only Chinese and farangs that spend money here.

[nycjoe]

Big hit to the economy as many people laid off, my wife has a cousin who was told to check back in 3 months after being let go, the ramifications are that a lot of people living on subsistence wages will be suffering as will the families that they support, companies will close up shop, already in my small village many restaurants have closed because people are not eating out. Supply chains drying up all over the world. I am not sure how much is not being said, suppressed. This has been little more than a month in the making and it shows how ill prepared the world is for this kind of event. Especially many third world countries. Wish I had something positive to end this post with, but I don't. There is a 2% mortality rate with this virus. 

[SupermarineS6B]

They're lucky this virus came along in the nick of time or else they would of had to blame racist xenophobic policies and insane immigration demands....... Tourism was going down the gurgler well before this virus turned up, everyone knows it, but no one in government will admit it......   As an old pilot once told me, " Take her hands off it, it'll fly better without your input "...........  Should of left it all alone boys, it was doing a roaring trade until the shiny button mob got involved........   All they had to do was cream the money off the top and all would of been well, unfortunately small willie syndrome took over and characters like "Big Joke" popped up with revenge in mind....... Where is the little K*&% by the way ?   Oh yeah, down the body shop ... getting his door fixed...... 

[moe666]

Last night me and the wife went to the center of the old city for dinner. We went to one bhat a local thai food shop. Usually this place is booming with chinese, last night ther were maybe one table of four and another table of two and that was it. The majority of patrons were farangs, there were about 20 farangs eating dinner. Riding the scooter around saw plenty of farangs but very few Chinese. The streets were almost deserted, there wherepockes of farangs walking around and setting in shops. Me. Kais was full with dinners all farangs.. This is the tail end of high season it doesn't bode well for low season, last night looked more like a low low season