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Coronavirus is worse than the tsunami - and the state is downplaying the impact, claim tourism operators


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19 hours ago, smutcakes said:

I feel sorry for the people who lose their jobs when their are situations like this, but i struggle to have much sympathy for the big businesses involved in tourism. In every sector there are good or bad events which affect business, but none of those get support from the Government when times are bad. Its not as if when the tourism operators are raking it in with the ever increasing records of tourist arrivals are paying extra to the Government as a thank you. Why when its a bad turn do the public have to lend their support to them? Do private businesses in other sectors get help when their business is struggling? The tour operators have had years of growth, surely many of them have made enough money to absorb shutting up shop for a few months...

Let the poorly run Gouging Operations fail.

Get rich quick, lazy and totally ignorant when it comes to running a Business

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For the last 10 years in the wake of MASS TOURISM the beauty of Thailand declines... The water polluted and full of garbage, the beaches dirty and overgrowth, corals etc. destroyed (all the failure of greed in mass tourism seen before in many European destinations). Looks like people never learn and like to blame and find excuses when the business is going down and tourist are going elsewhere. Now is the time to wake up and do some healing to the infrastructure and the environment...but I think is never happen.

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In a world with several billion people the number of fatalities largely from aging people already not in the best of health is tiny to say the least. We never hear of the number of people who survive? Something smells in the way this whole thing is beat up by the MSM. How many die in a normal flue season world wide?  if it is anything like the threat they make it out to be there should be millions ill if it is so contagious?  Sad for anyone dying from this or any other disease but I am not concerned about this one. The effects on tourism and the financial misery caused to many is  tragic to say the least. Lets hope it  The whole thing goes away  soon as I believe it will .

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20 hours ago, madmitch said:

Some people have short memories.

 

I can only refer to Phuket and the south but tourism was decimated after the tsunami and the beaches were empty.

 

In 2020, despite coronavirus, Phuket's beaches are still packed.

 

A minor blip in comparison!

The basic idea is if they scream loudly, and keep their feet hard enough, the government will step in and help what was already a failing business model, this virus has given them an opportunity to seek support to pull the failing companies out of the dire situation they found themselves in before the virus outbreak. 

The citizen want the support of the government when it benefits them, though they are mostly looking for way to short change they own obligations in return i.e. not paying all the taxes on their earnings, reporting higher cost of operations and lower numbers in traffic captured during the high season. 

I've often found them boasting about how the western countries support the citizens more, while failing to see or understand that is because we pay into the systems in place honorably, not spending so much time trying divert the systems to assist in times of crisis as they tend to do. I was here before the tsunami, during and after, at which time it was hard to eat out at a restaurant without someone coming up seeking donations for the displaced; this went on for at least a year after the occurrence.  

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"Even the Europeans were following the Chinese lead and shunning Thailand."

 

That is certainly true. Many Europeans are very cautious by nature, so since this outbreak originated in Asia, many might give Asia as a whole a wide berth until this has blown over. There's also the tiny little problem that travel insurance policies nowadays often exclude any issues related to a pandemic from coverage. The prospect of possibly having to undergo quarantine upon return is also daunting.

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21 hours ago, madmitch said:

Some people have short memories.

 

I can only refer to Phuket and the south but tourism was decimated after the tsunami and the beaches were empty.

 

In 2020, despite coronavirus, Phuket's beaches are still packed.

 

A minor blip in comparison!

Its all about money. Tour operators just want free money from the governement. For them to compare that tsunami with so much ppl dead and a whole coastline tattered, with  this new virus with zero deaths in Thailand, its sad and laughable. 

OF COURSE the governement downplays the virus, thats their job, or should they overreact and create more panic that wont help and scares away even more tourists?

 

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A major contributing factor here that greatly complicates the current situation is that Thais in general are not known for strategic planning, but rather for living and spending in the present.  It’s a hand to mouth culture that originated at the individual and village level.  Companies are not managed with a careful eye for the future and how various factors and trends will eventually affect their profitability. I’ve rarely seen a wholly-owned Thai business invest sufficient funding into R&D and future capital expenditure (CAPEX) needs. Compounding the problem is a deeply-rooted culture of apathy and greed whereby the government and hi-so’s control most of the real wealth of the country, doing so with a complete understanding that the average citizen has a fairly low IQ, remains obsessed with tending to their social networking apps and generally has no idea of, nor concern for what is happening in the world beyond them.  When this all ultimately comes back to bite them, the pain can be considerable.
 

With respect to the onslaught posed by COVID-19, the people do not have enough of a grasp of the physical sciences...nor care to obtain that knowledge...to understand virology and how a viral epidemic can propagate.  They implicitly trust their government to keep them safe....a faith that may not be justified. So this perfect storm of colliding circumstances now threatens the Kingdom in a way that it has never been forced to reckon with.  I don’t feel any harshness for the people here, because most folks just struggle to get by, to make payments on their must-have, expensive Western possessions that are far beyond their true reach.  But in a very real sense, they are getting exactly what they deserve.  We expats see all of this and feel for our Thai hosts, but other than utter the obvious truths the Thai doesn’t want to hear and which will insult them, what else can we do?

Edited by Fore Man
Correct typos
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4 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Yes Mike. I believe you said this yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. ad addendum.

 

I believe what you and other posters advocate is to ignore China with 20% of the worlds population and India with a further 20% and cosset the white man. Pardon me if I think that excluding two explosive growing economies with such vast disposable incomes might be short sighted if forsaken for the credit card debt ridden economies of the west who's disposable income is in the top right hand corner of their monthly credit card statement.

That is not at all what i said. And I did not say this yesterday. Each day I write something similar, but not the same. Each time it has original thoughts. What I am suggesting, is that while you put alot of attention on China and India, you do not savage Western tourism, with rabid racist ranting, and completely ignore the potential of higher income tourists.

 

And you just do not put men like Pipat and Anutin in charge of important ministries, when they have zero experience in those fields. It is tantamount to saying to the people that we just do not care enough to find qualified people! 

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33 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

All of the eggs were recklessly, and thoughtlessly put into one basket. China. What happens when you do that? Well, you make your bed, and then you have to lie it in, right? You reap what you sow. These nincompoops reaped decimation of a real bread winner. And now this is what they have. 

... and even their eggs are fake 

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Just now, spidermike007 said:

That is not at all what i said. And I did not say this yesterday. Each day I write something similar, but not the same. Each time it has original thoughts. What I am suggesting, is that while you put alot of attention on China and India, you do not savage Western tourism, with rabid racist ranting, and completely ignore the potential of higher income tourists.

 

And you just do not put men like Pipat and Anutin in charge of important ministries, when they have zero experience in those fields. It is tantamount to saying to the people that we just do not care enough to find qualified people! 

Exactly right, thanks for taking the words out of my mouth. Traubert was thinking along the right lines in recognizing the increasing importance of China and India, but this forum largely plays to western expats and our concerns. 

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5 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

Let the poorly run Gouging Operations fail.

Get rich quick, lazy and totally ignorant when it comes to running a Business

I fully agree. let the price gougers go bust, I would not give a fig for any of them.

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6 hours ago, Accidental Tourist said:

For the last 10 years in the wake of MASS TOURISM the beauty of Thailand declines... The water polluted and full of garbage, the beaches dirty and overgrowth, corals etc. destroyed (all the failure of greed in mass tourism seen before in many European destinations). Looks like people never learn and like to blame and find excuses when the business is going down and tourist are going elsewhere. Now is the time to wake up and do some healing to the infrastructure and the environment...but I think is never happen.

 

What you are seeing is Thailand in the care of Thais without the capital injection that price gougers put in so they can take out a quick and easy profit.

 

Now the tourists have largely gone , the price gougers shift their attention to the next get-rich-quick scheme, and you and I had better get used to Thailand in the custodianship of Thais who do not have anyone to take instructions from and have too poor an education to figure out what to do for themselves. I said a year or so ago (in a different forum, that it would take 2 generations to rebuild Thailand when the looming collapse happens. I am, still of that view. It's going to get awfully hard for them not to have the price gougers to take instructions from. If you want to see how things will be, go to any village in Isaan. Dirty. unkempt, non-maintained, no law, no industry, no entertainment, no nothing.

 

Welcome to tomorrow's Thailand - help rebuild it into something worthwhile. Or just surf the devolutionary wave.

 

Because it's coming, and there will be tears before bedtime when they realise how they've had their souls (and everything else) stolen by the price-gougers. They've had it good, now it's time for the not-so-good. Watch how many Thais leave Thailand, and see how they get on. Then look and see what's left. The foreigners revenge will likely be not to help them. They thought they were superior to foreigners, lets see hoe they get on after the trashy part of foreigners has gone elsewhere in search of more quick profits - and we all know at least a few of those.

 

Som nam na gets my vote.

 

 

Edited by ParkerN
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On 2/20/2020 at 8:34 AM, RotBenz8888 said:

The slowdown began well before the Corona. Thailand is simply not that interesting anymore, with the high Bath and increasingly hostile immigration, the spiral will continue down even after the Corona issue is gone.

 

 

"high Bath[sic]"? ????????????

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Comparison with the Tsunami is a bit over the top when it’s an economic blip against what happened in 2004 
 

However, it doesn’t help when foreign companies grossly overreact 

 

I live in Phuket but work offshore in the UK
 

Mobilisation restrictions now make it near impossible at the moment for me to come back to Thailand every month 

 

 

A60CF784-6656-48BA-A27F-B4A7822AC46F.jpeg

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10 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Think you might find that the Europeans have finally caught on to a seriously daft high baht that has reduced their spending power by 25-30% 

That should be 50/60 %, I new the baht when it was 80 to the £, great place then as well...

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How's this latest news for an alarming development:

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-chengdu/coronavirus-patient-re-hospitalized-in-chinas-chengdu-after-testing-positive-again-idUSKBN20F13C

 

Quote

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - A coronavirus patient initially discharged following recovery in southwestern Sichuan province’s Chengdu city has been readmitted after testing positive again during a quarantine period at home, the city’s public health clinical center said on Friday.
 

Similar cases have been reported in other regions, the center said in a statement.
 

China’s National Health Commission recommends recovered patients to continue to monitor their health for 14 days, wear masks and reduce outdoor activities after leaving hospitals due to risks of contracting other pathogens.

 

 

I wonder if Thailand has been following that kind of follow-up protocol for the supposedly "cured" confirmed CV patients that it's been releasing from hospitals at various points?

 

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From what I have read I dont think the Thai authorities have downplayed the current tourist situation . However they seem very optimistic about about the remainder of the year , not very realistic in my opinion and trouble looms.

As for the Tsunami quote , that appears overly dramatic , no doubt just an opening gambit in the compensation game.

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6 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

 

 

And you just do not put men like Pipat and Anutin in charge of important ministries, when they have zero experience in those fields. It is tantamount to saying to the people that we just do not care enough to find qualified people! 

Ministers in any capacity are rarely more than figureheads. They have a raft of people within their ministries who spend most of their day trying to keep the Ministers foot out of his mouth. Is Boris qualified? Trump? No. But they take advice and spout forth what they hope will get the re-elected.

Politicians and professionals are different animals.  Its the civil service that runs the goverment not vice versa.

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12 hours ago, Rabbi said:

I hope the government do nothing to assist them, other than sorting out the immigration hate on farangs, and stop bringing in stupid regulations that penalise guesthouses that cater to farangs.

 

Agree - Leave them to their own devices, as they did when they were making a killing!!

If you are going to quote other posters you should acknowledge that, if you don't use the actual quote function.

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2 hours ago, rawaimike said:

That should be 50/60 %, I new the baht when it was 80 to the £, great place then as well...

and I knew it when it was briefly 99 baht to the pound. It's not just the exchange rate though, inflation has made things much more expensive as well. If one had pounds Sterling back in the early years of this century one could indeed live like a millionaire.

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3 hours ago, ParkerN said:

 

What you are seeing is Thailand in the care of Thais without the capital injection that price gougers put in so they can take out a quick and easy profit.

 

Now the tourists have largely gone , the price gougers shift their attention to the next get-rich-quick scheme, and you and I had better get used to Thailand in the custodianship of Thais who do not have anyone to take instructions from and have too poor an education to figure out what to do for themselves. I said a year or so ago (in a different forum, that it would take 2 generations to rebuild Thailand when the looming collapse happens. I am, still of that view. It's going to get awfully hard for them not to have the price gougers to take instructions from. If you want to see how things will be, go to any village in Isaan. Dirty. unkempt, non-maintained, no law, no industry, no entertainment, no nothing.

 

Welcome to tomorrow's Thailand - help rebuild it into something worthwhile. Or just surf the devolutionary wave.

 

Because it's coming, and there will be tears before bedtime when they realise how they've had their souls (and everything else) stolen by the price-gougers. They've had it good, now it's time for the not-so-good. Watch how many Thais leave Thailand, and see how they get on. Then look and see what's left. The foreigners revenge will likely be not to help them. They thought they were superior to foreigners, lets see hoe they get on after the trashy part of foreigners has gone elsewhere in search of more quick profits - and we all know at least a few of those.

 

Som nam na gets my vote.

 

 

I recognise nothing of what you say in the Thailand I visited many times from 30 years ago. Perhaps it was there but restricted to the money men that caused the economic collapse.

Most of the Thais I met were polite and hospitable, none acted superior to me.

All of the problems I encountered were of immigration origin, not of the common people.

Sack everyone in Immigration management and return it to what it was in the 90s, and the farangs will return, IMO.

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Yes, the Sunami was REALLY Violent and Tragic ! But every one knew that it was over a couple of days after !!! ...But we STILL do not know this about the Corezone Virus ! Like some Health people say that it might be around for over a Year or so !!! ...  like this IS a REALLY BIG and Long term Hit !!!

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