Virus drains Thailand of 8.5 million visitors

[Mark17AA]

16 hours ago, johng said:

See how  not one (dirty) "Farung"  country is mentioned they seem insignificant to Thai tourism now..

China  number 1 ☹️

Good luck with that Thailand, reap what you sow comes to mind, more cash sale businesses like bars and restaurants will disappear with these hi so big spenders.

 

[AlQaholic]

16 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

January was a pretty normal tourist month, just wait until March number are out in about 10 days time.

The ATTA have better and more accurate statistics than TAT, available now even for most of March (up to the 20th):

http://www.atta.or.th/statistics-international-tourists-arriving-in-thailand-as-of-as-of-20-march-2020/

[Jimbo2014]

Given that the real quarantines commenced only in March we can expect the next quarter to be horrendous.  For parts of Thailand, like poor pollution chocked Chiang Mai, Chang Rai, the damage may be irreversible.  RIP.

[spidermike007]

15.67 million tourists in the first three months including March, where many restrictions were in place? I do not think so. I can smell a spoiled fish when it is in the room. That would average out to around 60 million in 2020. Someone is lying, and someone is dreaming. Total arrivals this year many be 11-12 million. Real numbers. 

[bbbbooboo]

Hmm.... I suggest Thailand has been draining itself of visitors for many years for reasons we are all familiar with. Som nom na?

[diks]

22 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

15.67 million tourists in the first three months including March, where many restrictions were in place? I do not think so. I can smell a spoiled fish when it is in the room. That would average out to around 60 million in 2020. Someone is lying, and someone is dreaming. Total arrivals this year many be 11-12 million. Real numbers. 

The numbers are from CAAT, so they refer to arrivals and not necessarily tourists. They would even include transfers I think. It also means that there is no correlation to the nationality, just to the airport they boarded and many flights from NA go via China.

[Max69xl]

18 hours ago, johng said:

And the rest are stuck at immigration offices  trying to submit useless bits of paper !!!!

Read the news and you'll see there's no need for any documents until further notice.

[Yadon Toploy]

It's all gone a bit Rhodesia hasn't it?

 

Long termers with working cognitive function knew this was always a risk.

 

Irony is it was their best mates the Chinese that did it, and they are still trying to blame Westerners.

 

Just covering up their own inadequacies as usual.

[justin case]

so they are partially to blame to let in all those millions

 

but now we are getting more close to a wet dream : total police state

 

it was already army controlled, but this is beyond any dictator's dream

 

control the people what to do, where to go, when to go

 

and all this with/for 30 deaths in 3 months ?  that is less than ROAD KILLings every day

 

[Miami007]

Qatar has 2.8 million inhabitants.  Many of them work in manual jobs and probably can't afford a vacation. 

 

Still, 500 000 came in 3 months.. that would be 18%  of the total population (6% each month). 

 

This seems high, the reported numbers probably show the number of passengers on Qatar Airways.. regardless of citizenship

[Wavel]

Don’t feel so hard done by TAT it’s the same for every country on planet earth just now 

[Boomer6969]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

the number of international visitors arriving in Thailand between January and March fell by 8.54 million, or 35.3 per cent, to 15.67 million, compared to the same period last year

Well, this means that lat year Q1 visitor were 8.54 + 15.67 = 24.21 millions. Implies that Thailand welcomed close to 99 million visitors last years. Another big lie somewhere, isn't?

[Miami007]

6 minutes ago, justin case said:

so they are partially to blame to let in all those millions

 

but now we are getting more close to a wet dream : total police state

 

it was already army controlled, but this is beyond any dictator's dream

 

control the people what to do, where to go, when to go

 

and all this with/for 30 deaths in 3 months ?  that is less than ROAD KILLings every day

 

Same situation everywhere.. Europe, USA, Russia, Australia etc

A great social experiment to see how fast everyone is willing to give up basic freedoms when they are sufficiently scared.

Who benefits from destroying the worldwide economy?

 

[Dap]

18 hours ago, BobbyL said:

Remember when the Sports and Tourism Minister said it'll all be fine by Songkran? I wonder if any journalists could ask him about that prediction now. 

The reply would no doubt have something to do with ... "Misunderstanding" 

[connda]

Does this mean the year-over-year tourist growth stats will only be in the single digits?  ????

[Millcx]

Blaming the virus for declining figures mmmm 

I think they have priced themselves out the market and the hatred towards visitors is manifesting itself globally in the press

there may be an upturn in figures by Jan 2021 but the country will be in recession and they won’t be able to ask anyone for help because they will be battling with a volatile economy of their own.

Time to move to a more friendlier country rather than the land of fake smiles

[Miami007]

2 hours ago, kinyara said:

These numbers shouldn't be confused with the official TAT International tourist arrivals that are the numbers usually reported and that we discuss re tourism. Those were 3.8 million in January and 2.1 million in February, haven't seen March's yet but I can't imagine it will take long to compile them. The 2019 annual figure of 39.8 million was revised downwards by TAT last month to a 33 million reforecast. I'd suggest that is now grossly optimistic and I guesstimate 25 million would now be an ambitious annual target. 

I agree that 25 million seems ambitious 

Probably 7 million in Q1, maybe 1 million in Q2 as borders are closed and won't open anytime soon.

If there are 12 million in the second half of the year, I would be positively surprised.

That takes us to 20 million. A huge loss but Thailand won't be alone.  Europe will suffer even more

[Grumpy John]

9 minutes ago, Miami007 said:

Same situation everywhere.. Europe, USA, Russia, Australia etc

A great social experiment to see how fast everyone is willing to give up basic freedoms when they are sufficiently scared.

Who benefits from destroying the worldwide economy?

 

The top one thousand is who!  Look at the Rothschild banking group. The Mars and Walton's in the USA,  the Saudi royal family.  And if you uncover the dark side through the shadows do share with the rest of us. 

[Gweiloman]

18 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

All hail the Chinese tourists. We don't care they brought the virus because we will blame it on the dirty foreigners. 

 

If they don't watch their racist hatred then the numbers are going to stay lower from the western world not coming.

 

17 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

The GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY campaign will drive out a few million more.

Hopefully.

Let's leave these guys alone with their massage and hookers and tom yam soup and see

how well they fare without foreigners.

I’m yet to hear of any physical attacks on any tourists. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world...

 

 

 

[Howiehotspur]

8 minutes ago, Jacobi Barnes said:

The numbers are accurate. April is the month that will be brutal. January through March, we saw a massive increase in tourists in Northern Phuket compared to years prior. It was our best tourist season, possibly ever. We mainly get Russian and American families in Northern Phuket and they were still flocking to Phuket up until March 28th, right before the draconian lock down in Phuket. Russians and Americans have excellent genetics so it's no surprise that they weren't worried about Covid-19, a virus that will prove to be no more deadly than the seasonal flu. 80,000 people died from the seasonal flu in the USA in Winter 2018. It's doubtful that 80,000 will die from Covid-19 in the USA at current death rates.

 

Sadly, most countries have been betrayed into panic by the Mainstream Marxist Media that is largely controlled by the CCP. It's truly sad to watch as so many have been so easily fooled into economic decimation, all for nothing. Stock market is going to go straight back up ( DOW 40,000 EOY ) so the rich will be just fine. It's Main Street that gets screwed in all this. Main Street's businesses have been permanently decimated and will never recover. Unemployment around the world will skyrocket. Main Street doesn't understand the politico limbo going on right now, "panic sells" their 401ks and stocks when they're down 30%, only to watch the market return to all time highs 6 months later when they're finally feeling comfortable to wet their beak again. It's cruel and brutal and the Mainstream Marxist Media should be ashamed of what they have done to the Average Joe.

 

"Back in the 1950s our parents and grandparents were able to pick up The Times newspaper with some confidence that they would read well-researched articles based largely on facts.

 

The BBC was also considered largely non-biased and factual. A decade later with the so-called Swinging Sixties, the social revolution saw a simultaneous decline in education and its dependency, journalism. Following WW11, Communists were invading the world militarily and with tactics of debauching economies in preparation for a takeover and institutional infiltration.

 

While the Berlin Wall was brought down in 1989, and two years later in 1991 communism was considered to have met its demise. But it feigned death and went underground. Lowering education standards and imposing political correctness, PC, around the globe to achieve sameness and compliance replaced economic aggression, force of arms and blatant political infiltration. This Marxist culture now controls mainstream world media with PC having destroyed freedom of expression. Similarly, as we see with uncontrolled immigration, self-destructive altruism in the name of human rights has now blinded people to common sense reasoning. The result is a partisan mainstream media indoctrinated by Marxist culture supporting the globalist movement for one world government – 21st century communism.

 

It is sad that we now have to trawl small independent media outlets, that are derided by the mainstream as conspiracy theorists, in an attempt to find some semblance of the truth. Nowhere is this more apparent than it is in the USA with the reporting of the race to the White House.

 

Edward Bernay, the father of modern propaganda, said, “The conscious manipulation of the opinion of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”  A controlled media is the best tool for this purpose and democracy with a subdued, apathetic electorate, lacking in awareness, is easy to manipulate."

 

JC Wilcox

Excellent write up ???????? 

[Miami007]

4 minutes ago, Jacobi Barnes said:

The numbers are accurate. April is the month that will be brutal. January through March, we saw a massive increase in tourists in Northern Phuket compared to years prior. It was our best tourist season, possibly ever. We mainly get Russian and American families in Northern Phuket and they were still flocking to Phuket up until March 28th, right before the draconian lock down in Phuket. Russians and Americans have excellent genetics so it's no surprise that they weren't worried about Covid-19, a virus that will prove to be no more deadly than the seasonal flu. 80,000 people died from the seasonal flu in the USA in Winter 2018. It's doubtful that 80,000 will die from Covid-19 at current death rates.

 

Sadly, most countries have been betrayed into panic by the Mainstream Marxist Media that is largely controlled by the CCP. It's truly sad to watch as so many have been so easily fooled into economic decimation, all for nothing. Stock market is going to go straight back up ( DOW 40,000 EOY ) so the rich will be just fine. It's Main Street that gets screwed in all this. Main Street's businesses have been permanently decimated and will never recover. Unemployment around the world will skyrocket. Main Street doesn't understand the politico limbo going on right now, "panic sells" their 401ks and stocks when they're down 30%, only to watch the market return to all time highs 6 months later when they're finally feeling comfortable to wet their beak again. It's cruel and brutal and the Mainstream Marxist Media should be ashamed of what they have done to the Average Joe.

 

"Back in the 1950s our parents and grandparents were able to pick up The Times newspaper with some confidence that they would read well-researched articles based largely on facts.

 

The BBC was also considered largely non-biased and factual. A decade later with the so-called Swinging Sixties, the social revolution saw a simultaneous decline in education and its dependency, journalism. Following WW11, Communists were invading the world militarily and with tactics of debauching economies in preparation for a takeover and institutional infiltration.

 

While the Berlin Wall was brought down in 1989, and two years later in 1991 communism was considered to have met its demise. But it feigned death and went underground. Lowering education standards and imposing political correctness, PC, around the globe to achieve sameness and compliance replaced economic aggression, force of arms and blatant political infiltration. This Marxist culture now controls mainstream world media with PC having destroyed freedom of expression. Similarly, as we see with uncontrolled immigration, self-destructive altruism in the name of human rights has now blinded people to common sense reasoning. The result is a partisan mainstream media indoctrinated by Marxist culture supporting the globalist movement for one world government – 21st century communism.

 

It is sad that we now have to trawl small independent media outlets, that are derided by the mainstream as conspiracy theorists, in an attempt to find some semblance of the truth. Nowhere is this more apparent than it is in the USA with the reporting of the race to the White House.

 

Edward Bernay, the father of modern propaganda, said, “The conscious manipulation of the opinion of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”  A controlled media is the best tool for this purpose and democracy with a subdued, apathetic electorate, lacking in awareness, is easy to manipulate."

 

JC Wilcox

Russians and Americans have good genetics? I am not familiar with Russia, but there are many Americans with bad health.. obesity. diabetes, heart disease etc. 

 

And why would the Marxist media (which you claim is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party) be interested in destroying the economy for Main Street and tank the stock market, which benefits the really rich?

 

[connda]

Seriously.  Look at how many 'tourists' are stuck in Thailand at the moment and forced to navigate the gauntlets of immigration and police bureaucracy as well as encountering the xenophobia that starts in the office of the Health Ministry (if not higher) and works its way through social media (like Spotlight Thailand) to the general public (get out of my country dirty, s**t-tourism, Covid-carrying farangs)
After this 'crisis' is over and these people can return to their home countries, they'll have a story to tell their friends and family about Thailand and what lies under the thin veneer of civility in "The Land of Smile."  It isn't 'smiles.'  The Chinese may return.  Farang?  Not so much imho.  The farang haters have played their hands for the world to see.  You reap what you sow.  

[SupermarineS6B]

I hope all those westerners who've been jumping through the hoops and depositing large amounts of cash into Thai banks feel safe now, we don't even get a mention it just shows you the opinion of the Powers that be concerning "FARANGS"......  Told you before, "Don't have nothing you can't pick up and run away with".... 

Considering the anti farang sentiment i wouldn't be surprised if there'll be forced repatriation or incarceration soon...... China really has caught a sucker with this lot.......  "You can only con a greedy person".....  

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, BobbyL said:

Remember when the Sports and Tourism Minister said it'll all be fine by Songkran? I wonder if any journalists could ask him about that prediction now. 

Loy Krathong?

[connda]

30 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

 

I’m yet to hear of any physical attacks on any tourists. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world...

 

 

 

But here's the difference.
 
In "other parts of the world", and you're alluding to the Western world, there are individuals who harbor racist hatred that comes to the surface as verbal if not physical attacks by those individuals.
Western leadership as well as the justice system steps in to sanction individuals engaged in "hate-speech' and 'hate-crimes' and overt instances of racism.

In Thailand the racism starts at the top as is evident with the Health Minister's racist rants and works it's way right through Thai society.  The entire country is uniformly nationalistic, and the nationalism breeds xenophobia which is also uniform throughout Thailand.  Thai leadership as well as the justice system does nothing to sanction individual Thais engaged in "hate-speech' and 'hate-crimes."  Xenophobic 'hate-speech' is ignored (which gives it an implicit stamp of approval), and should Thais begin to assault foreigners they'd simply be forced to apologize to the Thai public (not the foreigner) and pay a small fine, that is, unless they could somehow figure a way to blame the assault on the victim.  

The West - individuals engaged in racism which is almost always sanctioned at all levels of society.
Thailand - institutionalize racism spanning all levels of society and implicitly condoned via inaction and failure to sanction those engaged in racism.

That's the difference. 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by connda

[Dogmatix]

19 hours ago, CNXexpat said:

Russia is at place 3. Is it not a farang country? China is since a long time number 1.

Not much change in the Russian number year on year.

[connda]

18 hours ago, DrTuner said:

TATsters must be awake 24/7 desperately trying to do a positive spin. Maybe they can do an honest cabbie - but where to find the single remaining tourist. Tough times.

Remaining tourists?  Easy to find.  

[Chivas]

You wait until the 3 months from April 1st are released

Will be looking at 90% down and likely higher. Simply the Baht has to start substantionally weakening against the bench USD.

Still only out to 32.77 currently albeit has been weaker at 33.10 recently

[Dogmatix]

The stories of racist attacks on Asians by thickos in the West are very sad and entirely misplaced.  Don't they know that the virus is caused by unwashed farangs?

 

However, the burnings of 5G towers in the UK may be a wise precaution just in case the virus or other nasty things can be transmitted through backdoors in Huawei equipment. Lucky that Thailand doesn't have any 5G yet.  This could explain why the virus hasn't been too bad yet.

[Isaan sailor]

So we can surmise numbers from western counties--in the negative?

It should go negative for all countries in next month's report.

And paradoxically (or should I say, normally) the Baht is rising again.