Jump to content

Cm Has The Season Been Up Or Down


Gonzo the Face

Recommended Posts

I'm glad [or not so glad as the case may be] to see that many other of the longer stay people seem to agree that the season has been slower with fewer tourists than usual..

The hospitality business to which I am closest, indicates a 25 to 30 % shortfall from last year... that comes to me both as in revenue and in numbers of guest/customers.... This is calendar year 2007 vs 2006 year to date.

I would guesstimate that a very small fraction of this is due to the new immig regs....... My opinion is that it is a accummulation of things.

Some small amount due to the change in governments........ a larger portion due to the perceived danger of coming to Northeren Thailand and trying to breathe..... some small portion to the South Thailand Problems......and a very large part to the media coverage that today can and is flashed around the world almost instantly.....

Most of the seasoned travelers have enough common sense to check things out locally before venturing off, and of course all the travelers from last year , would not be coming back to Thailand again this year anyhow...... I think it is the new, first timers to

Thailand who are summing up all the difficulties and just plain deciding that "maybe Thailand, with all the difficulties I have read about, best be put off til another year, and besides my money will go further in........ wherever...

But this too shall Pass.......

Gonzo

Over the years there have been clampdowns on the hospitality businesses and the adult entertainment establishments in Chiang Mai.

Lets face some facts, Chiang Mai has become boring. Once seen the elephants, the temples and a couple of waterfalls, what else is left? And I won’t even bother going into details regarding the <deleted> pit Loi Krok road, Chiang Mai`s answer to the nightlife or Hamburg or Amsterdam, what a dump.

I have said this many times in the past, that the numbers of tourists will continue to dwindle year by year unless Chiang Mai is given some vibrant new lease of life.

And adding to all the crap, the recent pollution and burning problem was absolutely diabolical. Enough to make even the most enthusiastic of the regular tourists turn away and go elsewhere.

But please don`t take my word for it, only need to ask the people that run businesses in Chiang Mai for their opinions. It`s only going to get worse, trust me on this one.

I'm a business owner and has been for 4 high seasons now.

This one was the best so far and I'm not even running it myself anymore.

So I'm sorry, but I don recognize the picture u paint at all. smile.png

Well, that’s great news

So everything is Hunky-dory and the tourists are flooding in, spending money like there is no tomorrow.

What you are saying is; that everything is on the up and up.

Are you confident enough to let us know what sort of business you’re in, your part in it and how this pertains to the tourist industry? For credibility of statement reasons.

I am Mr Cynical, so convince me.

You are putting words in my mouth. Please stop that, there are way too many in there already just bursting to come out :)

I never made any claims to the general condition of this high season, only you seem to have the omnipotence to make such claims.

I made an observation to a question based on my own narrow view of the CM tourist industry.

If you choose to disbelieve me because it doesn't fit your view of current affairs, then that is your prerogative.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 343
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The floods right before high season scared off a lot of tourists as the news coverage was horrific and made it sound like the whole country was a disaster zone and would be for quite a while. The timing was very bad as that is when the tourists who spend money usually come, but many of them made other plans.

On top of the negative news coverage, the local internet forums were full of expats moaning about not being able to get diet Coke and Singha beer and other important necessities of life. No wonder many of the midddle-class travelers skipped Thailand this year.

Unfortunately floods and haze and a lack of second rate beers or diet drinks, and whingers on websites few people read outside the confines of a little bubble, are not the cause of changing tourism in CM. As previously noted:

Tourism in Asia is booming, see clip from the BBC

My link

For many western high spending tourists, Thailand today (and CM in particular) lacks a unique selling point that cannot be found better elsewhere in SE Asia (let alone the rest of Asia). I am not going to start on the whole sex tourism issue, but if that is the key USP, lucky LOS.

Culture: Ayutthaya/Sukothai/Phimai up against Borobodur, Angkor Wat, Bagan, Bali, Luang Prabang

Landscape: Phang Nga Bay/hills N & W of Chiang Mai up against Halong Bay, Sarawak, Chocolate Hills, Mulu caves.

Rainforest: scrap in Khao Sok NP up against declining but still considerable areas Borneo & Sumatra

Wildlife: elephants in camps up against komodo dragons, elephants, orangs etc in the wild

trekking: northern LOS up against northern Burma, Sapa area, Borneo.

Volcanoes: none up against Bromo, Pinatubo, Merapi, Krakatau, Kelimutu etc

Diving/snorkelling: bleached, overexploited Andaman coast or Koh Tao up against Komodo, Sipadan, Bunaken, Lembongan

City Shopping: Bangkok, CM up against Singapore, KL

Adventure tourism: ziplining and rafting around CM up against white water rafting Sabah, surfing Sumatra, climbing Kota Kinabalu.

I could go on and yes there are still some beaches that are amazing and not yet destroyed, but given the chance......No country has the monopoly on great options but tourists can and do pick and choose in the buffet style world of contemporary tourism and LOS struggles to put forward many tempting dishes (talking of food I've had great Thai food throughout SE Asia).

In a nutshell, CM, great place to live, nothing special any more for tourists.

Perhaps if "the Family" really wanted to do CM a favour they would rip out the nonsense of Floral Park and the Night Safari, replace them with a proper theme park, Universal or Disney; get Wynn to bring in a serious top of the range casino; ensure that the new airport has direct flights to every major city in China and circle the airport with championship level golf courses. CM becomes the Orlando to China.

Not everyone's cup of tea but that's the future of tourism in this part of the world, if it wants a future.

Edited by folium
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thailand tourism was kicking butt before the perfect storm of the Yellow Shirts, Red Shirts and the bad world economy scared middle-class tourists away - of course. major natural disasters do not help anything either.

Thailand has lots of natural beauty, the people are (mostly) charming and the prices for traveling are reasonable compared to the West. IMO, if the economy in the West improves and things calm down here politically, tourism here will rebound significantly.

Edited by Ulysses G.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comments about the relative lack of attractions in Thailand would make more sense if all of Thailand was suffering a loss of tourists. But, in fact, the rest of Thailand is doing well. The problem now in Chiangmai is the smog or smoke or haze or whatever you want to call it. As soon as reports of that hit the news, tourism to the North went into a precipitous decline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I were a tourist reading about the smog related deaths here, I'd certainly go elsewhere. The Chinese don't care, the air is probably better here. I agree the media coverage of the floods didn't help. I know a few people who changed their plans, went elsewhere and didn't regret it one iota.

As stated previously, it's an OK place to live, but to visit....??.

Paradise lost?

Edited by uptheos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun Folium,

Congratulations on this oustandingly thoughtful and thorough, moistened with the dew of intelllect, post !

Folium spake: City Shopping: Bangkok, CM up against Singapore, KL

Never shopped in KL, but for me the combination of Bangkok's Talat Chatujak, and CM's Night Bazaar, and Ban Tawaii, etc. cannot be compared to $ingapore where everything costs out the wazoo ... unless ... you are a hi-so shopper who wants the world's real luxury goods; and even then, you'd do better to find them on eBay for 30% less ... which would, of course, mean you'd have to disguise where you bought them from your friends to keep the "hi-" in front of your "so" smile.png

Folium spake: In a nutshell, CM, great place to live, nothing special any more for tourists.

Here, I must respectfully disagree on two levels. When my friends visit in the months of better weather, for Loy Krathong, etc., and I take them on my usual tour of the north with stops at Chiang Dao, Doi Mae Salong, Doi Tung, over-night in Mae Sai, back via Payao ... and send them off for the elephant show, and do the de rigeur thing up at Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, with ... if they are interested in Buddhism ... definite visits to Wats U-Mong, Chedi Luang, Phra Sing, and Lamphun's Wat Prathat Haripunchai (and the small outstanding museum across from it) ... they have a wonderful time !

For expats (second level of reaction), I think as long as we can endure, somehow, the torment of the six weeks of hell-weather, Chiang Mai is definitely the best place to live in Thailand on little baht ... unless you are a beach-freak, or a sex-addict, in which case the flavours of inner-and-outer hell-fire you seek are easily found in Pattaya or Bangkok, which are also great places for dying prematurely, saving others, probably, great amounts of suffering.

Folium spake: rip out the nonsense of Floral Park and the Night Safari, replace them with a proper theme park, Universal or Disney; get Wynn to bring in a serious top of the range casino; ensure that the new airport has direct flights to every major city in China and circle the airport with championship level golf courses. CM becomes the Orlando to China.

Nightmare alert ! Never been to Night Safari, but I think Floral Park is quite lovely and has great potential. Please, divine whatevers, no casino, no Disney-nothing !

Folium spake: Not everyone's cup of tea but that's the future of tourism in this part of the world, if it wants a future.

Fascinating remark: does anyone, any social collectivity, ever want a future, or do we/they only dream it: a necessary dream which is to sedating of the individual/corporate mind and soul ... as ... water is to dehydration ?

imho, the future of tourism here is probably from within Asia, particularly China, and that probably does mean ... nightmare alert ... casino-disney-schlock (and, more ... uhh ... "sexual services" ?).

best, ~o:37;

Edited by orang37
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

imho, the future of tourism here is probably from within Asia, particularly China, and that probably does mean ... nightmare alert ... casino-disney-schlock (and, more ... uhh ... "sexual services" ?).

if you extract the word "probably" from your last paragraph, IMHO that's the likely future for CM in terms of tourism, as this place morphs into Orlando with a fair slice of Vegas thrown in for good measure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the night bizzaro is a disgrace and should be stoped, over priced over done over due

I don't think ex pats bother with the night bazaar, unless they have guests that want to be shown around.

All tourist places around the world are overpriced and there will always be tourist's willing to buy things, that are still cheaper or unobtainable where they come from.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

the night bizzaro is a disgrace and should be stoped, over priced over done over due

I don't think ex pats bother with the night bazaar, unless they have guests that want to be shown around.

All tourist places around the world are overpriced and there will always be tourist's willing to buy things, that are still cheaper or unobtainable where they come from.

The same could be said for Loi Kroh : D
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well AndersSN I'm sure that we would like to know what type of business are you running. I know that you a re expressing it from your business, but I really do want to know where and what are you doing?

Everybody else is having a really tough year, and here you are saying it's the greatest! Come on, spill, what's your business. Then maybe you're claim will be more credible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well AndersSN I'm sure that we would like to know what type of business are you running. I know that you a re expressing it from your business, but I really do want to know where and what are you doing?

Everybody else is having a really tough year, and here you are saying it's the greatest! Come on, spill, what's your business. Then maybe you're claim will be more credible.

First. I didn't say this year is the greatest. I Said that this is the best high season for MY business.

Second. I am not a sponsor so I am not allowed to name my business, but if you had spend time in the CM forum over the last couple of years you would properbly know what it is (many here do) and if you really want to know you could have a look at my profile and find out what my tourist related business is :)

And btw, I don't care if you think my "claim" is credible or not. I know some people find pleasure in lying in forums where they can be anonymous, I'm am not one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Second. I am not a sponsor so I am not allowed to name my business, but if you had spend time in the CM forum over the last couple of years you would properbly know what it is (many here do) and if you really want to know you could have a look at my profile and find out what my tourist related business is smile.png

It's one of the most fun bars on Loi Kroh. So that narrows it down. wink.png

Seriously though, the place has done exceptionally well, by virtue of being the best stocked bar on Loi Kroh, while others sat near-empty. So this should be taken more as a statement that it's possible to do really well in the current marketplace, but not as a statement claiming the marketplace as a whole is up or down.

As an aside, the Royal Thai Police is really not helping right now. Last Friday there was a major raid on the reggae area. And this happened at 11:30pm!! Bars were clearly tipped off, though it's also hard to see what they might have been doing wrong at that hour.

So then we moved back to Loi Kroh, to AndersSN's bar, which was very enjoyable. (And surprisingly civilized, which in this case was good as I was with my wife.)

Edited by WinnieTheKhwai
Link to comment
Share on other sites

imho, the future of tourism here is probably from within Asia, particularly China, and that probably does mean ... nightmare alert ... casino-disney-schlock (and, more ... uhh ... "sexual services" ?).

if you extract the word "probably" from your last paragraph, IMHO that's the likely future for CM in terms of tourism, as this place morphs into Orlando with a fair slice of Vegas thrown in for good measure.

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun Folium,

I choose not to extract, or subtract, the word "probably" from my comment: standing, firm on the wobbliness, of probable geo-political uncertainty that lies in the future of S.E. Asia, as stalking-behemoths-to-be China and India "straddle" it from two longitudinal sides. And, Vietnam: if their economy ever opens up Deng Xiao Peng style: imho, with their Confucian work ethic, and the tremendous value they place on quality education, they will shortly be one the "tigers."

Throw into that volatile mix the inevitability of China's incorporation of Taiwan (given America's total dependency on Chinese loans, via purchase of Treasury Bills) to prop up its own economy in which most manufacturing jobs have gone to China, and a great deal of software out-sourcing to India.

Throw into that volatile mix the simmering dispute over energy resources between China and Vietnam, and Filipines: the Spratlys being one significant focal point.

Throw into that volatile mix the rise of another "new" Russia under Putin, etc. The monstrous mistakes of the American interventions in Iraq (based on mis-information and lies), and Afghanistan, and, well: North Korea: let's no go there, please. The vector of Russian involvement with Pakistan and support for Iran which exacerbates the tension of two nuclear armed powers, Pakistan, and India.

The future of tourism in Thailand, assuming an inevitably accelerating pace of environmental degradation, continuation of a low-quality, even corrupted, educational system: may well be it remains/becomes a "court of last resort" to keep the country somewhat economically supported, unless some new right-wing regime, like that of the Bush's, is elected and finds a new "communist, or terrorist, boogey-country" near enough Thailand that the US once again pours billions of dollars into its "ammat," as in the Vietnam era, which saw, among other infrastructure projects assisted, construction of some of the largest multi-story brothels in Bangkok.

It is my fervent wish Thailand have a wonderful future, that every Thai child receive a good education that prepares them for life in a "new Asia" that dominates the world economically, that they retain that magic of cultural integrity that is there, in part, from the absence of being dominated by a colonial power (the paradox in saying that is: Thai history, systematically re-written since 1893, when the French sent a warship up the Chao Phraya to Bangkok to demand cession of what were formerly Thai colonial holdings in Laos east of the Mekong, and what is now western Cambodia: deliberately was re-created to ignore the great central Thailand empire of ancient Ayuthya's role as a colonial, and slave-based, empire, and to portray Thailand as a victim of colonial powers). PM me for scholarly citations on this, if you like.

But, I have noticed my wishes, hopes, for macro-level anything for any entity beyond my narrow circle-sphere of self and friends ... are most often just as transient and impermanent as ... raindrops.

And my own future ? Alas ? Hallelujah ? : also improbable.

best, ~o:37;

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.





×
×
  • Create New...