Guest Posted August 24, 2001 Report Share Posted August 24, 2001 Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will chair another tourism workshop on Sunday in the wake of slower-than-expected growth in the number of tourist arrivals. Bangkok Post Jeeze what else can I say!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 24, 2001 Report Share Posted August 24, 2001 Thaksin ain't seen nothin' yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 24, 2001 Report Share Posted August 24, 2001 We are in the middle of the low season, what does he expect? It is far too early for clampdowns on opening hours in bars to have an effect on tourists visiting. During the main tourist season it may not have much effect on numbers as many people will have made their plans it will have an effect on spending. The real problems will emerge when repeat visitors stop repeating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted August 24, 2001 Report Share Posted August 24, 2001 Well the clampdowns cause the tourists to spend less money so I would expect to see revenue per tourist decline. However any immediate dropoff of tourists is due to the now slowing economies in US, Japan, and Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 24, 2001 Report Share Posted August 24, 2001 The problem with the lower than expected tourist numbers isn't the clamp down, it was the unrealistic goals that Thaksin set for TAT. TAT has been scoring good numbers and they projected a further 10% increase in arrivals for this tourism year (which like a financial year spans two calendar years). When Thaksin took office and decided to give away money to his pet projects he started directed new targets for state enterprises. TAT was ordered to increase arrival targets by a further 20% on top of the already optimistic targets set. Well its hard to order tourists into the country. They were going to target conventions, but Thailand's a little far from those main markets. No its all a case of Thaksin acting too much like a Thai uppity-up and thinking that by ordering something you can make it so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 25, 2001 Report Share Posted August 25, 2001 Well Thailand is not the only country with Politicians who beleive that just by ordering or wishing something that the reality will follow. Unfortunately they are somewhat encouraged by folk who vote for them......... I really think that rocking the tourism boat is dangerous for the Thai economy, with the major western markets heading towards recession (or at the very least a stalling of growth) then now is not the time for the Govt to start fu#king about. I forget how many visitors Thailand gets (around 10 million a year?) but they only have to lose 10% of these to start having a major impact on business'- especially if they are westerners who I guess on average spend more than, say, Malaysians on shorter breaks. Once a tourist goes somewhere else they are not so easy to get back - especially not to somewhere so inconveniantly located. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted August 25, 2001 Report Share Posted August 25, 2001 I agree with most of the above, but I believe that this is just the start of a big drop off in the number of tourists making Thailand their holiday destination. A large percentage of these tourists pass through Phuket and they are seeing that it is not the budget destination they believed it to be. I have been going to Phuket on business every month for the last five years and have seen a huge increase in prices and a general decline in the locals’ attitude to tourists. The last couple of visits I didn’t even bother to stay overnight, flew in, in the morning and back to Bangkok in the Evening. About three years ago, many tourists who would normally go to Bali, (mainly Australians), switched to Phuket because of the smog caused by forest fires in the area. Suddenly all the rooms were full and you had to book to make sure of a seat in a restaurant. Hotel prices tripled overnight, and the locals started to become very greedy. I remember seeing a travel show on the BBC where they were interviewing holidaymakers on the streets of Patong, the general tone of conversation was” It’s nice here but we didn’t realise how expensive it would be, we won’t come again”. For Europeans much better value can be had in Florida. (Not including the sex-tourists or back-packers in this) All these people will have reported back to their friends and now is the time we are seeing the result of the locals’ greed. The clampdowns will only have more of a negative effect. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
los Posted August 25, 2001 Report Share Posted August 25, 2001 Check out this site http://www.tat.or.th/stat/ It has all the Thailand tourism stats for the last 4 years up to May of 2001. Very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentors Posted August 25, 2001 Report Share Posted August 25, 2001 The number of visitors are not true. If i living in Thailand and i have to leave every 3 month because my Visa running out i enter LOS in one year 5 times. So i am 5 people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudsmck Posted August 25, 2001 Report Share Posted August 25, 2001 quote: Originally posted by shygye: Well the clampdowns cause the tourists to spend less money so I would expect to see revenue per tourist decline. However any immediate dropoff of tourists is due to the now slowing economies in US, Japan, and Europe. Totally agree dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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