The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is convinced that 2017 will be a good year for tourism. The decline of Chinese tourists, due to the approach of the rogue zero-dollar tours, is expected to recover.
The tourism sector is estimated to generate revenues of 2,71 trillion baht this year, of which 1,78 trillion will come from foreign tourists. That is an increase of 8,5 percent compared to last year. The remaining 930 billion baht comes from domestic tourists (plus 7,5 percent). The ministry expects 35 million foreign tourists to visit Thailand, 2,5 million more than in 2016.
Chinese people
China remains the most important market for the sector, accounting for 30 percent of all tourists. The TAT expects about 10 million Chinese tourists this year. The TAT is trying to reduce its dependence on the Chinese market by focusing more on Asean, Russia, India and the Middle East.
Russians
Tourism from Russia is also expected to grow strongly. New routes are being discussed with some airlines. The TAT also thinks that many Russian tourists choose Thailand instead of Turkey because of the many terrorist attacks in that country.
Source: Bangkok Post
The wish is father to the thought, holiday choice of tourists remains unimaginable. Unfortunately, Thailand and Bangkok are also affected by attacks and the Russian ruble has still not recovered. Russians often choose a beach holiday and love all inclusive. I think they can keep going to Turkey, but that aside. Whether the Chinese will come back I would not dare to predict, but the expenditure of the Chinese usually does not end up in the pockets of the Thais on the street. And the Euro is of course not doing well either!
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Western tourists are not mentioned. I think you can win that back by allowing beach chairs again. Several places have only one chairless day, but in Phuket it is still NO beach chairs. Unfortunately……..
Well, supposedly 2 months ago (reported by TAT) the 30 million tourist mark was exceeded again... Where are they?!... Due to the unfortunate death of the late King Bumibol, many have dropped out. What will it look like next?…Corruption is still rampant and the Thais' knowledge of the English language is still very poor…They are still lagging behind in the “Asean Community”. The real estate market has fallen by more than 60%, due to a lack of foreign investors... Chinese and Russians who come here on holiday do not spend Baht... after all, they come with "All In" travel and grab what they can. Book a room with breakfast and raid the buffets so that they can eat (sorry for the expression) for the rest of the day. The “good news shows” continue unabated but…the reality is quite different.
They better call it the ministry of fairy tales and fables. These predictions are built on castles in the air and vain hopes. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that the Russian economy is improving – on the contrary. The ruble will become less valuable rather than more valuable. The euro is being undermined by Draghi, making the baht increasingly expensive. Just got back from Tesco Lotus: everything has suddenly become 6/7 percent more expensive after New Year's Eve - and Thailand is already expensive, there are countless European countries (Spain, the entire Eastern Bloc) where it is now decidedly cheaper - and people still can smile sincerely. The rest of Asia itself has beautiful beaches (and is, outside Malaysia, also a lot cheaper), and the Indian tourists are not really “big spenders” – more people like to get hot water at the 7-11 and have a room in the room. prepare noodle soup. That leaves the lost Arab (sex) tourist, an unloved appearance in the eyes of most hardworking girls in the industry. Thailand is taking all kinds of unpopular measures (doubling visa prices for Chinese (temporarily lifted, but still), ban on Chinese campers in Thailand, and the threatened decline of the Chinese economy due to enormous pollution, I don't really mention points where the TAT is concerned. should feel cheerful and optimistic.
Anyway, shouting that the future is so bright gives the Thai citizen at least a nice feeling of “sanoek”, and that is the most important thing, of course.
As a down-to-earth Dutchman, I immediately have my reservations as soon as I see figures and predictions from Thailand. Each ministry always presents positive figures. To name but a few: a large part of the hospitality industry in Thailand is in the informal atmosphere. Recently a message came out that hundreds of illegal hotels in Phuket had to stop their activities; let alone how many hotels throughout Thailand are not registered and connected to a reporting system. In addition, there is a registration somewhere of, for example, where a foreigner spends the night: jump into the computer, and then the long-stayers are asked every 3 months and also annually where they are staying. So linking files and analyzing data related to tourists, transit passengers, workers, etc. I think leaves much to be desired. We are all familiar with Greece's debacle with government inflating figures and I would venture to say that a large part of Thailand's economy remains unseen by the government and if there are any records at all there is no exchange of data. In short, I have my doubts about the actual tourist numbers and certainly also domestic tourism, as no one registers or is often not registered as a tourist.
And also the size of the turnover in tourism: largely air cycling, big Thai thumbs and more. I think that a good analysis should be published for once where the amounts come from, how things are built up instead of shouting that turnover has increased, so don't believe it (with Greece in mind).
To return to “those” numbers for a moment. I think my wife and I were counted three times last November by Thai standards. The first time when we arrived at Suvarnabhumi, the second time when we returned to Thailand from a day trip to Myanmar (just crossed the border at Mae Sai) and the third time when we arrived in Bangkok (this time Don Muang) after a 4-day stay in Laos. Three times all border formalities counts as three tourists. How pure do you want it….
Well that's pretty normal, many (all?), countries do that. The Netherlands does that too, civil servants with nice reports and even nicer predictions for the future. And the newspapers neatly copy that without asking too much in return, grabbing a calculator and looking back is often not an option. Take the IND, for example, which has been adding up the migration figures for years by showing how many files are shifted (initial applications, objections, follow-up applications, asylum family reunification, etc.) instead of how many people are involved. A sip on a drink saves that difference between the number of people and the number of files. So I won't be surprised if that also happens in areas such as tourism. Is just the simplest way of counting, higher numbers show busyness (job retention, job growth), everyone happy…
So indeed those TAT figures cannot be taken seriously for years, except perhaps as an indication of (rough) trend developments. Or are there readers here who still do?
http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism-income-Thailand.asp
With a spending pattern of 1,78 trillion Baht for 35 million foreign tourists, this amounts to an average spending amount of almost 51.000 Baht per holiday. Because a holiday lasts an average of 10 days, the average spending amount is about 5100 baht or 125 Euro PER DAY. If you look closely at the statistics published by the Ministry of Tourism itself, it appears that the Chinese are not 'cheap maos' at all, but even number 1 big spenders.
However, there is a catch. Tourists were probably asked about their holiday spending, but they were NOT asked exactly where (in which country) they spent the money. Depending on the type of trip, more or less of this expenditure ends up in the country where the holiday is actually held. If the Chinese book and pay for their complete holiday (an all-inn package) in China, a smaller portion ends up in Thailand (with accommodation providers, restaurants, transport companies) than for an individual Belgian tourist who flies to Bangkok with Thai Airways. and books all his accommodations here himself and pays for food, drinks and entertainment.
As indicated in my previous response, there are major doubts about the numbers and amounts, read the truth via Chris's link. The government, ministry, itself writes that it does not know where the numbers come from, but they have been reporting it for several years and there is no Thai Ger who asks for good substantiation of figures. Nice than those presentations, I think it's more about the Thai food before and during the announcements than about the content.
Adjustment of my response: not the government, ministry, but the one from Thaivisa writes in Chris's link that they do not know where the amounts come from.