People on holiday don't give a rat's ass about juntas or political nastiness or succession crisis. They just want a few weeks of warm weather and good food for a decent price, which Thailand still offers.

Q1 tourist arrivals jump 15.5%, more growth seen in Q2
25 Apr 2016

International tourist arrivals rose 15.45% in the first three months of 2016 from a year earlier and are expected to grow 13% in the current quarter, an official at the Tourism Authority of Thailand said on Monday.

The industry accounts for 10% of economic output and has been one of the few bright spots for Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, which has struggled to regain traction since the coup in May 2014.

In the January-March period, the number of visitors was 9.03 million, generating revenue of 455 billion baht, or up 18% from a year earlier, Sugree Sithivanich, TAT's deputy governor for marketing communications, told reporters.

Some 7.87 million foreign tourists are expected in the April-June quarter and will generate revenue of about 375 billion baht, he said.

The government has forecast a record 32 million arrivals this year, up 7.1% from last year's 29.88 million.

The economy grew 2.8% in 2015, up from 0.8% in 2014, but its recovery remains patchy. This year, the central bank predicts growth of 3.1%.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tou ... seen-in-q2

until another poof goes off near crowded places

Thailand is a survivor, no matter what happens tourists keep coming

Although tourism is indeed up i numbers, the tourism industry is hurting right now, already here in phuket people are hurting and the high season just ended, reason is the CHINESE>
They travel in packs
they fly in Chinese airlines, stay in Chinese owned hotels, eat at Chinese owned restaurants, single guys visit Chinese owned Karaokes, shop at Chinese owned stores (except for 7/11) and take Chinese tours on Chinese bus's

phuketrichard wrote:Thailand is a survivor, no matter what happens tourists keep coming

Although tourism is indeed up i numbers, the tourism industry is hurting right now, already here in phuket people are hurting and the high season just ended, reason is the CHINESE>
They travel in packs
they fly in Chinese airlines, stay in Chinese owned hotels, eat at Chinese owned restaurants, single guys visit Chinese owned Karaokes, shop at Chinese owned stores (except for 7/11) and take Chinese tours on Chinese bus's

thats how they keep money flowing back to china, except when they go to japan of course

bolueeleh wrote:until another poof goes off near crowded places

Elton john concert.

the travel agents arent going to give everyone who walks into the shop the current political stability of thailand, they will be like, where you want to go? thailand? ok give me your money! they dont really give a shit, its all about sales and commission!

before i came to thailand about 4 years ago i knew about 4 people who had been before, my friend para john, my cousin, my friend whos half thai, and dino, but now with the "anyone can go backpacking boom" of recent years fueled by the likes of facebook, it appears every tom dick and harry has been there now, which is annoying as youve started getting all the crowds that used to fuck off to Ibiza, Nappa, Magaluf, Malia every year, and those annoying cunts are everywhere here being their cuntish selves looking like cunts, fuck off

Jamie_Lambo wrote:the travel agents arent going to give everyone who walks into the shop the current political stability of thailand, they will be like, where you want to go? thailand? ok give me your money! they dont really give a shit, its all about sales and commission!

before i came to thailand about 4 years ago i knew about 4 people who had been before, my friend para john, my cousin, my friend whos half thai, and dino, but now with the "anyone can go backpacking boom" of recent years fueled by the likes of facebook, it appears every tom dick and harry has been there now, which is annoying as youve started getting all the crowds that used to fuck off to Ibiza, Nappa, Magaluf, Malia every year, and those annoying cunts are everywhere here being their cuntish selves looking like cunts, fuck off

wtf are u on about?? Just cause nobody u knew had been here doesn't mean much
Thailand has been on the back packers trail long before i arrived (1983) and even when i was in India and Nepal in '75 they were heading to Thailand.
Fullmoon parties on Koh Phangan started in the 80's

There just more and more every years

phuketrichard wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:the travel agents arent going to give everyone who walks into the shop the current political stability of thailand, they will be like, where you want to go? thailand? ok give me your money! they dont really give a shit, its all about sales and commission!

before i came to thailand about 4 years ago i knew about 4 people who had been before, my friend para john, my cousin, my friend whos half thai, and dino, but now with the "anyone can go backpacking boom" of recent years fueled by the likes of facebook, it appears every tom dick and harry has been there now, which is annoying as youve started getting all the crowds that used to fuck off to Ibiza, Nappa, Magaluf, Malia every year, and those annoying cunts are everywhere here being their cuntish selves looking like cunts, fuck off

wtf are u on about?? Just cause nobody u knew had been here doesn't mean much
Thailand has been on the back packers trail long before i arrived (1983) and even when i was in India and Nepal in '75 they were heading to Thailand.
Fullmoon parties on Koh Phangan started in the 80's

There just more and more every years

really i never knew that? i thought i was the first person here
i dont know if you realised, but im talking about people from my generation.... no one used to give a shit about coming to thailand and it was pretty un heard of, even my old mate para john used to say every year why you wasting your time going to ibiza you should come out to thailand with me, but ibiza, Nappa, Magaluf, Malia etc were the go to places, but now the amount of people, whether it be friends or friends of friends, inboxing me on facebook saying shit like "ahhhhh i want to do what your doing, how can i do it what do i need to do, how much money do i need etc etc etc" and the hordes of people talking about it on facebook or uploading pictures from their 2-3week "backpacking" holidays there...

i never said people never used to go, im just saying its more popular now than it used to be,
luckily theres a lot of people that still dont really know where cambodia is lol it would surprise me if some of my friends on facebook thought i was in africa or something, thick cunts lol

stop posting pictures on Facebook and your friends wont know about cambodia!

Thailand used to be a rather hip place to be many years ago...untill word got around. Then the Thai's decided they didn't want the scrounging 'pay little', hippies, so they have tried to get rid of cheap bungalows and replaced with hotels to charge more.

Ko Samui is an example of that, and Ko Chang, as of since years ago. Facebook and reality programmes of television has probably dragged the magaluf types like Jamie said, that normally wouldn't bother with it, so i suppose you can put the blame on Thai tourism and the internet. We've recently been watching this Thai airport reality show, and of course all this does is make the chav's want to come to the place. Add Russians, Indians, and a few Africans, and wey hey, we've got a new kinda lower key version of mad Ibiza re invented in Asia.