Why the Chinese are more important than Western tourists to Thailand

phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 4:56 pm

I'd say this also holds for Cambodia as well

We need to wake up and smell the roses, us Westerners are no longer an important group for the Thailand tourism industry – in fact, we are what you would call ‘niche’ – and with good reason.

The Chinese are here in numbers and not only will this continue to grow but they also outspend Europeans per capita by 53% when in Thailand.

The Chinese now account for 57.48% of all tourists in Thailand and what makes this even more staggering is only 8.7% currently have passports (120 million).

According to Jing Travel this could double by 2020 – that means 240 million Chinese able to travel (363% of the UK population – 66 million). They also go on to state that first time Chinese travellers are more likely to travel more close to home to begin with, so places like Vietnam and, you guessed it, Thailand.

and all those zero$$ Chinese that everyone talks about??

The Chinese Spend More…

Quite often I hear the European retaliation that they would like to see the spend levels per capita of Chinese, suggesting it to be low. This could not be further from the truth as shopping is an important factor for when they go on holiday.

The Chinese expenditure into Thailand is US$15,342,000,000 each year, which is more than any other nation. The average spend per day for a Chinese tourist in Thailand is US$192 – which is 53% more than the average Europeans US$125 daily spend.

The Thailand hoteliers all agreed they preferred the Chinese traveller. You see us Westerners like to moan about everything and this often results in a rebate on the room rate. Plus with Western tourists, given the mode of payment, the hotels often don’t see the money for a month (e.g. Agoda etc). With the Chinese tour group they pay immediately and upfront, and – and this shocked me – they pay more than the Western room rate. Western tourists are driving the room rate down and the Chinese tourist is driving it up.

A Pattaya hotelier also explained us Westerners get it all wrong when we say the Chinese don’t put money into the local economy too (popular belief is that it is kept within their circles). He explained, Westerners do not visit attractions in Thailand yet the Chinese visit up to 5 attractions every day from Nong Nooch Gardens to Miss Tiffanys;

https://danaboutthailand.com/2019/04/24 ... -thailand/

Post by **Clutch Cargo** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 5:38 pm

The Chinese now account for 57.48% of all tourists in Thailand and what makes this even more staggering is only 8.7% currently have passports (120 million). According to Jing Travel this could double by 2020 – that means 240 million Chinese able to travel (363% of the UK population – 66 million).

One of the key reasons why I think the ban on online betting may be just a hiccup for the resort prospects of Westport.

A Pattaya hotelier also explained us Westerners get it all wrong when we say the Chinese don’t put money into the local economy too (popular belief is that it is kept within their circles). He explained, Westerners do not visit attractions in Thailand yet the Chinese visit up to 5 attractions every day from Nong Nooch Gardens to Miss Tiffanys; on a 5 day trip that’s 25 locations. Yes of course they will visit the tour operators circles too but that is maybe only 20-25% of the total trips organised.

Tour attractions sure but I think they are missing the point of the other issues with 'zero dollar tourists' that being....yes, love to shop and eat but more often than not, the tour operators take them to chinese owned and managed shops and restaurants. There was another topic about this and the thai authorities were gonna crack down on that...don't know whether they were/have been successful in that.

But yeah, not denying the gist of this article, Chinese tourists will dominate the region.

Kammekor · Post by **Kammekor** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:02 pm

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 4:56 pm

Wow the only tourists spending less than average are from 'Americas' and Europe. You'd expect the opposite.

armchairlawyer · Post by **armchairlawyer** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:03 pm

Richard, that article has a lot of great stats but it was published in April Since then there has been a downturn in Chinese tourism throughout SE Asia, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-09- ... se-tourism

Re zero $ tours, out of curiosity I popped into a shop called CX Central(?) on 130 opposite the New Market. It is a big and smartly presented place retailing nice looking Western brand-named clothes. There were about 50 Chinese in there, some looking at the merchandise, some sitting on the stairs looking tired and fed up. I took a look at some price tags, very expensive.

phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:08 pm

... the tour operators take them to chinese owned and managed shops and restaurants.

True
But the shops, restaurants, hotels, tours still have to buy the goods, pay for the rooms, pay for the tickets/admissions,buy the gas for the bus's and buy the goods they sell to the tourists.
Money is spent. I go once a week to Junk Ceylon and shop at the big C, full of Chinese tourists with full shopping carts, packing their purchases in box's to send home.
BTW, all paying with their cards

They spend $$

...April Since then there has been a downturn in Chinese tourism throughout SE Asia,

Its low season, same thing happens every year, wait till Nov rolls around and lets see..

Cowshed Cowboy · Post by **Cowshed Cowboy** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:45 pm

How do they know how much individual tourists spend ? No one ever asked me when I was on holiday.

armchairlawyer · Post by **armchairlawyer** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:53 pm

Cowshed Cowboy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:45 pm How do they know how much individual tourists spend ? No one ever asked me when I was on holiday.

Yes, and many times I overnight in Thailand when I am routing long haul because it is cheaper to buy separate tickets and I want to be sure I catch my connecting flight. I stay less than 24 hours, I pay 1000 baht for a hotel and 70 baht on the train. Presumably I get counted several times as a year as a tourist arrival.

Post by **Clutch Cargo** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:01 pm

This article is written from the perspective of a hotelier and if true they get greater numbers and payment up front and at a higher price, it all makes sense they prefer those tourists. Fair enough.

I also can't help but think the customer demographics are different/have changed too.

Tourists from Europe, US, and Canada (even Australia to an extent) are copping a bigger airfare expense, not to mention longer travel times. Also, isn't it the case western tourists generally have longer relative holiday periods up to 4 weeks? I think I recall somewhere that Koreans for example get 1 week off and if they get 2 weeks off they feel guilty with their employer... I think the Chinese have 2 weeks annual leave mostly?

So, I tend to think that if I only ever had 1 week off a year, I wouldn't be too bothered about lashing out on my short, one time holiday? It's just my theory without any hard evidence but seems to be the situation I suspect.

Not to mention the backpacker/student/begpacker element of western tourists which I gather, is not prevalent with Chinese tourists...not yet..

John Bingham · Post by **John Bingham** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:05 pm

armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:53 pm
Cowshed Cowboy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:45 pm How do they know how much individual tourists spend ? No one ever asked me when I was on holiday.
Yes, and many times I overnight in Thailand when I am routing long haul because it is cheaper to buy separate tickets and I want to be sure I catch my connecting flight. I stay less than 24 hours, I pay 1000 baht for a hotel and 70 baht on the train. Presumably I get counted several times as a year as a tourist arrival.

Yes, you probably get counted as a cheap-charlie
Western tourist and are skewing the figures.

phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:14 pm

Cowshed Cowboy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:45 pm How do they know how much individual tourists spend ? No one ever asked me when I was on holiday.

I have also wondered about that when i see stats but than i think;
Thailand tracks every hotel you stay at, ( as do most countries ) they can track all ur credit card charges/atm exchanges, (Chinese almost exclusively use their pay cards) as do Koreans and Japanese.
They track when you change money and the amount
They track you even when you send a box thru the mail nowadays

The days of anonymous travel are over..

Why the Chinese are more important than Western tourists to Thailand

Why the Chinese are more important than Western tourists to Thailand

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