Surprise!

China tops Thailand travel table
By Don Ross -
November 1, 2019
BANGKOK, 1 November 2019: International travel to Thailand reached 29.47 million trips, January to September, increasing 3.51% year-on-year, according to the latest data supplied by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

Ministry data is based on the headcount at border immigration counters and is widely criticised for not reflecting the country’s real-time tourism performance accurately.

According to the MOTS evaluation, the nine-month data shows foreign visitor arrivals for all travel purposes reached 29,465,732 compared with 28,467, 696 during 2018.

Revenue earned from tourism based on an estimated average spend for each nationality shows the country’s tourism earnings reached 1,429,247.34 million up 3.45% year-on-year. Foreign tourist receipts make up about 12% of Thailand’s gross domestic product (GDP).

In September alone, arrivals increased 10.11% year-on-year to 2.9 million tourists who spent THB139.6 billion up 8.73%.

Both hoteliers and tour company executives argue that tourism is down, particularly at beach destinations such as Phuket where hotels are reducing rates in the hope of reversing the slide in bookings.

But in fairness to the ministry, it has to settle for basic data provided by the Immigration Bureau that counts foreigners passing through border checkpoints regardless of their visa status. The travel industry would prefer a measure of arrivals by specific visa categories. In theory, the Immigration Bureau’s data bank records the volume of visitors entering the country on visa-free stays, visa-on-arrival, long-stay or work-related visas or re-entry and land border permits.

Based on the headcount, China continues to lead the top five source markets by a wide margin. Chinese arrivals from January to September surpassed 8.52 million up 1.71% when compared with 8.37 million during the nine months of 2018.

Revenue from Chinese tourist reached an estimated 426,887.60 million up 4.14%.

The headcount gap is massive between first placed China and Malaysia the second-largest source market that clocked 2,900,896 trips an increase of 5.56%.

Third-placed India supplied 1,471,218 visits sporting a solid improvement of 25.60%. South Korea in fourth place delivered 1,399,440 visits up 4.87%, while Laos in fifth place generated 1,386,410 up 12.10%.
Full article: https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2019/11/ ... vel-table/

crob wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 7:14 pm > Both hoteliers and tour company executives argue that tourism is down, particularly at beach destinations such as Phuket where hotels are reducing rates in the hope of reversing the slide in bookings.

the issue in phuket was never the cost of hotels, it was the cost of transport, the taxi mafia killed it as a solo travel destination.

I didnt think anybody took thai tourist numbers seriously, Phuket, samui, pattaya , even chiang mai etc are dead, hotels dropping prices more than 50%.
Chinese tourists down too not that they spend much money
strong baht, tourist deaths, xenophobia rising, road deaths, smog all add to it.
the boat disaster really ruined the chinese tourism in phuket more than taxi mafi who are same on samui 500 baht to go 1km

crob wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:58 am

adders28 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 8:21 pm

crob wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 7:14 pm > Both hoteliers and tour company executives argue that tourism is down, particularly at beach destinations such as Phuket where hotels are reducing rates in the hope of reversing the slide in bookings.

the issue in phuket was never the cost of hotels, it was the cost of transport, the taxi mafia killed it as a solo travel destination.

I didnt think anybody took thai tourist numbers seriously, Phuket, samui, pattaya , even chiang mai etc are dead, hotels dropping prices more than 50%.
Chinese tourists down too not that they spend much money
strong baht, tourist deaths, xenophobia rising, road deaths, smog all add to it.
the boat disaster really ruined the chinese tourism in phuket more than taxi mafi who are same on samui 500 baht to go 1km

I don't take the numbers too seriously, but yeah, I do agree with the strong baht would be turning off many frequent travelers to the region(reason i didn't go back).... and the boat disaster definitely hurt Chinese numbers.

If the strong baht is a turnoff for travelers you would think the strong USA dollar would do the same for Cambodia ?

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:20 am

Duncan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:11 am

crob wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:58 am

adders28 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 8:21 pm

crob wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 7:14 pm > Both hoteliers and tour company executives argue that tourism is down, particularly at beach destinations such as Phuket where hotels are reducing rates in the hope of reversing the slide in bookings.

the issue in phuket was never the cost of hotels, it was the cost of transport, the taxi mafia killed it as a solo travel destination.

I didnt think anybody took thai tourist numbers seriously, Phuket, samui, pattaya , even chiang mai etc are dead, hotels dropping prices more than 50%.
Chinese tourists down too not that they spend much money
strong baht, tourist deaths, xenophobia rising, road deaths, smog all add to it.
the boat disaster really ruined the chinese tourism in phuket more than taxi mafi who are same on samui 500 baht to go 1km

I don't take the numbers too seriously, but yeah, I do agree with the strong baht would be turning off many frequent travelers to the region(reason i didn't go back).... and the boat disaster definitely hurt Chinese numbers.

If the strong baht is a turnoff for travelers you would think the strong USA dollar would do the same for Cambodia ?

BUT a $ s a $ wherever u are...
At bangkok airport last night they were ONLY giving 28.84 baht to a US$!!!!! ( I know airports are lousy but just saying...)

Your right richard , but there must be a hundred countries out there that that have to convert their currency to USA dollars at a very poor rate, which makes those travellers think twice before coming to Thailand and / or Cambodia. For them a dollar is not a dollar.

Duncan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:09 am

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:20 am

Duncan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:11 am

crob wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:58 am

adders28 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 8:21 pm

I didnt think anybody took thai tourist numbers seriously, Phuket, samui, pattaya , even chiang mai etc are dead, hotels dropping prices more than 50%.
Chinese tourists down too not that they spend much money
strong baht, tourist deaths, xenophobia rising, road deaths, smog all add to it.
the boat disaster really ruined the chinese tourism in phuket more than taxi mafi who are same on samui 500 baht to go 1km

I don't take the numbers too seriously, but yeah, I do agree with the strong baht would be turning off many frequent travelers to the region(reason i didn't go back).... and the boat disaster definitely hurt Chinese numbers.

If the strong baht is a turnoff for travelers you would think the strong USA dollar would do the same for Cambodia ?

BUT a $ s a $ wherever u are...
At bangkok airport last night they were ONLY giving 28.84 baht to a US$!!!!! ( I know airports are lousy but just saying...)

Your right richard , but there must be a hundred countries out there that that have to convert their currency to USA dollars at a very poor rate, which makes those travellers think twice before coming to Thailand and / or Cambodia. For them a dollar is not a dollar.

£1000 used to get $1600 now only $1250 but Cambodia is still cheap, Thailand is not
By that logic cambodia should be full of thais , i think thailand has had its day , too much bad press ie killing tourists and expensive now

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:59 pm

adders28 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 6:10 pm

Duncan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:09 am

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:20 am

Duncan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:11 am


If the strong baht is a turnoff for travelers you would think the strong USA dollar would do the same for Cambodia ?

BUT a $ s a $ wherever u are...
At bangkok airport last night they were ONLY giving 28.84 baht to a US$!!!!! ( I know airports are lousy but just saying...)

Your right richard , but there must be a hundred countries out there that that have to convert their currency to USA dollars at a very poor rate, which makes those travellers think twice before coming to Thailand and / or Cambodia. For them a dollar is not a dollar.

£1000 used to get $1600 now only $1250 but Cambodia is still cheap, Thailand is not
By that logic cambodia should be full of thais , i think thailand has had its day , too much bad press ie killing tourists and expensive now

As i live on thai baht and not what the $ is worth or an exchange, Thailand is no more expensive now than it was last year...Same goes for all Thais and the farangs lucky enough to get paid in Baht enjoy a great exchange to travel outside Thailand.

Why would thai's travel to Cambodia? with the strong baht they can go nice places
As to killing the tourists>>> they say that everytime something happens, coups, riots, sars, swine flu, tsunami, deaths etc etc....
tourism keeps going up.
Yep its slow now BUT.......Thailand always rebounds

I have been to every country in se asia (except Vietnam)
Thailand still offers, for the tourist, the best value for the money and the most to see and do compared to
Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia & Singapore

you seem to believe TAT , tourists are not still going are they? perhaps leave your condo once in a while and take a look around Phuket
then again you believed the coup was to stop corruption and supported the junta there is no hope lol
with the way thailand is heading into absolute monarchy things are changing and not for the better