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By Randy Thanthong-Knight
December 18, 2019

Thailand will try to ease the pressure on tourism from a surging currency by targeting more first-time visitors because they are bigger spenders.

“First-timers spend 10% to 20% more than repeat tourists and at the same time, we can build a new customer base,” Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said in an interview in Bangkok on Tuesday.

The state agency’s goal is to increase first-time visitors to more than 10 million in 2020, or about a quarter of overall arrivals, from 10% now. It’s focusing marketing efforts on regions such as Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Next year’s targets include a record 41.8 million arrivals generating 2.22 trillion baht ($73 billion) in receipts, both up roughly 5% from 2019.

Tourism, a key Thai economic engine, sputtered this year as the baht’s 7.6% climb against the dollar made the Asian nation a costlier destination. The appreciation slowed recently after the Bank of Thailand stepped up efforts to tackle the surge.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ps-tourism

Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?

Tuk tuk drivers and the other equally unscrupulous who prey on tourist fresh meat will be sharpening their claws with glee at the prospect of gorging themselves on the fat bountiful purses generated by the government's new campaign.

That 10 to 20% represents how much Thai people are able to cheat unsuspecting tourists out of, not that they actually spend more willfully.

If people come back, they know the deal and are a bit more wary.

More than ever I regard the growth in the headline figure TAT quote for tourist "arrivals" as being a misleading representation of the state of the country's tourist industry.

Passengers using Bangkok as their arrival point and moving on to genuine tourist growth neighbours such as Vietnam, snowbirds forced to leave the country during their trip due to changes in the longer METV visa etc etc. Rather than travel internally next year my travel budget is going on trips to the likes of Penang and Hanoi, a loss of revenue to Thai tourism but I will add at least 4 tourists to the numbers in the year . The multiple counting of individuals for various reasons has to be significant when considered across the board.

Then there is the demographic change in the current first time visitor market. I find the daily spend quoted for Indian tourists totally bizarre compared to what I see first hand certainly in Pattaya. The groups of Indian guys, ( usually 7 for some strange reason), I see strolling around the streets looking at the rest of us spending our money in bars and restaurants look hard pressed to part with any cash. The Facebook posts of Thais is less than complimentary regarding their spending habits. 40 Chinese in a bus compared to 1 Westerner in a taxi seems like a win but perhaps not for anyone except the chosen few connected tourist operators who may or may not be Thai..

I'm not sure many in the industry have been singing from the roof tops at the supposed growth in numbers this year, the reality on the ground seems significantly at odds with the info coming out of TAT. Always interested to see what far flung market they choose for their annual promotion beano, I'm all for a successful South American campaign if it brings more Latino hotties over but I'm not holding out much hope.

shnoukieBRO wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?

Agreed. I just went, 200THB per transaction. I drew out 10,000 so it wasn't too bad as a percentage, but if you like to keep low levels of cash on you and draw each day, those charges soon rack up.

An improvement Pattaya could make is by the owners of bars and especially restaurants to prevent the endless stream of hawkers from walking up INTO their premises and shoving display cases of crap in your face while you are enjoying your beer and Pad Thai. If you are street front you are fair game, but inside you should be provided with privacy.

I was in a restaurant on second road on the corner of alley 9. We were seated TWO rows inside to try to avoid the worst of the hawkers. We sat there for a total of 31 minutes and during that time we were approached 22 times, offering sunglasses (5 times) Hard on pills (4 times) cheap and nasty watches (5 times) plus a rug seller, someone flogging wooden stuff and other assorted odds and sods. They walk in between rows as bold as brass.

It was relentless and exhausting and completely ruined the meal. We tried the wave away technique, the ignore technique and the head shake technique. I wanted to scream "fuck-off", but was advised against it.

We tried to ask the owner (maybe the manager) why they let them in (my friend speaks a bit of Thai) but they just shrugged it off like there was something wrong with us.

And this goes on everywhere, all open air bars where foreigners go. Many arrive on motorbikes, stop and start the pestering.

It was so annoying I doubt very much I will bother going back there and my plans on visiting Phuket on Air Asia's direct route have also been shelved. I suspect it will be just the same there and I can't be bothered having to deal with it.

We sat here...

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:28 am

shnoukieBRO wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?

Agreed. I just went, 200THB per transaction. I drew out 10,000 so it wasn't too bad as a percentage, but if you like to keep low levels of cash on you and draw each day, those charges soon rack up.

why only take 10,000? max on most atms is 30,000 so lowers the % of the charge

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:54 am

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:28 am

shnoukieBRO wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?

Agreed. I just went, 200THB per transaction. I drew out 10,000 so it wasn't too bad as a percentage, but if you like to keep low levels of cash on you and draw each day, those charges soon rack up.

why only take 10,000? max on most atms is 30,000 so lowers the % of the charge

I already converted $1000 into THB in Phnom Penh. The 10,000 was just a top up in the last couple of days. I'm not a cheapskate... honest.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:53 am An improvement Pattaya could make is by the owners of bars and especially restaurants to prevent the endless stream of hawkers from walking up INTO their premises and shoving display cases of crap in your face while you are enjoying your beer and Pad Thai. If you are street front you are fair game, but inside you should be provided with privacy.

I was in a restaurant on second road on the corner of alley 9. We were seated TWO rows inside to try to avoid the worst of the hawkers. We sat there for a total of 31 minutes and during that time we were approached 22 times, offering sunglasses (5 times) Hard on pills (4 times) cheap and nasty watches (5 times) plus a rug seller, someone flogging wooden stuff and other assorted odds and sods. They walk in between rows as bold as brass.

It was relentless and exhausting and completely ruined the meal. We tried the wave away technique, the ignore technique and the head shake technique. I wanted to scream "fuck-off", but was advised against it.

We tried to ask the owner (maybe the manager) why they let them in (my friend speaks a bit of Thai) but they just shrugged it off like there was something wrong with us.

And this goes on everywhere, all open air bars where foreigners go. Many arrive on motorbikes, stop and start the pestering.

It was so annoying I doubt very much I will bother going back there and my plans on visiting Phuket on Air Asia's direct route have also been shelved. I suspect it will be just the same there and I can't be bothered having to deal with it.

We sat here...

Sounds like you could have done with one of these: