Where Are The Tourists?
Where are our dear foreign guests who usually invade the kingdom this time around? This is by no means a post backed up by hard facts and figures, but by simple observation and talks with tourists and hoteliers alike. OK, last year’s high season was a non-event after Bangkok’s airport seizures. But don’t only blame the international credit crunch and financial crisis. This holiday season Westerners travel to the Caribbean and Southern Europe, to Turkey and wherever. But not to Thailand.
Occupancy rates in Thailand’s major hotels are miserable. Had a talk with a big shot of the Dusit in Hua Hin and some regular guests who stay there every year. Never seen that place so quiet. Hua Hin’s famous night market is empty compared to previous high seasons. Tweets tourist Bob the “hotel in Cha Am we’ve been staying at every year for the past ten years is also A LOT quieter than usual” – and a friend in Pattaya tells me in December you usually have to push your way through Walking Street. Not this time.
Our honorable leaders prefer to blame external circumstances. But don’t underestimate the ghosts of the airport occupations. Had some family friends coming over from Europe who even thought that the reds – not yellows! – were seizing the airports a year ago and now that the reds announce new demonstrations for January they’re scared if they’ll run into trouble. Friends that told me that back home in Europe many Thailand regulars avoid the kingdom for fear of a new breakdown. Thailand keeps on paying a heavy price for this sort of superficial stability.
It is impossible to put a price tag on the immediate and remote damages caused by Thailand’s political upheaval. But a sure thing is that the country keeps on suffering to this day from those acts some called peaceful and necessary. Holiday packages to Thailand don’t cost a fortune. Anyone who wants to visit Thailand and shops around can visit Thailand. But that’s not the point. The point is Thailand removed herself knowingly, if not deliberately from the top spots of international travel and tourism.
Nah, I’m not even mentioning all the scams and cheats that make it again and again into the world’s media furthermore scaring off potential visitors. But if the suffering tourism sector is any guidance how other industrial sectors of Thailand suffer – such as stagnant direct foreign investment due to the country’s obvious and hidden risks and lack of transparency – well then it’s easy to do the math yourself, isn’t it.
I’m not saying. I’m just saying. Whatever rosy picture the government is trying to present, question it, question it, question it. The situation on the ground remains a very different one. Shop keepers who hoped for a splendid high season after a long drought and were stocking up on goods are in despair.
Some basic tourism downturn statistic is available here. In the first ten months of this year international arrivals were down 30% – and counting.
The tourism & sports minister just announced he “believes” Thailand could still get 14 million visitors this year … Believing as a part of governing, there you go.
December 2009 must be one of the worst high seasons in the history of Thai tourism. Tells me the big shot of Hua Hin’s Dusit that between Christmas and year’s end a 100,000 holidayers are expected in Hua Hin … Maybe locals. Forget the foreign market for a while.
The thing to do would be to offer irresistible price incentives. But try to book a better hotel in a seaside resort. The money you’re asked to spend for a few nights pays you two weeks including flights and food and everything in – again – the Caribbean or Southern Europe.
A week ago I booked a fancy New Year’s Eve dinner and show at a better hotel. The hotel expects some 200 guests for the party. Well I got ticket numbers 0005 to 0008. Eight tickets sold so far for a party with 200 … The tourism biz may have been a walk in the park some time ago.
I doubt that any of the major hotels will have a full 100% occupancy rate over the festive days. Remember, not too long ago fully booked hotels was the order of Thailand’s tourism days. Thailand Holidays
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Similar picture in Chiang Mai. From observation, numbers are down at the Night Bazaar and other regular tourist spots; bars and restaurants mostly just ticking over. The general view of locals I’ve spoken to is that most of those who are here are more the backpacker variety – not the spenders.
I ask most shop owners when I’m out and about how business has been this year in Phuket and Phang Nga and they all say worse than last year.
Well, it might be true that quite a few tourists will stay away from Thailand this holiday season / high season. But my impression in Bangkok in the first half of this month was a bit different. All the typical tourist places, malls etc. were at least “full enough” and I had to switch between hotels, because some places were already fully booked for up to two weeks. So maybe there won’t be as many tourists as two years ago but the numbers will be at least as high as earlier in this decade. If only they could get rid of all this corruption and find a solution for their ongoing political problems … Thailand would again be one of the top destination for us farangs.
Until the world credit situation stabilizes and people feel more secure in their jobs and investments there will be no increase in tourism. Thailand is not the only country being hit by this downtrend. Statistics from the Caribbean Tourism Organization shows most Caribbean islands visitors off by double digits throughout 2009 (http://www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/dec4Lattab09.pdf) and it doesn’t appear that there is a recovery imminent.
While I’m sure that the current instability of Thailand’s political climate doesn’t help matters, I don’t see it as the major reason for tourism in 2009 to be off.
Hopefully by next year both situations (political and economic) will have stabilized sufficiently for the tourists to be back in all their mighty droves.
I was in the tour business.
The real reason tourism is down?
Thai police.
Yes, according to my TAT contact, the Thai police are running organized scams against our visitors.
All the tuk-tuks and taxis near the tourist hotels are participating with them.
I was recently watching the two gentleman that “work” on the corner of Wireless and Ploenchit Road.
They are there every day from 9 to 5, intercepting lost tourists. They are Thai police dressed in street clothes. Go watch them sometime. They take their coffee breaks inside the police box! This police gang has representatives all over town.
Three of them are in front of the Dusit Thani every day. They hang out in front of the hotel entrance.
Another group is on the corner of Naritwat and Silom Road.
Another gang in at the Erawan Shrine.
Another gang is in front of the Central World Shrine.
Another is in front of the Grand Palace, National Museum, etc.
Do a search for “tourist mafia Thailand” and see how this police mafia is ruining Thailands reputation.
Follow these links to photos of the Thai police tourist mafia:
Erawan Shrine Police Mafia:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21533131@N06/sets/72157616786296908/
Central World:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21533131@N06/sets/72157616786255092/
Grand Palace:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/72157616768273247/
Silom:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/72157616886160455/
Sukhumvit Sois 18/20:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/72157618019269526/
Siam Center;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/72157618075380996/
Taxi Mafia:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/72157617806940302/
BMA Footpath Mafia:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/72157617714418287/
Agreed. Chiang Mai has lots of backpackers as usual but I have noticed a huge increase in the number of Thai/Asian tourists here though I doubt they’re staying in top hotels.
Personally I think it’s great. The less tourists the better. Thailand is getting cheaper and even better value than before if you live here.
The only downside is that police corruption will increase because they have to make up their quotas from somewhere. So there will be more on-the-spot fines (for fabricated reasons) and clubs, bars and restaurants still have to make their (significant) cash payments even with no business. Anyone remember the ill-fated Parkbridge club in Patpong Soi 2? Driven out of business by the police.
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That show you booked wasn’t Mamma Mia was it?
I don’t think you can blame the decline in Western high value tourists on the local problems. In Pattaya the Russians and Chinese are present in large numbers but I have heard several local business owners dismiss them as “cheap” tourists. This is the attitude that makes a difficult situation worse.
Years of price insensitive Western visitors splurging on luxury convinced many operators to focus on the high end. But those days seem to have passed. Hua Hin and Phuket went for that luxury market so it’s not surprising that the business has faded. But those who invested inthe dream can’t afford the discount that doing business today demands. Heights Holdings, a major high-standard condo developer in Pattaya is discounting condos by 60% in their current advertising. Pattaya accepts its discount as the cost of continuing to do business. In contrast the lady owner of the super luxury hi-so Prime Nature Villa development beside the Sheraton in Hua Hin was shot dead outside her office in Bangkok a few weeks ago. Whoever was responsible for this horrible murder it should serve as a reminder to us that “luxury” in Thailand isn’t quite as it may appear to be.
If you want to be in a clean safe environment where human beings and their basic rights are respected you should avoid Thailand altogether … If you are wlling to accept less, then what value for money is there in obviously untrustworthy luxury properties and services that promise much but deliver little? Untrustworthy and dirty Thailand is the definition of cheap and now that the big boom is over the discount market is really the only one left. Hua Hin may survive supported.by the spending power of the local Thai elite but Phuket is already showing signs that it’s is in direct competition with Pattaya for the kind of tourist that just last year it’s publicists defined as undesirable.
This has been typed on my iPhone in the departure lounge of Bangkok airport. I will be back soon but I don’t think I am harboring any illusions about the seriously damaged country I am returning to. The premise of the tourism business is that most tourists don’t realize what is going on around them. Perhaps, with no investment in the well-being of Thailand and its people many of the tourists would not care too much even if they did have some understanding of how this place works. Unfortunately many of the locals feel the same way.
What makes Thailand such an untrustworthy dirty place is the inability of most of the local population to empathize and identify with anything outside the narrow range of personal and family interest. Instant gatification, the pursuit of a quick buck, dishonesty like lying cheating and fraud have creatednot just a generally accepted business model but also a society in which people are alienated to a point where they can’t even empathize with their own neighbors. All the public appeals for unity strike me as a recognition that social cohesion is based on hierarchical exploitative power. Take away this and Thailand’s population is atomized into tiny, largely family-based groupings who view everyone else as potential predator or prey. The tourist industry and the expat population are to one side of the power structure and almost always prey … If that isn’t a discount situation then I don’t know what is. The Russians and the Chinese, coming as they do from authoritarian hierarchical societies are probably in a good position to understand what the true value of tourism services and goods might actually be in a place like Thailand. Let’s hope some of their discount gets passed on to the rest of us.
@Jaded:
Interesting post and insights. It’s a very great disappointment to have to agree with you in at least the majority of what you say.
Sad but true.
[...] Tourism: Improved tourism is claimed. No figures in what we have seen so far, so let’s just look at tourism data that are available. These data are hard to dig out, so PPT uses the data provided at thaiwebsites.com. There it is shown that for the 10 months to the end of October 2009, tourism arrivals were down 30% year-on-year. Readers might also like to read the story at absolutelyBangkok.com. [...]
[...] Absolute Bangkok Blog reports that tourists have gone down on the Walking Streets in Pattaya but we went down to [...]
In November there was some hope among the various tourist operators I met (hotel managers, market vendors and some travel agencies), Kanchanaburi was full, Chiang Mai was full (but it was during Loy Kratong, so it’s not relevant). I was a little bit surprised to see so many tourists considering the events of last year and the current economical situation …
From what you say now, it seems that the season doesn’t go on as strong as expected..
I am in the U.K. travel industry, specialize in Thailand in particular and the Far East in general. I travel regularly to Thailand.
I was in Thailand last month; and agree with all the anecdotal evidence about foreign visitor arrivals. That said, I was surprised at high levels of internal tourism, particularly day-tripping. Boy, were those vineyards crowded at weekends!
I think looking to foreign visitors, much of the commentary here is over-educated. Nothing is known of Thai politics. Traveler memories are short, even when the politics come out into the open, clearly effecting travelers (which mostly they don’t) such as in the airport occupations.
Scams, well, every traveler believes that they only happen to other people; and, anyway, they happen the world over. There is a lot of truth in the last statement. Don’t beat yourself up on this Thailand. Any cleaning up of acts though would be helpful.
So what do travelers consider, what do they remember? Price. And I firmly believe that pricing in Thailand this winter, particularly for accommodation, has been way too adventurous. Much softer rates were needed after recent disjunctures, or at all, in the face of global recession. And remember that the last comment covers increased feelings of unease, actual unemployment and reduced income, but also for some, particularly the British, painful movement in forex rates.
Thailand must also remember that in the rush for tourists it has lost some of the charm that attracted tourists in the first place. I nearly collapsed when I was wai’d in the supermarket this time! And I don’t go into tourists areas, so the implication is that Thais are being a good deal less charming with each other.
Finally, a trade point.Thailand is fiendishly difficult to do business with. That hotelier who spoke perfect English, guaranteed he could read written English, actually can’t. Emails go unanswered. Business is lost. I look unprofessional.
But face is saved in the first place. This is where what at first seems charming is, actually, untenable. Trusting relationships can only be built on complete transparency.