Thread: THAILAND: Tourism fee to help insure foreigners visiting the kingdom

Originally Posted by panama hat

Having worked for TTA, STB, TM (now MoT), Thailand still has an enormous advantage over all of its neighbours and countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambo, PIs, Indon - no-one can catch up let alone beat Thailand in the tourism arrivals and dollar stakes.

Double-pricing structures exist in most countries, here in NZ as well, and the total dollar amount spent in Thailand is still quite small when compared to Spain, Portugal, Greece, France etc... A few hundred baht entry fee, or whatever they want to call it, will not deter people from flying ten hours to enjoy what the country has to offer.

Cambodia is seen as being Angkor Wat
Malaysia is seen as being Sabah/Sarawak and KL shopping
Indon is seen as . . . not much
The PIs are seen as having a few beautiful places but the infrastructure and political crap is obvious - plus it's a few hours more flying
Vietnam . . . not really on the tourist map yet
Myanmar is for intrepid explorers
Singapore - three days stay and a hub to elsewhere.

That's the competition. Thailand wins

What utter rot. Glib generalisations spouted out of your arse. Have you had COVID? Seems your frontal lobe aint sparking right Fatimah.

Malaysian tourist arrivals in 2019 amounted to over 26 millions most of whom were dollar spending bona fide tourists and not the Chink trash that flooded Thailand in 2018 boosting numbers but little else and of course MYS didn't have the ASEAN whoremongers shagging the whores that Thailand has. Bung a few million ASEAN folk out for a cheap weekend/week buying tat and farting around from cheapo lodgings and you've pretty much got the difference between Thai and MYS tourism.

Historically, Thai and Mys tourism up to the early Noughties matched each other for figures amounting to 12-16 millions annually but since then Thailand has relentlessly moved down market catering to the lower end.

Like most folk who know the score, I'd recommend Mys over Thai any day of the week not least because in comparison to the MYS beaches and islands the Thai venues are increasingly becoming polluted and overrun by greedy commercial exploitation ill-matched by a poor infrastructure starved of proper funding. Ripoff double pricing, poor value, unhygienic practices and omnipresent danger from reckless stupidity all add a piquancy noone would wish to suffer but represent risks to the visitor to Thailand. Also, MYS food is far, far superior to the repetitive, limited fodder offered in the LoS.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Malaysian tourist arrivals in 2019 amounted to over 26 millions most of whom were dollar spending bona fide tourists

Just your first 'point' makes it unnecessary to read any further. 70% of 'tourist' entries to Malaysia are Singaporean shoppers, most don't stay the night.
So, who do you think spends more . . . the Scandi who stays for four weeks and pays for food, board, tours etc... or the Singaporean one-day shopper who buys groceries in JB, fills the car up to 3/4 only or he'll get fined and then heads home?

I used to do the same.

You see, SA, simply googling numbers doesn't work . . . bluster certainly doesn't.

Originally Posted by panama hat

Like most folk who know the score, I'd recommend Mys over Thai any day of the week

Surely all of these 'folk who know the score' are the ones who therefore live in Malaysia?

Did the bus break down or something?

I married a Thai, you stupid fuck.

Anyway, looking at those misleading figures Fatimah, it seems out of the 26 millions visiting MYS, 10 million are SGPs and the average length of stay for the entire industry is 7.6 days.

Now, maybe my maths are getting rusty but it occurs to me expressing 10 million as a percentage of 26 million aint quite 70%, is it old fruit.

The MYS have the balance right and the resorts attracting Oceania and the European bloc are not getting sacrificed in the nam of Mammon.

Keep trying, you're still wrong

Originally Posted by cyrille

Surely all of these 'folk who know the score' are the ones who therefore live in Malaysia?

Did the bus break down or something?

Umm . . . not my words

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

I married a Thai, you stupid fuck

What in the hell does have to do with it.? You live all alone in a vacuum talking to yourself SA. You are like Trump. Delusional and believe only yourself.

Originally Posted by panama hat

Malaysia is seen as being Sabah/Sarawak and KL shopping

I thought the touristy bit was Penang and Langkawi, but although nice enough, they don't compare with the Thai tourist areas.

People whinging about 300 baht? Raise the price of Chang by 5b and then they can whinge about something else.

Originally Posted by JPPR2

What in the hell does have to do with it.? You live all alone in a vacuum talking to yourself SA. You are like Trump. Delusional and believe only yourself.

You gormless septic twat, i'm in Thailand because I married a Thai. Christ, I have had more intelligent waste paper bins.

I suppose if I had married a MYS binte I'd be living in, well, Malaysia.

And they're off and running.....

^^Yes because if you marry a Thai, there's strict laws in place that say you're not allowed to live with them anywhere else in the world and must stay in Thailand even if you hate it here . Are you fucking serious?

Originally Posted by Troy

I thought the touristy bit was Penang and Langkawi, but although nice enough, they don't compare with the Thai tourist areas.

Number one is Johor (the state bordering Singapore) for the reasons mentioned above but then it is actually Selangor, the state which surrounds KL, followed by KL itself. Sabah/Sarawak are the most favoured 'end-destinations'.

Melaka gets a lot of flow-through tourism from Singaporeans on their day-trips.

Penang is more of a business destination but does have quite a slice of the tourism market and Penang/Langkawi are probably the most 'tourist-area-like' parts of Malaysia. Here is where Malaysia shows its weakness vis-a-vis Thailand and Bali etc... - no concentrated tourist areas. A few hotels or resorts here and there but no concentration to create a 'big' tropical holiday vibe.

So, you're quite correct - Thai tourist areas are far larger and provide more of an offering. Mind you, the type of tourist to Thailand is also different to Malaysia.

So many factors that define tourism - love it. Sadly I haven't done much in the tourism sector for a while except for a miserable opportunity in Sianoukville last January . . . had to knock it back after meeting the hotel management - mainland Chinese with attitude.

But yes, Thailand has far more to offer a wider range of visitors.

Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka? As in tourism? Not much there, really. Then beaches by the airport are rough sand and it's choppy . . . the other side of the island is better, however. Not much of a tourist-centric environment - the most beautiful places in this regard are in the north but the decades-ling civil war has thrown the idea of development out the door.

I did a picture thread here when I was consulting for the Malaysian Rubber Board and set up a JV between them and the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka - the inland is beautiful, simply stunning . . . and then you have Kandy . . . amazing. History, scenery, animals, sport 9good rugby teams)

It could if it really tried . . . but the infrastructure is missing

Originally Posted by Headworx

^^Yes because if you marry a Thai, there's strict laws in place that say you're not allowed to live with them anywhere else in the world and must stay in Thailand even if you hate it here . Are you fucking serious?

Yeah, we were looking at Lapland but it was closed that day, you fucking idiot.

^You were looking at fucking nowhere more like it. Simple reason being despite there being an entire world out there which people married to Thai's can happily move to and live you've somehow managed to paint yourself into a corner you clearly cannot get out of and are stuck living somewhere you hate. I've got a Thai partner too and if this place did my head in - as it obviously does to you - we'd be out of here like a shot to somewhere else.

Why can't you just do the same, you fucking idiot

Sri Lanka is a delightful alternative to the grasping Thai market peddling its deteriorating wares to the masses, and one that will burgeon but the threat of Chinese infestation is ever present.The whole vibe is of genteel relaxation with a beautiful hinterland to explore and a cuisine that knocks spots of the Thai fodder, and the weather is a boon with an omnipresent cooling breeze as opposed to the Thai smothering sweaty season July through November.

MYS's east coast with the Perhentian islands, Cherating down to Teluk Chempadak and the Tasik Chini lakes, and Tioman is a great tour and with a side trip to the Cameron Highlands much more satisfying than pretty much anything Thailand can offer but in the end it's the people that count - the Thai racism and exploitative zeal to ripoff their market in the end taints everything.

Thailand's downmarket trading model chasing numbers ruining its resources should be an object lesson to all tourist based economies looking to develop.

I do feel sorry for SA's partner. How could anyone live happily with such negativity towards the country of your birth? Most of it stemming from his swimming pool being closed. Damn..

Sri Lanka? As in tourism? Not much there, really.

RU kidding?? Serendipity.

Originally Posted by sabang

RU kidding?? Serendipity.

Well, there isn't. Remember, we are comparing it to Thailand, but even if we weren't Sri Lanka's tourism sector is in a shambles.

Sri Lanka doesn't even get 10% of the number that Thailand or Malaysia get - and many of those are from India with roughly 60 thousand per month, followed by China and then a slew of Europeans. .

Did you actually read the rest of my post?

The last time I stayed in Colombo I was at the Cinnamon (recently bombed again) and there were at least a dozen roadblocks between the airport and there - hardly good advertising for tourists.

The long-running civil war put paid to tourism for years and the infrastructure isn't there but I'm happy to hear your opinion.

Originally Posted by Headworx

^You were looking at fucking nowhere more like it. Simple reason being despite there being an entire world out there which people married to Thai's can happily move to and live you've somehow managed to paint yourself into a corner you clearly cannot get out of and are stuck living somewhere you hate. I've got a Thai partner too and if this place did my head in - as it obviously does to you - we'd be out of here like a shot to somewhere else.

Why can't you just do the same, you fucking idiot

You lower end lumpen are quite simplistic aren't you. The wingman and I have been in the 'world', you oaf, but we retired here on the basis of familial demands and commitments, and a desire to re-settle amid a society that unfortunately has changed for the worse markedly over the past twenty years. But we are slowly but surely getting our ducks in a row and shall move on elsewhere when the time is ripe.

The greatest disappointment in coming here is the unfortunate development whereby the expat community has shrunk leaving the present majority to be mostly uncouth, oikish, simpleton, blue collar ditch diggers intent on alcoholism and sleazy sex or uninteresting nonentities harbouring alarming eccentricities or extreme views usually expressed in a vocabulary unhampered by imagination.

Also, and this might seem odd coming from one who is ageing and retired, I am increasingly despairing of the inevitability that wherever one might go the company is invariably old. And if there is one thing worse that a common oik it must be a decrepit common oik entrenched in a lifelong habit of ignorance, bigotry and prejudice.

Boring fucks, really.

There is some fantastic high end tourism in Sri Lanka, or rather there was. My brother was there on a safari last year, guided tour basically set just for him to look at and photograph the wildlife. He had a fantastic time, right up to getting peripherally caught up in the Easter bombings.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

But we are slowly but surely getting our ducks in a row and shall move on elsewhere when the time is ripe.

Slowly? You've been threatening to leave since the sausages debacle which must be 5 or 6 years ago now, maybe more. How many ducks are you trying to line up exactly, must be in the billions.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

And if there is one thing worse that a common oik it must be a decrepit common oik entrenched in a lifelong habit of ignorance, bigotry and prejudice.

Oh the irony, and you're just too fucking stupid to even see it

Originally Posted by aging one

I do feel sorry for SA's partner. How could anyone live happily with such negativity towards the country of your birth? Most of it stemming from his swimming pool being closed. Damn..

The wingman truly loathes the stupidity of her countrymen, the corruption, the poor infrastructure and the hypocrisy of its authoritarianism but she does quite like the smelly food she grew up with and remains fondly attached to her family members which is as it should be.

Thailand has turned into a piece of shit but that is simply as a consequence of its society and the increasingly repulsive and tedious nature of the expats who inhabit the place.

Otherwise, it's fine as a billet as long as one forsakes any notion of a rewarding culture beyond a shopping mall and the endless stream of pap.

^ So think of the potential. It is surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. Love it there- I would happily live there, if it wasn't so complicated..