End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

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Gaybutton
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End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by Gaybutton »

I do feel badly for some of the businesses that depended on and catered virtually exclusively to Chinese tourists, but in all honesty not all that much. I've said before that I thought it was a big mistake to put all the eggs in the Chinese basket to the point that without them, the businesses are unlikely to survive. And now that seems to be exactly what is happening and will continue to happen.

I would be lying if I said I would be upset if Pattaya traffic will no longer be plagued with the Chinese tour buses - at least not for a long time to come.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Chinese people at all. I, and I don't think I'm alone in this, do have something against it when there are so many at one time due to business greed that it causes significant problems.

Here's the latest on the Chinese tourists:
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The Chinese won’t be returning to Pattaya any time soon

By Pattaya Mail

May 21, 2021

The mega-businesses in Pattaya which have traditionally depended on Chinese tourists to fill their seats are being warned that they will remain in the doldrums for the rest of the year. These include several transvestite cabarets and family spectacle shows with hi-tech features, particularly along Thepprasit Road, as well as at least 10 three and four star hotels in South Pattaya. Most mass-tourism attractions such as zoos, water features and parks closed even before they were ordered to do so because of Covid precautions.

Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Travel Agents, told the Bangkok Post that Chinese tourists would not be returning to Thailand this year as China has developed a self-dependent domestic market with a population of 1.4 billion to draw from. He explained that Beijing was very unlikely to relax the ban on overseas vacations until at least 70 percent of the population had been vaccinated. This would not be achieved until March or April 2022.

Nor are the Chinese authorities likely to engage in travel bubble arrangements with other countries whilst the pandemic persists with its ever-growing number of variants which increase the risk of re-infection. Mr Sisdivachr mentioned China’s strict quarantine rules: “Look at Hong Kong which is close to the mainland, yet Chinese people still have to isolate for two weeks when returning from there.”

A major problem for Pattaya is that the Chinese government has specifically outlawed group tours and packages which have been the mainstay of that market. At one time, there were so many tour buses in the city that parking restrictions at night on major roads were rescinded to cope with the sheer numbers. Thai authorities have taken advantage of the huge reduction in traffic to try their hand at road widening and anti-flood precautions, many of which are ongoing.

With both China and India (Thailand’s biggest recruitment centers) out of the tourist picture for now, Thailand will be dependent on more traditional markets such as the UK, mainland Europe, USA, Australia and parts of the Middle East for its planned reopening from July 1 when Phuket’s Sandbox model (no quarantine for fully vaccinated foreigners) kicks in. This is to be followed by ten other cities and regions from October 1 with a plan fully to reopen Thailand at the start of 2022. But none of it is written in concrete as the pesky virus continues its ravaging.

The cautious hope is that there will be 5 million foreign arrivals in the calendar year 2021, expected to generate 150 billion baht. This is a far cry from the near 40 million who arrived in 2019 generating 1.3 billion US dollars or about 40.3 billion baht. For the time being, Thailand’s tourist industry will be heavily dependent on the lively domestic market and the beleaguered expat population. The question now is whether Pattaya’s international visitor infrastructure can wait for 2022.

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/ ... oon-356456
gerefan
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Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by gerefan »

How can Boyztown survive after two years of closures of their major players?

Boys Disco closed over a year ago followed by BBB.As we know they were reliant on Chinese tour groups.

To a lesser extent so were Toyboys and Castro which have also been closed for about a year.

I fear that the loss of these large bars may take the smaller businesses with them and may spell the end Boyztown (if it is not already a dead duck).
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Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

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gerefan wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 3:29 am As we know they were reliant on Chinese tour groups.
That is true, but that reliance was comparatively recent. We already had lost the almost exclusively gay area of the beach. Then the Chinese were taking over the gay go-go bars.

My hope is once tourists can start going to Thailand again, the gay scene will make a comeback. Slowly perhaps, but I would certainly like the gay scene to restore itself to just that - the gay scene. Not the Chinese tour group scene it was becoming.

If there is to be a silver lining on the cloud, for me it would be seeing a restart of the gay scene and Pattaya becoming the gay paradise it once was.
Jun

Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by Jun »

When covid is no longer a road block, I would imagine Thailand will remain attractive to Chinese tourists.
As long as the Chinese leadership does not discourage travel, I suspect Chinese citizens will go abroad.

I imagine the development of the gay bars that appeal to western tourists will more depend on the demand from western tourists.

To an extent, businesses in Pattaya will try exploiting any niche that they think might be profitable. So we see businesses catering to all sorts of niches -gay, straight, tom boy, lady boy, Chinese, Russian, English, German, Swiss, Norwegian, Arab, Indian, Jewish etc.
Such businesses don't always seem to correctly interpret what the customer likes, so not all succeed.
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Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 8:42 pm To an extent, businesses in Pattaya will try exploiting any niche that they think might be profitable. So we see businesses catering to all sorts of niches -gay, straight, tom boy, lady boy, Chinese, Russian, English, German, Swiss, Norwegian, Arab, Indian, Jewish etc.
Again I believe the mistake some of these businesses made was investing large amounts of money in just one of those niches - Chinese. While of course nobody anticipated something like Covid to happen, it still would have made much more sense to me to try to appeal to a wide variety of tourists, not just one group. As a result, even when tourism opens up again and even if China allows unlimited travel to Thailand, by the time these businesses can recover, if it is not already too late to recover, years will go by.

For their sakes I hope they've learned their lesson (and I doubt they did). Sheer greed brought them to this. I'm sorry, but I would be lying if I said I give a damn what happens to those kinds of businesses. As far as I'm concerned, they're getting exactly what they brought on to themselves.
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Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by ceejay »

I haven't been in for a while, so I only saw this thread just now. I am not one to say "I told you so" (heaven forbid) but I jolly well did.
https://www.gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic ... ify#p93299
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Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

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ceejay wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:04 pm I am not one to say "I told you so" (heaven forbid) but I jolly well did.
Yes, you did. And you definitely get to say "I told you so".

And the amount of sympathy I feel for the businesses that thought it was a great idea to cater exclusively to the Chinese, to the exclusion of everybody else, ranges somewhere between nil and zero. This is where their greed got them - and as far as I'm concerned, they got what they deserve.

The only ones I truly feel badly for are the Thais who worked at these venues and lost their jobs.
Jun

Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by Jun »

I also have near zero sympathy for certain tour operations. Particularly the ones with half empty buses belching out black smoke. Despite all the closed businesses on my last trip to Thailand, there were some positives influences from the pandemic !

However, the time to judge how the tourist market is evolving will be in the years after travel restrictions are lifted.

What we would like to happen and what will happen could be very different.
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Re: End of Chinese tours in Thailand?

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Wed Jun 02, 2021 12:13 am half empty buses belching out black smoke.
One thing is for sure. The bus companies can't say they haven't had plenty of time to properly service and repair their fleet.

Once those buses are back on the road, if they are still belching out black smoke, or any smoke at all, I hope the companies are very heavily fined for each smoke belching bus and see those buses confiscated. No excuses. If they can't keep their buses in good repair, then keep them off the road.
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