Thailand Worried About Drop in Chinese Tourists

[Jun]

Where the tours actually take them. Other than Pattaya Beach and the tour bus restaurants, I rarely see them anywhere else. There are plenty of tour buses, but where do they go?

I could make an educated guess.

Firstly, I shall give an example of a Chinese holiday schedule. 8 days on mainland Europe, 4 countries, 4 cities. So flying every other day. Not my idea of a holiday, but plenty of photos to show people back home where they have been.

Secondly, I stayed in a hotel in Japan where Chinese and Korean tour groups would occasionally arrive by bus. These would only ever stay one night before moving on. [The Japanese had the good sense to put them on a different floor to other guests]

My guess is most of the Chinese bus tour groups spend one night in Pattaya. After that, they probably go to Bangkok, then onto Chiang Mai, or wherever it is fashionable for them to visit. Lots of time on the bus, which they will mostly spend on their phones.

[Undaunted]

More on Chinese Tourist decline:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ay-at-home

[fountainhall]

we're talking about two completely different categories of tourists

But that surely is the point. There are different types of tourists. Figures from last year showed that outbound tourists from China in the cheap tour group category were still ahead of those on more expensive tours and individual tourists. But the gap was closing quite quickly. No doubt the second group are happy to travel longer distances and to spend a lot when they get there. But then Trump's sanctions and the fall in the Chinese currency must certainly be having an effect. How much? I have no idea.

What surprises me is that many millions of Chinese visited Hong Kong. Again it was a mix of low cost tours but with millions more rich Chinese taking advantage of the considerably cheaper prices for luxury brand name goods in Hong Kong. Both groups have all but vanished from Hong Kong. But many must still be travelling. With the Beijing government having temporarily stopped individual tourism to Taiwan - more millions, I wonder where they are going. Japan had 8 million Chinese tourists last year, but with the ¥ rising even slightly faster than the US dollar, their numbers must also be down.

Decent discounts in luxury boutiques as suggested in gera's post, if quickly marketed and tied in with special air fare promotions, would surely have attracted many of the big spenders not going to the other three countries, I'd have thought. But Bangkok would probably be the only target.

I shall give an example of a Chinese holiday schedule. 8 days on mainland Europe, 4 countries, 4 cities.

For those not old enough to remember, this was how a majority of European and American tourists travelled in the 1960s, only it was by coach. There was a well-known 1969 movie If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium about a group of American tourists on an whirlwind 18-day coach trip around Europe with stops every one or two days!

At that time the government restricted Brits to an overseas annual spending allowance of only £50!

[Jun]

At that time the government restricted Brits to an overseas annual spending allowance of only £50!

That's one of the reasons why I decided to open overseas bank & broking accounts. All it needs is a major economic crisis and a country might "temporarily" reinstate exchange controls. I think Iceland had some form of currency controls for almost a decade after the 2008 economic crisis.

Meanwhile, today China restricts its citizens to transferring $50,000 per year abroad. This is relative freedom compared with the old situation in the UK, but thankfully Mrs Thatcher granted us our liberty by abolishing exchange rate controls.

Even when not circumvented, the Chinese allowance is sufficient to have some big spending holidays.