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Is Tourism Really Declining in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tourism in Thailand. This topic has been in the news a lot lately especially in this so-called low-season which is what we often times call usually the period following Songkran into the following high season which, depending on who you talk to, definitely starts sometime late October through November into January, February. I would actually argue high season kind of starts sometime in August or at least it is like the pre-season but May and June, especially for tourism related activities, is kind of the doldrums for Thailand but this low season has been particularly low. 

I have read various articles on this topic as well as gleaned some anecdotal evidence from people running businesses here in the Kingdom etc., especially businesses which cater to expats and tourists and it is clear to me that "yes, I think tourism just generally is on the decline." That being stated, the reason I made this video is I wanted to point out one thing that I don't think a lot of people are looking at with respect to the decline in tourism in Thailand and that is there has also been a major decline in what I would call pretensive tourists; so people that are pretending for lack of a better term, to be tourists. At one time here in the Kingdom, it was possible to maintain a long, long amount of status, lawful status, on 30 day stamps and tourist visas here in the Kingdom. In fact I know, not a few people that managed to live, in one case nearly a decade and another case I know of, multiple decades only on 30-day stamps and tourist visas. They never once felt in to overstay. They maintained their status but they were using 30-day stamps and tourist visas. The fact of the matter is, and Immigration has made this clear, their policy is Tourist Visas and  30-day stamps are intended for true tourists. If you are using them to live here in Thailand, that is no longer going to be acceptable and we have seen multiple, multiple accounts of people trying to come into Thailand after multiple 30 day stamps and being rebuffed or even getting a tourist visa abroad and then not being admitted to the Kingdom based on the notion that that individual is using a tourist visa in order to live here.

The reason I bring this up is all of these folks in the past were tabulated as tourists. Now in point of fact, most of them were in those people's cases, were actually living here but they were being tabulated as tourists. They were entering on tourist visas or they were entering on 30-day stamps. I think it is safe to presume that at least some percentage of the recent decline in tourism is a result in the decline of people that were using tourist status in order to live in the Kingdom.

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