Thailand authorities attempting to woo Chinese tourists - Too little, too late

Thailand is seeing a rather massive drop in tourism and has been for many years. I worked in the tourism sector in this country for nearly 15 years and I have seen this coming for a long time. Thailand has had a certain level of "tourism arrogance" as the Kingdom was seen for a very long period of time as being one of the top destinations in the world for people of all classes. It was popular among backpackers and gap-year people, middle class families and also for truly top-tier 5-star luxury - this country really had it all. Well, it still does, but fewer and fewer people are coming each year in the past 5 years or so and the Chinese are the ones whose numbers are dropping most rapidly.

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The reason why the Thai authorities have focused so much on China in the past and also now is because, well, these 2 billion people are literally next door and Thailand has a good trade relationship with the nation.

When i was managing a "middle class" resort where the 3 bedroom villas with swimming pool were around $200 a night we were able to get our hands on some mainland Chinese customers once Wechat created a brilliant translation tool that actually works.

When i would speak to these customers they let me know something i was unaware of... Regardless of what kind of visa a Chinese person was arriving on, each Chinese citizen was charged 1000 Baht per person (even babies) for each passport processed. This is not a visa fee, this is just theft as the visa on arrivals are free for all countries that qualify. I have no idea what this money was used for but upon arriving at the airport their flights would be sent to a different area where everyone was forced to hand over 1000 Baht each in order to enter the country. If you don't like it, you can go back to China (while this was never publicly stated, it was kind of the attitude.)

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When this racket was exposed by Chinese visitors with hidden cameras, the immigration officials acted stunned and then printed up these signs as a solution.... problem solved! Unfortunately this had been going on for years and as recently as last year when my connecting flight traveled from USA through China to Bangkok, I ended up in this line also. I was not charged the 1000B but the people around me who were 95% Chinese already had their money prepared... they have become accustomed to the corruption.

Another sequence of events happened to damage the Thai tourism image in the minds of the Chinese. A tour boat advertised to primarily Chinese tourists sank off the coast of Phuket

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47 people died in this wreck, and none of them were the crew (including the captain.) These things happen and it is tragic when it does happen, but the Thai response was simply adding fuel to the fire. Rather insensitive things were said that appeared to be blaming the victims for not knowing how to swim or not knowing safety information. Basically a "we didn't do it!" response. Later a rather small amount of money (up to $30,000 per casualty) was given to families of the deceased. I don't know if they were expecting to be praised for this handout and "sorry bout dat" payments are quite common in this country, but this number is too small for them to expect any sort of congratulations for their generosity.

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Later a viral video would emerge of Don Muang Airport security beating a 50-something Chinese tourist for refusing to go to a "private room" to provide proof of accommodation in Bangkok. This idea of needing to know exactly where a visitor is staying on their arrival has always seemed dumb to me since there is no method of actually verifying it, but apparently, if you refuse to comply, they beat you.

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In response to this and other things that aren't documented as well such as Chinese tourists getting charged dramatically more than other nationalities for basic things and also being "definitely fined at all police checkpoints" has lead Chinese tourists to look elsewhere.

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Furthermore, one of the hotspots for Chinese tourism in Thailand is the city I live in, Chiang Mai. This is due to the cultural significance and high level of Buddhist temples in the area (it probably has something to do with the shopping also, i dunno) but my city's reputation has been tainted also since the "burning season" from February to April results in an air quality index that is the WORST IN THE WORLD. When your air quality makes urban areas in China seem clean, you've done something terribly wrong. In response the government points fingers at Burma and what not but doesn't actually do anything to solve the problem. They actually hand out free filtration masks at the airport.... That'll fix it!

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_{welcome to lovely scenic Chiang Mai!}

All these things combined with the fact that the Baht is actually a very strong currency at the moment (for some reason) have resulted in dramatic downturns in overall tourism, but the 12% drop in Chinese tourists, who constitute more than a quarter of all visitors to this country, is going to result in heavy losses.

Normally, a tourism hotspot has targets of higher numbers than previous years, because there are more people in the world from year to year. Never would they have expected a drop in numbers. Well, I did and so did other people who have worked in this industry for many years.

You can't mistreat your visitors over and over again and expect them to say thank you for it and return next year. This has been going on for a decade and the steps that Thailand is taking to rectify the situation by doing things such as "eliminating the graft" at Immigration is "too little too late." This should have never been happening in the first place. They claim ignorance, but if you know anything about this country the reason why the corruption exists at all in the first place is because the people in charge mandated it.

The latest wave of attempting to charm the Chinese into continuing to visit the Land of Smiles? Chinese only immigration booths. Awesome... that'll fix it.

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I've seen this happen 2 times before: When they chased the "excessive Russian tourists" and the "excessive Korean tourists" out of the country years ago... they spent years and millions of dollars trying to rectify that situation, mostly in vain. If they manage to chase away the Chinese, a segment they have basically banked on for as long as I have been an adult, harsh days will follow for a country whose GDP is 20% based on tourism

_{It is not my intention to bad mouth the country I have called home for 15 years. I'm not just trying to get some revenge. However, i have seen the government situation go from good, to bad, to worse, to unbearable; particularly in the past 5 years... I have said for a long time that Thailand will only try to fix this situation once it is too late and that appears to be what is starting to happen now.}