I was looking at the number of tourist arrivals as posted by the Thai Government, Department of Tourism, this morning trying to figure out how close to reality they really are since the Tourism Authority of Thailand is always talking numbers of tourist arrivals.  These are the numbers that the almost English online news media posts and quotes the Tourism Authority of Thailand without questioning the number of tourist arrivals.

Later on in the morning, Tom from Isaan-Live stopped over to work out some issues with his web site and we got to discussing what constitutes a tourist in the eyes of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  So, it got me thinking as Tom and I could only agree that the exact definition of a tourist in Thailand cannot be defined.

Thailand Tourists at the Beach

So, how does the Tourism Authority of Thailand determine exactly what is a tourist?  Let me give you some examples:

I came to Thailand for a military exercise – Cobra Gold.  I flew on a commercial plane in civilian clothes and landed at either Don Mueang or Suvarnabhumi International Airport, and spent 29 days in Thailand.  Was I counted as a tourist by the Tourism Authority of Thailand?

I came to Thailand for the same military exercise and flew on a government charter, landed at a Thai Air Force base, stayed 29 days, flew out of a Thai Air Force base, and never had my passport stamped.  Was I counted as a tourist by the Tourism Authority of Thailand or was I counted at all.  According to my passport, I was never in Thailand.

I now live in Khon Kaen, Thailand, and take a holiday a couple times a year.  I fly from Khon Kaen to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport and then hire a driver to drive me to the beach where I spend 2-3 weeks in a hotel or guesthouse.  Am I counted as a domestic tourist by the Tourism Authority of Thailand?

When I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2010 on a one-year Non-Immigrant O-A visa (retiree), was I counted as a tourist by the Tourism Authority of Thailand?

Do those who leave Thailand every 30, 60, 90 days on a visa run to Laos, Cambodia, Burma, wherever, and return – are they counted and re-counted as tourists by the Tourism Authority of Thailand?

All Tom and I could do was agree that the Tourism Authority of Thailand has absolutely no way to determine exactly what a tourist is.

To back this up, I went to the Department of Tourism web site to get the latest numbers of tourist arrivals for the month of November to see if the numbers were down as much as the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand predicted (29%).  My guess was that the Thai Government would come out with numbers showing tourist arrivals down by about 5%.  The actual numbers from the Department of Tourism posted the numbers down 18% as reported at MCOT.

The problem, to me, is that the Department of Tourism posts two lists – one that shows total numbers of tourist arrivals from Suvarnabhumi, and the other is from everywhere.  I don’t know where “everywhere” is, but am guessing that it includes the airports at Chiang Mai and Phuket – and, I am not sure, but I suspect, that it also includes border crossings.  Tourism Authority of Thailand – any answer?

The other problem is that the lists are inconsistent.  One would think that the percentage of tourist arrivals at Suvarnabhumi would be close to total arrivals country-wide. They are not.  Tourist Arrivals at Suvarnabhumi were down 27.53% – much more than throughout the Kingdom. But, you will not hear that number from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The reason I suspect that border crossings are tossed into the mix is that Cambodia and Laos posted positive numbers (country-wide +18% and +16% respectively) and negative numbers  for arrivals at Suvarnabhumi (-20% for Cambodia, and -26% for Laos).  While most countries in the world had a minus sign in front of them,  the only other countries that showed a positive increase in tourist arrival numbers over November 2010 at Suvarnabhumi were Belgium, Russia, Spain, Brazil, and Australia. Country-wide, add New Zealand and South Africa.

Now, stating that tourism is down 18% or even 29% is bad especially when the Tourism Authority of Thailand has been predicting all year long that tourist arrivals will increase from the fictitious number of 15.5 million to the other fictitious number of 19.5 million.  But, there are some harsher numbers if you look at countries individually.

I am going to use the official Department of Tourism numbers for Suvarnabhumi as reported by the Immigration Bureau, Police Department.  Numbers that the Tourism Authority of Thailand will not mention.

The 9 ASEAN countries combined -46.65%

China -56%

Hong Kong -74.43%

Japan -39.89%

Korea -40.74%

Taiwan -68.09%

UAE -66.88%

There are numerous other countries that show double-digit decreases, but numbers are just numbers – the real impact is on how much money was lost.  And, showing a drop from 6,000 tourists to 3000 is not the same as showing a drop from 90,000 to 45,000 though both are 50% decreases.  But, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will just stick to 18% and whatever other numbers they can manipulate in their favor.

Suffice it to say that the numbers of tourist arrivals are significantly down for November and should also be down for December – though the numbers cannot be believed until the definition of a tourist in Thailand by the Tourism Authority of Thailand is clearly spelled out.

Until then, we will just have to read between the lines at what the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and the Department of Tourism “report”.

Tags: arrivals definition department of tourism Ministry of Tourism and Sports mots statistics TAT tourism authority tourism authority of thailand tourist