News Forum - Thailand welcomes 900,000 foreign tourists during Jan 1-15

[Thaiger]

In the first half of January, Thailand welcomed a grand total of 913,013 foreign tourists, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Governor of the TAT Yuthasak Supsasorn revealed that Russia has overtaken Malaysia as the Number 1 tourism market… Foreign Arrivals in Thailand by Nationality January 1 – 15, 2023 Russians (99,593) Malaysians …

The story Thailand welcomes 900,000 foreign tourists during Jan 1-15 as seen on Thaiger News.

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[BBY]

Note the lack of European visitor numbers.

IMO, probably for the the same reason as I have commented on in another post. (See Below)

 

Not sure what it’s like from the rest of Europe, but very likely to be similar. Airfares from the U.K. have roughly doubled. What used to be between £500 and £650 for a basic economy ticket, is now around £1000 to £1200. Brent Crude prices have dropped significantly, but this does not seem to have been reflected in flight prices. 
Along with the the huge financial challenges most people are facing this year, it’s bound to have a negative effect on numbers travelling. Maybe an opportunity for the Thai government here to subsidise “Thai airways” to deliver a cheaper alternative, it will fill their aircraft and force other carriers to compete.

 

[KaptainRob]

~130,000 'tourists' from Malaysia and Laos included how many cross-border day traders?

48 minutes ago, BBY said:

Airfares from the U.K. have roughly doubled. What used to be between £500 and £650 for a basic economy ticket, is now around £1000 to £1200.

Prices are coming down, Emirates at ~ GBP 730 return and EVA @ GBP713 is quite good.  EVA is a direct flight too!

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, BBY said:

Note the lack of European visitor numbers.

IMO, probably for the the same reason as I have commented on in another post. (See Below)

Not sure what it’s like from the rest of Europe, but very likely to be similar. Airfares from the U.K. have roughly doubled. What used to be between £500 and £650 for a basic economy ticket, is now around £1000 to £1200. Brent Crude prices have dropped significantly, but this does not seem to have been reflected in flight prices. 
Along with the the huge financial challenges most people are facing this year, it’s bound to have a negative effect on numbers travelling. Maybe an opportunity for the Thai government here to subsidise “Thai airways” to deliver a cheaper alternative, it will fill their aircraft and force other carriers to compete.

Totally agree with your assessment. The price of flights will put many people off. I’ve also said in a few posts the exact same thing. It’s usually followed by people telling me I’m wrong and how flights were much higher in 1995. The fact is that flight are up by 40% or more. As an example: I normally pay £850-£900 from London for Premium economy. It’s now at least £1,500-£1,700.
 

At first I thought this was early demand issues after Covid along with high jet fuel prices. Nothing has changed in the past year mainly because fuel prices are still high. At the start of 2022 it was around $130/barrel. They peaked at $175 in May and the latest price is around $135/barrel. I don’t think the cost of tickets will reduce until fuel is back to pre-pandemic and Putin is dead. Typically they were in the range of $40-$75/barrel. So as you can see, twice the price and hence much higher ticket prices.  

[Soidog]

17 minutes ago, KaptainRob said:

~130,000 'tourists' from Malaysia and Laos included how many cross-border day traders?

Prices are coming down, Emirates at ~ GBP 730 return and EVA @ GBP713 is quite good.  EVA is a direct flight too!

They are coming down for economy for the low season in March onwards. At £730 with EVA that’s still around 25% higher than 2019. We will see them return to a more “normal” level, but I don’t think they will ever fall to the low prices in 2019. 
 

I think the other thing holding back travel is still a certain fear of long haul flights and catching Covid and upsetting your holiday, along with a more general uncertainty of the world economy. All of this should wash out by late 2024. Hopefully

[BBY]

Just had a look at todays prices on Sky Scanner, definitely cheaper than yesterday. See photos.

Brent Crude is just a bit above 86$ a barrel now. 
 

Emirates yesterday were £980 on Skyscanner and more expensive on their site. Might be cheaper at Gatwick/Luton I guess but Heathrow is closest to me. 

[KaptainRob]

16 minutes ago, Soidog said:

general uncertainty of the world economy

... and personal finances.  Agreed,

Those fares I quoted are current for Jan/Feb.

[Soidog]

3 minutes ago, BBY said:

Just had a look at todays prices on Sky Scanner, definitely cheaper than yesterday. See photos.

Brent Crude is just a bit above 86$ a barrel now. 
 

Emirates yesterday were £980 on Skyscanner and more expensive on their site. Might be cheaper at Gatwick/Luton I guess but Heathrow is closest to me. 

Jet fuel and Brent prices do follow each other, though jet fuel is nearly always priced higher. As you can see from the following, Jet fuel is almost 45% higher than Brent 

[KaptainRob]

I don't like Skyscanner ... and look at the TG fares!!!

Here's a quick quote for Feb 1 and return 2 weeks later, not the cheapest options but good flights >

[Soidog]

6 minutes ago, KaptainRob said:

I don't like Skyscanner ... and look at the TG fares!!!

Here's a quick quote for Feb 1 and return 2 weeks later, not the cheapest options but good flights >

Just done the same dates with EVA but flying the other way. Out from LHR on 1st Feb and return 2 weeks later. Cheapest available booking with EVA Economy is £1,387 !!  Work that one out. Same airline, same distance. It maybe that the real cheap tickets have all gone, that price is for what EVA call Economy  Up on the way out, which is free seat selection and some flexibility for changes. It’s still a big difference compared to the reverse route! 
 

As some of you will know. I detest (is there a stronger word?) ALL airlines. This is just another example why.

[Marc26]

4 hours ago, Soidog said:

Totally agree with your assessment. The price of flights will put many people off. I’ve also said in a few posts the exact same thing. It’s usually followed by people telling me I’m wrong and how flights were much higher in 1995. The fact is that flight are up by 40% or more. As an example: I normally pay £850-£900 from London for Premium economy. It’s now at least £1,500-£1,700.
 

At first I thought this was early demand issues after Covid along with high jet fuel prices. Nothing has changed in the past year mainly because fuel prices are still high. At the start of 2022 it was around $130/barrel. They peaked at $175 in May and the latest price is around $135/barrel. I don’t think the cost of tickets will reduce until fuel is back to pre-pandemic and Putin is dead. Typically they were in the range of $40-$75/barrel. So as you can see, twice the price and hence much higher ticket prices.  

I think it's route dependent as well

I feel flying to US from Canada and flying in the US seems cheaper than ever, at times

I flew one way across the country for 230cad/5600baht

 

Flights from Vancouver to BKK start coming back to normal levels in April

 

BUT........I can't find a decent price to fly to Japan, no matter what month

Trying to meet my stepson there this summer

 

 

The crazy thing is if it cheaper for me to stop and Tokyo for a week, then fly to Bangkok than it is for me to just fly to Tokyo!!

 

Make sense of that!

 

 

[Grumpish]

As well as fuel prices, the other significant factor is capacity. A lot of airlines are still not back to 2019 levels on routes and the number of flights, and until they get close to capacity on the flights that they are operating and at the fare levels that they are offering then fare levels will stay high. 

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, Marc26 said:

I think it's route dependent as well

I feel flying to US from Canada and flying in the US seems cheaper than ever, at times

I flew one way across the country for 230cad/5600baht

Flights from Vancouver to BKK start coming back to normal levels in April

BUT........I can't find a decent price to fly to Japan, no matter what month

Trying to meet my stepson there this summer

The crazy thing is if it cheaper for me to stop and Tokyo for a week, then fly to Bangkok than it is for me to just fly to Tokyo!!

Make sense of that!

Just baffling. Like I’ve said before, I hate ALL airlines and this kind of thing is just a small part of why. Stop being smart (sharp) with pricing and make it more transparent for people to understand. 

[BBY]

5 hours ago, Soidog said:

Just baffling. Like I’ve said before, I hate ALL airlines and this kind of thing is just a small part of why. Stop being smart (sharp) with pricing and make it more transparent for people to understand. 

I used Qatar for years. Their prices were really good right up until the World Cup when they soared up and like most things in life, they have never gone back. Just like the energy crisis. As we mentioned earlier. Brent crude is way down from where it was. But have energy prices dropped in line. Nooooo. It’s only going to take one airline to offer bargain prices (Thai Airways) supported by the government, add more flights that will fill up and then there will be more opportunity to hit those tourist targets. 
 

KaptainRob. Agreed sir, I much prefer to go direct to the airline, but they are cutting their own throats at the moment. 
 

I don’t know how true it is, but I was once told that the home airline sets the minimum price from the home base to the airlines hub. This is why indirect flights were much cheaper and this was because once at the airlines hub such as Doha for Qatar, they could charge you whatever they wanted too from that point onward. So they would for example have to charge BA’s minimum price from London to Doha. Then if they wanted to charge you for example a vastly reduced amount for the second leg, they could. 
 

If true, this would go some way to explaining the difference in price of flying London to Bangkok or the other way around.

 

[BigHewer]

On 1/20/2023 at 11:45 PM, Marc26 said:

I think it's route dependent as well

I feel flying to US from Canada and flying in the US seems cheaper than ever, at times

I flew one way across the country for 230cad/5600baht

Flights from Vancouver to BKK start coming back to normal levels in April

BUT........I can't find a decent price to fly to Japan, no matter what month

Trying to meet my stepson there this summer

The crazy thing is if it cheaper for me to stop and Tokyo for a week, then fly to Bangkok than it is for me to just fly to Tokyo!!

Make sense of that!

I totally hear you. Fares to and from Japan to Thailand are much higher than they were pre-pandemic and the recovery is slow. 

In some of the dates I’ve looked at, it’s cheaper to fly one way to Seoul and then do an interline transfer and fly one way from Seoul to Bangkok. Never seen this before in 20+ trips to Thailand ex-Japan.

It’ll improve in March / April I believe. China coming back to the party and capacity coming back to parity.