Thailand tourism situation

Local Hua Hin and regional Thailand news articles and discussion.
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LolaBeltran
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by LolaBeltran »

One contribution to the slump has got to be the appalling immigration procedures at Suwannaphum. We arrived from Europe three days ago in the evening around 7:00. The "snake" line was already well beyond the sign on the fence that said "Wait time from this point one hour"
I was in line for over an hour and a half. Even that was disorganized. Several times I watched ASEAN folks standing in the general foreigner line realize that they were in the wrong line at which point they broke queue and nudged their way to their much shorter line. What a mess! Travellers remember this kind of reception. Dont even ask about smiles.
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404cameljockey
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by 404cameljockey »

LolaBeltran wrote: Mon Jun 19, 2017 9:02 pm One contribution to the slump has got to be the appalling immigration procedures at Suwannaphum. We arrived from Europe three days ago in the evening around 7:00. The "snake" line was already well beyond the sign on the fence that said "Wait time from this point one hour"
I was in line for over an hour and a half. Even that was disorganized. Several times I watched ASEAN folks standing in the general foreigner line realize that they were in the wrong line at which point they broke queue and nudged their way to their much shorter line. What a mess! Travellers remember this kind of reception. Dont even ask about smiles.
Only just discovered this thread! Are you a regular visitor to Thailand? I don't think tourists are put off by passport control delays if the rest of their experience is wonderful. And these staff all around the world are often surly, in USA they are appalling, UAE also most of them just seem arrogant. The UK must be one of the few countries where they will chat and smile while they are checking passports and maybe that's only because I'm in the UK line so they have less to think about?

Thai passport control staff have always been polite to me, some smile and talk too. I always greet them with a 'sarwadikhap', a small wai (for the uniform :D ) and a big smile; maybe that helps, we all have to help oil the wheels of social grace.

And they do seem to open new booths when the lines get long. Maybe the airport was just swamped when you arrived? That happens worldwide too. In Bali (Denpasar) I found a line between 50 and 80 metres long once. A chat to a guy in a uniform saw my family escorted through ropes where a few thousand Rupiah changed hands and we were out, but without that we would have been stuck for hours. :)
oakdale160
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by oakdale160 »

VN has also worked hard.Its golf-tourism business is growing rapidly and they are making a serious push to improve English speaking ability in those dealing with tourists.
centermid7
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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Only just discovered this thread! Are you a regular visitor to Thailand? I don't think tourists are put off by passport control delays if the rest of their experience is wonderful. And these staff all around the world are often surly, in USA they are appalling, UAE also most of them just seem arrogant. The UK must be one of the few countries where they will chat and smile while they are checking passports and maybe that's only because I'm in the UK line so they have less to think about?

No No, that is not it at all! You just wanna bash all things that are not UK! Happens a lot on here.

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers!
handdrummer
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by handdrummer »

ah yes, the ever present bribe. doing your bit for humanity.
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HuaHin61
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by HuaHin61 »

it looks like officials are doing there best to avoid tourists from visiting HuaHin ?

HuaHin is little attractive nowadays - demolition everywhere

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take it easy
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404cameljockey
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by 404cameljockey »

centermid7 wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2017 9:29 am

Only just discovered this thread! Are you a regular visitor to Thailand? I don't think tourists are put off by passport control delays if the rest of their experience is wonderful. And these staff all around the world are often surly, in USA they are appalling, UAE also most of them just seem arrogant. The UK must be one of the few countries where they will chat and smile while they are checking passports and maybe that's only because I'm in the UK line so they have less to think about?

No No, that is not it at all! You just wanna bash all things that are not UK! Happens a lot on here.

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers!
No idea what you're talking about. I'm talking about personal experiences in different countries. I also said that I doubted whether my UK experience was normal.

I also said that my experiences with Thai immigration are good. WTF are you smoking?
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404cameljockey
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by 404cameljockey »

handdrummer wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:46 pm ah yes, the ever present bribe. doing your bit for humanity.
Ooooh I'm hurt.
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Nereus
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by Nereus »

This doesn't help:
...........................................................................................
Don Mueang passengers suffer in four-hour queue

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... queue-much

Understaffed immigration clearance at Don Mueang airport resulted in a wait of more than four hours for hundreds of passengers -- and an online complaint from a Thai man whose foreign wife was among them.

Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a law lecturer at Thammasat University, shared images of packed queues for passport control at the airport on his Facebook page early Saturday.

He said his wife, a foreign national who had arrived from the award-winning Changi airport in Singapore, estimated that around 2,000 passengers were waiting in non-moving queues on Friday night. Two hours later he shared a similar image as the queues showed no sign of shortening.

After three hours of waiting, he asked airport officials what they were doing to solve the problem but they just acknowledged the issue. An immigration official told him that problems had arisen because several flights landed at the same time, but the airport did not coordinate with immigration in advance so there were insufficient immigration officers to deal with the crowds. 

Mr Piyabutr said his wife informed him that an immigration official wanted to open a new counter but the boss objected, so there were two unused lanes.

He said it took his wife four hours and 20 minutes from the time she joined the queue at midnight to clear passport control. His wife said there were two priority lanes for flight crew which should have been used to speed up service, but officials kept telling passengers to stay in their original queues. She noticed that some passengers were weak and needed water as conditions were stuffy with little ventilation.

Mr Piyabutr said several tourists he spoke with told him it was their worst experince with passport control, and he wondered if any first-time visitors experiencing such problems would return to Thailand in the future.

Mr Piyabutr on Saturday afternoon posted a link to customer reviews on the international website Skytrax complaining about their bad experience at Don Mueang.
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handdrummer
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

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proving once again the inability of thais to think.
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PeteC
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by PeteC »

They need to remember that many in line are not meek and mild mannered Thais. Someone eventually is going to throw a stanchion through a window out of stress and exhaustion and perhaps that will wake them up. They are literally endangering people's health and lives with waits like that and can be sued. Someone should. Pete :cheers:
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oakdale160
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by oakdale160 »

one poster said that if the remainder of their vacation is ok, then they will not hold a grudge. I think that is true. it also annoys me that you can also have a long wait at immigration when getting OUT of the country.
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by bsdk1960 »

wedensday 2/8,took the 18.00 airportbus from HH,arrived 21.30.
Check in with Thai airwais,security check and immigration cue,all done in 30 min. :shock:
In Februar it took nearly 2 hours :banghead:

:cheers: :cheers:
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STEVE G
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by STEVE G »

oakdale160 wrote: Sun Aug 06, 2017 1:06 pm one poster said that if the remainder of their vacation is ok, then they will not hold a grudge. I think that is true. it also annoys me that you can also have a long wait at immigration when getting OUT of the country.
I think that the ever increasing hassle to traveling with security and immigration checks is a problem for the tourism industry everywhere, I haven't traveled anywhere purely for pleasure in over ten years. I fly to Europe to work and back home to Thailand and I go to England every couple of months to check up on my elderly Mother but I wouldn't fly anywhere just for a holiday, I'd rather sit in the garden with the dog!
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Nereus
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Re: Thailand tourist slump continues

Post by Nereus »

I'd rather sit in the garden with the dog!
The dog probably prefers that also! :rasta:
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