jai yen yen
They are very closed minded in general and have a misguided belief that they are the top of the heap in humanity

Have to disagree with that
Maybe the circles of folks you mix with thing that
Most places i have been in thailand I would say I have been treated like everyone else
I know parks and zoos have a extra fee for tourists but so what
They also give discounts to the young and elderly
I have shopped inthe local markets for fruit, veggies and meat and only get charged what locals do
Or is that class me as a local
No can't be that as am still called farang

The sharp rise in visitor expenditure is playing a major role in bolstering the Thai economy, supporting jobs and income distribution nationwide. It also fits in with the new strategic focus of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to make visitor expenditure the dominant criteria of measuring the success of the tourism industry, as against visitor arrivals.

Although the January – June 2015 figures are preliminary, they provide a good indication of the resurgence in tourism following the overall decline in visitor arrivals and expenditure in 2014. The Royal Thai Government now recognises tourism as a major driving force in the national economy.

Other nationalities in the top-ten list of visitor expenditure in January – June 2015 were:

Country (January – June 2015) Amount (billion Baht) % change over January – June 2014
China 190.919 +138.91
Malaysia 39.755 +64.58
United Kingdom 32.498 +4.55
Russia 31.768 -50.43
USA 29.938 +15.80
Australia 29.021 +6.18
Japan 27.972 +28.42
Korea 26.775 +29.12
Germany 25.094 +9.38
France 24.304 +16.35

In terms of arrivals, the top-ten nationalities were:

Country (January – June 2015) Amount % change over January – June 2014
China 4,006,584 +111.64
Malaysia 1,704,370 +57.93
Japan 675,758 +16.79
Korea 638,296 +19.71
Laos 565,601 +20.73
India 526,120 +17.01
Russia 466,457 -50.35
United Kingdom 462,633 +2.73
Singapore 459,795 +36.46
USA 426,955 +12.21

In 2015, TAT has projected 28.8 million international visitors generating an estimated 1.4 trillion Baht.

The TAT marketing plan for 2016 will focus on promoting the kingdom as a “Quality Leisure Destination through Thainess.”

The plan marks the start of a new era for Thai tourism. The wording of the new strategy indicates an end to decades of focussing on “quantity”, as measured by visitor arrivals, and a total shift to “quality” as measured by visitor expenditure, average length of stay, and the overall quality of the visitor experience.

Contact Information
International Public Relations Division
Tourism Authority of Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2250 5500 ext. 4545-48
Fax: +66 (0) 2253 7419
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.tatnews.org
Facebook: TAT Newsroom
Twitter: TAT Newsroom

LINK http://www.tatnews.org/chinese-visitor- ... june-2015/

Was expecting Indian expenditure in the list since they come on large numbers,see loads in shopping malls,must be spending something

Interesting to see the British spend more than any nationality except Chinese and Malaysians .... but how do they know who spent what?

rick wrote:Interesting to see the British spend more than any nationality except Chinese and Malaysians .... but how do they know who spent what?

Reckon it's ALL The Pound Notes they count at The Banks & Exchange Shops / Booths....

rick wrote:Interesting to see the British spend more than any nationality except Chinese and Malaysians .... but how do they know who spent what?

I can only guess that banks and exchange booths have to declare the amount of foreign currency they have received for exchange and it is based on that

Sorry 747.......I hadn't seen your reply

The Chinese spend approximately ฿47,400 per tourist
while the English tourist spends ฿69,000 and the American tourist spends ฿70,000.

So should they market for more tourist from the UK and USA?

Well, western tourists do spend more, but the sheer distance will always limit their numbers. I expect the Chinese will increase spending, recession or no recession. On calculating expenditure, most tourists bring some baht with them, and a lot also use their credit/debit cards to pay - so they would need some pretty sophisticated data capture to arrive at that figure - my guess is that it is feedback from a limited number of sources and a lot of guesswork - but the figures do seem reasonable.

From the numbers given above
Dividing expenditure by arrival numbers

The list of who spend most per arrival is USA 71
UK 69
Russia 67
China 47
Korea 41
Japan 40
Malayasia 22
The other coutries did not make both lists

if they were marketing for the American tourist they'd ensure that Thai Airways continued flights from Los Angeles and at a competitive price.. In fact, they could put some of their massive A380's on that route if indeed they were going for the 70,000 baht average American spending while on vacation in Thailand... But, they're not and Thai will drop the LA route as a money-loser.... (mind you Thai charged significantly more than other carriers.)