Declining Visitors to the Kingdom?

I can have a cheaper holiday in Vietnam or Cambodia than Thailand. So I lurk that branch more. Bangkok is not the gateway of flights around asia now. This christmass it is cheaper to fly MEL to KL. KL to PP (3hr stop over) with MA, Than TA MEL to BNK and and Air Asia flight to PP. Add in hotel and taxi's in BNK are a 100% more expensive than PP.

I think islandboi has nailed it with mention of this edition of TT. Seems to have affected more branches than this one.

A TT moderator once explained that the total number of posts that you see for a forum has everything to do with the settings for that particular branch, and the maximum number of posts it's set to retain.

That said, it'd be nice to see some posting statistics for the various branches..

Roman B

Anyway, if it turns out the number of posts are down then I'll just start a bunch of topics like:

"Dual pricing: Why it's fair."

"Why so many people tip too much"

"The benefits of eating dog"

"I don't want them to call me "Farang".

"Sex tourism: Does Cambodia have the edge over Thailand?"

etc. Each of those is typically good for at least 50-100 posts.

Songkra where to stay?

Add in hotel and taxi's in BNK are a 100% more expensive than PP.Cambodia is only

That's just Bangkok. Across the board, Cambodia is only about 20% cheaper than Thailand, And in the provincial cities, Thailand still offers unbeatable value for mid-range accommodation. For my next trip, it's going to be 60% Philippines, 30% Thailand and 10% Cambodia and Malaysia. I expect to spend about 20% less per day during the Thai leg than the Philippines one. In spite of one or two irritations, particularly the dual pricing in the Parks, I don't think Thailand is overpriced at all.

The current world economy doesn't help right now neither. Europeans and other 'Western' countries have to think a bit harder before going far away from home nowadays, they may have alot less money to spend and luxury itmes like holiday to tropical destinatiosn are one of the first to be axed. I wonder when various 'tropical' destinations start to feel the pain of the increase in fuel prices for airplanes.

The current political situation doesn't help with getting new visitors to Thailand, old hands will know that it's no problem to visit and travel around Thaialnd right now, but new visitors may not want to take that 'risk'.

The new TT certainly puts me off.

Whenever I get a new post notification in my email the link never works, which is irritating.

News articles like this one do not encourage holiday planners, especially first time tourists to the Kingdom who have no idea where Naratiwat is. Never heard of it, must be part of Bangkok or Phuket. Ain't goin there. Wonder how Bali is this time of year?

Buddhist father, son killed in Narathiwat; one beheaded

Narathiwat - A Buddhist man and his 17-year-old son were shot dead by insurgents while riding their motorcycles on a rural road here. The insurgents also beheaded the father, police said.

Police said Prateep Sombat, 38 and his son, Siripong Sombat who was a Grade 9 student, were riding two motorcycles to a nearby village when they were shot at by insurgents at about 10:30 am in the Juakor village in Tambon Sribanphot of Si Sakhon district.

Police said about 4 insurgents, who were hiding in a roadside bush, fire assault rifles against the two and then came out to fire at them at point blank.

The insurgents also took two pistols from the two and fled the scene.

The Nation
(todays online edition)