Thais need to lower their prices: Starbucks coffee more in Thailand than Berlin

A meeting on tourism at a Phuket university heard that tourism in the southern Thai province was increasingly suffering since 2017.   

The main reason for this was placed at the door of the strength of the Thai baht.    Dr Chaiyanon Phucharoen said that the problem was not really the lack of visitors – arrivals at Phuket International Airport were actually 4% up this year.    It was the strength of the Thai money and other factors such as increased competition especially from other places in the region offering holidays utilising natural environments.   

He suggested that Thais need to stop a slavish adherence to maintaining prices and make cuts based on the spending power of tourists these days in light of the baht strength and the world economy.    As an example of this he told the Songkhla Nakharin Phuket campus that a latte in Berlin right now costs 3.97 Euros but the same drink in Phuket is 4.02 Euros in Thai money.    Thais also need to reassess how they advertise especially to lure the Generation Y market and the government need to adopt measures and incentives to lure tourists.   

New places utilising the island’s breadth of environmental possibilities also need to be found.   

Thai Visa / Khao Phuket

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