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Thailand’s Tourism Authority Predicts 35 Million Foreign Tourists in 2024

Tourism, Arrivals, Tourists, Thailand

The Tourism Authority of Thailand reports that in 2023, over 28 million foreign tourists visited Thailand, generating over one trillion baht in revenue from tourism expenditures.

Tuesday marked the arrival of 28,042,131 million foreigners between January 1st and December 31st,2023, according to Tourism and Sports Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol. Their expenditure amounted to 1.2 trillion baht.

With 4.56 million arrivals in 2023, Malaysia has superseded China to become the largest feeder market for Thailand tourism.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand reports that Chinese travelers ranked second with 3.51 million; subsequent in rank were South Koreans (1.65 million), Indians 1.62 million, and Russians 1.48 million.

Visa exemptions facilitate travel between two ASEAN members, Malaysia and Thailand.

Before the pandemic, the largest market for Thailand’s tourism industry was Chinese tourists. Thailand received eleven million Chinese visitors in 2019, constituting over twenty-four percent of the country’s overall foreign arrivals.

Nearly 60,000 Chinese Tourists Cancel Thailand Visit After Siam Paragon Mall Shooting

Paragon Mall Shooting

A September mall shooting in Bangkok, which resulted in the deaths of two foreigners, one of whom was Chinese, did, however, undermine the confidence of Chinese tourists. Due to minimal demand, several Chinese airlines canceled flights to Thailand for December and January.

In November of last year, the digital marketing firm China Trading Desk of Singapore revealed in a quarterly survey of travel sentiment that Thailand was no longer the most popular destination among Chinese travelers.

The survey inquired about the forthcoming international travel intentions of more than 10,000 Chinese citizens, with South Korea, Europe, and Singapore ranking highest.

Thailand and China will permanently waive visa requirements for each other’s citizens beginning in March, Thai Prime Minister SretthaThavisin announced on Tuesday, responding to a decline in Chinese travelers.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin stated that Thailand and China have reached a bilateral agreement to increase the speed of post-pandemic recovery in the Thai tourism sector by eliminating visa requirements for visitors beginning March 1, 2024.

“Starting on March 1, travel between Thailand and China will no longer require a visa.” On Tuesday, he stated, “This signifies a substantial advancement in the relations between China and Thailand.”

Thailand's Tourism Struggles Chinese Visitor Numbers Fall Amid Economic Slowdown

Government Continues Targeting Chinese Tourists

According to the Associated Press, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, expressed China’s approval of the Thai action, stating that it served the two nations’ fundamental interests.

An estimated 35 million foreign visitors will visit Thailand in 2024, representing a 25 percent increase over the previous year.

The Tourism Authority projects that the number of long-haul travelers will reach 9.9 million, representing a 26 percent growth compared to the previous year’s figure of 7.84 million. This growth will generate revenue of 7.69 billion baht, an approximate 43 percent increase from the previous year’s figure of 5.36 billion.

The number of visitors from the regional market is anticipated to increase by 25.6 percent from 19.9 million the previous year to 25 million. Compared to the previous year (8.35 billion baht), this will result in a revenue surge of 38 percent, amounting to 1.15 trillion baht.

As per the policy of the Prime Minister, the European market assumes a critical function in augmenting the intended tourism revenues. This is because the market for long-distance travel entails comparatively high excursion expenditures per capita.

Per person, expenditures for the first half of 2023 amounted to 74,500 baht per excursion. The market for long-distance travel also comprises affluent segments, such as the Middle Eastern market, where individuals spend 92,200 baht per journey.

Tourism Increases 700 Percent in Northern Thailand's Chiang Mai Province

European and American Tourists

Deputy governor for the European, African, Middle Eastern, and American markets at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Siripakon Chiewsamutr, stated that between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand European tourists desired to travel and stay in Thailand for a duration exceeding thirty days, as permitted by the Thai government.

They applied for a tourist visa, extending their stay by 30 days, and requested authorization to enter and exit Thailand on multiple occasions. This is because European and long-distance tourists typically have travel objectives beyond Thailand. Additionally, they intend to visit adjacent countries within the region.

As a result, the TAT anticipates that tourist expenditures will increase in 2024 due to extended stays, which will compensate for the higher cost of airfare. The objective is to increase expenditures per person per excursion to 80,000 baht, representing a yearly growth of approximately 7 percent.

To encourage foreign tourists, particularly those on long-distance journeys, to increase their expenditures, the TAT anticipates presenting the Cabinet with a proposal to implement a tourism promotion program through complimentary visas.

Thailand received 28 million foreign visitors and generated $35.03 trillion in tourism revenues the previous year. Thailand aims to attract 35 million international visitors this year.

Keywords: Japanese tourists, Chinese Tourists, Thailand, the tourists

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

shkreli

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

shkreli

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

shkreli

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP

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