Thailand - Travel Report

In this post, I will be splitting the subject into two parts -

• Economic progress of Thailand and                                                                                                    

• Arithmetics of VisaOnArrival.

First time I travelled to Bangkok was back in 1998. Those were the years Thailand was accelerating its growth engines. Patpong, ladyboys, sukhumvit, NanaPlaza, Pattaya, go-go-bars, massage were the words popular world over while describing Thailand travel experience.

Economic Progress:
Early to late nineties in Thailand, the ratio between business tourism and sex tourism were almost on par. But now the business and shopping tourism amounts to at least 80 per cent.

A number of Japanese majors like - Toyota, Honda have their car manufacturing plants, which exports to most of the Asian countries including India. Same is the case with Korean companies.

Progress of the country can be easily measured when you see the smiling polite Thais. A number of them can comfortably converse with you in English now, compared to earlier days. Countries growing wealth is evident all over the place.

Arithmetics of VisaOnArrival (VOA):
Probably Thailand was one of the first few countries to offer VOA facility to a number of major nations. For VOA they charge THB 1,000 (approx. USD 32).

From the latest statistics that I could see, 500,000 Indians travelled to Thailand way back in the year 2007. In a rough guesstimate, the foreign tourist inflow into Thailand, should be around 30,000,000 in a year.

Out of which even if they don't charge VOA fee for half the visitors, 15,000,000 visitors a year net the country a cool USD 480 million!

On top of this even if each of the tourists spends USD 100 during their stay, which is too low, there is any additional inflow of at least USD 3 Billion (30,000,000 X USD 100).

Sounds simple, right?

That's how these economies are doing a targeted growth.

Hello, any one listening???

Indonesia - Travel Report - Simple Arithmetics of Visa On Arrival

Indonesia is growing leaps and bounds. Jakarta, its largest commercial and political capital is transforming itself into an ultra-modern city.

If not for the currency devaluation blip in the year 1991, Indonesia would have been one of the most advanced countries in the Asia Pacific region. Nevertheless, now they are doing a catch up and in a grand way.

Now Indonesia a trillion dollar economy.

In my recent visit last week, I was quite impressed at the simple arithmetics of their Visa On Arrival (VOA) facility. 

Indonesia offers VOA for visitors all major countries in the world. Each visitor is asked to pay USD 25 or equivalent in major currencies or in Indonesian Rupiah.

The foreign tourist arrivals (from Indonesia's statistical website) into Indonesia:

Year 2010             -     7,002,944

Year 2011 approx -     7,800,000

A simple calculation of 7,800,000 multiplied by USD 25 is - USD 195 million.

Now shifting the focus to India -

foreign tourist arrivals in 2010 (from tourism.gov.in) - 10 million. 

If we apply this simple VOA of USD 25 per tourist, VOA receipts would be - USD 250 million or a quarter Billion USD (or Rupees 1,250 crores!).

Doesn't it sound simple? All that we need is to create separate VOA counters, with smart intelligent customer friendly officers with pleasant behaviour. Simple forms, currency exchange and photograph booths.

If any of the government officers in the related fields are reading this blog, please take this suggestion seriously. USD 250 million per annum, which keeps growing is not small money. 

Keen to hear views, feedback, comments from the readers of this blog.