We are just back from a weekend visiting friends in Phuket, which is a larger, more developed island that’s 1.5 hours away by speedboat or 3 hours by regular ferry.  It’s one of Thailand’s big-name tourist destinations and has been for some time. 

There were a few observations during the weekend.  Yesterday’s real-estate note was the first.  Here’s the second.

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As an English speaker, there are several things that you often get to take for granted when you travel.  For example, you can walk up to reception in just about any good-sized hotel anywhere, say what you want, and if you’re reasonably clear, you’ll either be understood or referred to someone who can help you.  The other “big” languages may be useful in their own right, but they just don’t give you the same confident swagger when you’re asking for a toilet far, far from home.

Thus, when a fellow in our hotel casually walked up next to me at the concierge desk and started speaking Russian to the Thai lady working at the desk, I thought it was a bit odd.  Maybe its his first trip out of Russia, I thought.  An un-travelled nouveau riche, he’s just not used to being this far abroad.  When the Thai staffer nodded, replied confidently in Russian and handed him his new room key, he went off with a smile and it was I who was left looking rather dull and provincial.

I asked the young lady how and why she spoke Russian.  “I studied there.  But only for 5 months.”  The hotel also employs a Russian national, 2 other Russian-speaking Thais, and 3 Mandarin speakers.  This was a Doubletree – one of the mid-range American-based Hilton brands.  They’ve clearly figured out which customer groups they need to please in order to keep their rooms and restaurants full.

Eavesdropping over the breakfast buffet, I counted English as the third most popular foreign language spoken, after Russian and Chinese.  But the statistics say that even that is over-estimating its importance, or certainly its trajectory in Thailand.  In the last 7 years, the number of Chinese coming to Thailand has increased 5-fold and the PRC is now the biggest source of visitors to Thailand each year.  The number of Russians has increased 10-fold and Russia has jumped from #19 to #3 on the list.  The US and Sweden have both stayed flat in the absolute number of visitors and dropped sharply on the list.  Canada and Holland don’t even make the top 20…  

There’s a lot of new money in the world that’s enabling millions of new travellers.  Based on statistics and on Phuket breakfast lines, the biggest groups are coming from the East, not from North America or Western Europe.

 (By the way, one of the big perks of globalization is that breakfast buffet choices are awesome.  You can have waffles, bircher muesli, soba noodles, curried potatoes, grilled salmon, and Russian sausages, all next to your Corn Flakes.  I tried most of it.  Karin really enjoyed the fruit and yoghurt.)