Battle of the Zip Line Tours in Chiang Mai
There's a battle going on in Chiang Mai these days, there are Gibbons, Squirrels and Eagles fighting for the dominance of the lucrative Zip Line adventure tours. Flight of the Gibbon were the first to come out and have set up shop in the big tourist cities of Thailand, they are the heavy weights, but not 1 but 3 other companies are now battling it out and they are not pulling any stops. In fact would you believe that 2 of them are actually brother and sister! And that brings me to the reason for the interview....
Chiang Mai has seen it's boom and busts with Chiang Mai attractions and shops people were trying to make it big on, Bookstores, Internet cafes, remember how many Fish Spa's there used to be, it's not just Chiang Mai but it's the whole country. Something gimmicky comes along and everyone just copies it until no one can make money out of it. Then it all collapses.
The Zip line tours are one of the most popular attractions in Thailand and admittedly I've done them too and are a lot of fun.
I think it's brilliant thinking what the two new have done, created competition that is both cheaper and better but more brilliantly to reduce any further competition just start another one with a different name. Genius.
The owners of these new tours might not be so quick to pat themselves on the back however. This is Thailand and as Thai business mentality goes they see you open 2 tours someone will open 3!
Eagle Track ZipLine
www.eagletrackchiangmai.com
Jungle Flight
www.jungleflightchiangmai.com
Flight of the Gibbon
www.treetopasia.com
Flying Squirrels
www.treetopflight.com
An american friend married a long time to a smart and well educated thai lady that has lived in the west etc., told me that his wife suggested they open a short-time hotel next to her friend. It seems her friend and her farang husband opened a 16 room ST hotel and were making 1m baht NET a month and the wife thought that if they duplicated next door that they could make 2m baht NET a month because now there were two hotels and therefore twice as many customers. It took like 30 minutes to excplain there would need to be 4x as many customers. and that in reality it would probably be more like 1/2 the customers. And also her friend was probably talking about 1 month in high season and that was GROSS not NET and in low season they made very little. Again, as far a thai chicks are concerned she is fairly bright but the logistics and logical flaws are there. And you know she has some brains because she can sometimes read a map.
There are soooo many thai businesses that close up every day it is mind boggling. But some do ok and some do well and they perpetuate some of that wealth to friends and family to open more stuff.
This right here (the zip line, fish massage, oil massage, beer bars, motorbike rentals, farang restaurants, etc.) are the reason one should never open up a business in thailand. Success is much less likely than in the west IMHO.
Always open up an internet business the flow of customers results from hard work not location, and the overhead is so much less.
@american: I disagree with your last paragraph. I think there are fantastic business opportunities in Thailand, the reason being that most (though not all) Thais are terrible business(wo)men, so even though there might be a lot of competition most of them have no clue how to run a successful business, especially if they target tourists. I run two guesthouses in CM and business couldn’t be any better (we’re doing great even in low season). I’m in the process of starting another business (no guesthouse this time) and seeing what my soon-to-be (Thai) competitors are doing it’s gonna be very easy indeed to be much more successful then them.
Hi Chris,
Love the perspective on running a business in Thailand – you’re right, the landscape is dynamic and challenging, but that’s the fun of it!
Would you be interested in visiting one of our Thailand locations so you can experience the Flight of the Gibbon adventure? If so, please contact Lauren at [email protected] and we can get you set up!
Thanks for the mention, and we hope to be able to host your ziplining adventure soon!