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Obviously it's always the locals starting the gentrification, after all they're the ones selling buildings to foreign rental companies. That's why it's mandator

Obviously it's always the locals starting the gentrification, after all they're the ones selling buildings to foreign rental companies. That's why it's mandatory to mingle with locals, in their own language, and not alter the local economy with stupid standards. The difference between self-gentrification or gentrification based on foreign investments, just as in Portugal, is that on one side you have a country that decides from its own fate. On the other side you have foreigners setting high prices and changing the local economy. The "progress" you mention tends to happen in cities with a lot of of disinvested foreigneers. I invite you to check the rent data for Chiang Mai and Lisbon between 2000 and 2018, or better yet ask to locals. You'll notice a striking difference in prices, especially for what concerns rent and food, compared to places without masses of digital colonialists.

dageshi 9y ago
Yeah, I'm in Thailand now, it's more expensive than 10 years ago, no doubt. But that's the nature of economies, Thailand is "tiger economy", it's been relatively stable and economically prosperous growing at decent rates for nigh on 20 years now (since the Asian financial crisis). It's no less immune from wealth concentrating in larger cities than the UK or the US is, rents in London, New York, <insert any other major city> have been going up over the same time period. "Digital colonists" are a drop in the bucket compared to the forces driving that change.
notahacker 9y ago
Thailand has been developing regions by selling travel experiences, girlfriend experiences and retirement to paradise to foreigners since before "digital nomads" were a thing, and there's no shortage of gentrified cafes and bars aimed squarely at Thais in areas Western bloggers and YouTubers don't venture. As more authentic an experience as it might have been when Ko Samui was an unspoilt island where you might be able to use your broken Thai to persuade a local fisherman to rent his hut to you, ultimately the Thais would rather not continue to be poor. And of all the problems with tourism in Thailand, digital nomads paying 250 baht for a flat white and veggieburger in some restored old building with neo-hippy decor in the tourist showpiece part of Chiang Mai has got to be very close to the bottom.

dageshi 9y ago

Yeah, I'm in Thailand now, it's more expensive than 10 years ago, no doubt. But that's the nature of economies, Thailand is "tiger economy", it's been relatively stable and economically prosperous growing at decent rates for nigh on 20 years now (since the Asian financial crisis). It's no less immune from wealth concentrating in larger cities than the UK or the US is, rents in London, New York, <insert any other major city> have been going up over the same time period. "Digital colonists" are a drop in the bucket compared to the forces driving that change.

notahacker 9y ago

Thailand has been developing regions by selling travel experiences, girlfriend experiences and retirement to paradise to foreigners since before "digital nomads" were a thing, and there's no shortage of gentrified cafes and bars aimed squarely at Thais in areas Western bloggers and YouTubers don't venture. As more authentic an experience as it might have been when Ko Samui was an unspoilt island where you might be able to use your broken Thai to persuade a local fisherman to rent his hut to you, ultimately the Thais would rather not continue to be poor. And of all the problems with tourism in Thailand, digital nomads paying 250 baht for a flat white and veggieburger in some restored old building with neo-hippy decor in the tourist showpiece part of Chiang Mai has got to be very close to the bottom.