Originally Posted by RustyC

Thailand gets something like 28 million total visitors now and is hoping for 40 million by 2020.

You have to go further afield these days to avoid insane-level crowds, especially in high season but increasingly also in summer thanks to the influx from China.

Phuket and Samui are overdeloped and "lost", IMO, with Krabi and Chang rapidly getting there. In response, airlines like Nok Air and Bangkok Airways are stepping up efforts to also ruin Trang and Trat provinces and nearby islands, but there's still the far south with the Islamic insurgency that's stalled out a bit.