cmsally

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/2020/02/14/gunman-on-the-loose-close-to-chula-uni-police-say/

The update on Khaosod says he has been apprehended.

45 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

I guess hotel bookings have nose dived in CM?

Depends who your customer base is !

The big question would be - how this tax would be collected. Can't think of anywhere in the chain that Ministry of Sports and Tourism has direct transactions with tourists. Attractions would be mostly under Ministry of Natural Resources or Ministry of Fine Arts. The whole thing does not make sense.

1 hour ago, Magenta408 said:

The retarded province of Alberta,Canada imposed a hotel tax; upfront and in your face. I wonder who gets that money? The same would apply with a "tourism tax" if you can call it that. Where would the money collected end up at?

Thailand already has a local hotel room tax paid to the local district office.

10 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

To avoid editing my previous message where cmsally already put a smiley on me, I add this:

 

or it is the recycling of dirty money, something unfortunately too common in this country.

In which case they would have to seriously fudge the books as they can't recycle anything if there are no guests staying.

In the immediate area around me there are still people buying up plots of land to build hotels. Small plot of land is minimum 20 million (more likely 30-40 million). Then you pay I guess at least 20 million to build and furnish something. So you are looking at an investment of 50 million. How the hell do you get that back. Then you have staff, utilities etc etc.

Instead of taking the mass numbers on a chart approach , Thailand needs to pay more attention to its niche markets. There are people doing a roaring trade even now in the niche markets. It all boils down to quality rather than quantity.

There are too many people approaching the tourism industry simply on monetary terms , invest X amount and get y in returns. This is what happens when its all about appearance rather than substance.

8pm update says he is still in the mall and may have taken about 16 hostages.

5 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

They are talking about promoting local tourism while in the middle of a possible epidemic. 

In other words they are hoping the local population don't know the definition of epidemic or pandemic.

They seem to have shut down his Facebook page.

As above they are now saying at least 20 dead. Presume he is still in the Terminal 21.

Shut down of the area in a 2km radius.

The shooter is updating on Facebook as he goes!!

Just saw him post that he has cramps and ponder whether he should give up. Extremely weird!

Just announced "closing the area" within a 2km radius of Terminal 21. Asking everyone in that area to remain indoors.

Notice from police and govt. officials.

The post I just translated about closing the area seems to have disappeared so maybe some confusion.

It says at first he shot 2 other soldiers dead. Then it says he shot one person and injured a policeman. Presumably 3 dead? But not many facts. On Facebook it shows people taking cover in closed shops inside the building. He seems to be somewhere in Terminal 21 and started a fire also.

From the news it seems incidents were other locations and lastly he fled into the "Terminal ". He seems to have some sort of maybe automatic weapon and driving a humvee.

More updates here :

https://www.facebook.com/KoratNextStep/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARAwhK_9bccHvIAttMjindMeamdVeToSHkqQWw-qPk-Qz77suJo6ObfkXBKMEFyxxXKSAuwf33sSgZVf&hc_ref=ARRr1DK-GJsZU6enNS74X42kh9G0dzNNgLVVbwMn7OxFNFokOSpoJtJrILBbyhHhCns&fref=nf

I found this in Thai, it was outside the mall:

https://www.sanook.com/news/8028682/

will try to do brief translation

1 hour ago, LivinLOS said:

Anutin Charnvirakul of the Thai public health ministry Suggesting kicking farangs out of the country 

Think someones getting annoyed that hes not being listened too.. You cant have it both ways, one time you want to say dont worry, its under control, dont panic.. The next you want to kick out europeans because they snubbed him and wouldnt take a health mask. 

Maturity much ?? 

The Europeans probably had their own better quality masks already. No use giving out those cheap paper  surgical masks.

14 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

Maybe but SG already deny entry from Non-citizen that are coming or transited from China and HK plan on putting everyone from China under a 14 days quarantine. 

 

Thailand nope. 

The assumption in Singapore is that there must have been carriers that got in before the flight ban. They are taking it pretty seriously. Yesterday I was told that 2 entire office building were closed/checked because there were suspicions of a possible case in each building.