Miami007

Another day another idea which MAY be implemented

China: no outbound holiday travel per government mandate for tour companies. Quarantine for anyone entering. 

Japan: quarantine for anyone returning.  So nobody leaves

Korea: outbound travel not recommended by government.  Quarantine on return 

Vaccination efforts: many Japanese do not want to get a shot, Korea about 10% don't want it. Neither country has started.

The strong Q1 is already gone. 10 million tourists from April to December- not a chance, if there are quarantine, insurance restrictions. 

6 minutes ago, David T Pike said:

Who said the expatriates, workers, businessmen and repatriated Thai's are not included? I think your splitting hairs that aren't there. As long as they get vaccinated and complete a 14 day at home quarantine where they are coming from I am sure they will be included...

Sure .. that will work

Requirement 1: get vaccinated- not easy in most countries for anyone under 65

Requirement 2: quarantine at home. Who supervises that? Who can stay away from work for 2 weeks before going to LOS on vacation?

Requirement 3: test in Thailand. What happens, if they test positive?

People do not deal with these hurdles

Quarantine at home in my country... sure that will work ????. I just stay home and don't go to work... SMH

Why even require a vaccination, if there are still quarantine requirements? The Thai tests are superior to others?

If you only trust your tests, then test everyone on arrival- but that won't work for millions of tourists. 

Not everyone travels in a tour group. Mostly Chinese and they are not opening to foreign travel 

Back to the drawing board until they figure out a solution.. as long as quarantine is required, there is no tourism 

10 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

I don't see this happening until there is vaccination plan in place and until the virus variant is better understood. If a more infectious or deadly version of the virus spread in Thailand there would be tens of thousands dying every month like in Africa.

Africa does not have a huge number of deaths - especially not compared to Europe or the Americas. Yesterday 461 deaths - more than 4000 in Europe 

Cases in south Africa are dropping like a stone - even with the new variant.

7 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

No need they are already vaccinating have you not noticed? https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

5% is not something to be proud of... especially when the UK has 23% and Israel over 70%.  

7 hours ago, Jonathan Swift said:

Each and every expert on this has already been saying for some time this is something that may always be with us, like the flu. Vaccines and protective measures will reduce the threat But it will likely never disappear. It is foolish for anyone to think otherwise

Unfortunately, there are many people and many governments who believe that "zero-covid" is possible through lockdowns etc.  The sooner everyone realizes that the virus will be here forever, the better as it will lead to workable solutions

5 hours ago, BernieOnTour said:

 

Interesting...

First, we had the dangerous UK mutation, coming from that “terrible” country, which was so impudent to leave the “wonderful” EU with its Brexit.

 

Now, we have the dangerous Southafrican mutation, coming from a continent, where there’s only light lockdown (South Africa, Kenia) or even no lockdown (Tanzania, Zanzibar, Madagascar).

 

... by the way, if one would check the viral genome data bases, he would find out:

In the meantime, we have now more than 7000 mutations !

 

What next, with 7000 mutations?

- The Wales mutation, the Northern Ireland mutation, the Paris mutation, the Canary islands mutation, the Florida mutation, the South Dakota mutation (no lockdown), the North Dakota mutation (lockdown) ???

You may be joking, but the USA news yesterday spoke about 7 new variants found in the USA (for some reason named after birds). 

Anyone who looks at the new daily cases in the UK and South Africa can see a steep decline in countries with the "highly contagious" strains... sort of counter-intuitive that the cases fall, when this variant is sooo dangerous and infectious.

There will always be a variant to justify the next lockdown.  

1 hour ago, 473geo said:

Well 12 pages of doom and gloom

 

Tell me guys when people have been shut down for over a year, when travel has been limited and difficult. Once the world opens up you think they will holiday in the home they have been confined?

 

People will be more than ready to travel, Thailand will be as popular as previous years, people will feel they have deserved a pleasant beach holiday, it will go on credit cards and be paid later

 

Sure it will take a little time but there will still be many arrivals covid permitting

 

The beauty of Thailand is the ease and cost of which a business can be set up and run, once the customers arrive, life goes on in Thailand, and from top to bottom it seldom moves as fast as when there is opportunity to make a baht 

People in source countries who couldn't work for 1 year won't travel right away. They need to recover losses.

Not many will travel too far initially as there is no confidence that borders will remain open. Will take probably 6 months or more to build that confidence 

Only Chinese will come, if China allows them to leave.

Many other destinations available.. 

15 hours ago, redwood1 said:

When 7-11s, Burger Kings, and Starbucks are closing down all over the place, the situation is not just bad its desperate and getting worse all the time.....Only removing all restrictions for tourist 100% could turn things around....

According to Bloomberg, the Thai economy suffered a 6% decline in GDP - hard to believe that when tourism accounts for 18% of GDP and declined about 70% (Jan and Feb were fairly normal and domestic travel did happen to some degree). The rest of the economy must be in great shape

Would be interesting to see the real loss in economic output. I can't see retail, real estate selling condos to foreigners, construction doing well either.

1 hour ago, Prairieboy said:

From Facebook:

 

According to the government...

If I get vaccinated:

1.- Can I stop wearing the mask?

Government Response - No

2.- Can they reopen restaurants, pubs, bars etc and everyone work normally?

Government Response - No

3.- Will I be resistant to covid?

Government Response - Maybe, but we don't know exactly, it probably won't stop you getting it

4.- At least I won't be contagious to others anymore?

Government Response - No you can still pass it on, possibly, nobody knows.

5.- If we vaccinate all children, will school resume normally?

Government Response - No

6.- If I am vaccinated, can I stop social distancing?

Government Response - No

7.- If I am vaccinated, can I stop disinfecting my hands?

Government Response - No

8.- If I vaccinate myself and my grandfather, can we hug each other?

Government Response - No

9.- Will cinemas, theatres and stadiums be reopened thanks to vaccines?

Government Response - No

10.- Will the vaccinated be able to gather?

Government Response - No

11.- What is the real benefit of vaccination?

Government Response - The virus won't kill you.

12.- Are you sure it won't kill me?

Government Response - No

13.- If statistically the virus won't kill me anyway ... Why would I get vaccinated?"

Government Response - To protect others.

14.- So if I get vaccinated, the others are 100% sure I'm not infecting them?

Government Response - No

So to summarize, the Covid19 vaccine...

Does not give immunity.

Does not eliminate the virus.

Does not prevent death.

Does not guarantee you won’t get it.

Does not prevent you from getting it.

Does not stop you passing it on

Does not eliminate the need for travel bans.

Does not eliminate the need for business closures.

Does not eliminate the need for lockdowns.

Does not eliminate the need for masking.

So... I guess I should rush out and get one?

Hilarious and true..

25 minutes ago, Magenta408 said:

Tourist promotion fund. Heck, nothing like charging more to tourists to build your tourism sector. I love it.

That is standard in many countries. Most cities in the USA fund projects like convention centers, tourism infrastructure, promotions through special taxes on hotel stays or restaurants. 

Just look at the breakdown of your hotel bill in New York or any other city.. Some taxes have creative names so you have no idea what they are being used for.

$10 won't kill anyone, if collection doesn't require standing in line for hours. Adding to the ticket price is the quickest way

6 hours ago, impulse said:

Look at the fine print on your airline ticket some day.  If they added 300 baht to the price of a ticket, the vast majority of the taxes collected would still be going to the USA, UK, etc.

 

I don't worry about the $10.  It's how they're going to collect it.  They should make it part of the ticket price, and not a fee that has to be paid separately.  Just for convenience sake.

And they should have just kept it quiet.  Nobody would have even noticed a 1-2% increase in the price of an average R/T ticket to N. America, Europe, etc.

 

Completely agree, if they had just added it to the price of the ticket and kept quiet, nobody would have noticed the $10 increase. 

If the government is collecting the fee in cash, it will be turning away tourists very quickly. Standing in line before or after immigration, is not really how most people want to start a vacation or business trip. Word gets around on social media fast.. 

But the thought process is still mind boggling.  Who would make it even more difficult to visit?

7 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

There is no excuse not to own one these days. They can be had for as little as 1-2k thb
If people can not afford that, then they can't afford to be here in Thailand

Including old Thai people?

There are citizens in every country who are poor and/ or too old to use a smart phone. 

7 hours ago, ericdiam said:

And these migrants all stay in camps who are sealed off since the start. 

So somewhere the 152 for total Thailand is not that bad. But yeah next 2 weeks that no will sure go up because all the traveling and mass gathering for Christmas and new year

If migrants are all contained in camps, how did 152 Thais get the virus?

Do you really believe that migrant workers never ever interact with the rest of society?

3 hours ago, crankshaft said:

I can not believe that only this month of December that the Chinese plague is now on the rise in Thailand...with the number of Chinese tourists in Jan Feb Mar....The must be fudging of the numbers then...

I had asked several people on TV how they explained the low figures when Chinese tourists entered freely in January to March. 

Still no answer..

22 minutes ago, ripstanley said:

I totally agree with your comments. The only big but is that non Thais will have to pay between 5,000 to 10,000 baht for the vaccine. This will be a big hole in the mass vaccination as many will be unable to pay.

If are a western citizen living in Thailand and you can't afford 5000 THB for a vaccine, you have some serious financial problems in the future. 

If USD 170 is breaking the bank, you are walking a tightrope without net in a foreign country 

1 hour ago, Dart12 said:

and think on that fact...

90% people feel GREAT, have no idea they have this "crippling disease" but it's cause for shutdown of whole countries at whims of the leaders, and the enactment of any new laws they want to put into place.
Sickening imo.

Goes to show you, like in Thailands case...if you don't test for it and then tell people they have been "infected"...

 

life is completely normal.  smh.

Yes correct 

There are players in the NFL or EPL or other European Soccer leagues who are fit enough to practice but test positive for the virus and are now 'sick'. 

If you ever had the flu, a severe case of Covid or another virus, you won't be running around chasing footballs

How did the governor of a province contract the virus?

I doubt that he was in contact with migrant workers in the seafood industry 

The virus must be more widespread than admitted (lack of testing contributing to the low numbers).

Plus politicians getting the virus with all the restrictions they put in place is ironic in itself.

They either don't follow their own guidelines or the measures don't work.

2 hours ago, Phulublub said:

How hard is it to understand that it is NOT just about the mortality rate? 

 

Overwhelmed health systems from those seriously ill, but who would overwise recover, would lead to additional deaths not just among those with covid, but also those ill and injured by other illnesses and accidents.

 

Add to that the mounting evidence of a significant proportion of those not dying having serious ongoing complications; it is NOT just another flu.

 

PH

Where is the mounting evidence of a significant portion of recovered having ongoing complications?

My niece had it.. no symptoms, no problems after

Novak Djokovic had it and is playing tennis like before

NFL players, soccer players had it and are back on the field - you think they have permanent damage?

Sure, there are always some people who have long term effects. But that is the same for every other virus. Nobody who has pneumonia and recovers is running a marathon the next week- doesn't matter, if it is caused by covid, flu or bacterial.

If you have a severe illness and require hospitalization, you probably lose weight/ muscle, your lung function declines, you are at risk for blood clots. I was in a hospital for 10 days with a virus infection in 2019... then needed support walking for a week, then could walk a quarter mile for 2 weeks only without having to rest. About 2 months before I was able to start sports again at 40% of before.

By the time I reached 80% of normal, covid locked us down and gyms etc were closed, which set back recovery.

Out of 7.6 million active cases in the USA, 125,000 or about 2% require hospitalization.  Not the killer which causes people to drop dead in the streets