Cabradelmar

That's a slap in the face to the current PM

so many scared old men fearing ganja is the end of humanity... LOL... yet if you are not smoking weed, you are probably a tobacco smoking, out of shape, booze hound with a poor diet and far too many subscription medications #classic

there is no accounting for cultural sensitivity and self awareness... but this is only news if they where asked to behave according to local customs, and then refused.

Sadly, self awareness is not a distinctive trait of many Thai people.

This is far from over... they will flip flop on this for months... But if I was one of the early investors in brick and mortar dispensaries, I'd be worried about my investment.

Sounds like 80% of ALL men in Thailand (Thais included)... Angry and perverted.

If there where ever 2 people that didn't deserve a free ambulance and rescue service, it would be these 2 clowns

I could very well be wrong... but the still images in the article look like the same images from video I saw on ThaiRath32 last night... where it looked like a woman jumped into the pool on her own accord and (seemingly) drowned herself as a man stood on the edge of the pool and watched.

Confusing as the article from Vino News says "The new tax measures will take effect shortly and will last until end of the year, according to the Thai government." As some else said, I've believe when I see it for myself.

It's bad enough with the escalation of Thais toting and brandishing firearms... But when foreigners are emboldened to take the same path, Thailand is going to have to finally admit they have a gun problem.

Once, nice. Better than never. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.

“Convenient, fast, safe, impressive.” said no one, ever, about Thailand's bureau of immigration... but it's good to have goals.

Just another day in poo-ket paradise... what you need to try to do is try to outwit them... i would have just rolled all the rear windows down. Stay tuned as the PM plans a trip to the island to get to the bottom of this, and issues a directive to taxi drivers to "be nice"

A clown dressing like a clown... nothing to see here.

Well that makes it almost certain that Pita's court case (to be decided in January) will go against him. The existing power structure is afraid of him, and will do everything it their power to restrain his ascension.

I pray this does not happen... bringing all those cargo ships to Thailand's shores on the Andaman Sea side (to be off-loaded), and then introducing all that new vessel traffic into the Gulf (to re-load and forwarded) would be an environmental nightmare. Not to mention all the new overland truck and train traffic. The region would be forever changed, and not for the better (certainly not for tourism). Assuming any maritime freight carriers would even want to undertake the additional logistics, complexity and cost (of off-loading, overland forwarding, re-loading) just to save 2 to 5 days of travel time through the Malacca Straits. Given the massive construction cost, environmental concerns, almost certain bottlenecks and delays (seeing as it will be Thai managed) and uncertainty about volumes (who would really use the land bridge), it should be scrapped.

Just under the 26.55 million they hit in 2013...

Schizophrenia with a heavy dose of delusion and disorganization... that is every agency/ministry, in a nutshell. Good luck going from somewhere south of 30 million visitors (probably 28 million, using a bit of creative counting) in 2023, to 40 million in 2024. Do these people not follow world news, or even their own news (press releases) about themselves. LOL.

More Srettha give-a-ways... if he wants to give tourist free insurance, up to him.

China is bullying every country with maritime claims in the South and East China Seas... PI, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Korea, Japan... And any country that is not overtly opposed to China's bullying is an enabler (see Thailand). Fc_k China!

In summary... massive populist give-a-ways, and praying for more tourist arrivals. LOL. What the economy needs is more than just a shallow 90-day plan rehashing old ideas. It needs an entire rethink, with massive investment in infrastructure and education to attract and develop high-value, high-growth industries.

Every recent idea to squeeze more money out of tourist revolves around sell them more booze. LOL. Anyway, buy your duty free at your departure point/on-board, and as long as you don't change planes, you still get duty free booze into Thailand. My guess is if anyone did their homework on duty free spend on booze by arriving passengers at Thailand's international airports, that it's mostly locals returning from abroad. Hopefully this plan gets pitched into the rubbish bin where it belongs. What next, dual pricing of booze at 7-11/Lotus for foreigners. LOL.

We're on different wavelengths... yours being expenditure-categories focused vs. my industry sub-sector focus. Sure, looking at expenditure categories, tourist spending today looks to account for 12% of GDP. However, to understand the challenges and risk within the industry (and the broader economy), you need to look at the industry level, including emerging trends. We do agree on two things: tourism as 30% of GDP is unrealistic (and by extension, foolish), and arrivals are out of Thailand's control. Variability in arrivals is just one of many risk associated with tourism... jobs created by tourism are slow coming and lower paying, external shocks (e.g., war, socio-economic conditions in other countries) on arrivals, seasonality, and the impact of over-tourism are all significant risk. All of which are going to make it harder to stimulate sustainable consumer spending through tourism. However, investing in diverse higher-paying growth industries would strengthen the Thai economy in real and sustainable ways, and provide more stable consumer spending. But to do that, Thailand is going to need to fix their educational/vocational training systems (IMO).

Just more extra judicial killings of the marginalized poor, working for wealthy drug lords that remain touchable. Anyone who thinks for a minute that this will result in fewer drugs on the street is deluded.

Self congratulatory propaganda brought to you by the Thai real estate industry.