Caldera

Hope springs eternal. With that $3000 deposit scheme in place, they have a snowball's chance in hell.

"Meanwhile, Anutin said he was ready to be injected with a prototype vaccine for Covid-19 as part of medical trials."

That's brave. At least he won't have to worry about brain damage as a potential side effect.

2 hours ago, Denim said:

Yes certainly , at least as far as the tourist industry goes. Hotels , restaurants , taxis etc. Then consider that almost every hotel room has to be built and equipped with furniture and WiFi.

I can see how you could get that impression if you stay at one of the hotels that are most popular with visa runners and go to the nearby restaurants - as most people you see there are other visa runners. Been there, done that.

However, I've occasionally staid at other hotels and it's a much different picture there. As far as Savannakhet as a whole is concerned, it's certainly sleepy but I'd say most hotel guests are business people from Laos and Thailand, neither regular tourists nor visa runners.

As most visa runners seem to optimize their trips to spend as little time as possible in Savannakhet and often head straight from the consulate to the border come collection time, their contribution pales in comparison to business travelers who frequent the "karaoke" places etc.

26 minutes ago, Okis said:

Depends on your nationality,  many EU countries doesnt let tourists in from for example UK and Sweden. 

Yes. Definitely a good idea to check for each country. No problem for me as I'm following this closely anyway.

8 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

With an EU passport you can travel around to any EU country you wish right now during Covid-19? Any quarantine requirements in those EU countries or EU passport holders can travel freely as soon as they land?

Coming back from Thailand, as of now I would be required to self-isolate at home for 14 days, funny as it sounds considering the COVID-19 situation in Thailand.

Then, however, I could travel freely without quarantine or restrictions within most of the EU. Most EU countries have been opening up for the summer holidays or are currently in the process of doing so. To the citizens and residents of other EU countries, that is. Non-residents still cannot travel to the EU unless their trip is considered essential / urgent.

If the Thai government wanted to facilitate border runs, they could simply instruct immigration not to check for stamps from the neighboring country and let the border runners go straight from departures to arrivals. No cooperation from any other country required.

Not going to happen, in my opinion. Border runs are being tolerated at best, that's certainly not really something the Thai government encourages foreigners to do.

10 minutes ago, natway09 said:

Caldera,,,,bit of a silly statement & full of me, me,me.

Why don't you pop down to Jakarta or over to India if you must travel at this time in particular as unnecessary.

Europe is still a hotspot & cannot believe would travel around there if not needed

As always, I'll leave worrying to the worried noodles. In line with the updated travel advisories, I see no reason not to holiday in Europe (I didn't say I will tour places that remain virus hotspots, mind you).

Many great deals to be had; hotels and restaurants are eager to get back into business.

I'm quite pleased with the state of affairs in Europe. If Thailand's neighbors don't open up on time for me to resume my travels within the region, I will - finally - spend more time traveling in Europe again. There are many things I will miss, but border checkpoints isn't one of them!

8 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

So many guys "doing your thing" . What is future plane? For example if visa exempt suspended. So then what? Fly home country? Many need think about options

I agree. It's a very real possibility that the visa amnesty will run out before nearby countries (that I also like to visit) open up. In that case I'd, indeed, fly home and either stay there longer than usual or travel around in Europe (which, as of now, would be possible having an EU passport).

Mid to long-term, I expect tourism to bounce back even in Southeast Asia. I had already planned to spend more time in other countries and less time in Thailand due to this unofficial rule and other factors, so this is definitely something I take into account.

53 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Good choice, you would be a tax resident to start with.

So what? I have been a tax resident of Thailand since 2007 and my cumulative tax liability has been zero.

And yes, exclusively on visa exempt and tourist visas. Visa status has nothing to do with tax residency.

If they extend the flight ban past June 30 (as indicated) and also don't open the land borders in July, it seems likely that they will extend the visa amnesty.

I'd imagine that most tourists who got stuck have been able to leave in the meantime. There are flights out to many countries, after all. I think the bigger problem at this point are people on expired non-immigrant entries who need to change their visa status. This would be a good opportunity to revamp their processes to allow more changes in-country.

58 COVID-19 deaths and 6,000 road accident deaths so far this year. Great that they've done something effective about the former, when will they get serious about the latter? An unnecessary death is an unnecessary death, no matter its cause!

I think it's very pleasant all around. That's what a Thailand without mass tourism would look like.

Good, get over with it.

It will be very interesting to see how the summer holidays experiment in Europe will go. For better or worse, it will lead the way as far as international travel in the not so distant future is concerned.

I wonder how many takers they've had for their "smart visa" so far. Does anyone know?

51 minutes ago, drbeach said:

How can 66000 Thais have left the Kingdom? To go where? Foreigners aren't allowed to enter most countries now. I don't believe this figure whatsoever.

Many countries, including my home country, have excluded foreigners who are legal residents from their entry ban. A Thai citizen who e.g. works or studies in my country could have entered all along. The same applies to foreign family members of citizens and legal residents.

Maybe a number of these arrivals are Thais living abroad who didn't have Thai passports. So they got stamped in on their foreign passports, but were only allowed to come because they are Thai. Just a guess, of course.

In the spirit of the OP, if I suddenly became rich I wouldn't dwell on the First Civil War, I would fund the next one and travel from battlefield to battlefield.

1 hour ago, DanangBanaHills57 said:

How do you explain this then.

Prachuap: German retiree caught on 2,528 day overstay

I'd explain that as, "luck that eventually ran out". There are many similar cases.

I've yet to meet a Thai person "affordable enough" for such a job (!) whose written English is "good enough" to answer business emails adequately.

Thais who do have that skill obviously exist, but they are rare and tend to have other qualifications which means they would be overqualified and underpaid in such a "virtual worker" job - not going to happen!

That sounds like a rather optimistic outlook to me, I must say!

We've been hearing a lot about Thailand's plans to create a travel bubble. What I'd be interested in is China's take on this - would they let Chinese travelers who return from Thailand enter without quarantining them? Otherwise whatever Thailand does is as good as irrelevant. China seems to be very cautious at this point, and rightly so.