bkk_bwana

The 85% of Thais who have nothing to do with working in tourism or its related industries have a right to be worried. The country will do far better if efforts are concentrated on keeping the virus out of the manufacturing and food supply chain, focusing on exports which are a far greater revenue generator than tourism. Tourism will come back. When the world is ready to travel again. Not just because they hang a 'now open' sign up.

I'm no fan of the Junta. That said how does the Junta affect a retiree?

You are half right. If you are Thai, you will not have not registered with your passport. The program is initially designed to be for Thai people, that is to be expected. There are a lot more Thai people travelling overseas than foreigners. Two photocopies, big deal. It's bureaucracy like that over the whole of Asia; get over it.

50 Baht? For a government issued document. A scam? Really?

It is actually.

That picture of Wat Khu Samut Cin is misleading. The northern gulf of Thailand is a flood plain/delta. That land has been reclaimed from the sea for fish farming by putting up bunds for a long time. There is even evidence of power cables out at sea, showing where the land used to reach. But this is reclaimed land that is no longer worked. Obviously they have preserved the temple, as the picture shows. This is not a global warming story.

Several people here are asking why Kasikorn bank's research division are commenting on tourism. Well, they are a bank. Every major bank around the world has a research department. That's one of the things banks do. They research all kinds of things for clients and their own investments. They send out daily reports to their commercial and investment clients.

There is a very simple solution to this. A separate credit card, with a low credit limit, for online use only. Never use a debit card for buying things online and never link your bank account to PayPal, link it to that same low-credit line card.

I think that they have thought this through. Think about the potential number of visitors. In November 2019, there were 3.3 million tourism arrivals in the kingdom. How many people will now start to arrive, in 12 days? How many people will be willing to travel? How many countries allow quarantine free return right now? ASEAN contributed to about 2/3 of visitors to Thailand. How many ASEAN countries allow home return without quarantine? Answer, as of today - none of them. So that pretty much rules out nearly all visitors from ASEAN countries. Do I need to go on? This November 1st opening does not mean that the country will fill up with visitors overnight. I suspect that here will be a slow and gradual increase of people over several months as countries round the world vaccinate more of their people and relax their own rules for entry. Likewise, as time goes on, Thailand will have vaccinated more of its people. When that happens, and as economies begin to pick up, the arrivals will return. The big question for me is will we ever get back to the numbers we were used to seeing? (https://www.mots.go.th/mots_en/download/TourismStatistics/6_62Dec24Nov2019article_20191224133042_1.xlsx)

No, of course not. Neither the aseannow article or the referred article in Thai says that. The 'swab centre' (in Phuket) is where visitors go if you were contact traced or you suspected you had been exposed, or had symptoms. In Bangkok, visitors who need to be tested (for the same reasons given above) will use these swab hubs that will be conveniently located in tourist areas - rather than having to find a local swab centre in a local district. There have been lots of these centers set up all over the country, when they have outbreaks in the last few months. Nothing new here, only making it easier for tourists. It sounds quite sensible to me.

The story is referring to several scammy promotions going round, in Thai language, on social media and advertising aimed at Thai people. That was not made clear by the article.

In one breath they announce that there will be a big concert @ Phuket with Lala Lisa to celebrate the re-opening of tourism and in the next they say there will no longer be any nightlife. Brilliant.

Sorry to inform you that your IMO is wrong. This not make believe. BOI is one of the best Government agencies. They have done an excellent job of encouraging foreign investment in Thailand. Most of all those factories mile after mile up on the eastern seaboard are BOI investment businesses, for example. All those businesses that drive over 50% of GDP in this country.

They aren't. That's the whole point of being a BOI investment company. 100% foreign ownership. A whole range of businesses qualify with up to 10 years corporate tax break depending on what your business is. Free to apply and only a limited amount of paperwork to fill in with huge advantages for the investor.

Thailand doesn't have a colour list for other countries. Nearly all countries have been treated the same since this started - 14 days quarantine, then sandbox, now 7 days or sandbox. Like it or not, Thailand has been pretty consistent in its rules for entry. A lot more consistent than the UK.

The figures are all there. 2.5% average for the year as a % of UK tourists compared to total number. Figures hovering around the 80k/month numbers. Overall about 1M visitors. 2019 is the only dataset that can be used as a realistic benchmark, i.e. how it was before the pandemic. Arguments regarding effects of exchange rate are short term and only affect a small number of travelers.

If you drill down into the links you will see lists of arrivals, by country, month by month.

https://www.mots.go.th/mots_en/more_news_new.php?cid=330

Go back two years to 2017 and when the Baht was sitting at 44 to the GBP, Brits still made up only 2.7% of visitors. The number of Brits coming has been growing, but over the last 20 years, as a percentage of arrivals has been swamped by arrivals from other nations.

Sensible approach. I like the 180 days per year concept.

It is a well known fact that 'backpacker' tourists spend the most (because they stay a lot longer) and put more money into the local economy (they sleep, eat and drink local). High end tourists stay in foreign owned and managed hotels, eat imported Australian beef and drink French wine.

I did not say additional. I said people should pay taxes. "Taxation is theft". Shall we start with the paying for building of roads, maintenance, bridges, irrigation first. We can then move onto education, defense, other public services.

Grey zone non-tax payers then put their hand out for subsidies.

Correct. Nothing wrong with that.

2.5% of arrivals in 2019 were British. This is a tiny step forward. Good, but not that significant.