Karma80

Sad to see really. There must be thousands of people working remotely in Thailand without a work permit on ED visas, a whole bunch of Russian business fronts, and whatever lies between. But let's focus on some technicalities for people who probably had work permits and at least tried to do the right thing.

I feel like that's a pretty poor choice of words! But, more seriously, BA running their oldest planes to Bangkok should have anyone looking for another carrier. It's not like there is a shortage of choice.

Varies by card and bank. There are now only very few options for AU no international fee credit cards, most will slug you 2.5%-3%. Some debit cards can be int transaction charge free. Australian banks are some of the worst for this, and one of the few countries where even paying by card domestically will allow the merchant to pass on a transaction fee to you for the privilege of paying them. I'm surprised it's taken Thai banks so long to work out they can get free money.

Unfortunately, my work requires access to some semblance of an international airport for frequent travel, which means either Phuket or Bangkok. Having lived in Bangkok, I could not go back to the daily pollution and traffic, which gets more crippling each year. Phuket has found itself in a strange situation where Russians have bought up much of the higher-end property stock on the island, and at the other end of the spectrum, you can stay here for little money on dodgy ED visas long term, and short-term low-end visitor calibre charge continues as Thailands perception of a hub of sex and now open drug sales continues. It's relative of course, and for some it's no doubt a paradise by comparison to the other options they have. I can't imagine why anyone would actually bring a family on holiday here if you had a choice. Nevertheless, Phuket has taken a different path back out of the pandemic, and not for the better. It's was already driven by stupidity, local corruption, money and lack of medium-term planning, never mind long-term. Now there are more people than ever coming to abuse that situation. There's no coming back from that over the next ten years.

It's become one reason we are planning to leave Phuket. There isn't the infrastructure to support this sharp uplift in short term, or long term visitors. It's a pure money grab. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Property/China-and-Russia-buyers-flock-to-luxury-homes-in-Southeast-Asian-resorts

Just sell Phuket to Russia and have done with it. Feels that way at the moment, anyway.

We've come down to comparing week-on-week growth. Just when you don't think the TAT can be more desperate, they always surprise.

There was me thinking he had nipped around to my Nan's and stolen the old deckchair in the shed.

The only crisis is this government. Dump $15b of free money into the economy then look bemused when inflation spikes. Cash printer goes brrrrr - now where have we seen that.

Just accept that platform to step down from the daft policy and get back to some real work on the country's economic future.

The next coup leader needs more firepower?

When you say "Laws" you mean suggestions, right? This is Thailand

Attempted to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, hilariously with democracy! Seems you get less problems by moving tanks into the capital.

Because the yen is at an all-time low, and few Japanese want to leave the country. Meanwhile, Thai's obsession with all things Japanese continues, and with the Thai Bhat going further than ever, a large influx into Japan. Was that so hard?

I left Bangkok because of the pollution. Phuket's way better, but you trade PM2.5 for a whole other bucket of quality-of-life issues

$52k for your corporate membership, $19k for your ticket and then get yourself to Davos. You get to rub shoulders with all the prominent corporate slime lobbyists, the tone-deaf politicians, and the self-important people of the world at an event that is regarded as evil. Bargain.

This will hurt Thailand for years. They learned nothing from watching soaring inflation because of stimulus worldwide. And to borrow $15 billion to do it is incredible.

Then, spring the "details" on taxpayers retrospectively. Amazing Thailand.

Don't worry, just smoke weed and ride instead. Seems to work for some tourists in Phuket nowadays. What could go wrong? Sigh.

My head spins between the tourism is dead, and tourism is record breaking TAT drivel. What I do know is that high season in Phuket is not as busy as it used to be and many of the local businesses are quite vocal about it.

One small point. Vaping is not illegal anymore. The section banning it was removed in the 2019 update of the Consumer Protection Act. However, it remains illegal to import them. But that's a function of the Customs Act. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/no-vaping-and-vapes-are-not-illegal-in-thailand-heres-why/

Just another day at the TAT Office of Hopes, Dreams and Fiction.

Turning to a domestic tourism strategy will fail as well. Look at the sheer numbers of Thais going overseas to Japan. When covid was here, boom times because Thai's had nowhere to go. Now the flights are leaving. So are Thais.

Any regular business traveller from an APEC economy, of which Japan is, already has an APEC business travel card, which gives them 90 days visa-free to Thailand and all the other economies.

Except for the actual people who would vote us all out in a heartbeat.