allyoops

Best to book flights direct with the airline, booking through agencies leaves you open to this sort of stuff.

There are many factors to people staying away and most have already been mentioned. Thailand used to be a cheap holiday but that was no longer the case even before the virus, so people are looking elsewhere or staying home. It's an accumulation of things but TAT really only ever makes things worse. Petty charges, dual pricing, changing the rules, etc etc. TAT is Thailands worst enemy as far as tourism goes. For years now they have rubbished western visitors, letting them know they can come and spend their money but they are not welcome. With financial hard times ahead and high air fares the best thing Thailand can do is rid itself of TAT and start again with people who understand foreigners and are not racist.

Apparently some of the Indian tourists who frequent the soapy's are on a three day reward package from their employer. Good performance reward, air fares, three nights hotel and one paid for soapy. This according to a very good youtube presenter. This was from Pattaya but I dont see why Phuket wouldn't be getting a share. These are the high class tourists the government are on about, smacks of desperation to me. I think they might have realised that the numbers of white westerners will not be as high as they once thought, too many bills at home and air fares too high. I doubt if there will be many two weekers at christmas time.

I am sure people are just lining up to come to Thailand to get ripped off, after all their own countries are ripping them off right now, so why not Thailand. On the downside, they may not have any money left to go to Thailand to be ripped off.

A lot saying the tourists will not return so soon, but many will. My friend is going for a month from next week and will probably be there in the winter aswell. Unfortunately I will not be able to join him this time. I think the numbers will go up quickly for solo travelers but no where near pre pandemic levels. The air fares a quite steep and no doubt the hotels will hike their prices too soon and that will put off many especially with the cost of living squeeze. I think the Thai authorities will be disappointed, it will be the pensioners with money to burn arriving first, but in numbers not until the winter time in Europe and the USA.

Desperate to keep hold of the power and the control. The same sort of thing has been happening around the world, they loved the control and see the benefits of keeping it. The benefits for them that is.

But the average Thai is producing wealth thru work, he just doesn't get to keep it in the form of low wages. His usefulness to the Thai elites is not in his spending. backpackers on 1000US a month or less only spend money on very low profit margin goods and services. As each foreigner does contribute to the dilution of the culture, their worth to the country is highly questionable. What do some people have against back packers? they are young and looking to travel the world, maybe in a gap year, they may not have the budget of others but they do contribute and if they have a great time they spread the message. Once again ,it's all about money. As I mentioned in another post TAT needs a foreign PR person to advise them on how to be a popular destination, not a rip off destination with stupid rules to make things difficult.

So they do want the dirty falangs back after all, the situation must be desperate, the nice rich tourists are just not coming. But they will charge a bit extra to get in and keep the dual pricing rip off in national parks just to make sure you pay. I wonder if TAT has ever considered hiring a western PR expert to advise them on how to really welcome tourists. The message they send out now is, we can't get nice people to come so the dirty falangs will have to do.

I've been to Thailand several time, as have some friends, and none of us have been offended by the word Farang. Maybe the more sensitive younger ones are, because they get offended by just about anything.

'Thayanut promised justice for both sides'. What does that mean? Only one side was attacked, only one side had one death and one injury. What does he mean, the Brit still alive will be charged with playing loud music or what.

So, is this a new insurance to insure the insurance you have already bought but doesn't really exist. This is laughable, they just cannot come up with enough ways to rip people off. Do they really want tourists back? or are they still driving the fantasy that the worlds rich big spenders are desperate to get to Pattaya or wherever.

Maybe about 10% of the tourism infrastructure is set up for high end touriists and places like Pattaya have absoluteley nothing to offer unless they build casinos. Even then only a small percentage of tourists attracted would be high class. Let's face it , they are talking about wealthy people and that doesn't always make them high class. It would take a decade or more to make any meaningful changes and in the meantime millions of jobs lost.

I get the point. I find myself being very suspicious aswell now. Imagine if (as some doctors and scientist are saying) the omicron varient is a sign the virus has shot its bolt. All those drug companies raking in billions would be eager to keep the ball rolling for as long as possible, get rid of stock and make even more billions. Brown envelopes flowing to governments and so called government advisors at a rapid rate, after all it's only taxpayers money or borrowed money. Strange how they havn't properly evaluated Omicron yet, but phizer is already declaring 3 vaccines are needed. This is all getting out of hand and the corruption is becoming obvious. As for the UK, it doesn't matter if Doris stays or goes while people still keep voting for the traitor parties, they are all globalist stooges, all liars, all corrupt.

I just cancelled my remaining December hotel reservations yesterday. I was hanging on to them in the hope some sanity might creep in, but I guess that was just dreaming. Maybe next year, or the year after.

Just looked at flight prices, London to Bangkok, for early next year, there are much cheaper options than Thai airways around. If Thai airways was one of the best that's ok, but they are not.