kinyara

Potentially one of the best aspects of this result is that BhumjaiThai aren't needed in a coalition if Move Forward and Pheu Thai can agree to work together. All the mega Transport projects with billions of baht budget not under the control of a grubby party headed by 2 families in the construction business is a definite Move Forward.

I had the exact same experience as the OP doing my retirement renewal last week, when I explained to them that my condo submitted online for me as usual when I came back from my last trip overseas in 2020, they said I needed to do it again as I was now on a new passport issued last year. A bit surprised they didn't ask me to do it when they transferred the stamps from my old passport to the new one. I'll get my condo to do it again when I return on my new passport since I'm leaving next week. The queue for the TM30 is the worst one in the Jomtien office from what I saw.

It's a massive money spinner from the Chinese given the volume of them, ( not sure if Indians pay the same ), 2,000 baht a head VOA as opposed to 1,200 for a pre-arranged visa. I'd imagine the reason they don't do it for all, i.e. Western countries , is recognising their longer length of average stay and increased spend as a result. They are also collecting 1,900 a pop from the Free Visa Exempts who can afford to stay longer, unlike the typical Chinese or Indian.

" Chinese tourists can also get a visa on arrival ". There is your answer from the article itself.

Same here, I got my new UK passport via VFS in Bangkok in October and thought I might have to do my first one in person on the new passsport but gave it a try anyway and it was approved as per usual. Jomtien office.

Where do you get 1 million for 12 months ? The article clearly states that the total for the first 4 months was 843,920. They are only expecting to hit 1 million per month in the last quarter of the year hence the 5.3 million forecast.

Depends on what passport you are on, not sure whether mentioning you go through the Thai only desk signifies you have a dual Thai passport, and what visa you have - tourist visa or 30 day exempt for tourism.

The good news is you don't need to be appalled any more, those hundreds if not thousands of " number counting officers " were replaced by a thing called the computer years ago.

No, but I do look at the statistics every month. Jan - 2,144,948 Feb - 2,133,550 Mar - 2,219,040 Apr - 2,130,715 May ( est. see above ) - 446,936 / 7 / * 31 = 1,979,288 10.6 millon after 5 months is an average of over 2.1 million a month. If you look back at recent years pre-covid the Chinese and Indian markets have reduced the variation between the old " high season " model.

I fear the worst for the girl given the guy arrested is a previously jailed sex offender. Can't help feeling this is a case for the two of them of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

446,936 / 7 * 31 = 1,979,288 1.03% short of at least 2m arrivals.

They estimated between 24m - 30mm. So far they year to date have exceeded 2m + per month, 12 * 2m = 24m. No BS just reporting actual arrivals.

When you arrive in the country you stand in a queue and your details are entered into the immigration computer system. Amazing isn't it.

Their average length of stay is 4-5 days.

TAT forecast for 2023 was within the range 24m-30m, the bank figure is not deviating outside of that.

Official ranking based on figures to end of March was : 1) Malaysia - 921k 2) Russia - 567k 3) China - 517k 4) South Korea - 442k 5) India - 323k Would think China will likely have overtaken Russia in April

Excellent move clearly targeted at the low budget tour group end of the market whose overall benefit to Thai tourism is questionable. Before anyone gets too excited about a future decline in Chinese tourism numbers : Jan 2023 - 91,841 Feb 2023 - 155,656 Mar 2023 - 269,773 Enjoy it while it lasts.

TAT said at the start of the year the numbers would be between the range of 24 million - 30 million, the level of recovery in the Chinese market being a major factor on where it falls within that range. I haven't seen them alter that forecast, just numerous articles reported here with figures within that same range.

There is something rather pathetic about a guy using this platform to scrounge free meals. What a schill.

Received e-mail 14 day before due notification online yesterday, immediately submitted and received aprroval today. Chonburi seems to be working fine as per usual.

Don't know about that one but there is now one halfway along Jomtien Beach Road, by the 7-11 with big parking area out front, that is part of the daily bus tour route, packed every lunchtime with at least 4 big buses parked up. Saw what I thought were a group of Chinese surveying the restaurant straight after lockdown ended and thought they might have been looking to take advantage of the situation.

The average length of stay figures for tourists from those countries doesn't support the theory of daily border hoppers. e.g 2019 figures Malaysia - 4.81 days Laos - 5.68 days Cambodia - 7.39 days

I've always thought the 300 baht proposal was a typical lazy sledgehammer tax on foreigners to recoup/make up for funds lost from them during the COVID years, and in reality offering nothing in return. I get there is logistical collection issues but I also think for maximum effect its timing was always intended to coincide with when they thought the Chinese millions would return. The problem they seem to have is it appears the Chinese tour group masses seem to be very price sensitive to the continued high price of airfares and aren't as yet significantly returning, ( hence the drop in overall numbers ). Sticking on another fee is not the best idea at the moment and is I think another factor in it being kicked down the road again, even though we may think it's a relatively small amount in the grand scheme of things.

Where did you get the figure of Cambodia getting 16 million tourists over Songkran ? It can't possibly be foreign tourists as Cambodia only managed to attract 6.6 million in total for the whole of 2019.

Wouldn't have minded a few big blocks of that Songkran ice in my condo swimming pool every day as I'm finding the ongoing heat harder to bear than any year I can remember, other than that the deserted tranquility has been perfect.