7 minutes ago, Chazar said:

or  show us 20k at the  airport in CASH................stupidest thing ive ever  heard

In today's world, yes, it is pretty stupid.

8 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Which is why in part many don't return... they get the feeling their being exploited instead of being welcomed genuinely!

A warm smile and warm welcome goes a long way instead of "give us your money & leave on the next flight policy"!

I first visited Thailand in 1984 and have been a regular visitor sine 1999.

 

Not once have I ever seen an IO smile or say welcome to Thailand when he's checked my passport and visa. Not once on what must be around 50 occasions!

Haven't read all the comments so maybe this has been said already...

Stop charging farangs extra to go into attractions, that really grates...

Ah...so the embargo on vinyl is really hurting?

8 hours ago, unamazedloso said:

I agree 100%. Now tell my neighbours, officials and such. They wonder why i scare them back and its putely because of the amount of cash ive splashed out here over the decades. I dont want special treatment but would like my family not have to be raided checking for drugs and guns or have tourist police out to check all because my inbred neighbours feel inferior and have to act like children and lie to authorities in the hopes of being booted out of the country because my neighbours think they are going to get our farming machinery, land and such. 

Crazy but true! And no i dont have guns or drugs but thats what ive had to deal with this past year. Insane!

Whats worse you can have video evidence and make countless police reports of fake police reports made and even the police believe us but no action is taken and this is why it doesnt change. It's embarassing to Thailand. If i was in a better financial situation i would hav3 left already. One things for sure though and that is my family stopped coming many times a year years ago because they dont feel safe.

What province do you live?

7 hours ago, The Farang said:

Yes it is too late.  Tourists are going elsewhere.  This a product of the above mentioned behavior over a course of years.

It won't take much more than say 5 to 10 years to undo all the damage they've done. No problem

19 minutes ago, Caldera said:

That's a very welcome change of attitude.

 

"He told his minions not to be overzealous."

 

I hope his overzealous minions who are infesting Bangkok's airports will get the message.

Wait for the lovely deeds before celebrating, not the lovely words....

To turn any negative sentiments  around they probably will send a delegation with photographer to the hospital bed of that nearly beaten to death  Irishman in that Pattaya Soi 7 bar and give him a fruit basket !

9 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

To turn any negative sentiments  around they probably will send a delegation with photographer to the hospital bed of that nearly beaten to death  Irishman in that Pattaya Soi 7 bar and give him a fruit basket !

Don't forget a pathetic handful of Baht. 

 

I can imagine them PROUDLY giving him 1,000 Baht as they grin for the cameras. 

21 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

I first visited Thailand in 1984 and have been a regular visitor sine 1999.

 

Not once have I ever seen an IO smile or say welcome to Thailand when he's checked my passport and visa. Not once on what must be around 50 occasions!

It`s not their duty to smile and say the same sentence every 2 min. However, you are right it`s a matter of attitude. Take Malaysia or especially Singapore for example. It`s just a different, more positive non-verbal communication from the IO`s. 

 

We all know Thailand has changed to the worse in the last years and IO`s are the first ones we face when entering LOS. It`s just a military dictatorship from A to Z (and that includes grumpy IO`s)

 

8 hours ago, unamazedloso said:

I agree 100%. Now tell my neighbours, officials and such. They wonder why i scare them back and its putely because of the amount of cash ive splashed out here over the decades. I dont want special treatment but would like my family not have to be raided checking for drugs and guns or have tourist police out to check all because my inbred neighbours feel inferior and have to act like children and lie to authorities in the hopes of being booted out of the country because my neighbours think they are going to get our farming machinery, land and such. 

Crazy but true! And no i dont have guns or drugs but thats what ive had to deal with this past year. Insane!

Whats worse you can have video evidence and make countless police reports of fake police reports made and even the police believe us but no action is taken and this is why it doesnt change. It's embarassing to Thailand. If i was in a better financial situation i would hav3 left already. One things for sure though and that is my family stopped coming many times a year years ago because they dont feel safe.

Glad I don’t live where you do. I feel very safe in Thailand.

I literally just booked my flight to HCMC, and I really really would have preferred to fly to Bangkok, cheaper and suits me better in every way. Except that immigration at HCMC will welcome me.

8 hours ago, webfact said:

But don't be too strict and scare away the tourists and other foreign visitors. 

 

Does that include us Alien expats ?☠️

36 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

I first visited Thailand in 1984 and have been a regular visitor sine 1999.

 

Not once have I ever seen an IO smile or say welcome to Thailand when he's checked my passport and visa. Not once on what must be around 50 occasions!

I fly in-out approximately 12 times a year from Swampy. During my 6 years of traveling here, I can remember being warmly welcomed 5 times by male IOs. And during my first trips I asked a female IO out for a date (before the coup, when things were more relaxed.) I was not successful with the IO but instead went to dinner with a young security guard .. lady. But 85% of the time they give you the cold stone-face. Some grumpy Tomboy-IOs give the 'I hate you' face, but whatever.

Beggars.

8 hours ago, digibum said:

9 hours ago, darksidedog said:

My goodness, what is this? An ounce of common sense? How the hell did that get into the country?

It entered on a 90-day tourist visa.  

It won't last, we can expect common sense to be deported after 90 days.

9 hours ago, darksidedog said:

My goodness, what is this? An ounce of common sense? How the hell did that get into the country?

I guess there’s some common sense once the lack of foresight plays out.

9 hours ago, unamazedloso said:

I agree 100%. Now tell my neighbours, officials and such. They wonder why i scare them back and its putely because of the amount of cash ive splashed out here over the decades. I dont want special treatment but would like my family not have to be raided checking for drugs and guns or have tourist police out to check all because my inbred neighbours feel inferior and have to act like children and lie to authorities in the hopes of being booted out of the country because my neighbours think they are going to get our farming machinery, land and such. 

Crazy but true! And no i dont have guns or drugs but thats what ive had to deal with this past year. Insane!

Whats worse you can have video evidence and make countless police reports of fake police reports made and even the police believe us but no action is taken and this is why it doesnt change. It's embarassing to Thailand. If i was in a better financial situation i would hav3 left already. One things for sure though and that is my family stopped coming many times a year years ago because they dont feel safe.

I cannot relate to this AT ALL. This has to be more Thai Visa propaganda “Fake news“ funded by European globalists. Folks, anyone reading posts on TV, question what you are reading. If you weren't aware, European governments pay lots of people to create fake accounts on Thai Visa to promote anti-Thai propaganda. They do the same in the Bangkok Post comment section for obvious reasons.

 

No Thai police would ever dare raid my house. The thought of that happening is laughable at best. Hahahah. Yeah right. You are either full of it or are clearly doing something very wrong to upset your neighbors this much.

 

On the off chance that this story is true, you should know that as a Farang, if you wish to do business in Thailand like “operate farming machinery” then you absolutely must pay for protection. That’s just how it is. I have multiple businesses in Thailand and have absurd amounts of police protection that I pay for monthly. This is the cost of doing business in Thailand and it is totally worth it because there is literally no competition in this country. Thailand truly is the land of opportunity if you’re willing to play by the rules.
 

Move to the United States, or better yet the “failing” Sweden, if you want equal rights and to live in an egalitarian society.

9 hours ago, smiggley said:

Ease up on the long stay residents, we spend a lot of money here to.

I think the word tourist includes expats. Wether we stay 2 weeks or 20 years  they just consider us tourists. Not citizens/residents just short or long stay tourists.

Too late, Somchai. 2020 is our last year after nearly two decades. It’s just not worth it now.

9 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

The campaign worked in the UK https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2659948/Tesco-to-ditch-ten-items-or-less-sign-after-good-grammar-campaign.html sort of, only in new stores.

 

I suppose we really ought to get back on topic.

 

Aww, come on. This is actually a much more interesting topic than the typical complaints about tourism. You see, the "less" that is being referred to here, is actually just fine in context in the USA. The context is as follows:

 

I have fewer items.

I have less than 10 items.

 

You could, in theory, also say "I have fewer than 10 items", but nobody does, except maybe in the old English dialect used in the UK and other backwards looking countries.

 

So "less" should not be intereprested as an incorrect replacement of fewer. It is a shortened form of "less than".  You may say that this is breaking a rule in England, but it does not break a rule in the American dialect. It comes about from studying math (note the word is math singular, not "maths") where you commonly say things like "6 is less than 10". In this case, both 6 and 10 are nouns, but because of the similarity in speech patterns, this has become the typical construct in the USA when using the comparative conjunction "than".

 

At the same time, nobody in the USA would say "I have less items". That would be wrong.

 

10 hours ago, darksidedog said:

My goodness, what is this? An ounce of common sense? How the hell did that get into the country?

 

It's only words. Don't worry. He has done his part, without actually doing anything, by being able to say that when things (continue) to go tits-up he warned it would happen. Meanwhile it'll be business as usual. No-one will actually take any notice of what he says, nor does he expect them to. That's the way things always work in Thailand.

8 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I'm not convinced they discriminate between an expat and a tourist.

We're all tourists to them.

Bang ... to me, you hit the head on the nail!

 

Doesn't matter whether 3 month, 6 month, 1 year or 10 years ... it's all the same 'tourist' pot.

 

The statement in the headline is a welcoming return from what we were used with ongoing strong negative language over the past few years.

 

The same as last week, now positive statements like ".... we need more professional english teachers to bring our skills up", as opposed to the past couple of years "....we don't need english teachers, we teach Thais to teach Thais."

 

Slowly, but steadily, the language is changing. I sense it all is about to peak and some penny's start to drop.

 

There is a lot of news to digest, but not all is to be read on here.

 

I see for more than a week daily Thai News about a corrupted politician with her 46 rai of land and chicken farm without chanote tile and people are questioning it etc. 

The police, politicians and news are all over it ... I tried to read up on this forum news feed, didn't see details of it. 

 

I see on Thai TV that people are leaving the parlament during discussions to make a statement against Mr. General ... didn't see it in my daily forum news.

 

What I read on the forum is once again another guy got caught on 5 day overstay (a constant for the past couple of month)

... but that however, I didn't see on Thai News on the Tellie.

 

So at this point, I don't really care about forum posts as from people like SmartyMarty, defending tourist numbers and Thailand.

 

There is a shift coming ... and Thai people are starting to raise their voice. 

 

Any change of language, like the one in this headline, is a welcome positive direction ... it's something which has been missing for the past couple of years.

 

And I don't read this as only tourists ... tourists never have been limited much by immigration. 

 

When I read headlines like this .. it's like BritMantoo says ... we are all tourists, whether expects or not ... and they start to recognize it. 

 

Thais themselves are not that blind for long ... they also know when it's time for a change.

 

 

11 hours ago, webfact said:

His statements seemed to be a softening of the "bad guys out" rhetoric replacing it with a "please come back to Thailand we need you" message, observes Thaivisa. 

 

Did you just quote yourself instantly?  That's insane.

 

10 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

 

From here https://www.espressoenglish.net/countable-and-uncountable-nouns-why-10-items-or-less-is-grammatically-incorrect/

Well I learned something new today. Or is it newer???....

 

An American teaching English. Now that's got to be good.

Den

11 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

It's only words. Don't worry. He has done his part, without actually doing anything, by being able to say that when things (continue) to go tits-up he warned it would happen. Meanwhile it'll be business as usual. No-one will actually take any notice of what he says, nor does he expect them to. That's the way things always work in Thailand.

I think he is just doing the "Sit on the Fence" routine,

until he gets the positive "NOD" from a higher up,

so he knows which way to fall off the fence.

10 hours ago, kelboy said:

It's all to late,all the tourist have heard and are going elsewhere. Also saving a lot of money. 

So immigration officers at BKK and DMK will finally stop rejecting legitimate tourists on SETV and METV instead of the number of reports we've had on this forum of people being rejected? If so, that's great news for once!

10 hours ago, overherebc said:

Did he make it clear there is no 180 day law now????

Seems like it. Hopefully all the IOs stop rejecting people with visas at the airports.

Finally, you are talking ... why wait for so long? Abolish all the ridiculous rules.

11 hours ago, keith101 said:

What and expats living here do nothing for the economy , maybe you should look at ways of helping us instead of making it harder .

He talk about tourists, not expats - a small but significant difference ...