Expats sought to help Thailand’s tourism industry in its hour of need, end to dual pricing mooted

[DaLa]

This reminds me of when I visited Vancouver many years ago. On leaving the place I had to pay an “Airport Improvement Fee’. Why I had to fund someone else’s future business plans when I wouldn’t see any benefit myself was a mystery to me.

 

I always thought the usual business model is to offer something beneficial to your customer before attempting to entice them to buy.

 

Although I should have learnt by now that people that place themselves above others and seek a place in government are the least likely to have the management skills necessary to run a coconut shy business at a country fair.

[Naamblar2014]

Scrap the need for usd$100,000 corona virus insurance.  Scrap the state (hotel)  quarantine at our expense in favour of home quarantine.  These I think are a good start to being supportive and caring about expats that have spouses and family in Thailand. Produce a fairer system/path towards citizenship. This will allow people to invest/run business/work without needing a work permit/live freely without annual visas etc. After living in a country for 20 years and still called a farang is not fair.

[Cake Monster]

I really have to ask the following question.

How is it possible to enjoy the hospitality of a Country, its people, and their Culture as an Expat, with the attitude many Thai people show toward us.

Only today, I pulled into a Service Station for Gasoline. The Pump attendant came to my car, and when she saw that I was a " Farang " turned away, and then remonstrated with another Lady.

The second lady came over to my Car and with way too much nicety filled my Car with Gasoline. Then proceeded to give me a Gift of 1.5 L of drinking Water and a Mama Noddle Pot.

My Wife said that she was the Boss Lady, and the first Girl had refused to serve because I was " Farang ".

Now with attitude such as this in abundance in Thailand (for whatever reason ), who is going to travel around the Country and be insulted and belittled everywhere you go, when you can get the same treatment close to your own Home.

All the " Dirty Farang " rhetoric etc has really worked with the population, and the Government now want us to help them fill their banks with our Money.

From  me its a very polite  " Thank you , but no Thank you "

 

 

[aussienam]

I am stranded outside Thailand due to necessary medical treatments in Australia.  Been locked out since March.  But what has irked many of us stranded is not one single mention of retirees being allowed back.  No mention.  It is as if we do not exist.  Embassies do not want to know about us.  There has been all talk about letting back tourists, especially high-end.  Truly heartbreaking.  When, we as retirees, collectively spend all of our money in Thailand, month after month through the high and low seasons.  But we have been blatantly ignored.  The grief and financial losses we are experiencing are huge.  

[abonsa]

4 hours ago, Mavideol said:

555....555 now they want/need us and came back begging......, all good no problem but we have a couple requests such as : No More dual pricing at ANY facilities, that includes hotels, restaurants, water parks, natural parks and so forth and since our purchasing power has been dropping on a daily basis due to baht appreciation, once and for all just depreciate the damn baht to allow us to spend some more money

 

Wishing them the worst ! Or they will have to beg more and do it well !

 

 

[TKDfella]

I'm not concerned with dual pricing while on tour...lets get the important things done first. a) Stop dual pricing at hospitals. b) let hospitals sort out a reasonable insurance scheme (like the one they had for Asians) for all expats. c) Drop the 90 day reporting and the newly enforced regulations regarding 800,000 Bt in the bank. d) give all expats longer extensions, like 2, 3 or even 5 years. When these are done then...don't know why I'm wasting my time to even think about it, it ain't gonna happen. I can't see them dropping dual pricing because...we all know why. 

[my friend you]

3 hours ago, Airalee said:

Sample hotel price now vs high season in November.

 

when I see this kind of <deleted>...I stay home.

 

Spend every dollar like it’s a vote.

 

High Season This November 

 

 

Current “low season” price

That's just natural. If only one third of custumers come you must put up prices by the factor 3. Simple maths, Thai style logic. ????????????

[lee b]

29 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

2 words... the 2nd one s off !

What ever could the first one be? lol.

[DogNo1]

It's the same in Japan.  Permanent residents are not yet being readmitted.

[BestB]

This is so funny. First they did all possible to make our lives hell through immigration hoops, they then called us dirty animals. They then had many businesses refusing service including busses and now that there is trouble , all over sudden they are turning to us ????????????. 
 

they better wait for chinese, those are the real saviours ????

[DrTuner]

Well, perhaps we should negotiate.

 

Here's my demand list before a single satang goes to tourism:

 

- All usurpers find the highest building and take a dive

- Army is put back to barracks and key thrown away

- New constitution and elections

- Permament residency route for non-working spouses is opened up

- Land ownership for foreigners with permanent residence

- 100% foreign company ownership, BOI-style, without the BOI

 

To start with. I'm sure others can add a few minor details or so. 

 

And BTW this needs to be done yesterday.

 

Will be waiting for your approval and fruitful co-operation going forward, khop khun khraaaaapp (forgot, TAT must be dismantled and MoPH required to disclose all it's testing numbers. Oh, and no Chinese or Russians allowed in. And....).

Edited August 4, 2020 by DrTuner

[MRToMRT]

1 hour ago, johng said:

Why the hell just not say  "We are closed"  ???????

Its just like the requirements to re-enter Thailand. Should just say we are just closed as well. Must be something about Thainess.

[tomacht8]

12 minutes ago, Naamblar2014 said:

Scrap the need for usd$100,000 corona virus insurance.  Scrap the state (hotel)  quarantine at our expense in favour of home quarantine.  These I think are a good start to being supportive and caring about expats that have spouses and family in Thailand. Produce a fairer system/path towards citizenship. This will allow people to invest/run business/work without needing a work permit/live freely without annual visas etc. After living in a country for 20 years and still called a farang is not fair.

And stop the C19 RT-PCR test before departure, which must not be older than 72 hours. In many countries, you can only get this test if you are ill or suspected. Furthermore, many laboratories are so busy with testing that you often have to wait at least 48 hours for the result. And what's the point if you're on a plane with Thais who don't have to do this test.

[Dave0206]

2 million expats? seems on high side for a country of 70 million a ratio of 1/35  pattaya.hua hin ect yes but nakhon nowhere really?

[The Barmbeker]

Well...I am one of the guys working in tourism  you know...one of those, that many on TVF think, "just" needs to find a new job...

I am on 50% of my salary since February and will be at least until the end of the year!

Pre- COVID, I was doing my holiday 3 times a year inside Thailand!

Now my reality is: no holiday this year and if the idiots in charge don't come up with a good idea to revive tourism (and soon!), I will be leaving after 13 years!

And I will not be the only one!

Thailand...you made your bed- now lie (!!!) in it!

[Stadtler]

4 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Someone should tell him there is a very long list to start work on.

I do find it amusing that we have been slagged off chronically through the Covid drama, but are now being looked to as the potential saviours.

Only till your purse empties.

[LivinLOS]

4 hours ago, keith101 said:

We might well be interested if Immigration didn't make life so hard for us expats . I would like to travel around the country but they insist on knowing where we are all the time and with all the reports they want from us i just go to the supermarket .

What reports would that be.. TM30 have been dropped this year (or at least once per residence / visa). 

[4MyEgo]

I dare say that there are a lot of expats that are unforgiving (page 1), that was enough for me.

 

The fact of the matter is that Mr Richard Barrow has done a great job in raising awarness to the Thai's of a thorn that has stuck in most of our necks with double pricing, we should be grateful......well done Richard, instead of p-i-s-s-i-n-g and moaning like the rest of us, he has been proactive in achieving something big for us, so we should get behind him and stock carrying on, begging us, get on their knees, oh please, so insensivitive you lot are, they would never beg or get on their knees as you lot wouldn't so sobber up.

 

I for one will support the Thai tourism industry by going on holidays, the kids love it, we love it and it is something we have been doing since living here 5 years now, that said, won't be paying 85% more for those hotels who want to try to up their prices during long weekends, in fact will not be supporting them when we can avoid them, although it is hard as they are the only ones that offer the double bunks in the room price, why others don't is beyond me, perhaps the hotel association can advise their members to put in double bunks in their rooms big enough to accommodate them for families as opposed to trying to charge them for two rooms (separating the family), or charging 800 baht for an extra fold up bed while the other kid has to sleep with the parents, not enjoyable either way.

 

The above said, I will write them a letter myself as I think it's a great idea, hotel rooms with a double bunk in them, they can up the room charge within reason when a family with two kids occupy them, or charge a standard price when a couple or a single person uses the room because the others are occupied, now there's thinking outside the square, rooms which would be multi person purpose rooms....lol  

Edited August 4, 2020 by 4MyEgo

[sambum]

And maybe explain to Immigration Officers that our money is welcome, and to stop treating us ex pats like naughty children who haven't done their homework correctly when applying for a visa/extension!

 

I heard of a guy that had to make 7 (SEVEN!!!) visits to Immigration last year to get an extension basically because the I.O. dealing with his case couldn't explain what she wanted, and was making him supply all kinds of unnecessary documentation (just because she could!) 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by sambum

[thetravelbee]

4 hours ago, Mavideol said:

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/tourism/minister-encourages-thai-hotels-to-stop-price-gouging-expats

 

Minister Phiphat says the Tourism Authority of Thailand will continue to work with hoteliers and travel associations to “ensure expats will receive the same hotel rates as locals”. But he admitted that his Ministry is unable to stop dual pricing in the near future as the issue falls under different ministries.

 

on top of that they blamed us for importing covid19

overpriced accommodations  & ongoing misinformation about foreigners being ‘responsible’ for bringing Covid 19  into the country.

 

and they are asking for our help,  that's the joke of the week 555

Don't flatter yourself, you ain't the savior,  neither here nor anywhere

[Airalee]

2 hours ago, madmitch said:

Oh dear.

 

This has been discussed at length in the Phuket forum and this poster has obviously either ignored or misunderstood that the hotel in question is closed at the moment, hence the price set so that nobody will book!

Then they should get their act together and make note of it on their website (which will gladly take all my information and no doubt charge my credit card) and all the other booking websites.  That they don’t make it known upfront that they are closed is even more “questionable”.

[apetryxx]

We lived in Hawaii for many years and there was a two tier pricing system of sorts, one for tourists and one for residents at certain venues. Residents, meaning that if you resided in Hawaii regardless or your nationality, race or skin color you got what is known as kama’āina rate at certain places such as hotels, golf courses museums and the like. Everything else was whatever the posted price was for everybody. It was a reasonably fair system. If one was a Thai resident in Hawaii you got the same deal as every other “resident.” 
Not so in xenophobic Thailand, if you’re a farang pay triple or double or quadruple or whatever the venue demands. It’s positively outrageous and wrong.
 

 

[davemos]

I think one soluton to the rising unemployment would be to let exoats work on any visa.There is a wealth of experience and opportunity getting wasted ???? This would give Thais opportunity to learn and develop .Income could be taxed and  help fill the gap left by the tourism sector.

[Jai Dee]

An inflammatory troll post and a raft of replies have been removed.

[Almer]

What might swing it for me is if Anutin withdraws his hate comments that were coming on a regular basis up until a few weeks ago, and the word they are looking for is "please", and one more request is sort the baht to free up more money to spend after Anutin says sorry.

[Oldie]

"Yuthasak said that the 1997 Asian financial crisis (that had its roots in Thailand) was a disaster for the banks. Now 2020 has been a disaster for tourism. "

 

I am afraid a disaster for the banks might follow. At the financial crisis the Baht went down a lot and this helped the tourism and the exports. Now we have a high Baht, no tourists and a lot of non performing loans. I don't want to sound pessimistic but I personally don't see this as a good combination. 

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Oldie

[Cake Monster]

4 minutes ago, davemos said:

I think one soluton to the rising unemployment would be to let exoats work on any visa.There is a wealth of experience and opportunity getting wasted ???? This would give Thais opportunity to learn and develop .Income could be taxed and  help fill the gap left by the tourism sector.

This is probably one of the best ideas I have heard in a longtime.

Expats are here because most of them have been successful in their own Countries and moved here on the success.

Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors Etc Etc Etc. All those skills and all that experience not being tapped.

Skills and Experience that would transform Thailand as a nation if they could be taught.

But no, we are not allowed to Educate these people to our high standards.

[mrfill]

56 minutes ago, DogNo1 said:

^{I think that the word "moot" has been misunderstood (or perhaps misused.). To moot means to cancel.  In other words, he is rejecting the proposal to end dual pricing.}

Have you any more copies of your newspeak dictionary?

 

This is the true definition....

moot

 

 

 

adjective

1.

subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty.

"whether the temperature rise was mainly due to the greenhouse effect was a moot point"

 

 

 

2.

having little or no practical relevance, typically because the subject is too uncertain to allow a decision.

"the whole matter is becoming increasingly moot"

 

verb

verb: moot; 3rd person present: moots; past tense: mooted; past participle: mooted; gerund or present participle: mooting

raise (a question or topic) for discussion; suggest (an idea or possibility).

"the scheme was first mooted last October"

 

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, Bluetongue said:

5 pages so far of mostly whinging about dual pricing - been here 11 years, been coming and going for 30 rarely seen it, TM30s - done 1 in 11 years, so much negative and hostile waffle. All because some article mentioned that some tourism guy thought it a good idea to encourage a few expats to try a few different places. A lot of you should be ashamed of yourselves for such a childish, selfish display, in a country which by the way has kept you pretty safe during a pandemic. Sure nothing's perfect but that's life. Might go somewhere I haven't been before in the next months. 

 "TM30s - done 1 in 11 years, so much negative and hostile waffle". Only done one TM30 in 14 years, because I came back from abroad, never had 400.000 or 800.000 Bt in a Thai bank account, I will leave that to the "scared of your own shadow" brigade.

Edited August 4, 2020 by possum1931

[whitfield]

6 months ago they demanded that we report to Immigration every time we left home for 24 hours, now they want us to travel more.  Gentlemen please make up your minds, are we dirty farangs who are not wanted or are we an essential part of the economy.  A little clarity of thought might help you overcome your xenophobia.