Tourism-reliant Thailand shelves 'travel bubble' plan as Asia virus cases rise

[SymS]

17 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

These people speak everyday like uncontrollable mouth diarrhea but hen have to backtrack by putting in a bi maxi pad. Expats to the rescue and give us PR status. they do that and i would guarantee them to spend 500,000 baht in the next 2 weeks. 

Then amend the law to allow permanent residents to legally buy just one parcel of land, and I would guarantee them to spend at least 5 million baht in the next 6 months.

[AAArdvark]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

those areas had a low number of cases, but now they were in double-digits

?

[Isaan sailor]

Just keep the hordes of you-know-who out, and we’ll manage quite well...

Edited August 7, 2020 by Isaan sailor

[chang1]

33 minutes ago, toolpush said:

Trump at no time, said that the virus was fake

Sorry, I stand corrected he actually called it the democrats hoax.

[George Aylesham]

3 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Curious to know more...are you retired or working and/or raising a family or just doing business. For me, a retired person, my interaction with the Thai state bureaucracy is deminimus and consists of two trips to immigration per year for a total of 30 minutes to renew my a "retirement" visa and prove my bank funds after 90 days (90 day reports are done online) and a trip to the Land Transportation Office every 5 years to renew my drivers license. The annual car registrations are done by a service just down from my house for 100 baht. I don't think living as an expatriate gets much easier than this.

In comparison to being an immigrant in Britain or the US, the Thai regulations are a doddle, even if they are being more strictly enforced.

[shackleton]

We seem to be going round  in circles  on this one  when will the tourists return ect

Why don't they get realistic its not going to happen this year the way things are going 

No one is coming with 14 days quarintine awaiting them plus all the paperwork involved plus no flights

They seem to be doing okay on the foreign and local tourists  already here  in Thailand according to reports so put your maximum effort into this 

 

[John CS]

16 hours ago, ukrules said:

It's not about the 'dirty farang', it's about the Chinese and what's now happening in Vietnam.

 

Vietnam remains closed, no cases for more than 90 days yet it still got in and it's not the same strain as before. I hear things from Vietnam that suggest it got in from Chinese nationals crossing the border illegally.

 

Now this is quite important because the strain that's going around Vietnam now is the newer strain more common in Europe and the US yet it's believed it entered the country from China.

 

This is the important point, the Chinese did everything they could to keep out this mutated strain which apparently has an R0 of between 5 and 6 as opposed to the original which was much, much lower at around 2 to 2.5. The Chinese have failed and even the illegal border crossers have the European strain.

 

Keep it closed and keep it out.

 

If they plan on opening it in say December then they might as well just open it all up now - the result will be the same. They will know this, it's a matter of waiting it out or opening up.

 

 

Agree with your Asian analysis

The only real option is to Open up , protect or quarantine the elderly , let the front line doctors do their work, the disgrace concerning this scandal is the Media constant magnification of the virus , they are liable for terrorizing the public, the WHO / UN involvement and the individual Govts rush to attempt to destroy our lives, through ridiculous imposition, if this coordinated approach had been taken individually without so much media coverage it would have been a harsh influenza season. The precise reason it is been played out as sich is that the WHO/UN/WEF want a new world order played out , the COVID19 reveals this to such a point that it is also destroying the efficacy and independence of Science

Nationalism will prevail, then we need accountability

 

[Mavideol]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

The island of Phuket has instead proposed receiving direct flights from those countries, with tourists and business executives doing two-week quarantines in their hotels before going out.

 

"We are asking for travel, charter flights, into Phuket," Phuket Tourist Association President Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, told Reuters.

Phuket are the smart ones (sarcasm intended) they want direct charter flights, which usually, are for 3-5 days max 1 week stay,  but in order to enjoy that, they need 14 days (2 week) quarantine, what a non sense... 555

[chang1]

26 minutes ago, naryan said:

Do us a favour do you speak for others are you a leader of many? I talk my own views and do my best to respect other's. I dont believe there is a virus, Enjoy all the best.  

Can you please explain how you came to the conclusion that there is no virus? Do you have credible sources that can confirm that. Also, what is causing people to die in such large numbers.

[jojothai]

10 hours ago, VBF said:

 

There are reports all over (check Google) of companies already geared up to manufacture it...

But not in Thailand.
They cannot even produce their own for human trials.

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30391178

"If the test is successful, the vaccine would be ready for use in people around the third or fourth quarter of next year.” (2021)

They change tune day by day and cannot prepare for what many expect to be inevitable.
How pathetic, Thailand may languish with borders still closed when others have the vaccine and open up (assuming it works), unless they buy from outside.

Better expect to go outside to get the vaccine.

However that may not be possible if the autocracy will not be prepared to let people travel.

 

[wmlc]

Yesterday they are making plans and today they have cancelled the travel bubble. The problem is they have people screaming for tourists but on the other hand saying keep them out. So, in the end, they can’t even handle a few soldiers from Israel so they better not do anything until this is all over. 

[Bangkok Barry]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

The island of Phuket has instead proposed receiving direct flights from those countries, with tourists and business executives doing two-week quarantines in their hotels before going out.

Very appealing. Come to Phuket but stay in your hotel. Do not go out to restaurants, bars, sight-seeing. These officials obviously have no idea what tourists and business people do when they come to Thailand. They do all the things that are currently forbidden, so why come? And if these arrivals are stuck in their hotel the only part of the economy they are helping is that of the hotel.

[jojothai]

4 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Very appealing. Come to Phuket but stay in your hotel. Do not go out to restaurants, bars, sight-seeing. These officials obviously have no idea what tourists and business people do when they come to Thailand. They do all the things that are currently forbidden, so why come? And if these arrivals are stuck in their hotel the only part of the economy they are helping is that of the hotel.

But cant you see, that's what they want.  Have they not made it obvious. ????????????

[248900_1469958220]

6 hours ago, thaitero said:

Winter is coming in near future..

Thailand should concentrate those who want to spend 3-6 months extended holidays..

Those may be o..k to stay 2 weeks quarantine in order to spend winter in safe country..

Totally agree with this. I think Thailand 'may' be FINALLY waking up to the positives long stay foreigners bring here. I wont hold my breath......People are NOT going to come here for 2 weeks if they have to quarantine for 2 weeks...however, people interested in staying for business...study....etc should be treated with more respect. I work here, I pay taxes, I DONT send my money back to mummy and daddy...it all STAYS HERE. You would think they had cottoned on by now to the benefits of such people.

[Madeline Thompson]

Just yesterday the government was going to establish a means

of getting foreign nationals back into Thailand - a means that

would finally bring families back together, be expat families

or foreigners back to their Thai families.  That was posted by the

government yesterday.  Now they're closing shop again, completely.

Enduring devastation to the Thai economy is their go-to plan. 

There will always be cases of the 'virus' (this one and ones to come)

floating around the world which means, with this government, basically

a junta government, there is a permanent policy of absolute seclusion

from the rest of the world - unless foreigners who can afford half a mllion

baht for a privilege visa.  Not enough takers on that to solve anything, and

certainly not bring families back together again.  Apparently, it is presumed

that rich people would never get a virus.

[chang1]

8 minutes ago, John CS said:

Agree with your Asian analysis

The only real option is to Open up , protect or quarantine the elderly , let the front line doctors do their work, the disgrace concerning this scandal is the Media constant magnification of the virus , they are liable for terrorizing the public, the WHO / UN involvement and the individual Govts rush to attempt to destroy our lives, through ridiculous imposition, if this coordinated approach had been taken individually without so much media coverage it would have been a harsh influenza season. The precise reason it is been played out as sich is that the WHO/UN/WEF want a new world order played out , the COVID19 reveals this to such a point that it is also destroying the efficacy and independence of Science

Nationalism will prevail, then we need accountability

 

I think governments and the media were far too slow to pick up on how serious covid19 is. If more had been done at the beginning it may have been possible to contain it. Unfortunately, it was allowed (especially by China) to spread too far and quickly became unstoppable. In the UK, most people are fairly relaxed about it and those in the high risk groups are taking the necessary precautions. The media is generally keeping us informed and I don't see a problem with how they have covered it. Maybe because I am not a snowflake and can see the reality behind the headlines.

The sooner we have this new world order the better as then all these disasters, diseases, crashing economies etc. will stop happening and all the rubbish conspiracy theories will also stop. Anyone who thinks the illuminati are so powerful should ask themselves why it is taking so long to achieve this new world order? Whatever that is. 

I had better get back to convincing people the earth is flat. If only I could explain why I can't see the hull of that distant ship.

[natway09]

To be fair, the Government is very well aware of the need to let people in & desperate to find a way 

to help the economy.

The goal posts keep moving on them as even NZ & Australia (both islands) have found out.

It is at present a daily monitoring situation & they have done very well to keep infection rates as low as they have.

To rubbish their efforts & monitoring is just "Thai bagging"

The UK tried the herd mentality immunity idea & failed badly.

Just to open the borders & rock & roll at this time could in the long run end up being worse.

I feel pretty safe here & applaud their ongoing efforts for keeping me that way even though am 

hurting financially very badly. Maybe this time next year there will be light at the end of the tunnel

[pookondee]

17 hours ago, ukrules said:

It's not about the 'dirty farang', it's about the Chinese and what's now happening in Vietnam.

 

Vietnam remains closed, no cases for more than 90 days yet it still got in and it's not the same strain as before. I hear things from Vietnam that suggest it got in from Chinese nationals crossing the border illegally.

 

Now this is quite important because the strain that's going around Vietnam now is the newer strain more common in Europe and the US yet it's believed it entered the country from China.

 

This is the important point, the Chinese did everything they could to keep out this mutated strain which apparently has an R0 of between 5 and 6 as opposed to the original which was much, much lower at around 2 to 2.5. The Chinese have failed and even the illegal border crossers have the European strain.

 

Keep it closed and keep it out.

 

If they plan on opening it in say December then they might as well just open it all up now - the result will be the same. They will know this, it's a matter of waiting it out or opening up.

 

 

I often want to ask people with this mentality:

So, how long is long enough for these cowardly lockdown?

If we do 1, 2, 5 years, and then the virus is still present regardless? 

what then?

That means we will have trashed not only our lives and economy but that of our kids as well...For NOTHING

 

There will be be no industry, no jobs, no hope.

 

Pretty soon the world will have to realise its here and we have to live with it.

Something like

"Healthy people-normal life, Sick people-stay home"

 

It has to get legislated to a point where there is policing and penalties are so stiff that sick people dare not go out AT ALL.

 

Keep the old and vulnerable ONLY locked down and make sure carers arent infected. It cant be that hard.

Governments could even take over aged care, to make sure its done right and just not for profit, as is the way now.

 

Think about it, if one is old and fragile, your normal life is being locked down in a home anyway. 

Let the rest of us get on with life before all industries are decimated.

[thairookie]

There is only one travel bubble - between Thailand and China.  The rest of the countries are just smokescreen to shield China.  If, for some reason, it's not practicable to bring in China tourists - either because of a second wave of infection or because China is at war with the rest of the world - then in their opinion it completely defeats the purpose of a travel bubble.

 

Everything is custom-made for China, though I seriously doubt Chinese will regain their financial power with one sixth of the country submerged in water, and billions of locusts rampaging the farms.  Very soon, the Chinese will have face a serious famine.

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by thairookie

[DirtyHarry55]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

And what percentage of the population do you think should be sacrificed?

It's an unproven theory, don't they have flu vaccines every year?

Immune people can still spread the disease and what immunity they have can deteriorate if they become seriously ill, or old. There is a good reason why third world countries have a younger population.

A better plan would be the way to go.

It's not about sacrifice it's about reality a new Virus has been released on mankind

and it's not going away any time soon so we have to learn to live with it.
Eventually it will die out and become less lethal as people become immune to it.
People die everyday from different diseases this is a new one we have to learn to live with and treat.
Keeping the boarders closed is just delaying the inevitable.
 

Edited August 7, 2020 by DirtyHarry55

[Airalee]

19 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Expats to the rescue and give us PR status. they do that and i would guarantee them to spend 500,000 baht in the next 2 weeks. 

Same here.  I’d even go as far as to pay ฿1,000,000 for some sort of non-revocable lifetime PR status...maybe even a bit more if it includes health insurance until death.

[bkk6060]

Boy, lets hope there is a vaccine.

Still waiting for HIV, Herpes, etc.

And Hepatitis C keeps mutating they cannot find a vaccine.

If Covid keeps changing along the way, who knows.

[Dialemco]

Even with Travel bubbles you cannot restart tourism without quarantine in the absence of any reliable vaccine which may never be discovered. Arrangements should be made for a package easily obtainable in respective countries prior departure and upon arrival for each potential tourist to be confirmed viras free plus 14 days quarantine on arrival and be in possession of adequate covid and other medical Insurance for duration of their stay. This will only be of interest to a very small number of people so it has to be expected that most of the international tourism will cease for the foreseeable future  so brace yourselves for severe economic pain and mass unemployment.

[Sheryl]

3 hours ago, DLock said:

I am continually amazed that the TAT and Government hold on to this idea that people will do 2 weeks quarantine to vacation in Thailand,

 

There is no such idea. Plans for possibly re-introducing tourism have never involved quarantine in Thailand, it is a given that this will not work. The whole point of a "travel bubble" is to remove the need for quarantine both coming and going. But so far this has proved impossible to arrange hence still no tourist visas being issued anywhere.

[Sheryl]

A nonsenical troll post and post with misinformation have been removed.

[fraggleRock]

19 hours ago, Patts said:

Media have done there best to scare Thai's of the dirty farang. 

 

Thailand will keep the ban on international arrivals until a vaccine is approved. 

Its been how many years and still no SARS Covid 2 vaccine.. Thailand will become jungle banana republic soon again... there is no test for covid 19 and there will be no vaccine... the PCR and antibody tests are flawed... Quite easy to pass these tests as the tests are unreliable... And with Thailands record on medical testing DNA amplification... well as reliable as an airport taxi meter... 

[holy cow cm]

28 minutes ago, Airalee said:

Same here.  I’d even go as far as to pay ฿1,000,000 for some sort of non-revocable lifetime PR status...maybe even a bit more if it includes health insurance until death.

Me too if Health insurance and no more hoop jumping. 

[Max69xl]

19 hours ago, The Barmbeker said:

What happened to "we have to let the Chinese in, NOW"?

That came from the Tourism Boss. He's not living in the real world. He always comes up with fake numbers. 2019 was a disaster, but he keeps saying it was almost 40 million tourists. If you count every person coming into the country and include migrant workers from neighboring countries, and those workers go home and come back at least twice a year, then you might have a quite high number,but not close to 40 million. 

[rwill]

18 hours ago, ukrules said:

When a reliable vaccine is available to all it's still going to take a long time to manufacture enough doses to make a dent. This time will be measured in years, not months.

The Serum Institute of India is already starting to mass produce a couple of the Covid-19 vaccines so they will be available as soon as approved.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/india-serum-institute-millions-oxford-university-vaccine-before-approval-2020-4

https://www.asiaone.com/business/novavax-and-serum-institute-india-announce-development-and-commercial-collaboration

[DirtyHarry55]

9 minutes ago, rwill said:

The Serum Institute of India is already starting to mass produce a couple of the Covid-19 vaccines so they will be available as soon as approved.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/india-serum-institute-millions-oxford-university-vaccine-before-approval-2020-4

https://www.asiaone.com/business/novavax-and-serum-institute-india-announce-development-and-commercial-collaboration

I wouldn't be rushing to take that It will take years of testing to know how well it works it may even be fatal in some people.

Edited August 7, 2020 by DirtyHarry55