Until the remove that stupid requirement of 100,000 dollars insurance and that 14 day isolation tourists especially westerners will not visit Thailand. Plus the Thai baht is too high value when other asian countries have a better exchnage drate.

1 hour ago, DrTuner said:

I hope it never comes back to the unsustainable levels it was. Last year when it was somewhat ok was 2009.

You might have your wish come true Dr T.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-25/hong-kong-researchers-first-documented-coronavirus-reinfection/12591746

10 hours ago, webfact said:

FIVE YEARS until tourism is back to previous levels, says tourism leader

With the current visa regulations, longer.   It will bounce back if the military is out of government house, and Thai immigration is as gracious as their Malaysian and Vietnamese counter parts: service with a smile and 90 day stays.  The army makes Thailand boring and look petty.    

8 hours ago, FiveStarVagabond said:

I

Here is my webcam address, check out how quiet Pattaya beach is. ????https://fivestarvagabond.com/best-pattaya-beach-thailand-webcam/

 

In 2.5 years I have had over 8 million visits, now that's good promotion for Pattaya. ????

It is completely quiet... You should check the connection. The Webcam doesn't work. You just lost one potential visitor. 

10 hours ago, Jingthing said:

5 years might be somewhat pessimistic but early next year is crazy talk. We're still in the earlier phase of this. 

Well you hit the nail on the head. No one knows. 

14 minutes ago, Oldie said:

It is completely quiet... You should check the connection. The Webcam doesn't work. You just lost one potential visitor. 

Well it does, better use the direct link https://www.earthcam.com/world/thailand/pattaya/?cam=pattaya

 

However you might make the mistake of thinking it's a still image. It is that quiet.

Visa issued  eased,less problems at the border.The virus problems are nearly over.If  come jan feb or dec we are virus free then they will see many coming back and many are waiting to return as well.so maybe a few years like everywhere but I think thailand will take maybe 2years without  much help from government ideas

22 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Well it does, better use the direct link https://www.earthcam.com/world/thailand/pattaya/?cam=pattaya

 

However you might make the mistake of thinking it's a still image. It is that quiet.

I got an error message that the Webcanm is not available. Now it works. 

8 hours ago, Operator2002 said:

Meanwhile Turkey opened up borders received 1 mln tourists within 1 to 19 August - and they hope even to excede last year's numbers by extending the high season till November.

(299 967 - from Ukraine, 281 398 - from Russia, 221 151 - from Germany, 85 850 - from Great Britain)

Exactly my thoughts.

 

And, btw., Turkey is so similar to Thailand in many aspects. Similar number of people, similar grade of development, similar dependence on foreign investment and money, similar sh1tty political situation, similar issues regarding democracy, human rights and freedom of speech. Only regarding the opening of the borders, they are completely the opposite of Thailand. 

11 hours ago, 4reaL said:

wonder if the visa laws will become more favorable, nah that would be too logical......  

The only people who complain about Visa laws are expats who want to stay long-time.

That is NOT the group of people the government wants, so there is NO way Visa laws will be more relaxed.

 

IMO, Thai people who are not supported through tourism, WANT this lockdown to continue and have no qualms with "waiting out" a vaccine.  My wife tells me in the village, people want this to continue "for their safety".  As for food and money, they "will get by", just like before.

 

 

11 hours ago, Henryford said:

Pattaya will have it's sky train by then. The tourists will flock in to travel in style.

Or submarine ... haha

If there's a election and then tourism will back in a year with a new Thai gov and this minister out of a job. What a fool..vaccinevis nearly home in Austrlia. This gov is the problem.

1 hour ago, chaihot said:

The only people who complain about Visa laws are expats who want to stay long-time.

That is NOT the group of people the government wants, so there is NO way Visa laws will be more relaxed.

 

IMO, Thai people who are not supported through tourism, WANT this lockdown to continue and have no qualms with "waiting out" a vaccine.  My wife tells me in the village, people want this to continue "for their safety".  As for food and money, they "will get by", just like before.

 

 

Laughable what would your wife know about the people in Pattaya..l.lived and trained in a Thai boxing camp. You are wrong 

6 hours ago, american2 said:

I doubt anyone will read my response   but here it goes anyway.

A tourist comes to one of these Quarentine Hotel/Resorts.  Confined to the hotel and perhaps the grounds,  Perhaps the local surrounding village.  During the Quarentine stay the guest can come in contact with Staff and Local Vendors.  Also during the Quarentine stay the guest comes into contact with guests who arrived previous  and guests that came later.  During that time if the guest transmits the virus to a previous guest and the previous guest completes the quarentine period and tests negative (but has been infected and not showing virus during testing).  That guest would move on and unknowingly start infecting people that the guest comes into contact with.  The same continues with the guest who at the end of the quarentine period come into  contact with a newly quarentined tourist and contracts the virus passes the final covid test and proceeds on to vacationing in Thailand  unknowingly transmitting the virus he acquired in the last stage of quarentine.

you too makes the assumption that the ai farang are the carriers and spreaders of the virus among clean and pure thai.

Probably realistic.  Worldwide Global Depressions don't end overnight. ????

I'm personally providing food, water, Leo and cigarettes for 6-7 people in my moobahn so I'm doing better than Chan-O-Cha, and I'm a scumbag foreigner.  

2 hours ago, chaihot said:

The only people who complain about Visa laws are expats who want to stay long-time.

That is NOT the group of people the government wants, so there is NO way Visa laws will be more relaxed.

 

IMO, Thai people who are not supported through tourism, WANT this lockdown to continue and have no qualms with "waiting out" a vaccine.  My wife tells me in the village, people want this to continue "for their safety".  As for food and money, they "will get by", just like before.

 

 

 

Snowbirds are not expats. I would like to be away for 4 months every winter. The visas I can get for Thailand make this a pain in the ass requiring either a visa run or a trip out of the country. Last winter I went to Vietnam for 3 weeks. If I could get a visa to stay in Thailand for 4 months, I would. And, FWIW, I know many other people in the same position. Some only go for 90 days to avoid this situation but would stay longer if they could easily do so.

Gotta love all the (insert department) tourism ministers.  It's 5 years, no it's next quarter, no it's 2 years, no it's early next year....and so on.  Then it's "tourist is down 20% since the pandemic says the "Bus companies tourism minister".  But wait, the "Legal Massage vendors tourism minister" predicts a bubble rebound of 10 million visitors when the Chinese return in October.  Then of course the "I don't know <deleted> about anything tourism minister" predicts the hotels and shopping outlets will survive with domestic tourism.  To top them all, the "I'm in charge of building more unneeded malls in Bangkok tourism minister" announces the ground breaking of not two, not three, but five more mega malls with 1 km of each other.  But don't fret expats, just wait till (insert your own date here) and all will be back to normal.  

19 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I think a big problem here is the obsession with maintaining the myth of zero cases of local transmission. That may never be realistic even after years of a vaccine. A way back might be limited cases accepted as inevitable but massive quick result testing, tracing, and isolation of clusters. 

so far they are only country on the face of the earth that can boast no local transmissions 

20 minutes ago, Kleepanna said:

so far they are only country on the face of the earth that can boast no local transmissions 

Here are a few countries that have not reported any cases of the coronavirus so far:

Kiribati

Marshall Islands

Micronesia

Nauru

North Korea

Palau

Samoa

Solomon Islands

Tonga

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Vanuatu

 

Thats not local transmission , thats just 0 . How true it is , well we can guess for a few countries and can believe it for a few others ( some are very small very remote islands ) .While in Others , it just doesn't exist ( Turkmenistan ..). Don't test , don't tell , don't care ...

1 hour ago, Kleepanna said:

so far they are only country on the face of the earth that can boast no local transmissions 

Well hell if no countries tested then they would be able to say the same thing now wouldn't they.

19 hours ago, JusticeGB said:

Just hope that Pattaya uses that time to upgrade its flooding and sewerage problems yet alone solve the annual shortage of water.

And get a police force & disband the taxi Mafia & decimate the wild dog population & stop garbage dumping & update the mediaeval property-owning laws & ease visa regs & & &

12 minutes ago, mikebell said:

And get a police force & disband the taxi Mafia & decimate the wild dog population & stop garbage dumping & update the mediaeval property-owning laws & ease visa regs & & &

wow, just one at a time would ne nice, but then TIT, and never going to happen. As all talk and no action. Never understood how many Thai officials were professional wordsmiths.

Hear hear...

22 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I think a big problem here is the obsession with maintaining the myth of zero cases of local transmission.

Whilst there may not be zero, it is unlikely I agree but for sure there has been very few acute cases and deaths here. At least in the province I live in.

My thoughts, we need to shift the metric being used by the media, both mainstream and social.

Away from infection rates to acute cases and deaths which I believe are declining globally.

time to rethink how many billions / trillions quarantine (every)body is worth

 

quarantine is for old & chronic sick people

 

brain goes to zero in panic mode

On 8/25/2020 at 10:38 AM, 4reaL said:

wonder if the visa laws will become more favorable, nah that would be too logical......  

Assuming you are referring to the visa laws in general (and not all the rigamarole during this covid period), tourists from many countries can come for up to 30 days without a visa...most others can get a tourist visa (30 days) on arrival, and both groups can extend their stays for up to 30 days. How can Thailand make their visa laws more favorable to tourists, which is what the op is referencing?

22 hours ago, Nielsk said:

Yes it would help if they rolled back announcement of foreign embassies approval of monthly income of 65000 baht for 1 year extension for Retirement Visa instead of as now "In case of income, a letter from your embassy in Thailand verifying your monthly income; or should your embassy  not issue an income letter, you will provide a 12-month bank statement showing a regular deposit of 65,000 baht into a Thai bank account" ⁉️⁉️

Not really understanding what you suggest here. Surely not the elimination of using Embassy letters in favour of confirmed income?

My take:

 

2021: Tourism opens up, is at about 30% of normal. Almost all of it is from nearby countries due to high flight costs

 

2022: 60% of peak

 

2023: 80%

 

After that it slowly passes 100% if the global economy is in another boom period

https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-airlines-to-cut-19-000-jobs-11598367869

 

American Airlines to Cut 19,000 Jobs by Oct. 1 When Federal Stimulus Ends

Airline to shrink workforce by 30% as pandemic continues to weigh heavily on travel demand