Plan on the table to allow Europe’s ‘snowbirds’ into Thailand for up to 9 months

[alex8912]

28 minutes ago, steve187 said:

but coming from a high risk country, you are like a diseased animal, if you must travel then expect some restrictions

get a long term visa, no need for border runs then, i think the days of repeated border runs to stay long term in Thailand are numbered, plenty of options for long term visas for people that are allowed.

The topic is letting in shorter term people who spend a lot of money. Don’t  you get it?? Only a pig would use a term “diseased animal “ get a grip man. Anyone who can come here 14 days plus 7 and test neg is the same as anyone else and better than anyone who has been living in Thailand untested. 

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, Mung said:

There have been so many plans and so many tables, the waters are officially muddied 

Another day, another plan.

[alex8912]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

The thing is, many snowbirds have a retirement extension

I disagree. I think the METV fit snowbirds like  myself like a glove. Averaging 5-8 months in Thailand and the rest elsewhere. So easy to get and no other BS. Maybe 1 or 2 trips outside Thailand briefly during the visa term to see a new or a favorite country nearby. 

[scammed]

i think this will appeal to a whole lot of europeans,

and americans too,

some of them on this very forum.

 

[scubascuba3]

13 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

I disagree. I think the METV fit snowbirds like  myself like a glove. Averaging 5-8 months in Thailand and the rest elsewhere. So easy to get and no other BS. Maybe 1 or 2 trips outside Thailand briefly during the visa term to see a new or a favorite country nearby. 

METVs haven't been easy to get that's the issue, depends on country though, in UK needed, employer letter or company reg and tax return, for that reason this doesn't suit most retirees as they aren't working

[Poet]

Retirement Visa: For those who want the right to stay here all year round, they will attract higher spending retirees if they drop the minimum age from 50 to 40. Eliminate the 800K deposit requirement for those willing to buy a property, increasing the chance they will decide to stay longterm.

Education/Remote Worker/Volunteer etc visas: For those staying for specific purpose, probably just a year or two, who will not take a job from a Thai, but who need to open a bank account etc.

Tourist visa: For those of any age who want to spend up to nine months of the year in Thailand. Get rid of all the METV paperwork and have just one tourist visa, make it available online for free, and no need to waste time and money on extensions once you are in Thailand, just make sure you're out within 9 months of the day you arrived.

Visa waiver: Three month stamp on entry, no limit to the number of entries per year, no requirement to have a return ticket. Making visiting Thailand as easy as simply boarding a plane. Also, benefit from the possibility that visitors might actually like Thailand and wish to stay longer by allowing them to upgrade to any of the other visas at any point without requiring them to fly out of the country first.

No more allowing clueless Immigration Officers at airports to treat arriving visitors with suspicioun and disdain. If they are not blacklisted you smile, stamp their passport and wish them a pleasant stay. If a foreigner is actually caught working in a job without permission, blacklist them for life, simple.

That is how you give your tourist industry a fighting chance. You can always become ungrateful and nationalistic again once things are back to normal.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Poet

[mrwebb8825]

it could be doable IF they gave a 50% discount at the hotels during the 1st 3 weeks you'd be locked down on the island. Also would help if they set beach barriers for the beach front hotels for the quarantined "guests" so it didn't seem so much like prison. The old people they're after don't do a lot of bar things anyway and are only coming for some warm, beach time.

[phitsanulokjohn]

Now listen Rodney, I've got a plan.By this time next year we'll all be millionaire's

[Hayduke]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai Airways International said it would operate at least two such flights a month starting in late November to connect Phuket with countries including Denmark, Germany and the UK.

 

So it would appear that saving tourism doesn't involve opening the borders.

 

Instead the latest plan to bring tourism back from its coma...hinges on recruiting (luring) enough insanely wealthy, confinement-mad retirees to hopefully fill two European flights a month...slapped together by a bankrupt airline.

 

This whole tourism-recovery thing may take a while.

 

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Hayduke

[PEE TEE]

I'm Lost !! What is a Snowbird ? is it a racist name for white people ? 

[madmitch]

They seem to forget that there are two main reasons the snowbirds come here (three for single males!): weather and price. Many pensioners are on a budget and it's cheaper in many cases to fly to Thailand, rent somewhere to live, eat and drink than staying in northern Europe with excessive heating bills and where the cost of living, despite the strong baht, is much higher. Add in the climate and that's why they come.

 

But the current cost of restricted flights plus the cost of staying in a quarantine hotel for 14 days would use up a lot of that budget before they've even started.

 

There will be takers - I know one or two I think would be interested - but not in such numbers that would have any real affect on the tourism economy.

[Crusader]

Lots of plans, and confusion, but not much action.

[Poet]

11 minutes ago, madmitch said:

They seem to forget that there are two main reasons the snowbirds come here (three for single males!): weather and price. Many pensioners are on a budget and it's cheaper in many cases to fly to Thailand, rent somewhere to live, eat and drink than staying in northern Europe with excessive heating bills and where the cost of living, despite the strong baht, is much higher. Add in the climate and that's why they come.

Frankly, Spain is cheaper than Thailand on almost every level, the healthcare is free for EU citizens, and no visa BS. I believe Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria etc might be even cheaper, especially for high-quality food and alcohol.

European destinations also have lower levels of pollution, including Chinese tourists.

Obviously, the girls are the stand-out attraction of Thailand, along with excellent services such as massage, but I have a feeling that, for most people, the lure of those benefits simply won't be enough to outweigh the hassle and cost of quarantine and other requirements.

The army have successly slapped the golden goose into a coma.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Poet

[2 is 1]

4 hours ago, samsensam said:

Then they’d be clear to roam around the island for their third week. After 3 weeks on the island the visitors would be free to travel to other parts of Thailand.

 

how are they going to know which tourists are which? which tourists have been in thailand for more than 3 weeks? which foreigners are tourists and which foreigners are long term residents, retirees, employees? will they have police checks all over the country continually stopping and checking foreigners? it's a mad plan.

I doubt but maybe they watch how many have apply visa for long stay. Maybe they put foreigner in computer in boder in/out. If they do that, they have easy data what tell what needed! 

[2 is 1]

15 minutes ago, PEE TEE said:

I'm Lost !! What is a Snowbird ? is it a racist name for white people ? 

A snowbird is a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales, typically during the winter. ... Snowbirds used to primarily be retired or older, but are increasingly of all ages. 

[Crusader]

Have indeed met a few of these 'long stayers' over the years...hardly big spenders - in fact some were just managing to eke out their existence.

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Mung said:

There have been so many plans and so many tables, the waters are officially muddied 

Of course a visa is just a form of travel plan.

Remind me, how many varieties do Heinz have?

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

but what they don't want is treating like they are some sort of diseased dog kept in a quarantine kennel .. 

So you would prefer they run around like rabid soi dogs.

[farangroby]

Little ideas but a lot of confusion

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Kadilo said:

A prisoner for 2 weeks stuck in a hotel, let out for a weeks Parole all at your expense, not forgetting the testing. Then you can (Hopefully) finally make it to your destination. 

Isn't it better for there to be a way in rather than none at all.

Reality is you can't always have what you want, there are other people involved and the health of local population should take priority.

[MyTHaiMyKe]

I thought they only wanted the rich to fly in on their lear jets! Why the change? Why would anyone want to come to Thailand, to be mistreated by immigration? To be charged double? To be bored to death? The land of frowns is dead! It is starting to look like the ghetto in Pattaya!

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Another day, another plan.

One day people will wake up to the fact that, despite self accredited expertise, there is no silver bullet.

The way forward can only come from a variety of measures.

Those that never make mistakes, never make anything.

[Rookiescot]

OK on the 3rd week when you are on parole whats to prevent you catching the virus from someone who just arrived. When tested you will still show negative because you have only just been infected.

You then jump on a plane and make your merry way around Thailand infecting others.

[Mr Meeseeks]

4 hours ago, samsensam said:

Then they’d be clear to roam around the island for their third week. After 3 weeks on the island the visitors would be free to travel to other parts of Thailand.

 

how are they going to know which tourists are which? which tourists have been in thailand for more than 3 weeks? which foreigners are tourists and which foreigners are long term residents, retirees, employees? will they have police checks all over the country continually stopping and checking foreigners? it's a mad plan.

They have facial recognition for all foreigners now.

 

Immigration have cars and pick-ups with the cameras mounted on the roof that are constantly tracking all non-Thais when they are driving around.

[Cali farong]

Sounds like a minimum of 3 tests and 3 week in quarantine restrictions 

why only people from certain countries.  I rent a house by the year in Ayutthaya but I won’t come back under those conditions 

[Poet]

42 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Have indeed met a few of these 'long stayers' over the years...hardly big spenders - in fact some were just managing to eke out their existence.

Well, this shows that your perceptions of the world, and your understanding of economics, are roughly on par with the generals.

While Indian and Chinese billionaires staying in five-star hotels may be more impressive, the most important feature of those Western long-stayers is that they actually exist. They have been coming here in their millions for over half a century. Their spending over the decades was the seed capital that led to Thailand's wealth today.

The reality is that you or I have no idea of how much money any individual expat may or may not be bringing into Thailand. Unlike Indian billionaires, we are not going to put up a big front to impress you or anyone else. Common sense should tell you that even the poorest Westerner is bringing money into Thailand that would otherwise not be here. He might not be driving a Mercedes but there is a pretty high chance that some Thai family in some remote corner of the country is in some way financially assisted by him. Possibly several families.

You can sneer at the older guys in Chang shirts having a beer in the early afternoon, but each bottle supports a business, supports jobs, and the taxes on alcohol are significant too. You might not impressed by the apartment or room they stumble back to but the rent they pay plays a direct role in the plans the landlord's family have for their future. The money he pays every second Wednesday to shtumpf some wee lady from Isaan provides cash her family cannot get from anywhere else.

Again, I do understand your more simplistic viewpoint, I can agree with the generals that it would all be so much tidier if all the foreigners who visited Thailand would fly in, haemorrhage a few million baht over a week or two, then conveniently fck off back home. Unfortunately, the economic reality of Thailand is far more complex, and those scruffy westerners, en masse, play a more important role than you realize, shinier replacements may not be so readily available.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Poet

[jonclark]

This is not a terrible idea and as many have pointed out I am not sure how popular the plan will be. I believe that Thailand is still on the UK list of countries that returnees have to self quarantine at home in the UK when they get back. But for expats and retirees etc, it is workable.

 

The question I have is what is the response plan, if this goes ahead and then 3 weeks down the line, local transmission starts to pop up in Phuket? Does the whole of Phuket go into lockdown and for how long? Phuket would be totally off limits and that would spell economic disaster for everyone there as not even domestic tours could enter, or would want to enter. Or is it track and trace and state quarantine? 

 

That question must be answered for the people of Phuket, before this goes ahead. What are the consequences for them if local transmissions occur as a result of the 'Phuket plan'?  

[Mr Meeseeks]

2 hours ago, Enoon said:

Same bloke who sold them the bomb detectors managed to source the technology for them.

He's still in jail in the UK.

 

How many Thais were investigated for that debacle? None.

 

How many people were arrested and jailed on the basis of evidence gained from these fake bomb detectors

 

Many that benefited from those deals are now in government. Yet we were meant to believe (by many on here) that the coup would clean up corruption? ????

 

File this tourism idea under another unworkable desperate straw-clutch and let's move on.

 

Amusing to see the desperation growing now, the results of this are going to be EPIC!

[Poet]

5 minutes ago, jonclark said:

The question I have is what is the response plan, if this goes ahead and then 3 weeks down the line, local transmission starts to pop up in Phuket? Does the whole of Phuket go into lockdown and for how long?

The government need to be able to trumpet the success of this scheme by the end of October so that they can gradually expand the scheme in November and December. It is a fair guess that the big Thai hotel groups have made it clear that the country needs to be slowly wedged open before what is now the most important time of year for them, the Chinese New Year in mid-February.

This is important to the only people who matter in Thailand. Therefore, there will be no local transmission in Phuket.

[vandeventer]

One thing for sure, they don't want any back packers only people with suitcases full

of money need to apply.