More retirees than STV tourists come to Thailand after restrictions eased

[Traubert]

10 hours ago, Robin said:

From what I can see, and I might be wrong,  to come to Thailand on any sort of visa, you need Covid test, Covid insurance and ASQ, cost about 60 - 80K Baht.  That could double the cost of a holiday for many.

Now how many tourists, even long stay, are going to add that to the cost of their holiday?

if you are retiree, like me, then it is not too bad of an extra cost, just to get back to the place I call home.  

No doubt in Anutin's world of high spending tourists, there are millions who do not care about the extra cost, and will be flocking to Thailand some time soon.

I suggest that one problem is that us retirees are not considered by Anutin or TAT to be high spending individuals, so not really welcome.  Somebody convince Anutin otherwise and we might see the country open up to retirees

Anutin is Minister of Health. Why should he care if you've got no money?

 

I could see why he's worried that you'll be lifting with Covid.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Traubert

[Greenwich Boy]

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Good point, thanks for the correction.

 

That said, it is totally beyond me why the Thai Government just allow entry for 270 days in the first place then, or simply just give a 12 month entry - the idea that people have to go to immigration and apply for extensions is moronic, especially when the whole idea is create an attractive visa for tourists. 

 

Why make it single entry too. At some point in the next 12 months the world will open up. It makes sense that tourists will make Thailand their base and they can travel to neighbouring Cities and countries, HK, Singapore, KL, Vietnam, Penang etc etc.

 

Thailand always succeeds in making something which could be attractive somehow slightly less attractive with unnecessary hurdles and limitations. 

 

 

 

I am considering a STV some time in the new year. 270 days works for me. Single entry at the moment not a concern as you can not travel to neighbouring countries anyway. If borders do open I would hope you could use the re entry permit system to keep your permission to stay alive.

[RobU]

14 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Good point, thanks for the correction.

 

That said, it is totally beyond me why the Thai Government just allow entry for 270 days in the first place then, or simply just give a 12 month entry - the idea that people have to go to immigration and apply for extensions is moronic, especially when the whole idea is create an attractive visa for tourists. 

 

Why make it single entry too. At some point in the next 12 months the world will open up. It makes sense that tourists will make Thailand their base and they can travel to neighbouring Cities and countries, HK, Singapore, KL, Vietnam, Penang etc etc.

 

Thailand always succeeds in making something which could be attractive somehow slightly less attractive with unnecessary hurdles and limitations. 

 

 

 

If you are a UK citizen and are out of the country for more than 9 months of the year you lose NHS benefits. It isn't necessarily enforced but it is on the statutes, so 9 months is fine for me. Disabled people lose Disability Living Allowance if out of the country for more than 3 months.

[SanFranJack]

The issue isn’t the 14 day quarantine or all these other things. Many of us want to come and understand why the quarantine is in place.

 

The problem is this:

All the news sites are talking about visas being opened up to all these countries. The outlets we need to go through in order to get these visas are not being responsive or have conflicting information on their websites. So many people who want to come, are not receiving any communication back on HOW to come. In the USA here, the DC and LA consulates have no information about STV on their sites other than LA saying:
"For more information regarding Special Tourist Visa (STV)
– The Royal Thai Embassy, Washington is currently updating the information, please check back later."

The DC site reads:
"For more information regarding Special Tourist Visa (STV) – The embassy is currently updating the information, please check back later."


This is 16 days after Bangkok Post and others reported "Thailand Opens Borders to All Countries". Who knows if other embassies/consulates in "approved" countries after October had similar messages or not.

There’s a woman who replied under a Bangkok Post article about this STV a few days ago and said that the Singapore consulate told her they don’t have any information yet, 10 days after all these news outlets said it was approved/widened for all countries.

There’s also confusion over what types of other visas are still valid. Many news outlets say only TR and STV. Yet New York consulate has Visa Exempt option listed on their site and looks updated because they mention 3 countries that can’t do this between Mar 2020 – Sept 2020. I wouldn’t do this anyways because it’s only 30 days  or however many after the extension, just making a point that this whole thing is confusing. Are the extensions the same under this and the TR visa or what? No clue.

Then there’s the confusion over whether a travel agency is necessary or not. Most news sources are saying you need to go through this Longstay Travel company. Yet Longstay is not responding to any emails and if you look at their Facebook page, its all comments from people saying they applied weeks ago and haven’t heard anything yet, and no responses or updates on their page since Nov 3.

Plus they say they’re TAT sponsored. Yet, I can’t find any evidence of this other than them saying this and various news outlets all rewriting each other’s articles and saying this. So there’s the whole question of whether people MUST go through this company or if they have other options. But I guess that’s irrelevant if nobody is replying to emails.

If they want more people to come, they need to make sure the communication to the branches issuing the visas is clear and communicated on their websites with clear steps on how to do this.

[SanFranJack]

The Longstay Company got back to me. They told me that they're waiting on the STV to become an official ordinance. So it looks like it's not available yet, this newer version that is going to be open to many more countries.

[kingofthemountain]

11 hours ago, SanFranJack said:

The Longstay Company got back to me. They told me that they're waiting on the STV to become an official ordinance. So it looks like it's not available yet, this newer version that is going to be open to many more countries.

Yeahh the whole thing looks like a mess

how long it takes to become an official ordinance?

 

Oh yes, the power that be are probably too busy at the moment to launch a Thai on the moon

 

priorities.....

 

[starky]

On 12/14/2020 at 6:15 PM, vandeventer said:

Don't be surprised if you come home and find the whole Thai family living there and tell you to find another place to live. This happen to a guy I know, and boy was he <deleted>.

Still trolling out that old chestnut. F f  s

[starky]

On 12/15/2020 at 4:34 AM, Robin said:

From what I can see, and I might be wrong,  to come to Thailand on any sort of visa, you need Covid test, Covid insurance and ASQ, cost about 60 - 80K Baht.  That could double the cost of a holiday for many.

Now how many tourists, even long stay, are going to add that to the cost of their holiday?

if you are retiree, like me, then it is not too bad of an extra cost, just to get back to the place I call home.  

No doubt in Anutin's world of high spending tourists, there are millions who do not care about the extra cost, and will be flocking to Thailand some time soon.

I suggest that one problem is that us retirees are not considered by Anutin or TAT to be high spending individuals, so not really welcome.  Somebody convince Anutin otherwise and we might see the country open up to retirees

Any country in the world you can holiday at the moment where most if not all of the above apply?

[starky]

On 12/16/2020 at 10:36 AM, SanFranJack said:

The issue isn’t the 14 day quarantine or all these other things. Many of us want to come and understand why the quarantine is in place.

 

The problem is this:

All the news sites are talking about visas being opened up to all these countries. The outlets we need to go through in order to get these visas are not being responsive or have conflicting information on their websites. So many people who want to come, are not receiving any communication back on HOW to come. In the USA here, the DC and LA consulates have no information about STV on their sites other than LA saying:
"For more information regarding Special Tourist Visa (STV)
– The Royal Thai Embassy, Washington is currently updating the information, please check back later."

The DC site reads:
"For more information regarding Special Tourist Visa (STV) – The embassy is currently updating the information, please check back later."


This is 16 days after Bangkok Post and others reported "Thailand Opens Borders to All Countries". Who knows if other embassies/consulates in "approved" countries after October had similar messages or not.

There’s a woman who replied under a Bangkok Post article about this STV a few days ago and said that the Singapore consulate told her they don’t have any information yet, 10 days after all these news outlets said it was approved/widened for all countries.

There’s also confusion over what types of other visas are still valid. Many news outlets say only TR and STV. Yet New York consulate has Visa Exempt option listed on their site and looks updated because they mention 3 countries that can’t do this between Mar 2020 – Sept 2020. I wouldn’t do this anyways because it’s only 30 days  or however many after the extension, just making a point that this whole thing is confusing. Are the extensions the same under this and the TR visa or what? No clue.

Then there’s the confusion over whether a travel agency is necessary or not. Most news sources are saying you need to go through this Longstay Travel company. Yet Longstay is not responding to any emails and if you look at their Facebook page, its all comments from people saying they applied weeks ago and haven’t heard anything yet, and no responses or updates on their page since Nov 3.

Plus they say they’re TAT sponsored. Yet, I can’t find any evidence of this other than them saying this and various news outlets all rewriting each other’s articles and saying this. So there’s the whole question of whether people MUST go through this company or if they have other options. But I guess that’s irrelevant if nobody is replying to emails.

If they want more people to come, they need to make sure the communication to the branches issuing the visas is clear and communicated on their websites with clear steps on how to do this.

Biggest drama atm in my opinion is the highly specific COE. If a flight is delayed or cancelled for some reason the whole 72 hour COE process involving PRC tests, fit to fly certificates, confirmed flights and accommodation all starts all over again. But yet the website says allow a minimum 2 weeks. 

   Again imo if you can prove you have the visa, the insurance, the flights and the asq hotel booked why does one arbitrary piece of paper that since late November can only be done ONLINE determine whether you can travel or not? Ridiculous.

[NB1986]

I m not retiree, but finally i can go back to Thailand, planning for March 22nd. FINALLY ????

[Zikomat]

deleted

Edited December 17, 2020 by Zikomat

[rabang]

I will never go back to Thailand if they don't drop the quarantine. No ordinary tourists will spend 14 days imprisoned. Those in charge are totally delusional if they think big spenders are interested in Thailand. The massive pollution alone would keep away most people with choice. Second tier nouveau riche Chinese running away from the CCP might be an exception.