It’s official: Thai govt approves plans to re-open to foreign tourists

[internationalism]

1 hour ago, CRUNCHER said:

All the talk about tourists is all very well and perhaps understandable, but what about long stay residents (retirees, married to Thai etc.).  What is our position if we visit Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam etc. What quarantine do we have to do when we come back? 

first you have to vaccinate there and you will be able to return to phuket and later to your home.

 

whether it's offered anywhere in the world to just walk in to a hospital and ask for a vax is highly unlikely. Need to be registered citizen/living permanently, rather than a tourist. That might be improving in time, when there is an ample of vaccines, but not yet.

 

in germany lufthansa are planning charter flights to moscow to vaccinate there at the airport transit area (so no visas etc). There might be a similar initiative in thailand, for example to singapore, if there would be delays to program in thailand

[brewsterbudgen]

It's great news that they're thinking like this, as the country needs to get back on its feet.  Unfortunately it's still likely to be well into 2022 before it gets back to anything like it was before.

[HK MacPhooey]

56 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

It's a real shame that some want to continue to risk the health of the Thai population for profits or to further their own selfish self-interests.

 

Get the Thais all vaccinated and then start to talk about opening up, otherwise this is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

No problem reducing quarantine times, if it is proven effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 from new arrivals in the country. 

By your logic you'd be well in favor of banning all vehicles to prevent the 25,000+ annual road deaths... or are you just another one of those people exhibiting an extreme case of Covidphobia or perhaps just furthering your own selfish self interests? 

[ExpatOilWorker]

Why don't they just say <deleted>et and rename Phuket to Plague Island and flood it with foreign tourist?

The army could block the bridge and the navy control the waters so nobody escape, at least not alive.

The WHO could use it as a testbed for the evolution of some of the newer and more lethal strains.

Welcome to Thailand ????????. 

[Rimmer]

An off topic stupid post has been removed.

 

Please do not post such rubbish in serious topics such as this, it makes work for moderators and ends up with you being sent on holiday

[madmen]

14 minutes ago, Big Yuley said:

 

So BKK is going to be out until 2022 by the looks of things.

I can see the Phuket sandbox working as its an island and can be monitored re people leaving.

 

However, lets take Pattaya for example.

I have a thai phone and Aussie number.

I arrive at BKK, down load required app on my thai phone. 

Travel to Pattaya and check in to my Patts hotel which i have booked for 14 days.

After about 10 days, i say to myself, i want to go to BKK for a few days. Leave thai phone in hotel room in Patts.

Get my taxi driver to driver me to Bkk and check  into hotel for 2 or 3 nights in BKK.

Plenty of ways out of Chonburi to get to Bangkok. 

 

So the Thai authorities think im in Pattaya as my phone is siting in Avani Pattaya but im at Landmark Hotel in BKK and heading to Nana Plaza.

 

I see some problems with that,

Most people don't think like that. 

 

Seriously why would anybody commit a crime on the chance of being stopped by the bib for a passport check and deportation and blacklist. Your scam will be uncovered in 3 minutes with a GPS fix

 

Besides you already got a hundred soi 4"s in Pattaya but some people never happy. 

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, Peter parker said:

I am confused they state fully vaxed people quarantine reduced to 7 days not 14. From the first of April. Then further down it states from the first of April Quarantine to be reduced from 14 to 10 days? Which will it be then? Just my few bahts worth on international travel, I and many here in Australia feel the Government will attempt to halt all international travel for as long as possible, in a attempt to force us to spend our hard earned money here. 

The 7 day quarantine for vaccinated people is for only certain areas such as Phuket, Krabi, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Kho Samui. If you want to quarantine in Bangkok, vaccinated or not, you have to do the 10 day quarantine. 

I don't see a list of ASQ Hotels for that area yet, but we are not coming until late April -Early May  so for us there is time, Wife says would like to do quarantine in Chiang Mai , as we have never been there before. 

Anyone sees a list of ASQ hotels for the 7 day quarantine please post. 

[lyskamm]

Health insurance will still be a requirement??

[wensiensheng]

I wonder what happens if they miss the target of 70% of Phuket being vaccinated? Tourists book flights for holidays, then only 40% of Phuket is vaccinated on 1st July, do the tourists still arrive?

 

and a point I have made before, what about the 30% of Phuket that is NOT vaccinated? Without the vaccine being available privately, we know most if not all foreigners will be in that boat.

[kingofthemountain]

12 minutes ago, lyskamm said:

Health insurance will still be a requirement??

yes of course

[kingofthemountain]

10 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

I wonder what happens if they miss the target of 70% of Phuket being vaccinated? Tourists book flights for holidays, then only 40% of Phuket is vaccinated on 1st July, do the tourists still arrive?

 

and a point I have made before, what about the 30% of Phuket that is NOT vaccinated? Without the vaccine being available privately, we know most if not all foreigners will be in that boat.

The other problem is you can not stop domestic thai tourists coming in Phuket, also all the people doing back and forth to the mainland for various reasons (Family, health, work and so on) it's thousands of vehicle everyday (And i don't even talk about the boats) it's just impossible to control the lot.

 

From my understanding of the plan reading previous officials declarations the foreign tourists will be taken from the airport and directly driven in a secured area (Probably a big resort) so it's not really a quarantine where you are locked in your room but you can already forget the idea to be free to run around the island from the day one, it will be a ''light'' quarantine

[lyskamm]

8 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

yes of course

Thanks so much !

[miamiman123]

Until I saw the need for a vaccine!!

flight cancelled 

no thanks 

[sirineou]

I just checked with Agoda, and it seems that they have added ASQ hotels in Pattaya and Phuket. Sadly  nothing in Chiang Mai yet.

But this new  quarantine scheme just started, so I am sure lists will adjust soon.

https://www.agoda.com/quarantineth

 

[from the home of CC]

 ' the PM has agreed to consider the proposal' according to the real English newspaper in this country - that's a far cry from "its official" ????  But don't let facts get in the way of a good story...

[sirineou]

The Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C.  has also updater their website to include ASQ locations other than Bangkok

https://thaiembdc.org/asq/

 

unfortunately all the links take you to a website that is in Thai. 

http://hsscovid.com/

4 am here in the US and I cant sleep.  The mover is coming over tomorrow morning to ship some of out things to Thailand. But wife is sleeping like a baby LOL. I will have her look at the above  website as soon as she wakes up which is not going to be for a while , She don't get to be as pretty as she is without plenty of beauty sleep LOL. 

 

[sirineou]

9 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

 ' the PM has agreed to consider the proposal' according to the real English newspaper in this country - that's a far cry from "its official" ????  But don't let facts get in the way of a good story...

It is in the Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C. website so , It's official.

https://thaiembdc.org/asq/

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

They have a million plans, none of which ever come to fruition.

Did we get a rebate on the electric meter - yes

Did we get a reduction on the electric bills - yes

Did we hotel discounts under the "we travel together" - yes 

Did we get discount vouchers under "WTT" - yes

Did we get flight discounts under "WTT" - yes

Did we get 3500 baht under 50/50 scheme - yes

Did we get 7000 baht under new scheme - yes

 

And if you really want fruition, we also got a small grant from the Min of Ag for the fruits of our labour in the garden.

There is more to "plans" than the interests of this forum.

[from the home of CC]

3 minutes ago, sirineou said:

It is in the Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C. website so , It's official.

https://thaiembdc.org/asq/

we'll see...

[BritManToo]

Just now, sandyf said:

Did we get a rebate on the electric meter - yes

Did we get a reduction on the electric bills - yes

Did we hotel discounts under the "we travel together" - yes 

Did we get discount vouchers under "WTT" - yes

Did we get flight discounts under "WTT" - yes

Did we get 3500 baht under 50/50 scheme - yes

Did we get 7000 baht under new scheme - yes

 

And if you really want fruition, we also got a small grant from the Min of Ag for the fruits of our labour in the garden.

There is more to "plans" than the interests of this forum.

You should be ashamed of yourself for using money that was directed to help struggling Thai people, not wealthy expats with pensions.

[sirineou]

2 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

we'll see...

Unless the Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C.  makes things up, it is Official right now. 

It is possible that it could change , The covid 19 situation is fluid and decisions occurs as the situations allows. But as of now it looks pretty official to me. 

[eastendanto]

3 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Glad to see this report was done on the 31st. If it was tommorow, oh who to believe on April fools day.

Every day is April's Fools day in LOS

[wordchild]

what about families with kids? as things stand, there is no approved vaccine for the under 16s. In all of this it seems little consideration has been given to this issue.

will kids be exempted (which i doubt) or will Thailand only be opened for adult tourists?

And what about those of us with families who live here? and assuming only adult members are vaccinated when will families (with young kids)  be able to travel outside Thailand and  then return without quarantine?

[sirineou]

4 minutes ago, wordchild said:

what about families with kids? as things stand, there is no approved vaccine for the under 16s. In all of this it seems little consideration has been given to this issue.

will kids be exempted (which i doubt) or will Thailand only be opened for adult tourists?

And what about those of us with families who live here? and assuming only adult members are vaccinated when will families (with young kids)  be able to travel outside Thailand and  then return without quarantine?

The 7 day quarantine provision is for those who are vaccinated, 

For those with kids who are unvaccinated , they would have to do the 10 day quarantine.  

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, sirineou said:

Unless the Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C.  makes things up, it is Official right now. 

It is possible that it could change , The covid 19 situation is fluid and decisions occurs as the situations allows. But as of now it looks pretty official to me. 

lets just say the situation is as fluid as the covid rate in the US, presently starting the 4th wave. With more states removing mask mandates and folks gathering with no regards to health combined with the virus's tendency of striking down younger people this is far from over. Don't count on Thailand relaxing anything with a country heading towards an out of control disease rate. With your CDC head pleading to purposely deaf folks, it doesn't bode well for the future..

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

It's great news that they're thinking like this, as the country needs to get back on its feet.  Unfortunately it's still likely to be well into 2022 before it gets back to anything like it was before.

Seriously 2022 and you believe it will be like it was before.  Think that maybe you are even more of an optimist than TAT, maybe they can offer you up a job to help them get on track since almost all of their other schemes have fallen flat.

[Spock]

2 hours ago, Big Yuley said:

I think your bigger worry is Australia letting you out. And if they do let you out, might want you to Quarantine when you return.

If the current vaccination rate in Australia continues, us Aussies aint going anywhere until next year.

 

The vaccination program in this country is worse than Thailands.

The Australian government said that 4 million would be vaccinated by the end of April. The actual figure is 640000. Just 3.6 million behind target. Does Thailand actually offer a vaccine for travellers? If it did, I think I too would take advantage of it.

 

[wordchild]

8 minutes ago, sirineou said:

The 7 day quarantine provision is for those who are vaccinated, 

For those with kids who are unvaccinated , they would have to do the 10 day quarantine.  

Thanks, yes i understand that, i was really thinking about the future, next year and beyond. As of now we are resigned to no travel outside Thailand at least for this year.

Are kids going to be (effectively) prevented from travelling again until there is an approved vaccine for the under 16s? that could be a couple of years away.

For sure , i would not want to subject my children to a 10 day quarantine.

[jaiyen]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

They have a million plans, none of which ever come to fruition.

Hard not to be a little negative.

They missed out one big problem, well, maybe not to them. There are NO PLANES !

[Megasin1]

as usual, its all just pie in the sky. I would like to return to Thailand but its not going to happen for a few years yet as although I have a friend in Phuket, my family is in Chonburi. You poor expats will be lucky to see a vaccine for at least another year by which time they will be redundant, there are no private supplies. The vaccine wars have already begun. In UK they are now preparing the booster shots for Autumn distribution. Originally planned that the serum would be made in UK then bottled in Europe they will now be bottled in UK so for once the UK has got it right, don't trust the EU !!! Even in those countries more advanced with vaccination they are a long way off from 2 doses and a booster. Soon those without vaccination won't be allowed into any events, bars or restaurants, never mind onto a plane so the only mass tourists that Phuket will receive are likely the Pangolin eaters. Good luck to you all ????