TAT proposes paying part of quarantine bill for tourists

[webfact]

Reuters file photo for reference only

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand's newest director of Asia and the south Pacific told Bangkok Business News that tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand.

 

But Thanes Petchsuwan noted that many countries have a requirement that returning tourists need to quarantine for 14 days and this is hindering matters due to its expense.

 

Some have suggested that if Thailand paid part of their 14 day quarantine costs then they would visit.

 

A case in point was Singapore, said Thanes, where information received has shown that if Thailand helped tourists in this regard their nationals would be prepared to visit Thailand.  

 

Discover Cigna’s range of health insurance solutions created for expats and local nationals living in Thailand - click to view

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2021-08-20

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Sticky Rice Balls]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand's newest director of Asia

Newest?!!!   Somebody get a pick slip???   Lets see where this rabbit hole idea goes to....555

[ozzydon]

i guess they have to try anything another scheme from tat ????

[bkk6060]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

A case in point was Singapore, said Thanes, where information received has shown that if Thailand helped tourists in this regard their nationals would be prepared to visit Thailand.  

Information received?.  Last I checked Singapore was listed in the top five richest countries in the world I think if the people there really wanted to come, they could well afford it. 

[steven100]

Paying for the 7 days or 14 days quarantine is only 50% of the problem .....

The most part is being stuck in a ASQ hotel for most part of the vacation/holiday.

No one is going to do that.

 

No quarantine is the only way tourists will come.  And that can't happen until the vaccine has been given to everyone in Thailand. 

so stop dreaming Thanes Petchsuwan

[kotsak]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand.

[tonray]

Can they cover my annual MooBaan maintenance fee coming up in October ? I mean...since we all are on temporary permissions to stay, no better than a tourist anyway

[Karma80]

I am stunned that nobody wants to jump through the many hoops of ???? to come to a mostly closed island with restrictions and growing covid cases for a holiday. Singaporeans don't know what they are missing out on. Alcohol bans, restaurant curfews, mask wearing on beaches, the risk that you'll end up in a quarantine at your expense, even if you don't have covid. What's not to like!

[aussiexpat]

So they are willing to pay some of the quarantine costs in your home country and yet they won't even pay for the 3 mandated PCR tests after arrival in Thailand. 

 

It would make more sense to pay the bill if a tourist is forced into 14 days ASQ purely because they sat on the same plane as a positive passenger

 

 

 

[JonnyF]

7 minutes ago, steven100 said:

Paying for the 7 days or 14 days quarantine is only 50% of the problem .....

The most part is being stuck in a ASQ hotel for most part of the vacation/holiday.

No one is going to do that.

 

No quarantine is the only way tourists will come.  And that can't happen until the vaccine has been given to everyone in Thailand. 

so stop dreaming Thanes Petchsuwan

They seem to be talking about the quarantine that the tourist has to do when they go home after visiting a Covid hotspot like Thailand, not during the visit TO Thailand.

 

It's a shame your hero, the self declared Covid Czar wasn't smart enough to buy vaccines for the inhabitants of the country. The place would be open to domestic tourism by now and even foreign tourists might have wanted to visit. We'd all be free to go about our daily business. But alas, he didn't have even the limited amount of intelligence required to work out that the way out of this was to vaccinate everyone. So here we are, in lockdown, hundreds of people dying every day, the economy in tatters. 

[internationalism]

I don't think any tourist would want to waste 2 weeks in quarantine on returning back home, even if cost was only 50%.

Different matter, if travel is for business or work. That might have sense.

 

The real problem for tourists starts, when tested positive on arrival or during stay in SHA+ in phuket sandbox. Or even if they were close by to an infected.

They would be transferred to hospitel, which are expensive in comparison to SHA+, in the range of 40k for a 2 weeks stay. Hospitels are not covered by covid insurance. And after completion they would be, most likely, turned back home.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by internationalism

[impulse]

14 minutes ago, internationalism said:

Hospitels are not covered by covid insurance. And after completion they would be, most likely, turned back home.

That's easy to solve.  Require insurance companies to cover all gub'ment mandated quarantine expenses as a condition of being an approved insurance policy for the COE.  22,000 Sandbox tourists, and to my knowledge they haven't paid out a single Covid related hospital claim for any of them.  And very few put into mandatory quarantine.  They have enough data now to calculate the actuarials.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by impulse

[ezzra]

Yeah right, now they want to help with some of the costs just when i have just finishing my 14 days in Phuket and forced to sit in a mini van for 14 hours to go back to Pattaya as there are no regular flights only charted flights at 4 times the normal air ticket fee and the mini van at 4000 baht...

[RotBenz8888]

If they pay for the ASQ, Insurance, covidtests and the flight +vouchure for 10 barfines there might in fact be a few interested. 

[Laughing Gravy]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

Paying for the 7 days or 14 days quarantine is only 50% of the problem .....

The most part is being stuck in a ASQ hotel for most part of the vacation/holiday.

No one is going to do that.

 

No quarantine is the only way tourists will come.  And that can't happen until the vaccine has been given to everyone in Thailand. 

so stop dreaming Thanes Petchsuwan

Finally something I agree with you on. Maybe you can tell your mate that too.????

[2long]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[poskat]

"The Tourism Authority of Thailand's newest director of Asia and the south Pacific told Bangkok Business News that tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand."

 

they are so desperate to come here that thailand has to pay them to come.

[StayinThailand2much]

LOL. They must be getting desperate!

[StayinThailand2much]

 

1 hour ago, aussiexpat said:

So they are willing to pay some of the quarantine costs in your home country (...)

Sounds a bit like what the jetski boys told me on the beach: "Don't worry, just have fun. It's very cheap, and we won't ask for more money..."

[StayinThailand2much]

9 minutes ago, poskat said:

they are so desperate to come here that thailand has to pay them to come.

Once this pandemic is under control, there are three or four countries where I want to spend my holiday $$, but Thailand is not on the list, even if they paid for my whole holiday.

[Gottfrid]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The Tourism Authority of Thailand's newest director of Asia and the south Pacific told Bangkok Business News that tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand.

Yes, there are no options in the whole wide world. TAT has made Thailand the promised land.

[Misterwhisper]

1 hour ago, Karma80 said:

I am stunned that nobody wants to jump through the many hoops of ???? to come to a mostly closed island with restrictions and growing covid cases for a holiday. Singaporeans don't know what they are missing out on. Alcohol bans, restaurant curfews, mask wearing on beaches, the risk that you'll end up in a quarantine at your expense, even if you don't have covid. What's not to like!

And no sex without mask either!

[ezzra]

Spoke to the F&B manager at the 4 star hotel where i stay this morning noticing a marked drop in the number of people coming to the breakfast buffet, yes he said,  this is happening all over Phuket island  and next week going to be even less and the drop in incoming tourists or staying tourists is getting smaller now that other destinations have opened up, so much so that the Phuket Holiday in will shut its doors from next week... so go figure...

[robblok]

4 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Information received?.  Last I checked Singapore was listed in the top five richest countries in the world I think if the people there really wanted to come, they could well afford it. 

Its not a matter of being able to afford it is a matter of value for money. Who likes a quarantine and then having to pay for it. Better go somewhere where its not needed. 

[Dialemco]

Most genuine tourists do not have time for quarantine the only way to restart international tourism is entry to Thailand without draconian restrictions the Samui plus scheme is frankly ridiculous who in their right mind is interested in such restrictions stuck in an expensive hotel and only allowed out with hotel transport etc etc.

[Guderian]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand.

Indeed, you'd have to be extremely desperate to want to come here at the moment. There were northern mining towns, after their pits were closed in the 1980's, that had more fun and life in them than Pattaya does right now.

 

Here's an idea, Mr. TAT, I gather that a lot of people in Kabul would be extremely interested in a trip to Thailand, maybe send some lacky to invite them to visit Bangkok. Who knows, perhaps their friends in the Taliban would follow them here, imagine the visitor numbers TAT could boast about then!

[klauskunkel]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Tourism Authority of Thailand's newest director

brand new and already desperate..., some positions come with despair built in.

Edited August 20, 2021 by klauskunkel

[IamNoone88]

The only sign of desperation that I can see is from the TAT itself.

[scorecard]

6 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

Newest?!!!   Somebody get a pick slip???   Lets see where this rabbit hole idea goes to....555

And what about other folks who need to get back to their work / their families etc? 

 

Will they get their quarantine costs subsidized? 

 

[Bluespunk]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The Tourism Authority of Thailand's newest director of Asia and the south Pacific told Bangkok Business News that tourists are clearly desperate to come to Thailand.

 

But Thanes Petchsuwan noted that many countries have a requirement that returning tourists need to quarantine for 14 days and this is hindering matters due to its expense.

 

Some have suggested that if Thailand paid part of their 14 day quarantine costs then they would visit.

New director, same stupid ideas. 
 

While the cost is indeed an issue, the fact that you have to quarantine for 14 days after your “holiday” is the problem for many. 
 

Sort out your ******* vaccination programme so people don’t have to quarantine for 14 days in an asq hotel on return. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bluespunk