TAT proposes paying part of quarantine bill for tourists

[CALSinCM]

10 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.

Keep telling yourself that TAT.  I've friends in the US who expressed an interest in coming to Thailand in early 2022.  I explained what is involve to come though the Phuket Sandbox. I also laid out the reality of the small businesses - bars closed, entertainment closed, small business shuttered. After explaining that they just went silent.  Shock I imagine.  These are guys who have been here before and wanted to return to Old Normal.  Well - don't kill the messenger.  I doubt those folks will be planning a trip.
New Normal ain't gonna be a lot of peoples cup of tea.

[ArcticFox]

TAT must be hooking up on the Anutin Connection.  "Pfft."

 

[greeneking]

8 hours ago, poskat 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."

 

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

And it takes 14000 TAT employees to 'lure' them. 555

[Destiny1990]

Having a new director clearly doesn’t automatically means its an improvement.

[Blumpie]

They just realized this?  Seriously?  

[Blumpie]

1 hour ago, ArcticFox said:

TAT must be hooking up on the Anutin Connection.  "Pfft."

 

Oh these people are so completely spaced.  Marijuana has been legalized in many countries and do you know what it did for tourism?  Jack squat.  

If you're pathetic enough to want to go on vacation just to get stoned on pot you are in the minority.  

[Doubting Thomas]

The 'newest' director of Asia and the South Pacific was previously Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications with the other three stooges... so new he isn't! As a previous poster said he mentions Singapore - one of the richest countries in the world, so they hardly need enticing with financial incentives. 

"Singapore has administered at least 8,517,113 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 74.9% of the country’s population". Only 6.7% of the Thai population have been fully vaccinated, (yet that buffoon Anutin states that Thailand is well on the way to herd immunity - keep smoking that grass rich boy), and over 23% have received 1 dose according to The Thaiger - can you see where I am going here? Wake up TAT - people will not return in any significant numbers until such times that you inoculate the majority of your population REGARDLESS OF NATIONALITY! We all know that you are all desperately hanging onto your overpaid and underworked jobs by making such futile claims but sadly most of the population now has a brain and is not suppressed as it has in the past. If someone was to breakdown who that 6.7% are - 10 to 1 bet that it's the Armed Forces, Politicians and bum lickers, Royal Thai Police and the VIT's (VERY important Thais - and there a lot of those - so they think)!

 

 

[Turkleton]

5 hours ago, dallen52 said:

Reduce the cost and reduce the duration of quarantine.

Fully vaccinated?

Then why a 40,000 baht quarantine and mandatory 26,000 baht insurance.

I don't know what kind of insurance you have, but mine was about 80€ for three months, including the mandantory $100,000 Covid coverage of course. (Axa Germany).

But none of this matters as long as the ASQ is not completely removed.

I think, the ASQ costs are probably not the biggest problem for many expats, but...

ASQ, never ever (again)... ????

Edited August 20, 2021 by Turkleton

[kevc]

And yet they're charging tourists 1,500 baht for a twelve hour bus ride to the airport before they board their twelve hour flight back home. You'd think they'd supply that free or at a reasonable rate. Weren't they considering giving tourists free domestic flights at one time.

[misterphil]

What happened to the $1 a night hotels? 

[bangon04]

Try a "pilot " scheme - reduce the ASQ to 7 days for fully-vaccinated arrivals - see if it makes any difference.......

[Caldera]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

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.

It's not just the expense, many potential visitors simply don't have the time for an extra 14 days in quarantine.

[a3tsw]

21 minutes ago, kevc said:

And yet they're charging tourists 1,500 baht for a twelve hour bus ride to the airport before they board their twelve hour flight back home. You'd think they'd supply that free or at a reasonable rate. Weren't they considering giving tourists free domestic flights at one time.

That price went up to 1,800 for the bus and 2,400 for mini van last week.

Guess there was insufficient demand for the service , hence the need to increase the fare.

But on the bright side the journey takes 15 hours is instead of 12.

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by a3tsw
Additional. Formation/ correction

[DoctorB]

13 hours ago, internationalism said:

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.

 

 

I don't understand a word of that. I thought the whole point of the mandatory covid insurance was to cover the cost of hospital treatment. If not, what is it intended for? Secondly, what does , "they would be... turned back home" mean? Are there cases of people being deported as a consequence of being hospitalised for covid? Could someone please elucidate for me? 

[internationalism]

39 minutes ago, DoctorB said:

I don't understand a word of that. I thought the whole point of the mandatory covid insurance was to cover the cost of hospital treatment. If not, what is it intended for? Secondly, what does , "they would be... turned back home" mean? Are there cases of people being deported as a consequence of being hospitalised for covid? Could someone please elucidate for me? 

I did write about hospitEl - which is hotel for quarantine after testing positive or with light symptoms.

Insurer might not cover it, because you are not sick and don't get treatment.

after doing your quarantine for 14 days you might be turned on the nearest flight back home

[ourdon]

14 hours ago, JonnyF said:

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. 

Gawd!!  You're waaay too optimistic.

[skorp13]

They don't understand it's the time and isolation far more than the money. if every tourist has a negative test with in 72 hours that's far more reassuring than most of the locals who have probably never been tested. Having insurance and a vaccine they are far safer than most locals sadly

[Joe Mama]

If you're truly serious about getting tourist back into Thailand then;  1) Get rid of the complex COE process!  2) Dump the Phuket Sandbox concept!  3) Dump the expensive 3 shot Covid testing!  4) Dump the 14 day quarantine requirement!  5) Dump the Covid Insurance requirement...these tourists will all be fully vaccinated! Replace it all with; 1) Open all the airports!  2) Admit only fully vaccinated tourists!  3) Restore the Visa on arrival process!  4) Require a Covid test to be conducted at the point of entry airport...if positive...put them back on the plane & send them home!  5) No more quarantine!  6) No more treating tourists like they are dangerous criminals who need to be carefully controlled & monitored at all times!  

[Anton9]

6 minutes ago, Joe Mama said:

If you're truly serious about getting tourist back into Thailand then;  1) Get rid of the complex COE process!  2) Dump the Phuket Sandbox concept!  3) Dump the expensive 3 shot Covid testing!  4) Dump the 14 day quarantine requirement!  5) Dump the Covid Insurance requirement...these tourists will all be fully vaccinated! Replace it all with; 1) Open all the airports!  2) Admit only fully vaccinated tourists!  3) Restore the Visa on arrival process!  4) Require a Covid test to be conducted at the point of entry airport...if positive...put them back on the plane & send them home!  5) No more quarantine!  6) No more treating tourists like they are dangerous criminals who need to be carefully controlled & monitored at all times!  

99% agree.

I just don't think it's a good idea to send back positive people lol

Don't know why it's so difficult for them to do something this easy and reasonable.

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Anton9

[chalawaan]

Pay our barfines. Legalise weed and harmless het kee khwai, then get back to us, sunshine.

[tomacht8]

16 minutes ago, Anton9 said:

99% agree.

I just don't think it's a good idea to send back positive people lol

Don't know why it's so difficult for them to do something this easy and reasonable.

 

This is historical. There was a time when Thailand had next to no Corvit. Was the flagship model and was praised by everyone. Then all the high hurdles (ASQ, 4 PCR tests, total imprisonment since May 6, COE, insurance, categorically for everyone, including those who have been vaccinated) arose to be allowed to enter Thailand.

 

But now the framework conditions have changed significantly. Full Corona Delta outbreak in Thailand and only 7% of the population fully vaccinated. The corona risk now no longer comes from foreigners entering the country, but is now in the country itself. But the many hurdles are still from the time Thailand protected itself against the introduction of the virus. From now on the virus is everywhere in the country and the leaders have forgotten to remove the hurdles or to adapt them appropriately to the situation.

[RichardColeman]

Stop all this nonsense.

 

Drop the COE, drop the pcr tests and drop the quarantine, drop the tracer apps.

 

Flash your vaccine app/cards at the airline and get on with it. At some point that is what will happen, may as well be in the coming months rather than years

 

 

[charmonman]

17 hours 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

Agreed. Also given the current state of things, I'm not sure what the value is of quarantining incoming vaccinated travellers  at all. Covid-19 has become endemic in Thailand. A fully vaccinated incoming traveller coming from a country with far lower daily cases than Thailand is far less likely to be infected and shedding the virus than the average Thai person, so why bother quarantining them? A year ago it made sense; now, not so much.

[hotchilli]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

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.

Returning tourists from dirty Thailand.... well I never.

[Andycoops]

As long as the word quarantine is included in the holidaying conditions it will deter all but the very silliest of tourists to come.

[Ireland32]

21 hours ago, ezzra said:

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...

Flights back Septembre 

[Ireland32]

11 hours ago, Blumpie said:

Oh these people are so completely spaced.  Marijuana has been legalized in many countries and do you know what it did for tourism?  Jack squat.  

If you're pathetic enough to want to go on vacation just to get stoned on pot you are in the minority.  

Many people went to Colorado when first legalized, Yes 

[kcpattaya]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

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.

Another puppet at TAT, K Thanes noted 14 days quarantine for RETURNING toursists. What about the freaking 14 days quarantine on ARRIVAL in Thailand?!?!?!
Mother<deleted>!

[chalawaan]

8 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Stop all this nonsense.

 

Drop the COE, drop the pcr tests and drop the quarantine, drop the tracer apps.

 

Flash your vaccine app/cards at the airline and get on with it. At some point that is what will happen, may as well be in the coming months rather than years

 

 

I'm willing to bet that twenty years from now, as with the nail-clipper and liquids in bags theatre at airports, they will still have ridiculous badly thought out knee jerk rules, and the numpties and nimmeranjies from developed countries will still line up to be corralled and fleeced by total muppets with badges and guns. And I wish I had easy solutions for a sensible balance, but I don't.

[daveAustin]

19 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.

Clearly. See you next year…. maybe!