Travel agency TUI receives more criticism after Norwegian family was isolated in Thailand

[webfact]

 

by Gregers Møller

 

A Norwegian family’s Christmas holiday in Thailand has turned into a covid-19 nightmare after their 9-year-old son tested positive upon arrival in the country and the family was placed in isolation at a local hospital. Although it is fairly known that Thailand has strict measures in place in regards to positive cases, the family says that they had not been informed by the travel company TUI that they risked 10 days in isolation at a hospital if they became infected with covid-19.

 

When the family of four from Vinterbro in Norway booked their tickets through the travel agency TUI to Phuket, Thailand they were prepared to spend 24 hours in quarantine upon arrival in a so-called SHA Plus hotel which is an approved quarantine hotel. They booked their entire stay in Thailand at the same hotel and conditions were that adults were fully vaccinated against covid-19, that everyone could present a negative CPR test taken no later than 72 hours before departure, and that everyone would take a new CPR test upon arrival in Thailand. 

 

“We thought that if we became infected with covid-19, we would be able to isolate ourselves in the hotel room. There was no mention of any hospital stay. We got the impression from TUI that it was safe to come. Had we known that we would have to go to the hospital if we became infected, we would not have left,” Silje Hoel Nikolic says to Østlandets Blad. 

 

Full story: https://scandasia.com/travel-agency-tui-receives-more-criticism-after-norwegian-family-was-isolated-in-thailand/

 

-- © Copyright ScandAsia 2022-01-01

 

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[RichardColeman]

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

“We thought that if we became infected with covid-19, we would be able to isolate ourselves in the hotel room. There was no mention of any hospital stay. We got the impression from TUI that it was safe to come. Had we known that we would have to go to the hospital if we became infected, we would not have left,

Sorry, but I think when travelling for  holiday in the middle of a pandemic you should be reading and investigating the situation more fully yourself and not relying on 'we got the impression'

[daveAustin]

To be fair, there’s no excuse for ignorance. Know the laws of where you’re going. Having said that, the policy sucks. Let’s hope that with enough bad press this ridiculousness gets ditched. Thailand, you will not attract 500 million tourists with that welcome. 

[DonniePeverley]

With Omicron coming Thai authorities will have to review how they plan to isolate people - it will be unsustainable to force everyone into different forms of hospitals.

 

Also let's face it, some of these hospitals will abuse the tourist who comes armed with a mandatory insurance policy that is just easy money. There is no excuse to force people into a hospital if they are asympotomatic, especially as Thailand now cannot achieve zero covid. 

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

the family says that they had not been informed by the travel company TUI that they risked 10 days in isolation at a hospital if they became infected with covid-19.

Of course they weren't - if they knew this then literally nobody would come to Thailand for a simple holiday, ever.

 

[Jeff Olssson]

I would generally agree that one needs to find all information about the regulations before traveling but I also think travel agencies bear the responsibility to clearly inform people about the risks of traveling under the current pandemic but they don’t provide full information because it simply is not in their economical interest.

[ukrules]

The thing here is that it's perfectly reasonable to expect to isolate in your hotel if you test positive because that's what all the sane countries in the world do.

 

Thailand deserves to suffer extreme economic damage due to this policy - and it will.

 

Only the power crazy countries who trust nobody at all to comply with any measure due to the general lawlessness of the population put people who test positive for covid in prison. China do it, Thailand does it - I'm sure there's a few others but I really don't care to spend time looking them up.

 

[RichardColeman]

8 minutes ago, ukrules said:

The thing here is that it's perfectly reasonable to expect to isolate in your hotel if you test positive because that's what all the sane countries in the world do.

 

Thailand deserves to suffer extreme economic damage due to this policy - and it will.

Think you may find they will resort to it when Omicron fills the hospitals and isolation units in a few weeks

[ukrules]

19 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Think you may find they will resort to it when Omicron fills the hospitals and isolation units in a few weeks

Well that is inevitable I think but they will probably spend as much time as possible locking people up before the numbers overwhelm them.

 

It could take months to get to the stage where they give up on the covid prison thing.

 

[drenddy]

Once again, it is up to Thailand to decide whether they want overcrowded hospitals...And insurance companies, of course...

Read the rules before you travel.

 

You have no excuse to criticize therefter....I, myself, had some danish colleagues who had plans to travel to Thailand, I told them about TP and quarantine rules, they had blind confidence in the travel agency...They had absolutely no clue about TP.Nothing.Nada.

 

Short story,  I am not impressed about these social media stories.

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Sorry, but I think when travelling for  holiday in the middle of a pandemic you should be reading and investigating the situation more fully yourself and not relying on 'we got the impression'

I never did anything like that when I was a tourist.

And also the rules change so quickly, what you read the week before, is different when you arrive.

Presumably the western insurance companies will get tired of being gouged and just refuse to cover Thailand, along with the airlines refusing to fly here.

[jacko45k]

What did they think their arrival test was for.... positive or negative, no action? As this reads I simply see someone not accepting their own responsibilities.

[ikke1959]

Strange if you are in quarantaine in a hospital if there are no of only mild symptons.. It is all about money apparently

[robblok]

Just now, ikke1959 said:

Strange if you are in quarantaine in a hospital if there are no of only mild symptons.. It is all about money apparently

Perhaps, but also about people never ever following rules. A hotel is not good for quarantine. Would you want to be in a hotel full with people who have covid when you have a holiday? They just will to get out and infect even more. There goes your holliday because then you have to quarantine too. 

 

I don't like the rules, but they make sense as people in general only think about themselves and break the rules. Look at that Israeli guy. At the verry least people with covid should be kept separate from others properly and a hotel is NOT a good place for that. 

 

Unless that hotel only has people in quarantine, but otherwise there will be no security nothing and people will wander. Destroying other peoples holiday. 

 

I don't let my parents come because of the possible quarantine if infected. People should know what they are getting into. Thailand is not the only country. Unlike what people say many country quarantine tourists. Maybe not all in hospitals but they are quarantined. 

 

But the bash Thailand at all cost crowd does not like to read about that. Plenty of Dutch people their holiday got ruined by rules in Austria and other countries where they go on winter holliday.

[crazykopite]

Although I sympathise with them anyone prepared to take the risk of travelling either abroad or even in the country they live in must face the consequences should they test positive . Today being the 1st January with millions of Thais who travelled back to there villages and islands I would not be surprised that the whole country goes back into severe restrictions as I expect the new variant to have spread like wildfire during the holiday period .

[DLock]

I’m just surprised anyone still uses a travel agency.

[kotsak]

5 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

Although I sympathise with them anyone prepared to take the risk of travelling either abroad or even in the country they live in must face the consequences should they test positive . Today being the 1st January with millions of Thais who travelled back to there villages and islands I would not be surprised that the whole country goes back into severe restrictions as I expect the new variant to have spread like wildfire during the holiday period .

Yes, and then as usual the governement will blame the plebs for the spread when it was itself promoting the holidays in the first place. How many bloody times have we seen this happening in the past?

 

[morrobay]

How much is that 4 star hospital room going to cost. And that women has one drastic stare

[jacko45k]

Just now, morrobay said:

How much is that 4 star hospital room going to cost. And that women has one drastic stare

The room behind her looks rather nice. 

[bluemoon58]

4 hours ago, daveAustin said:

To be fair, there’s no excuse for ignorance

Exactly right. They should be ashamed of themselves for not doing their research. Why just take the word of the travel agent and not check yourselves? Serves them right! 

[MadMuhammad]

4 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

With Omicron coming Thai authorities will have to review how they plan to isolate people - it will be unsustainable to force everyone into different forms of hospitals.

 

Also let's face it, some of these hospitals will abuse the tourist who comes armed with a mandatory insurance policy that is just easy money. There is no excuse to force people into a hospital if they are asympotomatic, especially as Thailand now cannot achieve zero covid. 

It’s not looking too good in Pattaya already 

[elgenon]

I never heard of the hospital isolation. Only hotel quarantine. It's a real crapshoot to go. Take lots of insurance and money!

[Dukeleto]

Knowing Thailand I would be immediately suspicious of any positive test result. Not only from the operators perspective but the PCR test itself which is not completely reliable. I hope they insisted on at least a few tests or independent test result to confirm the result. Unfortunately in the land of scam it’s far too easy, as some posters have rightly suggested, that this whole quarantine situation has been turned into a nice money spinner for “quarantine hotels” and hospitals. Especially when they have holiday travel insurance and mandatory health insurance to siphon off to the max without too much complaint from the holders as it’s not their money. People should really suspend travel until all this nonsense of covid passports etc world-wide settles down and covid and all its variants takes its place among the various seasonal flu’s and colds we get each year. Stop travelling completely and Governments will very quickly change course and declare the pandemic as over regardless of a vaccine or no vaccine.

[cardinalblue]

Rob

 

bottom line - absolutely no medical reason to send people to hospitals who have no symptoms…

 

thailand is milking the system so insurance can kick in and thus charge any amount they want….can’t do that in a hotel….

 

Covid friend months later tested positive entering thailand….spent over 200k for hospitalization….he required no treatment at all as he had no symptoms….the virus can linger in and out for months in the body and can show positive one day and negative the next….

 

thailand is doing this unethical money scam under the disguise of public health….low hanging fruit as they don’t want to deal with their unvaccinated 40% of the population…that is where their focus should be if they truly want to control the infection rate….

[Swampy999]

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

Of course they weren't - if they knew this then literally nobody would come to Thailand for a simple holiday, ever.

 

Some fools come here and complain when it all goes Pete Tong, are they really that stupid that they do not do a little research of their own?

Nobody in their right minds would come here considering the possible implications, especially with a child.

I feel sorry for the 9 year old, for one, becoming infected and secondly, having stupid parents.

 

[mtls2005]

5 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Sorry, but I think when travelling for  holiday in the middle of a pandemic you should be reading and investigating the situation more fully yourself and not relying on 'we got the impression'

 

5 hours ago, daveAustin said:

To be fair, there’s no excuse for ignorance. Know the laws of where you’re going.

 

As long as the thai authorities clearly state the rules, laws, outcomes, actions and punishments BEFORE tourists agree to the terms and conditions, then these sorts of "arguments" are valid.

 

Are these detailed in the various entry platforms?

 

Knowing the "law" in thailand is nigh on impossible - just look the the need for higher courts (Administrative, Constitutional) to review just about every single case of note. Both the Emergency Decree and the amendments to the Communicable Disease Act are quite vague, allowing the authorities to declare any activity illegal and arrest, find guilty and punish anyone, for anything.

 

For example, not wearing a mask is the same "crime" that the Israeli chap "committed".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vandeventer]

5 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Sorry, but I think when travelling for  holiday in the middle of a pandemic you should be reading and investigating the situation more fully yourself and not relying on 'we got the impression'

You are so right, but how many countries are pushing travel to save their airlines and cover up the details of traveling in a pandemic with very small print?

[Tarteso]

Money talks

[Excel]

5 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Sorry, but I think when travelling for  holiday in the middle of a pandemic you should be reading and investigating the situation more fully yourself and not relying on 'we got the impression'

Well more so when anyone now travels to Thailand given their proclivity to support the well connected at the cost of tourism. Anybody who currently travels to Thailand under the current regimes procedures should not only have a PCR test but a brain scan in my opinion.

[robblok]

28 minutes ago, cardinalblue said:

Rob

 

bottom line - absolutely no medical reason to send people to hospitals who have no symptoms…

 

thailand is milking the system so insurance can kick in and thus charge any amount they want….can’t do that in a hotel….

 

Covid friend months later tested positive entering thailand….spent over 200k for hospitalization….he required no treatment at all as he had no symptoms….the virus can linger in and out for months in the body and can show positive one day and negative the next….

 

thailand is doing this unethical money scam under the disguise of public health….low hanging fruit as they don’t want to deal with their unvaccinated 40% of the population…that is where their focus should be if they truly want to control the infection rate….

Then keep them in a hotel quarantine like so many have been kept. Thais go in state quarantine too. I would not want anyone with covid in my hotel if im holidaying. 

 

Bottom line.  Why should people be exposed to risk ?