Minor International Public Company Limited, a prominent private hospitality group in Thailand, has submitted an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O’Cha, urging the government to lift the current restrictive alcohol drinking hours set at 9 PM in tourist zones, reimplement the “Test&Go” tourism scheme, stop forcing tourists to hospitals if positive for Covid-19 but mild or asymptomatic, and get rid of Thailand pass and replace it with a simple pre-flight vaccine check and covid test.

 

According to the letter, Company Chairman William Ellwood Heinecke stated that the government should consider a pragmatic approach to balance the way to keep the businesses and economy going while finding a way to live with the new Omicron mutant of the virus.

 

Closing international borders also causes more harm than good, especially when the local transmission of the new Omicron variant was already widespread internally in Thailand and appeared to be mild for most people, according to Mr. Heinecke. The statement also mentioned the recommendation of the World Health Organization, stating that border closures are ineffective, and Thailand should follow other European and South American countries in terms of relaxing travel restrictions to the pre-pandemic entry rules to encourage tourism.

 

The statement reads: “Moreover, the Thailand Pass pre-approval system has outlived its usefulness, having served as more of a hindrance to visitors than a public health safeguard, even mandatory insurance and pre-booking of hotels is a hindrance to tourism as proven by the rest of the world. This is not required today.”

 

Full Story: https://thepattayanews.com/2022/01/13/minor-international-prominent-hospitality-group-urges-the-thai-government-to-drop-alcohol-restrictions-like-early-closing-times-and-bring-back-test-and-go-to-encourage-tourism/

 

-- © Copyright The Pattaya News 2022-01-13

 

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This hospitality group obviously has NO idea who they are talking to. This government believes Thailand is the true and only center of the universe, the government leaders fart rainbows, and if it wasn't their thought in the first place then it is nothing to be considered.

How to live with Omicron. Open everything. Expect hospitalisations to increase. Excpect deaths/ICU/intubations not to increase buy any great factor. Expect people will have to take time off of work. Expect large numbers of infections in schools etc, etc but overall expect a lot less carnage than Delta. Sooner absolutly everyone in the world gets this the better. IMO.

20 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

 Bill Heinecke

 Bill Heinecke is an astute business man and he talks like a business man who knows that the country is going down the gurgler if they will not open up very soon and learn to live with the Covid/Omicron, as i like everything he saying because in the end, sooner or later, the government will be forced to do just like he is proposing, so why wait?...

5 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

<snip>

Sooner absolutely everyone in the world gets this the better. IMO.

I was recently exposed by two people who wound up in the hospital with Covid. I've been double Pfizer jabbed and hoped I would get it from either of them to be done with it. Alas, no such luck (or I was completely asymptomatic).

They're doing a good job of making sure Delta continues to circulate at the moment.

 

The only way they get rid of that is by allowing Omicron to 'push it out' - and there's no way they're going to do that.

 

China has the same problem, they will never admit defeat to a mere virus but in the end they will be defeated by it.

 

The longer it takes, the more will die from previous circulating variants.

36 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

This hospitality group obviously has NO idea who they are talking to. This government believes Thailand is the true and only center of the universe, the government leaders fart rainbows, and if it wasn't their thought in the first place then it is nothing to be considered.

He knows damn well, he was supporting them when they took over.

48 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I was recently exposed by two people who wound up in the hospital with Covid. I've been double Pfizer jabbed and hoped I would get it from either of them to be done with it. Alas, no such luck (or I was completely asymptomatic).

Please don't <snip> my posts. Highlight if you like but quote my full post. Thanks.

I remember some idiots in Chiangmai tourism association and warmup restaurant trying to encourage local tourist and offer 100,000 baht for those who got covid during their stay in Chiangmai......end up they delete all those facebook post and offering after thousands of people got it.

Maybe this minor guy should offer free hotel stay for any tourist that come in to Thailand when they got the virus?? And of course their customers who dine and drink alcohol and end up with the virus should get some kind of compensation from them???

 

8 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I was recently exposed by two people who wound up in the hospital with Covid. I've been double Pfizer jabbed and hoped I would get it from either of them to be done with it. Alas, no such luck (or I was completely asymptomatic).

I think

you need a shrink !

All sounds good and logical. Unfortunately it won’t wash with him. They have their agenda, while a high infection tally—even if asymptomatic with few deaths—would just ‘look bad’. China same same but different.

 

Main tenets:

- Look good

- control

- self

- screw the people

urging the government to lift the current restrictive alcohol drinking hours set at 9 PM in tourist zones, reimplement the “Test&Go” tourism scheme, stop forcing tourists to hospitals if positive for Covid-19 but mild or asymptomatic, and get rid of Thailand pass and replace it with a simple pre-flight vaccine check and covid test.

1 million tourist waiting for that to happen wont be enough taxis, plane seats, staff to serve or barstools.

Food, drink, girls and even the soi dogs will be shocked, but 2023 party sure

The test and go program was not suspended to prevent the Omicron variant for coming to Thailand,  everyone understands that it will come, It is suspended to slow it down until such time that we have a handle on it and the dangers it presents, and as such it is working. 

We seem to have a kneejerk reaction against everything the goverment in Thailand does, some times with proper justification, but in this instance any one of us would have done the same if we were in charge. 

It seems like Omicron is not a dangerous as it was originally thought to be, but  I think that it is a little premature to make a definitive determination , as this hospital group seems to have. A few more weeks should give us the data pessary to make better assessment .IMO   

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

get rid of Thailand pass and replace it with a simple pre-flight vaccine check and covid test.

 

AMEN ! ????

TIT!

If it makes sense it won't be done, especially a common sense idea from a falang. 

29 minutes ago, sirineou said:

The test and go program was not suspended to prevent the Omicron variant for coming to Thailand,  everyone understands that it will come, It is suspended to slow it down until such time that we have a handle on it and the dangers it presents, and as such it is working. 

We seem to have a kneejerk reaction against everything the goverment in Thailand does, some times with proper justification, but in this instance any one of us would have done the same if we were in charge. 

It seems like Omicron is not a dangerous as it was originally thought to be, but  I think that it is a little premature to make a definitive determination , as this hospital group seems to have. A few more weeks should give us the data pessary to make better assessment .IMO   

Agree with some of your points, although I do feel enough data is out there already from South Africa, UK & US that indicates it is clearly significantly milder, and the UK has just reduced self-isolation to 5 days, having apparently passed its Omicron peak around 6 weeks into the wave.

 

Where some people struggle with their logic is thereby deducing we should simply forget about any restrictions on this basis. Due to the rate and sheer volume of spread it is still prudent to attempt to slow down the wave to some extent to protect health services. 

 

It is already in Thailand, it is spreading and I estimate that we will see a huge rise in cases through until the end of February. That’s not a bad thing as Omicron will push out Delta (as already seen in other countries) and significant community immunity will be achieved. 

 

 

I liked when they had Coronas at the Chidlom Taco Bell when they first opened. That was the bomb. Getting tipsy at lunch time. But then they went away even before Covid. What gives man. Maybe that snooty private school around the corner didn't like it.

25 minutes ago, inThailand said:

TIT!

If it makes sense it won't be done, especially a common sense idea from a falang. 

He has Thai Nationality

Would you buy a used car from this

 Minor?

very sensible article 

 

most folks on here have been saying it for weeks if not months

5 hours ago, Albert Zweistein said:

I think

you need a shrink !

He should have employed the exchange of bodily fluids route.

1 hour ago, sirineou said:

The test and go program was not suspended to prevent the Omicron variant for coming to Thailand,  everyone understands that it will come, It is suspended to slow it down until such time that we have a handle on it and the dangers it presents

that information is widely available from countries that actually look at it and are weeks ahead of Thailand with omicron

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

get rid of Thailand pass and replace it with a simple pre-flight vaccine check and covid test.

Thailand never, ever does simple. Ever. It isn't in their nature. They have a remarkable knack for complicating even the simplest task. They appear to have no clarity of thought about how to accomplish something in the most direct way. Immigration is the prime example for us, but it permeates the entire society. 

Omicron is already in Thailand. Making it difficult and expensive for people to travel to Thailand will do nothing to change that, nor will it in any way seriously worsen the current situation where the vast majority of new cases are from local transmission, not from incoming travellers. This is particularly true when they have already tested negative before boarding their flight. Yes, a person who tests negative can still carry the virus but they are clearly less likely to do so when they have recently tested negative, more than you can say for most people currently going about their business in Thailand who have not been tested.

 

The letter makes perfect logical and reasonable arguments for opening Thailand up, which almost guarantees the government will pay no attention to it.

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

According to the letter, Company Chairman William Ellwood Heinecke stated that the government should consider a pragmatic approach to balance the way to keep the businesses and economy going while finding a way to live with the new Omicron mutant of the virus.

And him rich.

Well, I can't see this man ever getting a job at the Ministry of Health....

Normally, we use the expression "falling for deaf ears". However, in this case Mr Heinecke, you are engaging in a discussion with people who have no ears. If they had, they would not know how to use them. Their eyes, are also very sensitive to things they know are right but is not included in their agenda, as they did not invent the idea.

Here they will wait for another year, and then come up with the bright idea, that it´s high time to take away the restrictions.

2 hours ago, Deli said:

He has Thai Nationality

He'll always be a falang

14 hours ago, ukrules said:

They're doing a good job of making sure Delta continues to circulate at the moment.

 

The only way they get rid of that is by allowing Omicron to 'push it out' - and there's no way they're going to do that.

 

China has the same problem, they will never admit defeat to a mere virus but in the end they will be defeated by it.

 

The longer it takes, the more will die from previous circulating variants.

China has to Olympics to worry about.

15 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I was recently exposed by two people who wound up in the hospital with Covid. I've been double Pfizer jabbed and hoped I would get it from either of them to be done with it. Alas, no such luck (or I was completely asymptomatic).

Curious if you tested positive.