Thailand welcomes foreign tourists again as “Test&Go” scheme relaunched today under new requirements

[connda]

New requirements:
PCR before arrival, PCR on arrival, then juggle a chain-saw, a bowling ball, and a badminton shuttle-cock while driving a motorcycle with 5 Burmese immigrants on the back while singing the entire refrain of Chaat-Thai, followed by a PCR test on day 5.  ????????  Easy Breezy! 

Edited February 2, 2022 by connda

[connda]

7 minutes ago, tomyami said:

2500 arrivals yesterday on 46 flights thats 54 per flight and 500 of that are flight and cabin crews

All those flights are lose making because of thai complicated money gouging rules for testing, hotel and insurance

Hope people continue to vote with their feet

It makes one wonder how the airlines don't go bankrupt?
Of course, if they go bankrupt then their friends in government will make them whole with taxpayer money.
Personally I'm a free enterprise type of guy.  Let them go bankrupt and allow the market to fill the vacuum with more efficient carriers.
They can't even be covering their fuel costs no less their payroll.

Edited February 2, 2022 by connda

[HashBrownHarry]

10 minutes ago, connda said:

It makes one wonder how the airlines don't go bankrupt?
Of course, if they go bankrupt then their friends in government will make them whole with taxpayer money.
Personally I'm a free enterprise type of guy.  Let them go bankrupt and allow the market to fill the vacuum with more efficient carriers.
They can't even be covering their fuel costs no less their payroll.

One of the few good things to come out of Covid is the lack of people at airports and on flights.

 

Unfotunately starting to see airports and flights get busier now, which is a bummer.

[MyFriend You]

17 hours ago, FalangKino said:

Everything to do with immigration in this country is so unnecessarily difficult with many hurdles to do things that really doesn't need to be that complicated.

 

This is probably the only place in the world that lays out the welcome mat but doesn't want to let you come inside.

It's Paranoia, pure and simple.  They are afraid if they make it too easy, we will all come back - and stay!!

[thaiman]

22 minutes ago, tomyami said:

2500 arrivals yesterday on 46 flights thats 54 per flight and 500 of that are flight and cabin crews

 

A resounding success eh?  I'm surprised they are praising themselves!

[RussBKK]

3 hours ago, overherebc said:

Today there is a report ( can't name the newspaper ) that the hotel has to verify the bookings for T&G within 30 hours.

Who do they verify it to and does that mean the 'pass' won't be issued to the applicant until 30 hours have passed, or am I looking at it the wrong way?

 

[tomyami]

In a weeks time tourist businesses who are complicit in these stupid rules will be winging oh we need to relax rules ie "I think we may have pitched our amazing Thailand to high and with entertainment shut what where we thinking"

Edited February 2, 2022 by tomyami

[FalangKino]

55 minutes ago, tomyami said:

2500 arrivals yesterday on 46 flights thats 54 per flight and 500 of that are flight and cabin crews

All those flights are lose making because of thai complicated money gouging rules for testing, hotel and insurance

Hope people continue to vote with their feet

Many people coming in as well are expats looking to come home to their families, as well as Thais returning home from abroad.

[pokerface1]

So let’s be realist now it’s Test and go and test and go and if your positive it test and stay and test and stay. Oh what a wicked game they play. 

[pokerface1]

8 minutes ago, tomyami said:

In a weeks time tourist businesses who are complicit in these stupid rules will be winging oh we need to relax rules ie "I think we may have pitched our amazing Thailand to high and with entertainment shut what where we thinking"

Yep the backfire won’t take long but they will persist with their plan just to try and save face. 
I also think the airlines will be canceling flights as they must be totally p____ off by now. 

[VBF]

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

It doesn't matter if they are vaccinated, they can still bring in the virus. 

"The virus" is almost certainly everywhere anyway.

So it doesn't matter if everyone in the destination country is vaccinated. That's what differentiates Europe from Thailand.

[VBF]

1 hour ago, HashBrownHarry said:

CoE was worse.

 

It's the same the first time you do anything, perhaps a bit overwhelming but at the end of the day it's only booking hotels / uploading docs / getting a test before travel.

 

It's really not that difficult.

Maybe not as you describe it, but the game of Russian roulette on day 5 makes it stressful and tedious. Not what a tourist wants.

[connda]

26 minutes ago, pokerface1 said:

So let’s be realist now it’s Test and go and test and go and if your positive it test and stay and test and stay. Oh what a wicked game they play. 

Good one: Test & Stay. 
Or
Test & Stockade

[simola]

200,000 arrivals per month. Absolute fantasy. 

[tomyami]

the new T&G is an increased price of entry and how many of those 46 planes that keep thailand connected  and are going to keep arriving if other destination are more attractive.

Greed and stupidity Not Go & Test lol

Edited February 2, 2022 by tomyami

[overherebc]

40 minutes ago, RussBKK said:

 

The last two lines would indicate it should be under one 'umbrella'? whereas through a booking agent who may not have the sense of urgency required might cause confirmation problems. 

Who knows??

[NanLaew]

13 hours ago, garyk said:

As long as you don't have to put up 800K in the bank. To stay then good. I was there and on a retirement visa, and liked to travel. A total nightmare. And that is being kind. Thailand was the worst place I have ever traveled to if you enjoy traveling. I was in the south traveling and my 90 day report came up. Had to fly back to Chinag May to get it sorted out. The immigration in several cities would not do my 90 day. What a total clown show. 

I got my last retirement visa there and left  a month later. Not worth the hassle if traveling.

If occasionally traveling or sitting on your stoop in one spot then I see no problems. Retirement visa and 90 day for you guys would be something to look forward to.

Ah yes, the money thing. Usually more of an applicants problem than it is an immigration problem, no?

 

You can file your 90-day report at any immigration office but it's usually better to have already registered your presence in that new region of domicile. This is to avoid an ornery IO fining you 2000 baht (or more) or sending you back to CNX (or wherever). The hotel usually takes care of that though but it can get perilous staying with friends, AirBNB's, camping, etc..

 

I will grant you that Chiang Mai immigration is usually a ballache different. I have a friend of well over 40 years Thai domicile and him and his family gave Chiang Mai 10 months before he sold the condo and moved where things were always easier. My experience has been exclusively with Jomtien and Udon where all interactions were low-drama events and an excuse to get breakfast somewhere different.

[NanLaew]

8 hours ago, milesinnz said:

So why do you think there is a "need" for a 90 day report... plenty of other retirement destinations do not have this requirement - how do they manage ?

You must be confusing me with someone who moans about 90-day reporting. Sorry, I can't help you with that or how other retirement destinations manage without them either. Maybe you should go visit them and find out for yourself?

Edited February 2, 2022 by NanLaew

[arithai12]

18 hours ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Nothing at immigration here is easy.

Funny, I must have been dealing with some other office then, where they renewed my extension in 25 minutes in-out of the door.

[arithai12]

18 hours ago, NanLaew said:

But you miss the point.

 

The claim by @FalangKino that "Everything to do with immigration in this country is so unnecessarily difficult" is false.

 

(my emphasis)

It seems that both you and I are missing the point, which is bash-bash-bash regardless of the facts. Funny though that on this forum (almost) everyone is complaining, while when I exchange my experiences with the people I know they all agree that things are improving and mostly smooth. I must be in another Thailand.

[simon43]

I was in Turkey, but too cold for me.  To return to Thailand was hassle with a capital 'H'! I had a PCR test and jumped on a plane for Mauritius. Another PCR test on arrival, but no quarantine.  Free to travel around the island and do a self-antigen test on day 5.  No problem.

 

2 weeks later, I applied online for a 'digital nomad' annual visa (Premium visa) to allow me to live in Mauritius and legally work on a remote business (online teaching).  No visa fee, no visit to an office, everything completed online.

 

2 days ago, I received my new e-visa by email.

 

Now why can't Thailand do something similar?  Oh I forgot, because it is all about corruption and $ ????

[Cake Monster]

18 hours ago, smedly said:

book hotel 2x nights for PCR testing on 1st and 5th day 

 

after the 1st test you are free to go out and mingle and get infected 

 

2nd test on 5th day test positive ................................ banged up your 3 week holiday ruined

 

anyone that agrees to this needs their head looked at 

 

there are now 200 positive tests in Phuket every day that are listed as  "from abroad" these are people who test positive within 7 days after arriving in Thailand - over 2000 per week   

The serious question has to asked as to why ? , when they know the possible consequences of a second positive PCR Test after 5 Days do, these Tourists keep coming. ?

Are they just stupid, love to Gamble with their very Lives, or is it just to buy a Tee Shirt that says " I survived a Holiday in Thailand "

[HashBrownHarry]

28 minutes ago, arithai12 said:

Funny, I must have been dealing with some other office then

Yeah, i think there's more than one.

[KhaoYai]

On a positive note, the list of SHA+ hotels now includes many more provinces.

 

On the negative side, to show the absurdity of these rules for people who have a home in Thailand:

 

I arrive in Bangkok, have a test and wait at my SHA+ hotel for the result.  Once a negative result is received I am free to travel home, meet my friends, go to shops, bars, restaurants etc.  If I am carrying the virus but it was not detected on the first test, I will be spreading it around.  Conversely, I am just as much at risk of picking up the virus whilst I'm going about my daily business as anyone else.

 

Then, on day 5, despite having a house less than 15km away, I have to stay at a local SHA+ hotel, have a test and wait for the result again - madness!!

 

I spoke to a representative from the TAT about this and asked where the sense was in this policy.  He told me that the reasoning is that on the original Test & Go, several people left their Day 1 hotel without waiting for their test results and could not be traced.

 

I have no idea how much truth there is in that but I don't see how these new measures will stop that.  People can still do the same thing or may have their first test and fail to show up for their Day 5 booking. My experience is that there is no policing of these measures.

 

On my first trip back in Dec/Jan, the Morchana App on my phone didn't work, making my location available was optional and the notifications I was supposed to have received, were not there when I went to the relevant page.  One of those notifications (it later turned out) was the request to upload my Day 7 test result. That was not done until I returned to the UK so who was checking on this?  Nobody it seems - I expected to be questioned at immigration on my way out - nothing.

 

200,000 arrivals per month?  That's a very low figure compared to pre-covid figures but I would say that's hugely optimistic.  Any genuine tourists considering Thailand will take a look at these rules and go elsewhere.

[WingFat]

"However, they must stay at a SHA++ accommodation on Day 5, undergo their second Covid-19 test using the same method, and stay within the room for the result."

 

Let's see if I understand this correctly, these (alleged) well-heeled tourists will be required upon arrival to stay a couple of nights in a SHA++ hotel while waiting for the first test result. Assuming the result is negative, they are free to romp around LOS UNTIL Day 5, when they must stay in another SHA++ hotel for the 2nd test...and if they test positive on the 2nd test, their effective "vacation" lasted about 2-3 days before enjoying a 1-2 week (or longer) stay in a hospital.

 

Yeah, this will go over with prospective tourists (well-heeled or otherwise) like a ton of bricks...

[KhaoYai]

24 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

The serious question has to asked as to why ? , when they know the possible consequences of a second positive PCR Test after 5 Days do, these Tourists keep coming. ?

Are they just stupid, love to Gamble with their very Lives, or is it just to buy a Tee Shirt that says " I survived a Holiday in Thailand "

I think you'll find that the majority of those who arrived during T&G Mk1 were not actually tourists in the normal sense of the word.  They were people who hadn't seen their wives and families for almost 2 years or had other existing connections to Thailand.  They weigh the risk of testing positive against the need to spend time with their wives and children!

 

I complain about these new measures but I visited in Dec/Jan and will be visiting again in Mar/Apr - why?  Because I have things to attend to that I simply can't do 10,000km away.

Edited February 2, 2022 by KhaoYai

[KhaoYai]

7 minutes ago, WingFat said:

Let's see if I understand this correctly, these (alleged) well-heeled tourists will be required upon arrival to stay a couple of nights in a SHA++ hotel while waiting for the first test result. Assuming the result is negative, they are free to romp around LOS UNTIL Day 5, when they must stay in another SHA++ hotel for the 2nd test...and if they test positive on the 2nd test, their effective "vacation" lasted about 2-3 days before enjoying a 1-2 week (or longer) stay in a hospital.

Not quite - almost correct:

 

A. There is no requirement for travellers to be 'well heeled'

B. Its not a couple of nights, its 1 night on both occasions.

Edited February 2, 2022 by KhaoYai

[WingFat]

8 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Not quite - almost correct:

 

A. There is no requirement for travellers to be 'well heeled'

B. Its not a couple of nights, its 1 night on both occasions.

A. I understand the travellers are not required to be well-heeled, but that's the sort of traveler the Thai authorities prefer to have.

B. It's one night IF the test result comes back promptly.

[chalawaan]

3 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

I think you'll find that the majority of those who arrived during T&G Mk1 were not actually tourists in the normal sense of the word.  They were people who hadn't seen their wives and families for almost 2 years or had other existing connections to Thailand.  They weigh the risk of testing positive against the need to spend time with their wives and children!

 

I complain about these new measures but I visited in Dec/Jan and will be visiting again in Mar/Apr - why?  Because I have things to attend to that I simply can't do 10,00km away.

We love test and go, we tested negative, then buggered off back to Aotearoa before Omicron or the khaki craphats spoiled the first week 2022 for yours truly.

We will be back, but only hereafter as a long term tourist. No more non-immgrant visa tyrrany and cash locked up at Prayuth's pleasure. Both me and the Thai missus can do far better for ourselves in the world's least corrupt country.

Let the low self esteem sledging begin! Zero sh!tz given. I created this option for myself over 30 years ago while most in the UK with exactly the same opportunity did not. And I'm proud as buggery about it! So there.

[KhaoYai]

31 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Then, on day 5, despite having a house less than 15km away, I have to stay at a local SHA+ hotel, have a test and wait for the result again - madness!!

Well, I'm presuming that madness is allowed.

 

Has anyone tried booking yet?  Can the Day 1 and Day 2 hotels be different?