Was wandering through the old town in Chiang Mai yesterday as I had to kill some time waiting. Amazingly I could spot a total of 20 or so tourists in town. It's really booming now ????

 

Way to go Thailand. If one thinks you cannot top it anymore, you hit the next nail straight into the coffin.

3 hours ago, baboon said:

To be fair we are not welcomed by the authorities. The people are just fine generally. 

The authorities are equally if not more concerned about monitoring and controlling their own people.

 

They are equally if not more incompetent in doing that.

 

Each ministry and agency so enthusiastic about this is purely throwing its weight about, those in charge are building their own empires. There is no coordination or real ability to use the information; just the usual corrupt mess of nepotism, appointment buying, cronyism and incompetence.

Good luck then for that bunch of morons! Don’t want to hear any tourism official to blame others as soon as Vietnam fully reopens in March! Enjoy your 200-300k tourists /month Thailand…more won’t come under the current rules.

 

The full reality is that 90% of the tourists are not willing to jump trough hoops anymore for a simple holiday! 
 

Free travel in and out of a country is essential for business when they do they lose

4 hours ago, Jotho said:

If a country needs a system to track tourists, then they are in no state to even recieve tourists... This freak show of a few in charge there is getting totally out of hand...  Having the need to monitor and control everybody 24/7 is Totalitarianism in its pure form and it is clear and obvious where persons like that stand...

This whole world has become a giant freak show, but when you’re in Thailand you get the front seat. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

“The Thailand Pass system cannot be cancelled because it holds data and important information on tourists which can be used to trace them when they travel in Thailand,” Mr Pipat said

The only information they had on me when I arrived in January was the hotel for my first Test and Go.

Thailand  pass had my flight details, vaccination record, insurance policy etc. I deleted their useless battery eating app as I left the first hotel. They can’t trace anything with the info I gave them. The only thing that they can do with it, is allow the hackers to get my details. Luckily I haven’t had any hacker spam, yet. 

 

5 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

There must be more behind this subject than they are prepared to let on

My thought as well. By keeping the data, not only able to monitor "tourists" within Thailand but potentially "worldwide" by spying on social media. I call it the "China Syndrome"!

 

"resurrected a plan pushed by the military junta up to 2015 to put in place a national internet gateway to control access to the internet in Thailand"

 

 https://aseannow.com/topic/1251112-minister-signals-a-move-to-resurrect-a-national-internet-gateway-and-stronger-online-controls/

 

Don't need hackers, they usually leave all doors wide open. That is in the Interwebz, not for travel ????

“The Thailand Pass system cannot be cancelled because it holds data and important information on tourists which can be used to trace them when they travel in Thailand,”

 

 Reminiscent of a certain novel:- George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

 

 

1 hour ago, SpanishExpat said:

Good luck then for that bunch of morons! Don’t want to hear any tourism official to blame others as soon as Vietnam fully reopens in March! Enjoy your 200-300k tourists /month Thailand…more won’t come under the current rules.

 

The full reality is that 90% of the tourists are not willing to jump trough hoops anymore for a simple holiday! 
 

Did you copy and paste your final paragraph from a previous statement? Because I seem to have seen it somewhere (or words to that effect) before! ????

 

The reality is exactly as you say - no matter how much TAT waffle on about their expected millions from Saudi Arabia or wherever it takes their fancy to ply for customers next!   

They can tweak the requirements as much as they want. It won't make any difference. Aside form returnees and a few 100 tourists, 99% of past visitors won't visit until its restriction free. There are plenty of better options all over the world. Omicron is not dangerous and the Govt know as much. Meanwhile thia businesses close daily and the tourist islands will take decades to recover. Very sad. 

5 hours ago, internationalism said:

yes, it can be cancelled.

At some stage it will be, as it is (and always was) half-functional.

All this personal data on the governmental sites is unprotected, doesn't even have to be hacked. Employees selling to mafia for some $1 per piece, but in thousands. 

Since I have started registering for thai vax on multiple (but suppose to be credible) sites, I have stream of sms and emails with local spam.

Further increased after registering with thailand pass.

They had 2 major leaks, 28.01 (just before re-launching T&G) and a week ago. Each time they had to put a warning on their pop up page, but never admitted their responsibility  

 

What data are we talking about here, Income, health records, age, place of employment etc. or just where you intend to stay in Thailand ? If you are worried about spam just give them a throw away email address.

The reality is that most major western countries have or implementing similar systems.

 

USA - The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is an automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program ESTA was mandated by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 for travelers.

EU - The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) was proposed by the European Commission in April 2016 and approved in November 2016 and will be mandatory from 2023.

Australia - All passengers arriving by air into Australia should complete a Digital Passenger Declaration. You can start your DPD seven days before your flight and submit it within 72 hours prior to your departure for Australia. 

How a similar system in this country will affect tourism is a good question, how secure this system is even a better question.

Didn't help track and apprehend the gangsters that hit the guy in phuket...

19 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

What data are we talking about here, Income, health records, age, place of employment etc. or just where you intend to stay in Thailand ? If you are worried about spam just give them a throw away email address.

if you download a trojan maleware from a supposed thailand pass, those hackers will have everything, including credit cards, access to email account and size of your wife's nickers

6 minutes ago, internationalism said:

if you download a trojan maleware from a supposed thailand pass, those hackers will have everything, including credit cards, access to email account and size of your wife's nickers

I see, don't you have an anti-virus program ? Anyway, nobody would want to know the size of my wife's nickers, it frightens even me.

Before covid you went to a consulate near you,now that is not the case.You filled in the form with your details,passport etc.You have to do it online now under the thailand pass,the other way worked too

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The Thailand Pass registration system will remain in place indefinitely, despite calls from key figures in the tourism industry for it to be removed.

"New Normal is here forever commoners.  Plebs get your masks on!!!

(all "special people" exempted).

6 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

There must be more behind this subject than they are prepared to let on, surely they can extract the data on current tourists and delete the data on ones that have returned home what is so difficult in this??

They have wanted to implement a tourist (foreigner) tracking system for year but held off due the negative impact on tourism.  Now that tourism has been decimated, they no longer care about the affect, so now they have a tracking system and they will never dismantle it. 
Power loves to subjugate. And power loves to accrue more and more power.

6 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Yes and since July 2021 the uptake for tourism has been miserable at best

And will continue to be miserable for the foreseeable future given the ridiculous amount of requirements to enter the country.

 

They are as usual living in a dream world thinking tourists will jump through never ending hoops to enter a third world country that has very little to offer tourists. So many better options around the world now for genuine tourists.

 

Genuinely feel sorry for the Thai people having to put up with people in power who are intent on ruining their country.

If I remember right, the government wanted to force all tourists to download the mor chana app on entry some 2 years or so before the pandemic. It was binned either because of resistance or the app was too unreliable or whatever. It seemed like a typical Thai crackdown, just petered out.

The pandemic has now provided the camouflage for this scandalous attempt to monitor people who come in friendship and peace.

What on Earth are they frightened of?

What have we ever done to them? Apart from the odd goon who usually winds up getting his face kicked in anyway. Anyway there are far far more Thais up to much worse violence and skulduggery than we all are. So what possible reason can they have to want to keep tracks on us all the time? 

7 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

There must be more behind this subject than they are prepared to let on, surely they can extract the data on current tourists and delete the data on ones that have returned home what is so difficult in this??

Don't they know where tourists are at all times with the TM30?

7 minutes ago, BusyB said:

What on Earth are they frightened of?

Nothing.  They just want Thai people to see foreigners as dangerous.  For reason of control of the populace.

7 hours ago, BayArea said:

"The Thailand Pass system cannot be cancelled because it holds data and important information on tourists which can be used to trace them when they travel in Thailand " Mr. Pipat said

 

this is exactly why the Thai government should abolish it!!!!

Yet no one (wink, wink) in the government has any idea where "Boss" Red Bull is hiding out.  ????

I don't understand all this nonsense. Seems as if they really don't want tourists back in, spending their hard earned cash.

 

They want the elusive millionaires only it would seem.....good luck with that.

 

Meanwhile, other countries are opening up, what's more , they are GLAD AND GRATEFUL, for tourists to be returning to their different shores...Not so Thailand.

 

Ive not been back to Thailand for over 2 years, previous to that, I was going for almost 40 years (first went in 1993)...the longer I don't go back, and the more I read of all the nonsense, they are spouting out? The less I miss it, and the less I think of going back there. I'm positive , I'm not alone in my feelings about the entry nonsense Thailand ask for, to be able to spend your money in their country helping their economy?  Fantastic amazing superlative, Thailand. The land of the unfathomable.

 

Thailands tourism really is dying a slow death. To those of you who think it isn't? Well good luck to you too!

  Well, kiss goodbye any thought of meaningful tourist numbers until it's cancelled.   On the plus side, he can use it as an excellent excuse for why the tourist numbers are so low.  

20 minutes ago, BusyB said:

If I remember right, the government wanted to force all tourists to download the mor chana app on entry some 2 years or so before the pandemic. It was binned either because of resistance or the app was too unreliable or whatever. It seemed like a typical Thai crackdown, just petered out.

The pandemic has now provided the camouflage for this scandalous attempt to monitor people who come in friendship and peace.

What on Earth are they frightened of?

What have we ever done to them? Apart from the odd goon who usually winds up getting his face kicked in anyway. Anyway there are far far more Thais up to much worse violence and skulduggery than we all are. So what possible reason can they have to want to keep tracks on us all the time? 

So that they can say that they can?

1 hour ago, bristolgeoff said:

Before covid you went to a consulate near you,now that is not the case.You filled in the form with your details,passport etc.You have to do it online now under the thailand pass,the other way worked too

No, you booked a plane at 24 hour notice.

Arrived at BKK, stood in a queue for 30 mins and got a tourist exemption stamp on your passport for 30 days.

It's nothing like this obstacle course.

Don't take my word for it, 99% of people think the same, hence pretty close to zero real tourists.

7 hours ago, NanaSomchai said:

There we go.

 

They are finally admitting this has nothing to do with health or safety concerns at all, it is all about controlling and tracing the masses or hordes which would be entering the Kingdom each and every year.

 

And this time, for all you deniers out there, you heard it from the horse's mouth, the Tourism and Sports Minister himself.

 

My advice: if you haven't already, sell everything, recoup your assets (or your losses) and get ready to pull out of Thailand at any time.

 

Welcome Thailand Police State 2.0 sponsored by the CCP aka Chailand!

...with Chinas backing as well

This day five PCR test is a massive turn-off for tourists and anyone else traveling. 

There is the real costly risk of acquiring a local infection of COVID in-between arrival and day five and then being forced into  a quarantine situation via hospitals and Hospitels (quarantine hotels contracted arrangement with a particular hospital). 

Insurance will NOT pay for this.  

 

The ridiculous situation is that I have been infected with COVID, but because I am renting a home here I was allowed to quarantine there. 

 

I wish to travel back to my home country and then return.  Upon return I will move back into my home.  

 

But the stupidity of this system is that I would be forced to quarantine in a hospital/hospitel on day five if I am COVID positive, despite having a suitable place to quarantine in a home, like before.  So, I keep holding off this trip because of this damned 5-day test requirement with quarantine set-up.  Frustrating as hell.