Foreign tourists flocking back to Thailand - Immigration chiefs act to fill booths at airport/address crowding

[webfact]

Picture: Siam Rath

 

Siam Rath reported that foreign tourists were arriving in Thailand at their highest numbers since the pandemic decimated the industry.

 

And that the numbers were set to go up and up from now on.

 

On Sunday pictures were shared on social media of large crowds of visitors at the incoming passport check at Suvarnabhumi airport.

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

Spokesman Maj-Gen Cherngron Rimphadee said that the pictures were true.

 

Sunday was particularly busy from 1 - 5 pm when 76 flights arrived, nearly 20 an hour.

 

There were 3,000-4,000 people to process. The worst period was 2-4pm.

 

Region 2 chief Maj-Gen Montree Pancharoen arranged so that all booths were manned so that waiting time to complete immigration formalities was less than one hour.

 

Immigration had to make checks on visa, biometrics, call center criminals, blacklisted individuals and people bent on making trouble at the APEC meeting.

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

Despite all these checks they managed to limit the time at the booth to under 45 seconds for each passenger.

 

The spokesman said that immigration chief Pol Lt-Gen Phoomphiphat Sajjaphan had put great store on facilitating tourists since the country opened up on November 1st last year after the pandemic. 

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

An additional 27 booths making a total of 119 will be available from today so that 6,500 passengers could be dealt with per hour at Bangkok's main airport.

 

The AOT were also helping with crowd control and initial check of documents to speed things up.

 

He said that RTP chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittipraphat was determined to facilitate tourism for the economic good of the country.

 

At this time 45,000 to 50,000 tourists are arriving at Thai airports and land borders each day and that figure is set to increase continually. 
 

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[ThailandRyan]

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

Immigration had to make checks on visa, biometrics, call center criminals, blacklisted individuals and people bent on making trouble at the APEC meeting.

So looking for trouble makers is not done normally?

 

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

The spokesman said that immigration chief Pol Lt-Gen Phoomphiphat Sajjaphan had put great store on facilitating tourists since the country opened up on November 1st last year after the pandemic. 

Knowing that Hi-Season, well to a degree, is now in slow swing you would have thought that they would have been prepared already.  I wonder how many used the fast track section?  

[mikebell]

36 minutes ago, webfact said:

Spokesman Maj-Gen Cherngron Rimphadee said that the pictures were true.

Well that's a relief!  I thought the pictures were post by TAT.

[ikke1959]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

people bent on making trouble at the APEC meeting.

Huh??? How do they know that???

[petermik]

12 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

Huh??? How do they know that???

Thai,s know everything............

[PJ71]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Despite all these checks they managed to limit the time at the booth to under 45 seconds for each passenger.

This total nonsense.

 

I travel through this airport all the time and have never been processed in 45 seconds, even during covid, total lies.

[daveAustin]

^^ That’s a typo, they meant 45 minutes. ????

 

Guess hotels will start hoiking prices again. Here’s hoping Xi keeps his country locked down or Thailand will end up swamped again. 

[lujanit]

This story is total BS.  Just someone else doing the TAT false propaganda.

[BE88]

3 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Huh??? How do they know that???

Read the comments on Asean now.  ????

[Mywayboy]

45 Seconds that must be yesterdays Thai clock

[Mywayboy]

3 hours ago, petermik said:

Thai,s know everything............

(I know Nothing)

[metisdead]

A post trolling about Darell Brooks has been removed.

[Mywayboy]

3 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Huh??? How do they know that???

Dirty Farang always make trouble. 

[TheFishman1]

I don’t understand the part that said big joke received a big brown envelope all these big cops know all about the guy and nobody’s business is there on the payroll same same TIT

[Guderian]

And they still have those disgustingly unhygienic fingerprint scanners, they were breeding grounds for germs before anyone had ever heard of Covid, but with the winter flu and Covid season kicking off once again my advice is to keep some hand sanitiser handy and use it liberally as soon as your fingerprints have been taken.

[NemoH]

Mostly escaping from the inflation in their home countries.

Mostly all Caucasians.

[Thailand]

Friends with businesses in Pai say it is very busy, mainly younger Europeans. 

The downside is the rain has stopped and burning is the order of the day, and it's not just weed!

[khunjeff]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Region 2 chief Maj-Gen Montree Pancharoen arranged so that all booths were manned so that waiting time to complete immigration formalities was less than one hour.

In over 30 years of traveling to Thailand, I have never seen all the immigration booths manned. In fact, I have very rarely seen more than half manned, even when crowds were flooding back into the duty free area. So if this is real, it would be a massive change. 

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Despite all these checks they managed to limit the time at the booth to under 45 seconds for each passenger.

The last time they made this claim, I actually timed the processing for the people ahead of me in the queue. Some - presumably visa-exempt tourists - were indeed finished in 45 seconds. Many others, though (including me, with a reentry permit) took several minutes - so the idea that they can average under a minute per passenger is probably overly optimistic. 

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The AOT were also helping with crowd control and initial check of documents to speed things up.

My experience has been that this "help" consists of hiring pouty teenage interns to shout "passport!" and "boarding pass!" in heavily accented English at people entering the queue. 

[BritScot]

42 minutes ago, NemoH said:

Mostly escaping from the inflation in their home countries.

Mostly all Caucasians.

Have you seen the cost of flights to thailand? People who are flying to Thailand aren't bothered about an extra 5p on a tin of beans....

[Taboo2]

I guess I better book my trip to Koh Lippe now....and avoid the crush.

[Thailand]

45 seconds ????

[LookMoo]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

And they still have those disgustingly unhygienic fingerprint scanners, they were breeding grounds for germs before anyone had ever heard of Covid, but with the winter flu and Covid season kicking off once again my advice is to keep some hand sanitiser handy and use it liberally as soon as your fingerprints have been taken.

Correct.. face mask are totally useless against virus (to small). But good hand hygiene is vital. You scratch your eyes with dirty hand and you are exposed.

[Isaan sailor]

1 hour ago, NemoH said:

Mostly escaping from the inflation in their home countries.

Mostly all Caucasians.

Yup.  And now welcome them to Baht inflation here.

[MrJ2U]

High season also. 

 

Luckily another recent lockdown in China will keep the ruthless Chinese tourists at bay. 

 

Hotel prices have certainly spiked but still cheaper than pre COVID. 

[paul1804]

If thats for real I dont see any surge in Koh Samui, on the contrary, there are less people here than in September & October! 

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

And they still have those disgustingly unhygienic fingerprint scanners, they were breeding grounds for germs before anyone had ever heard of Covid, but with the winter flu and Covid season kicking off once again my advice is to keep some hand sanitiser handy and use it liberally as soon as your fingerprints have been taken.

Yep, and make sure you don't touch anything in your taxi, don't touch any door handles anywhere (just wait until someone else goes through and then quickly follow), don't touch money (use tweezers), beware of light switches etc etc.

They actually have hand sanitiser on the immigration counters........but then everyone else has touched them too.

[bbbbooboo]

Hmmm…. Pity, i enjoyed going through immigration in 5 minutes. Now it will be back to 1-2 hours( on a good day)

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, daveAustin said:

^^ That’s a typo, they meant 45 minutes. ????

 

Guess hotels will start hoiking prices again. Here’s hoping Xi keeps his country locked down or Thailand will end up swamped again. 

A hotel I use in Bangkok has tripled its rates since September. No different really from hotels in my native UK who charge more in their high season of school holidays.

[soalbundy]

7 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Huh??? How do they know that???

You can see it in their shifty eyes.

[ThailandRyan]

8 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

A hotel I use in Bangkok has tripled its rates since September. No different really from hotels in my native UK who charge more in their high season of school holidays.

Daughter went to the F1 race in Texas 2 weeks ago. Prior to going she had been the month before for business. Her hotel was $145 a night for her business trip, for the F1 week and weekend the sake hotel was $465  a night......prices are always regulated by supply and demand, and that goes for here as well.