7 hours ago, webfact said:

Tourism Authority of Thailand is taking a cautious approach toward implementing a visa fee waiver scheme to attract more foreign tourists

To be expected. It would be sending mixed signals if they had free visas, but then applied tourist arrival taxes, multiple fold price increases on foreigners vs locals hidden in Thai script at Thai natural and historical sites as well as profiting from illegal war mongering countries tourists as no one else will have them.

Go back to the 45 day VOA or better still make it 60 days.  The Chinese are broke and not coming back for a couple of years, if ever.  The whole world is hurting. .Airlines are overcharging and the land of smiles 

has lost its edge. Downloading the visa is a pain. Thais are still walking around with masks. Wake up.

 

.

4 hours ago, pomchop said:

How about being just a tiny bit more user friendly???

 

Just finished applying for e visa tourist visa online:

 

Took me approximately 5 ++ hours to do it...take and then try and download this pic and that pic and it won't work...then it says oh that pic of you may not be acceptable...took and downloaded 6 different pics of me standing against solid white wall and it says no good....then not sure how you are suppose to download pages of your passports with all the stamps from past year which cover different pages in passport but u can only down load one  pic of one page?

 

  and of course flights, bank statements, pics of me holding my passport, drivers license, and then of course is a declaration form that must be signed but you can't sign online and since no printer have to go somewhere and  get it printed, sign and then take a pic to download (unless you want to find a site that lets you convert and sign online which is also a pain in the butt.....and on and on and on...and nearly everytime you have to leave the site to get another pic out of a file it kicks you off then you get to go through all the sign on, password, captiva etc to get back then click next next next to get back to where you were..

 

Good think i really want to return to thailand or i would have said forget it....absurdly non user friendly site...whoever created this site is a sadist.

 

I did same gyrations last year and far as i can remember they have not fixed one single glitch or made any attempt to make it more user friendly....

Surprises me why you dont also have to upload a 'note from your mum'

 

(maybe I should have whispered that lest some TAT fѠkwit gets wind of the idea and runs with it)

Don't suppose the numbers are down due to the fact they hate the sight of foreigners, and make it pretty obvious. People have slowly wised up to their false smiles. First step should be sort out the ridiculous evisa application then reopen their consulats. 

6 hours ago, pomchop said:

How about being just a tiny bit more user friendly???

 

Just finished applying for e visa tourist visa online:

 

Took me approximately 5 ++ hours to do it...take and then try and download this pic and that pic and it won't work...then it says oh that pic of you may not be acceptable...took and downloaded 6 different pics of me standing against solid white wall and it says no good....then not sure how you are suppose to download pages of your passports with all the stamps from past year which cover different pages in passport but u can only down load one  pic of one page?

 

  and of course flights, bank statements, pics of me holding my passport, drivers license, and then of course is a declaration form that must be signed but you can't sign online and since no printer have to go somewhere and  get it printed, sign and then take a pic to download (unless you want to find a site that lets you convert and sign online which is also a pain in the butt.....and on and on and on...and nearly everytime you have to leave the site to get another pic out of a file it kicks you off then you get to go through all the sign on, password, captiva etc to get back then click next next next to get back to where you were..

 

Good think i really want to return to thailand or i would have said forget it....absurdly non user friendly site...whoever created this site is a sadist.

 

I did same gyrations last year and far as i can remember they have not fixed one single glitch or made any attempt to make it more user friendly....

Couldn't agree more!

When I did mine in December 2022, after having asked for and received advice on here, I made myself a set of notes as I went through it, just so that next time, I might be able to do it a little more efficiently. That's despite the fact that i used to work in IT (including testing web sites) and should have found it "easy-peasy"   

No website designed for the general public should be so clumsy and confusing!

7 hours ago, peter zwart said:

Tourism has been gradually picking up, but experts predict that the market will only achieve less than 50% of the level seen in 2019, which reached a peak of around 10 million visitors.

 

So we have the TAT and we have "Experts." 

Always remember the definition of "expert":

Ex = "has-been"

Spert (spurt) = "a drip under pressure"  ????

I dont understand. There’s already 30 days Visa exempt for a lot of countries. So what do they want to do ? Make the 60 day tourist visa free of charge ? In that case, I think they will bring in the failed system of the Covid entry for tourists , where you had to apply online for a Government Approved email , which mostly never arrived, or arrived  after your flight date ! A complete catastrophe which made Thailand tech «  experts ». a laughing stock . They couldn’t have done it worse.

The article is only about the Chinese market, it's badly written so a lot of posters have missed that rather important point.

 

Chinese visitors were over 10 million in 2019, TAT's forecast was for 5 million this year, ( 50% ), however only 1.4 million arrived as of June. 

On 7/27/2023 at 8:56 PM, Sydebolle said:

The two tier pricing with increased (partly doubled) ticket price for the infidel, second-class alien, will do the rest - welcome to Thailand! 

The most amazing thing is that they do it with a smile on their face that makes the victim praise their "friendliness"... There's a author of books about Thailand who claims that many tourists choose to park their brains at the airport when visiting the land of smiles! 

On 7/28/2023 at 5:06 AM, Sticky Rice Balls said:

I gotta say i kinda get it....ive lived in many tourist areas back home as i work in hospitality..case in point Key West....i was struggling to find a job---found one answering the front desk phones in a hotel making crap money and having to wear a cheap hotel suit.....lived in a remodeled laundry room about the size of a jail cell and would watch people go to happy hour..throw money arounf..create horrible traffic ignore local laws..be loud--drunk--brash etc.....so i totally get locals that live in CM and deal with all tourists.....seems common..locals vs tourists anywhere

That's exactly what local Thai people think about some tourists, many people don't even realize that there's always a "face thing" in Asia, which means avoiding confrontational behavior as much as possible! And the list goes on... No wonder that many local people despise tourists! 

On 7/28/2023 at 7:16 AM, hotchilli said:

Scam?

So you say the Duke of Edinburgh's Reward Scheme is/was a SCAM?

Yeah, the Thai's have made their bed. The Chinese economy is in the toilet. Geopolitical strategists say never to return. My opinion is it will be around but never again be the powerhouse it once was. 

Thai's have driven out western expats, and make it miserable for the ones that contribute to the economy. And go figure, the west,  particular the US is booming. The economy here where I live about 6 months a year is off the charts. 

Their anti western sentiment following China's lead will drag them down a dark path IMHO.  

Thailand is like China IMO, it says it will open up then does just the opposite. 

Edited July 30, 20232 yr by Gknrd

What is hard for me to Stomach is it's all about China, china this China that Airlines opening up new routes just for Chinese visitors what about the bread n butter European tourists never get thought of?was Was only 2 weeks ago TAT was targeting high-end Indians