Thailand to waive visa requirements for tourists from 93 countries starting July 15

[kinyara]

On 7/12/2024 at 8:43 AM, AhFarangJa said:

Well, aren't you the lucky one. 

Braggers will be braggers.

 

I don't have a problem acknowledging good/improved service when I experience it.

[kickstart]

On 7/12/2024 at 1:02 PM, bob smith said:

Well this is going to be fun!

when you decide to open the floodgates, don't be surprised if a few sharks make their way in.

 

'Foreigners behaving badly' is about to be taken to a whole new level...

Pass me the popcorn!

 

bob.

What about Immagration's slogan "Good guy's in, bad Gay's out".

[Nick Carter icp]

7 minutes ago, kickstart said:

What about Immagration's slogan "Good guy's in, bad Gay's out".

 

   No need for homophobia 

[kimamey]

On 7/12/2024 at 12:51 PM, Will B Good said:

Oh wait.....this is the policy commencing July 15. The next policy, commencing July 16, could be a total ban on all tourism.

If it's starting on July 15 it won't be sorted out until after that.  Probably 19 or 20

[Puccini]

On 7/12/2024 at 3:17 PM, Finspin said:

Purchased a 60 day tourist e-visa in London seven weeks ago 

I arrive in Thailand early August on that visa.

assuming that the 60 day visa exempt is operational on 15th July,

are there any benefits from presenting it to immigration on arrival, or not ?

 

 

It depends on your travel plans and the as yet unknown policy about extension of stay following visa-exempt arrival under the new scheme if and when it gets implemented.

[Puccini]

On 7/12/2024 at 5:13 PM, Chris Daley said:

So I still have to queue for 8 hours at chang wattana and leave with a disease?

 

No.

[Puccini]

23 hours ago, sanabavy IV said:

I'm a true devote of T.T. 🥹

 

What do you mean with T.T.?

[blazes]

10 minutes ago, Puccini said:

 

What do you mean with T.T.?

 

A new thread for the AN detectives.  My guess is that T.T. is not really  T.T but TiT, This is Thailand, with an omitted i.

[GammaGlobulin]

This move feels/smells of being the result of desperation.

 

Why the urgency?

 

Why the policy change?

 

Are things that bad, economically speaking?

 

If one lives away from tourist locations, and one does not frequent shops and restaurants, then the results of these types of policy changes will only rarely be noticeable.

 

Still, it seems odd, indeed.

 

[blazes]

Seems to me there are two kinds of responses on this thread:  (a) from permanent expats and (b) from infrequent expats - that is, those of us who come to LoS once a year to avoid northern winters.

 

Group A imagine that their reasonably untroubled life in the Kingdom is about to be profoundly disturbed by an influx of riff-raff from undesirable foreign locations.  Even so, some members of Group A on this thread have acknowledged that they live in a region where "tourists" rarely infiltrate.

Group B (those more likely to spend a fair amount of money in their limited time  in Thailand) welcome this change in visa-free time, since it reduces time wasted in traipsing back and forth to Immigration for "extensions".

If those  in Group B do not, now, have to leave Thailand  (maybe to Vietnam or Malaysia or wherever) their money saved from not having to leave and come back can be spent, instead, in LoS.  Win,win all round.

 

Group B, however, wonder why Thailand cannot have the same kind of visa rules as Malaysia (90 days) or Mexico (180 days) and many other countries with 90+ days.

[Bvor]

On 7/12/2024 at 9:17 PM, Finspin said:

Purchased a 60 day tourist e-visa in London seven weeks ago 

I arrive in Thailand early August on that visa.

assuming that the 60 day visa exempt is operational on 15th July,

are there any benefits from presenting it to immigration on arrival, or not ?

using the evisa may give access to future multiple visa exempt entries if so desired - bearing in mind the uncertainty of how many air visa exempts IO deems "too many". 

[sanabavy IV]

12 hours ago, Puccini said:

 

What do you mean with T.T.?

that female minister who announced the (good) news. I might have misspelled her name otherwise 

[DonniePeverley]

Who benefits from open borders mass tourism / long visitors ?

 

Property developers for one. 

 

Hmmmm ..... you see where i am going. 

[Kinok Farang]

On 7/12/2024 at 1:10 PM, spidermike007 said:

The nation has already waived any requirements for Russians, so they might as well waive them for everyone else. They couldn't really do worse than inviting in an unlimited number of Russians, knowing that a huge percentage of them who can afford to travel are involved in crime, and that they will continue their criminal activities here, and likely degrade the nation in the process.

 

It is a spectacularly huge error in judgment to not carefully screen every single Russian that arrives. 

Racist but correct and its ok cos they're white.

[DonniePeverley]

12 hours ago, blazes said:

Seems to me there are two kinds of responses on this thread:  (a) from permanent expats and (b) from infrequent expats - that is, those of us who come to LoS once a year to avoid northern winters.

 

Group A imagine that their reasonably untroubled life in the Kingdom is about to be profoundly disturbed by an influx of riff-raff from undesirable foreign locations.  Even so, some members of Group A on this thread have acknowledged that they live in a region where "tourists" rarely infiltrate.

Group B (those more likely to spend a fair amount of money in their limited time  in Thailand) welcome this change in visa-free time, since it reduces time wasted in traipsing back and forth to Immigration for "extensions".

If those  in Group B do not, now, have to leave Thailand  (maybe to Vietnam or Malaysia or wherever) their money saved from not having to leave and come back can be spent, instead, in LoS.  Win,win all round.

 

Group B, however, wonder why Thailand cannot have the same kind of visa rules as Malaysia (90 days) or Mexico (180 days) and many other countries with 90+ days.

 

 

Oh it will indeed let in riff raff. 

 

Go see Dubai who have now gone harder and closed loop holes that were being exploited by Indians visiting (who were overstaying and working). Now they check every single indian's return ticket, and bank account details manually. 

 

Thailand is not even checking return tickets at immigration. 

[Kinok Farang]

17 hours ago, kickstart said:

What about Immagration's slogan "Good guy's in, bad Gay's out".

Bad gays slip out occasionally.

[DonniePeverley]

13 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

This move feels/smells of being the result of desperation.

 

Why the urgency?

 

Why the policy change?

 

Are things that bad, economically speaking?

 

If one lives away from tourist locations, and one does not frequent shops and restaurants, then the results of these types of policy changes will only rarely be noticeable.

 

Still, it seems odd, indeed.

 

 

 

Long term stayers here only benefits property developers, at the expense of local Thai's who will be pushed out. 

 

Go look at whose running the country now. 

[spidermike007]

4 minutes ago, Kinok Farang said:

Racist but correct and its ok cos they're white.

Yeah I don't know if it's correct to say I'm making a racist comment when it's about other white people. You could say it's a nationalistic comment, you could say it's an unkind comment, but in reality when you're talking about a nation with an absolutely vicious government, and people who are notoriously stingy with good human qualities, I don't know if the term unkind really means anything. 

[transam]

2 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

Oh it will indeed let in riff raff. 

 

Go see Dubai who have now gone harder and closed loop holes that were being exploited by Indians visiting (who were overstaying and working). Now they check every single indian's return ticket, and bank account details manually. 

 

Thailand is not even checking return tickets at immigration. 

Then, just keep your head down, you'll be OK...😉

[DonniePeverley]

On 7/12/2024 at 7:11 PM, it is what it is said:

 

carnage? nope. thai's complaining? maybe a few in heavily touristed areas, the vast majority of thais don't give a hoot about the number of tourists.

 

 

Condo i was staying at. I'd say was around 70% Thai's. Then the Russian invasion, most Thai's forced out. Now 90% Russian. 

 

Many of these Thai's were furious that the property owners were putting rents so high on double digit levels. This will only get worst in what is a developing country, now a full blown rich western country. 

 

Countries like Spain, Japan, France, where mass tourism is becoming an issue are fighting back actively. 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

3 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

Long term stayers here only benefits property developers, at the expense of local Thai's who will be pushed out. 

 

Please clarify your thinking concerning the ways you see local Thai's being pushed out.

 

Do you mean that property developers might buy land owned by local Thai's, and then build condos on the land, thereby causing local Thai's to lose generational land?

 

Or, do you mean that tourists are good, and do not push local Thai's out, but that long-term-stay foreigners are bad because their presence pushes local Thais out?

 

Not sure what you mean...exactly.

 

But, I do agree that property developers need to have their activities severely restricted.

 

 

[kwilco]

On 7/12/2024 at 2:17 PM, Finspin said:

Purchased a 60 day tourist e-visa in London seven weeks ago 

I arrive in Thailand early August on that visa.

assuming that the 60 day visa exempt is operational on 15th July,

are there any benefits from presenting it to immigration on arrival, or not ?

 

THis is an interesting point, because your VISA is valid for several months and only "triggered" on entry. So if you enter for 60 days on visa exempt, you should be able to exit and re-enter at some point on your tourist visa for another 60 days. If you included a 30 day extension on each one, in theory you could stay for 180 days.

[DonniePeverley]

https://www.outlooktraveller.com/travelnews/whats-new/protests-in-japan-and-europe-against-overtourism

 

 

[DonniePeverley]

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Please clarify your thinking concerning the ways you see local Thai's being pushed out.

 

Do you mean that property developers might buy land owned by local Thai's, and then build condos on the land, thereby causing local Thai's to lose generational land?

 

Or, do you mean that tourists are good, and do not push local Thai's out, but that long-term-stay foreigners are bad because their presence pushes local Thais out?

 

Not sure what you mean...exactly.

 

But, I do agree that property developers need to have their activities severely restricted.

 

 

 

 

If you study the Thai economy ... it's a fine eco system. 

 

Rent is affordable at the moment to many Thai's - to even live and work in Bangkok. 

 

You have an ambudance of cheap labour in Thailand. You see it yourself, and wonder how they have so many workers around on jobs you would never see in the west. They can do this because of the cost of living for Thai's is pretty low, most importantly homes. 

 

This system kept the population mostly happy. You had tourism, but no long term stay was allowed on mass. 

 

Now the flood gates are being opened. You saw a taster in Phuket where Russians literally took over parts of Phuket - including buying up mass condos, working illegally, and taking up businesses against Thais. This was just a taster. 

 

You will see mass movement of people from India especially working illegally in the labour market. 

 

Then you will see long term visitors pushing up the prices of accodomation, which will mean local Thai's will be turfed out. You then have a situation where local Thais will demand more wages, then that cost passed onto consumers. 

 

This is not including the ecological disaster, Thailand at the moment can barely cope with its existing infrustructure, and the damage to local Thai culture as it's eroded. When you walk along parts of Phuket it's Russian, and not a single Thai around. 

 

The only ones who prosper are property developers. Locals suffer, tourists suffer as the experience becomes crap with mass tourism (See Bali, etc), etc

 

It's as if the country is being ran by property developers. 

[JoeyMac]

Many of these islands are heading the way of Bali - disgusting mass tourism. 

 

What happened to Quality tourism and the reset we were promised? Instead they've doubled down on cheap tourism. 

[GammaGlobulin]

4 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

 

 

If you study the Thai economy ... it's a fine eco system. 

 

Rent is affordable at the moment to many Thai's - to even live and work in Bangkok. 

 

You have an ambudance of cheap labour in Thailand. You see it yourself, and wonder how they have so many workers around on jobs you would never see in the west. They can do this because of the cost of living for Thai's is pretty low, most importantly homes. 

 

This system kept the population mostly happy. You had tourism, but no long term stay was allowed on mass. 

 

Now the flood gates are being opened. You saw a taster in Phuket where Russians literally took over parts of Phuket - including buying up mass condos, working illegally, and taking up businesses against Thais. This was just a taster. 

 

You will see mass movement of people from India especially working illegally in the labour market. 

 

Then you will see long term visitors pushing up the prices of accodomation, which will mean local Thai's will be turfed out. You then have a situation where local Thais will demand more wages, then that cost passed onto consumers. 

 

This is not including the ecological disaster, Thailand at the moment can barely cope with its existing infrustructure, and the damage to local Thai culture as it's eroded. When you walk along parts of Phuket it's Russian, and not a single Thai around. 

 

The only ones who prosper are property developers. Locals suffer, tourists suffer as the experience becomes crap with mass tourism (See Bali, etc), etc

 

It's as if the country is being ran by property developers. 

 

Tks for the reply.

Interesting.

 

 

[scubascuba3]

If people can now get 60 day visa exempts then little point in getting a visa unless need 60+30 extension 

[Felt 35]

24 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

It's as if the country is being ran by property developers. 

Guess the above is sarcasm, but well its ran by a property developer.

Felt

[Captain Monday]

4 hours ago, DonniePeverley said:

Who benefits from open borders mass tourism / long visitors ?

 

Property developers for one. 

 

Hmmmm ..... you see where i am going. 

Another question  to ask is who if anyone is really harmed?
 

 I don't believe in borders anymore. As long as people follow the rules and do not become a public burden live where you want. 

[sambum]

1 hour ago, JoeyMac said:

Many of these islands are heading the way of Bali - disgusting mass tourism. 

 

What happened to Quality tourism and the reset we were promised? Instead they've doubled down on cheap tourism. 

 

Hub of turnarounds and bums on seats