When will Thailand open to Tourists- question/speculation?

[reader]

1 hour ago, z909 said:

Obviously they need some coaching regarding deciding which countries are eligible.    Essentially, they need to allow people in from everywhere except countries which have horrendous infection rates. 

No doubt that those countries with horrendous infection rates or death rates per million population will go to the bottom of the list. But I don't believe Thailand will require any "coaching" because that information is readily available on a daily basis on line. The Thais are perfectly capable of figuring it out on their own.

[vinapu]

10 hours ago, firecat69 said:

Well now you really got me. You certainly are not from the USA because there is nothing close to Universal Health Care in my country which is one of the continued disgraces for supposedly the richest country in the world!!

I agree, in this respect USA is standing out but all for wrong reason. Universal access to gun ownership  seem to be poor substitute.  

[anddy]

21 hours ago, reader said:

The Thais are perfectly capable of figuring it out on their own.

that is true, though they may draw different conclusions and devise different measures based on that same, public information than other countries might because Thai logic, as you know, is, well, Thai logic and not necessarily a stringent logic according to the common meaning of the word  

[Boy69]

Phuket deserted...

 

 

 

[vinapu]

Tragic

[anddy]

[vinapu]

excellent !

[18past19]

i am gonna have a stretch of 2 weeks off at the end of this month into early october. i wish i could just sneak into the LOS. 

[vinapu]

4 hours ago, 18past19 said:

. i wish i could just sneak into the LOS. 

not only you

and not only you will be disappointed

I'd be happy to go too ( and treat you and Drim Voiz with better coffee than year ago.

[18past19]

1 hour ago, vinapu said:

and treat you and Drim Voiz with better coffee than year ago.

Now you’re making me more nostalgic. I am not sure how the coffee tasted but I still remember how it felt to touch the arms of your special guest. 

[vinapu]

52 minutes ago, 18past19 said:

Now you’re making me more nostalgic. I am not sure how the coffee tasted but I still remember how it felt to touch the arms of your special guest. 

From what I know , he is still in industry

[10tazione]

On 9/19/2020 at 6:36 PM, anddy said:

There is a loophole on page 7833, §12799

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

7-day quarantine if tourist test succeeds

A seven-day quarantine for foreign tourists can be put into effect in November if the first batch of inbound tourists in October is clear of coronavirus infections, says the Tourism and Sports Ministry.

After next Tuesday's cabinet meeting, the government will announce more details of the special tourist visa (STV) that will allow long-stay visitors, the first international arrivals in almost six months, to enter the country by Oct 1, said Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn.

If the first two groups of 300 foreigners complete the 14-day quarantine on Oct 15 and Oct 21 without a positive case, then the ministry plans to propose an increase in the number of tourists per week by Nov 1.

"Only 300 tourists per week will not be enough to fill up the whole supply chain and help operators," Mr Phiphat said. "However, the figure has to comply with the capacity of the healthcare workforce from the Public Health Ministry to prepare swab tests."

For instance, the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office can provide swab testing services of up to 1,000 tests per day.

The ministry has spoken with private hospitals about providing more health personnel to support the virus testing process at airports, or allowing groups of tourists to get the test at alternative state quarantine facilities instead to disperse the flow of tourists at the terminal.

If the tourism plan runs smoothly, the ministry will consider shortening the quarantine period to seven days in mid-November, Mr Phiphat said.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, reader said:

If the first two groups of 300 foreigners complete the 14-day quarantine on Oct 15 and Oct 21 without a positive case, then the ministry plans to propose an increase in the number of tourists per week by Nov 1.

"Only 300 tourists per week will not be enough to fill up the whole supply chain and help operators," Mr Phiphat said.

 

1   600 foreigners is not a very large sample size on which to base decisions.     For example, the UK ONS is estimating that the UK infection rate is between 1 in 400 and 1 in 600.   So if sampling batches of just 600, there would be some variability in results.

2  "Only 300 tourists per week will not be enough to fill the supply chain".  Well, when their supply chain managed something like 39 million tourists last year, that must have been about 750,000 per week.     So 99.96% of the supply chain will not be filled.        [All figures approximate]

I don't understand why they start with such small numbers.   

[spoon]

My guess is it might be limited by how many tests, quarantine facilities thai can accomodate.

[ggobkk]

United Airlines in San Francisco on October 1 will provide, for a steep fee, 15 min rapid Covid test for passengers who want to fly to Hawaii.  For a smaller fee these an at home 48 hour test.  
 

This is toe in the water stuff, but if it can help to restart tourism in Hawaii, which given its quarantine rules is similar to Thailand and also has a desperate tourism economy, it might be something that can be copied and adapted. 

[Jasper]

First STV-Special Tourist Visa group arriving in chartered flight to Phuket 

8 Oct.   150 from China

25 Oct.   126  from China

1 Nov.    120 from Scandinavia & Schengen 
 

 

https://news.thaipbs.or.th/content/296925

 

 

From @RichardBarrow

“According to the TAT Governor, the first group of foreign tourists, 120 Chinese people from Guangzhou, will land in Phuket on 8th October. They will be tested for COVID-19 and put into 14-day quarantine at a local hotel before being allowed to start their holiday” 

 

[Jasper]

4 minutes ago, Jasper said:

First STV-Special Tourist Visa group arriving in chartered flight to Phuket 

8 Oct.   150 from China

25 Oct.   126  from China

1 Nov.    120 from Scandinavia & Schengen 
 

 

https://news.thaipbs.or.th/content/296925

 

 

From @RichardBarrow

“According to the TAT Governor, the first group of foreign tourists, 120 Chinese people from Guangzhou, will land in Phuket on 8th October. They will be tested for COVID-19 and put into 14-day quarantine at a local hotel before being allowed to start their holiday” 

 

Phuket and Bangkok 

[vinapu]

while numbers are laughable still is optimistic as first step in , probably long journey  to normalcy.

120 from whole Europe , it's just half cabin  of 737

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

High-risk tourists barred from visit

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday clarified the details of the Special Tourist Visa (STV) for long-stay tourists, saying the most important requirement for all applicants is they must be coming from low Covid-19 risk countries.

The STV scheme is a part of the state's bid to revitalise the economy. Prospective STV applicants are being advised to check which countries' citizens are being permitted by the Public Health Ministry to travel into Thailand, said deputy ministry spokesman Natapanu Nopakun yesterday.

Citing an announcement by the Interior Ministry on Sept 30 regarding permission for foreigners to apply for the STV, he said holders of this special visa will be allowed to first stay in the country for 90 days and then renew the visa twice for 90 days each time. The programme was launched on Thursday. The ministry has stressed to Thai embassies and consular offices overseas the importance of processing the STV accurately and disseminating information to prospective travellers, he said.

Documents required include a certificate of eligibility, proof of payment for state or hospital quarantine for 14 days, full payment for post-quarantine accommodation or ownership of accommodation, a Thai health and accident insurance policy with at least 400,000 baht inpatient coverage and 40,000 baht outpatient coverage, and a health insurance policy with at least US$100,000 (3.16 million baht) coverage for Covid-19 treatment, he said.

[Boy69]

 

[vinapu]

very good clip and up to the point

[reader]

From Coconuts Bangkok

Quarantine Dispatch: After 6 surprise months abroad, my costly journey back to Thailand

By Lobsang Dundup Sherpa Subirana

The room is spacious and habitable. There’s a television, large fridge, an attached bathroom, a balcony with a view to a desolate field and a table with Personal Protective Equipment.

Also on it are a booklet outlining the hotel’s quarantine rules and a paper with a QR code guests must scan to contact the nurse daily via Line. The phone rings immediately.

“Hello! Welcome to Thailand! Did you have a good flight?” says the operator, who identifies himself as Mac and insists on going through the “Guide Book” together.

Just minutes earlier, a car fitted with a protective screen, driven from a barren Suvarnabhumi Airport terminal by a man wearing what looked just short of a full hazmat suit, pulled up before the deserted hallway of an allegedly packed hotel. It all felt like a mix between Chernobyl, a prison ward and a laboratory experiment.

“Hotel look empty, but you take last room,” Mac said, adding that nobody was allowed outside until they passed their first Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR, swab test, seven days into confinement. That will mean a half hour on the patio, with a day’s notice and a mask on while rooms were being cleaned.

Just as other expats became stuck abroad when the country closed its borders in March, this reporter’s Swiss holiday turned into an unexpected six-month stay that just ended last week. After longing to see friends and family over half a year and wondering month after month when a return would be possible, my repatriation ended up requiring great reserves of patience – and money.

 

Amid the seemingly endless extensions of Thailand’s emergency decree and uncertainty among many a farang stranded outside or inside the kingdom, one thing is clear: Allowing the lucky minority who qualifies to come back is being done efficiently, but not easily.

Money is a must

While communication with embassies abroad is generally free-flowing and efficient, requirements to qualify for repatriation can be costly to gather at once.

The hefty price hikes of flights, the cost of insurance and the quarantine facilities alone favor those with larger paychecks, just like providing nine-month visas to a reduced quota of tourists, or mulling a seven-day quarantine to replace the current 14-day one.

It all invariably seems a knee-jerk gimmick to allow a select few in while keeping the decree alive and borders shut, despite almost no local cases being recorded in the country for months.

A one-way ticket into Bangkok from Europe’s major cities such as Paris, London or Frankfurt is no cheaper than THB15,000 on any given day. Return tickets in March, before the border closure, were about THB18,000.

Flights from New York are the cheapest from the United States’ major cities, at about THB25,000.

Health insurance – which must specifically state coverage of all COVID-19-related expenses – hovers at about THB30,000. This means returnees have to repurchase insurance if theirs refuses to reissue them a modified certificate.

The cheapest approved government accommodation for a 15-day stay is another THB30,000 baht to THB40,000.

While they all follow an obligatory standardized package model with meals, airport pickup and tests included, the 14 most affordable venues on a list of 16 hotels two weeks ago all said they had no rooms left for the month.

Another had one remaining, but it was windowless. The “last room” this reporter booked at a Samut Prakan hotel, according to Mac, cost THB37,000.

Added to this is the cost of the PCR test that must be taken a maximum of three days before take-off to obtain a “Fit to Fly” certificate. It could be free or a couple hundred euros in Europe, but can set people back more than USD$1,000 (THB32,000) in the United States.

Add it all up, and it’s THB100,000 some may not have for the Certificate of Entry the government issues applicants when all documents are compiled.

Continues with photos at

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/features/quarantine-dispatch-after-6-surprise-months-abroad-my-costly-journey-back-to-thailand/

================================================

From The Thai Examiner

Special Tourist Visa a fiasco boss warns

Most Western and European tourists are still excluded from Thailand as a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed, over the weekend, that only visitors from Covid 19 free countries will be eligible to apply for the visa. The news comes as a top Thai tourism industry leader, Chairat Trairattanajaratporn, castigated the Thai government for failing to listen to his industry and warned that up to 1 million hotel and hospitality workers will have been laid off by the end of the year as disaster looms for the industry despite heroic efforts to keep it alive.

A leading Thai tourism industry leader has slammed the Thai government’s efforts to reopen the country to foreign tourism saying that representations from those within the industry were falling on deaf ears.

Mr Chairat’s comments came as observers rubbished efforts by the government culminating this week in the announcement of a new Special Tourist Visa as a drop in the ocean compared to what the country is losing every day from 2019 revenues.

The boss of the Tourism Council of Thailand said that, so far, only 500,000 of Thailand’s tourist workers have been laid off or let go as Thailand’s hotel and hospitality sector desperately tries to keep the industry open in the face of adversity but fears that at least another 500,000 will be laid off before the end of 2020.

Mr Chairat dismissed government efforts at domestic tourism to replace the lost income from foreign tourism and pointed out that many hotels that had reopened on such promises had again been forced to shut their doors after the hoopla fell flat.

The hard-hitting comments by the tourism boss come as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this weekend pointed to even further restrictive measures linked with the Special Tourist Visa which is only projected by Thailand’s Tourism Authority to generate a minuscule 1,200 visitors a month and ฿1 billion in revenue, a figure itself questioned by industry analysts as it would represent a massive 1,600% increase in expenditure per tourist per visit.

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

'Reopen now or face collapse'

Pailin Chuchottaworn, head of a panel steering the economic recovery, on Monday urged the government to reopen the country in order to prevent it from collapsing.

He said that despite the lockdown having been gradually eased six times, the country's output would not improve unless the country reopens, albeit with precautionary measures.

This year's annual GDP is predicted to fall to minus 8-10%, equating to the country losing 1.5-1.7 trillion baht in a single year, Mr Pailin warned.

He said that although the government had spent some time preparing to reopen the country to foreign tourists under the Special Tourist Visa (STV) scheme, Thailand is effectively closed.

If Thailand could not find a way to reopen its borders for the upcoming high season in the fourth and final quarter of this year, the STV scheme may have to be scrapped, he said.

"Currently, tourism is an important priority," Mr Pailin stressed.

If no steps were taken soon to reopen Thailand during the peak season, there would be no time to schedule incoming flights and if it reopened any time after that, it would be too late.

Mr Pailin also lamented the number of requirements for foreign travellers to enter Thailand.

For example, they not only needed to show they had tested negative for Covid-19, but the test also needed to be taken 72 hours prior to travel. They must also have a medically trained escort with them, though it is unclear where they will find such people.

Those foreigners also had to undergo another test upon arrival and yet more while in quarantine, he said. Mr Pailin added that the 72-hour requirement also made it impossible to travel on Monday because of Saturdays and Sundays were non-working days.

Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn earlier said the first two STV groups from China had been pencilled in for this Thursday but as the ministry still needed to settle some entry processes, those itineraries had to be rescheduled until later this month.

 

[floridarob]

Still holding onto my Dec ticket ......I only go for usually 2 weeks Thailand and 2 weeks Bali, a little less than 2 months away, a lot can happen in 2 months....look at the USA, something new EVERY DAY, lol