Thailand COC Seeks Further Amnesty For Foreigners

[Pib]

TAT wants "anyone and everyone"....always has.  Although part of the govt they really don't seem a major say in govt decisions/policy regarding immigration.  But the TAT is good at creative tourism statistics. 

[2530Ubon]

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

TAT wants "anyone and everyone"....always has.  Although part of the govt they really don't seem a major say in govt decisions/policy regarding immigration.  But the TAT is good at creative tourism statistics. 

 

But you just claimed that they want "two week millionaires" who go home after two weeks. Now your saying they want anyone and everyone, despite seeing their official response is "digital nomads and medical toursits". When confronted with the truth, accept it. Don't dig another hole, only trolls live there.

 

[Pib]

Well, the TAT want anyone and everyone, but immigration doesn't.

 

[jackdd]

13 minutes ago, Pib said:

Well, the TAT want anyone and everyone, but immigration doesn't.

 

Immigration also wants anyone, BUT only if they can extract some money from them.

Getting money from people making border hops with tourist visas is difficult, so they don't like them.

If Thailand were to introduce some non-immigrant long stay option for younger people, similar to the retirement visa, i'm sure Immigration would cheer for it.

Edited September 26, 2020 by jackdd

[trappedinasia]

I assume the opening post is referring to something on the unspeakable website, but the new Herald article reporting the amnesty rumor also says that the Thai Chamber of Commerce wants foreigners to stay, and that they have told this to the government several times, so their most recent request was just a reiteration of their longstanding stance. 

[Pib]

4 minutes ago, jackdd said:

Immigration also wants anyone, BUT only if they can extract some money from them.

Getting money from people making border hops with tourist visas is difficult, so they don't like them.

If Thailand were to introduce some non-immigrant long stay option for younger people, similar to the retirement visa, i'm sure Immigration would cheer for it.

That would create too much "work" competition with Thais of working age.  Old retired farts (such as me) don't cause much of any work competition.

[bjaz]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

 

Such folks are not what Thailand is looking for in tourists.  They want the one or two week millionaires....well, they are not really millionaires but act/spend like it for one or two weeks each year during their annual vacation and then they go back home.   

 

Other folks who want to stay here as long as they can generally do not (or can not) spend like millionaires...in fact, they may not have much more money to spend than many Thais.  

 

Regardless of what Thailand potentially dreams of, fact is that there is a worlwide pandemic going on. Less flights and closed borders. Quarantine restrictions and travel-bans still in place in quite a few places.

I don't know any tourists here, but do know quite a few "expats" who have been working here for decades, and a bunch also not too pleased with the options given in current circumstances.

This has been discussed ad nauseam, but in such circumstances, you'd think they would take it up on themselves, grin (smile?) and bear it and do something to keep a few thousand of these less-than ideal foreigners here (tourists, "expats", backpackers, flashpackers, you name it) for a few months more  - before cliques of millionaires can congregate in the country and reboost the economy with their lavish spending.

And apparently some Thai officials do think along those lines, if we believe today's Chamber of Commerce news. So does Indonesia, which is emerging as a serious competitor to certain traditional sectors of Thai tourism.

Interesting choice, if it really is one, and not simply the result of conflicting interests at play...

When it comes to Thailand's new tourism, I'll be following it from afar, but it will be interesting to see what comes out, if anything, of such plans and projections on the long run.
I can see how it works for Bhutan, some Carribean Islands or the Maldives, but these countries didn't have to remodel their entire tourism industry, especially in the wake of an unprecendented mobility crisis.

Edited September 26, 2020 by bjaz