Thailand Sold Itself as a Paradise Covid Retreat. No One Came

[starky]

1 hour ago, Aarin said:

Problem is if you for example to Phuket they will again put their prices up on a par with UK which they already are. Vietnam is going to give Thailand a big wake a call. They make it easier for visa and cheaper. They are also far more Foreigner friendly. 

Yes Vietnam is much more foreigner friendly..why don't you just go there then? Oh right no foreigners can atm ...maybe not so foreigner friendly then.

[Natai Beach]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

346 overseas visitors have entered the country on average each month

 

3 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Get it through your heads, NOBODY wants to sit in a quarantine hotel for two weeks!

NOBODY, except for the hundreds every month. 

[Bateslaw]

3 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Get it through your heads, NOBODY wants to sit in a quarantine hotel for two weeks!

To jump through the hoops to then be quarantined is not worth it to single guys that have money and choices. Thailand is not the only place that has bars and women anymore. And a quarantine is out of the question. I know a lot of old retired expats are afraid of the virus and think Thailand is great. But the reality is the thai people that rely on tourists and retirees money have been screwed by their government. 

[Isaan sailor]

You can’t polish a turd.  Quarantine and an overpriced Baht too much for most potential tourists.

[Sydebolle]

Only those who HAVE TO - will return; nobody is doing it for anything else but family or survival business. 

 

Mission Impossible 9: Try to hammer that into all those ignorant clowns all over those 77 provinces where each and every village headman can come up with funny little ideas, rules, regulations, fees and restrictions. 

This Corona-hystery is being grossly misused by the powers-to-be and those in the know are fully aware of it. I recall "burning Rome" and see certain parallels with Nero, this time just without open fire but just stenchy haze by all those corn and rice fields all over the land. 

 

Thailand's biggest enemy is its own people - to me this country is toast! 

[starky]

3 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Get it through your heads, NOBODY wants to sit in a quarantine hotel for two weeks!

Done quarantine 4 times now twice work related and twice to come to Thailand many people have and done quarantine multiple times I guess it really depends on how much you want to be somewhere doesn't it?

[PatOngo]

2 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

 

NOBODY, except for the hundreds every month. 

WOW! Amazing! 

[PatOngo]

1 minute ago, starky said:

Done quarantine 4 times now twice work related and twice to come to Thailand many people have and done quarantine multiple times I guess it really depends on how much you want to be somewhere doesn't it?

You are not a tourist on a 3 week holiday!

[starky]

3 minutes ago, Bateslaw said:

To jump through the hoops to then be quarantined is not worth it to single guys that have money and choices. Thailand is not the only place that has bars and women anymore. And a quarantine is out of the question. I know a lot of old retired expats are afraid of the virus and think Thailand is great. But the reality is the thai people that rely on tourists and retirees money have been screwed by their government. 

Ok tell me the foreign countries you can currently travel to as a single bloke that had bars and girls and no quarantine. 

[starky]

2 hours ago, PatOngo said:

You are not a tourist on a 3 week holiday!

The article isn't about tourists <deleted> ..do you people read? Retirees and people willing to stay for long periods jaysus christ

[Jeffr2]

2 minutes ago, starky said:

Ok tell me the foreign countries you can currently travel to as a single bloke that had bars and girls and no quarantine. 

There are several places like that, but NONE like Thailand.  And, considering how things are changing, who knows tomorrow!

 

South Africa just announced a ban on booze.  I've got friends there now, staying in the winery area, and are super bummed.

[Mickeem]

2 minutes ago, starky said:

Ok tell me the foreign countries you can currently travel to as a single bloke that had bars and girls and no quarantine. 

 

Mexico for starters

 

 

[PatOngo]

2 minutes ago, starky said:

The article isn't about tourists f f s ..do you people read? Retirees and people willing to stay for long periods jaysus christ

So the resorts and tourist areas are thriving, the retirees have taken up the slack, Starks, or did I miss something??

[starky]

5 minutes ago, Mickeem said:

 

Mexico for starters

 

 

Sweet head there only 1.5 million cases 160k deaths sounds grouse.

[starky]

2 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

So the resorts and tourist areas are thriving, the retirees have taken up the slack, Starks, or did I miss something??

Im responding to the op as written. Don't know what your responding to. The article clearly states by the long stay travel company that Thailand was trying to lure retirees and long stay visitors. If you don't fit that description then no 2 weeks of quarantine probably won't suit you. The moot point was this article was talking about exclusive villas on phuket whilst most of the cheap Charlie's on this thread are barking over paying 35k for quarantine. Thats where the government miscalculated. 

[spidermike007]

An incompetent, living in a cloud of delusion. TAT governor Yuthasak Suphasorn said that interest at all TAT offices abroad was intense and that the STV would start in October. "As soon as the STV news broke the London office had FIFTEEN calls," he said,"and there were SIXTEEN emails". 16 e-mails. Wow. How will the nation be able to keep up with that kind of demand? I suggest he try the 14 day quarantine, watch alot of movies and concerts, and then talk from experience, and tell us about the joy he felt. Green curry pizza would attract anyone. The tour agents are jubilant!

What can one say? Desperation is setting in. Heads are going to roll. Went to Samui recently. Utter devastation. 90% of the businesses on the beach road in Chaweng were closed, 80% in Lamai, and hundreds of hotels are closed and for sale, at half price. Trillions of baht are going to be lost here. Annually. Tourism will NEVER recover. Not in our lifetimes. Too much timidity. Too much cowardice. Too little juice and creativity. Such small minds.

Nonsensical stupidity. Lack of science. Fear mongering. Let us make your stay as uncomfortable as possible. And by the way, you cannot consume alcohol either, during your quarantine. Who comes up with this stuff, and why does the nation tolerate the nonsense, the utter incompetence, the malfeasance? How much longer will they tolerate the extremely regressive army?

 

No program requiring quarantine will work. What part of that do they not understand? Effective testing and vaccination, are the answer. 

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by spidermike007

[PatOngo]

20 minutes ago, starky said:

Im responding to the op as written. Don't know what your responding to. The article clearly states by the long stay travel company that Thailand was trying to lure retirees and long stay visitors. If you don't fit that description then no 2 weeks of quarantine probably won't suit you. The moot point was this article was talking about exclusive villas on phuket whilst most of the cheap Charlie's on this thread are barking over paying 35k for quarantine. Thats where the government miscalculated. 

It's about trying to stimulate the economy that has been devastated because of the large dependents on the tourist industry!

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by PatOngo

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, wombat said:

thats the elephant in the room, 2 weeks quarantine here on arrival and 2 weeks quarantine when you arrive back in your own country...thats a month you've spent locked up.
why would anyone bother?

The Thai Government apparently thinks you would, which is a good measure of their collective IQ.

[Stargeezr]

Thailand is in the same boat as most of the world. Tourism is dead.  A friend

went to his place in Hua Hin, and says the city is dead except for a bit of a crowd on Saturday

if he is out and about. The same in Jomtien Beach at Pattaya, it is dead with so many 

closed places.  That is not the kind of place I want to be, even if it is an escape from

the cold of Winter.  This would be a good time for Thailand to have a much simpler visa

system, and have no visa required for any visit less than 6 months.  I agree that the

Winter of 2022 is likely the Winter of recovery. It will take that long for most countries

to get a lot of their population vaccinated.      Another fact is that there will be a lot less tourists in the          world, as  2 million people have died so far, and in the USA there will be many thousands die by the end of 2021. Same for some other places, so that means people all over the world do not plan many long 

vacations as they are just trying hard not to catch this virus, so most are staying in their 

homes and being very cautious and careful. It will be many years of recovery all over

the world.

Geezer

[shackleton]

Well there will be less Tourist coming now with Pattaya ect in lockdown

With the extra cost involved flights Quarantine  and nothing open

Whats there to see

[BernieOnTour]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

while also protecting citizens from Covid-19 before vaccines become widely available.

 

Well, these mRNA vaccines have different objectives than eg. a polio vaccine, 

that Bloomberg remark doesn’t really reflect for what AstraZeneca and Pfizer were testing in their trials - check the „Endpoints“:

 

If the person to person spread is not tested, how can it protect your citizens against infection ?

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by BernieOnTour

[Jud Canada]

Maybe, just maybe they should consider opening flights to those with negative Covid test in their own countries and negative upon arrival. 
This is where it gets fun. How about offering Covid vaccination to those people who have not or can not get a vaccine shot yet at home. “A medical holiday” . Is not this one of the market segments the government likes and wants? It kills two birds with one stone by drawing in holiday travelers to enjoy the country and get vaccinated at the same time. Hmmm!
Quarantine needs to be scrapped...agreed,  however tracking may be more easily embraced for all entering the kingdom and would further support the second shot requirements ( if required by vaccine mfg) 

This thought is just quick “off the cuff” however with some real creative thinking and innovative marketing, something to this end may be viable. Just saying.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Jud Canada

[redwood1]

2 minutes ago, shackleton said:

Well there will be less Tourist coming now with Pattaya ect in lockdown

With the extra cost involved flights Quarantine  and nothing open

Whats there to see

 

Big C and Foodland are not closed the tourist can go there....

[smutcakes]

I would fancy staying at the villas for 2 weeks if i was doing quarantine. I actually asked a friend who was coming back after a month in the UK why he did not do it. He said that you are not allowed to transfer you have to stay in the area you arrive. So not possible to fly to BKK and then to Phuket (understandably). So to stay in the villas you would need to fly direcrly into Phuket where i presume there are very limited arrivals from abroad currently. No suprise it did not work if thats the case.

[Glaswegian2]

This is really depressing, but not for what is on the face of the report. What is more depressing is to found in the answer to the question 'WHY did nobody come"

 

The answer reveals itself: "Because nobody believed what Thailand was telling them".

 

And that is something of a death knell for Thailand; one that needs attention to be  paid to it. "Nobody out there believes a word of what Thais say".

 

It's a problem.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Glaswegian2

[spiekerjozef]

Europeans like to travel to places with plenty of Covid so they can spread it around in their own country and beyond.

Don't believe me? Look at the travel data from the past 7 months.

Thailand was not on their list because there was no Covid.

[Glaswegian2]

1 hour ago, spiekerjozef said:

Europeans like to travel to places with plenty of Covid so they can spread it around in their own country and beyond.

Don't believe me? Look at the travel data from the past 7 months.

Thailand was not on their list because there was no Covid.

 

I accept the logic of what you said, friend, But I disagree.

 

I think Thailand was not on the list because they have killed the goose that laid the golden egg, and nobody out there believes what Thais have to say. So when Thais report no Covid-19, what do people really think? If they are risk averse?

 

 

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

It’s hard to imagine a more luxurious place to spend two weeks of quarantine than the Anantara Phuket Suites & Villas in Thailand, where visitors are pampered in private residences that can have their own pool and courtyard.

Confined to two weeks inside a hotel and they think that's a luxury holiday... seriously deluded.

[eastendanto]

shocker

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

 

I think they have a Ministry For Stupid Ideas!

I think it goes further than just the ministry.