News Forum - Tourism minister calls for an end to the Thailand Pass scheme

[Thaiger]

Tourism and Sports Minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakan, says he will use the next Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) meeting to ask PM Prayut Chan-o-cha to pull the plug on the much debated Thailand Pass. If the scheme is lifted, he expects Thailand to have 30,000 travellers per day. “Once Thailand Pass is lifted, I am confident the number of daily tourist arrivals will go up to about 30,000. The number may go up to 40,000-50,000 later in the year. In the past, the highest number of daily arrivals was 100,000. We have to fight to retake this target.” Foreigners must […]

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[JJJ]

Good luck. The proposal is supported by both logic and sense meaning it will be doomed. 

[Highlandman]

41 minutes ago, JJJ said:

Good luck. The proposal is supported by both logic and sense meaning it will be doomed. 

Why? The ministry of health has already proposed it be scrapped by July 1. Unlike mandatory masking, I expect this to happen on time.

[Cabra]

No argument here. Just get it done. Normalcy is possible. End masking. End ThailandPass. End all restrictions (real and imagined).

[rc1]

13 minutes ago, Cabra said:

No argument here. Just get it done. Normalcy is possible. End masking. End ThailandPass. End all restrictions (real and imagined).

Thats a start- also need to immediately end temperature checks, end X's on seats for distancing, end the ban on eating/drinking on flights, etc etc ,

[JJJ]

43 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

Why? The ministry of health has already proposed it be scrapped by July 1. Unlike mandatory masking, I expect this to happen on time.

It’s only half joking. But your question presupposes the Thai government would consider the merit of a rule on logic. That’s a poor supposition.

I would suggest they will analyze it like this “well even though it doesn’t work well, we still built a website to make people register? Why would we end that now?”

As if a tedious bureaucratic process has ever deterred the government no matter it’s costs.
 

For example, Why do we need to do 90 day reports? It provides no benefit to anyone and takes up time and paperwork and an entire department to process it. Yet it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Why? Because it’s already there. 

[Bert]

Another day, another failed idea ...

Edited June 6, 2022 by Bert

[Robert2020]

with over 99% of the world population not in need of hospitalization when getting COVID now (weaker strains) it doesn't make sense to get the travel insurance since Omicron over took Delta. High volume of tourists will return when you send out the signal things are normal, safe and tourists have nothing to worry about.

[Tigermask]

I'm going to Thailand tomorrow, down £112 on a test to be told what I already knew, travel to get it done and insurance I will never use. Hardly appealing. They could drop everything tomorrow and it would make no difference but it's more likely there will be this pointless drip feed of Thai pass going in July, insurance going in August, mask mandates going in September etc   

[Soidog]

8 hours ago, JJJ said:

It’s only half joking. But your question presupposes the Thai government would consider the merit of a rule on logic. That’s a poor supposition.

I would suggest they will analyze it like this “well even though it doesn’t work well, we still built a website to make people register? Why would we end that now?”

As if a tedious bureaucratic process has ever deterred the government no matter it’s costs.
 

For example, Why do we need to do 90 day reports? It provides no benefit to anyone and takes up time and paperwork and an entire department to process it. Yet it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Why? Because it’s already there. 

Yes got to agree with that. I use online banking and I made the mistake of changing my mobile number in Thailand about 4 years ago. You simply would not believe what I had to do to get the new number linked to the account in order to receive One Time Passwords. It took many piece of paper. Lots and lots of signatures. A wait of over a week while it was sent to head office for approval. Another visit to the branch and 5 more sheets of paper and 5 more signatures. It was utterly incredible. 
 

Once something is done a particular way in Thailand, it takes a near revolution to change it; especially when it involves paperwork. I asked a Thai friend once why it was like that. His reply was interesting. He said that in order to convey authority and a position of importance, the more paperwork and stamps and signatures the better. To simply apply a few clicks on a keyboard would render the process insignificant and make it look like the bank don’t take enough care with your money. In other words, the Thais see it as a kind of Business “pomp & ceremony” when it comes to paperwork. Incredible! 

[Anya]

At last some hope. Do these people ever watch TV news . . .  have they seen the crowds in London for the Jubilee, the football in France and Spain, the Giro d'italia . . . huge crowds cheek to jowl, no masks, no worries . . . you bet tourist numbers will soar when all the restrictions are gone . . . but at the moment: Thailand, the land of smiles you can't see! 

[SirPixAlot]

4 minutes ago, Anya said:

Thailand, the land of smiles you can't see! 

U made my day, bro

[Politenessman]

Thailand Pass is pretty trivial IMO, it takes less than 20 mins to fill out, the insurance isn't expensive and the more intrusive stuff (tests and one day quarantine) are gone, IMO they should prioritise getting rid of the mask requirement over Thai Pass (both is better), people don't want to go on holidays to a place that makes them dress like it's a day trip to Chernobyl.

[rc1]

45 minutes ago, Anya said:

At last some hope. Do these people ever watch TV news . . .  have they seen the crowds in London for the Jubilee, the football in France and Spain, the Giro d'italia . . . huge crowds cheek to jowl, no masks, no worries . . . you bet tourist numbers will soar when all the restrictions are gone . . . but at the moment: Thailand, the land of smiles you can't see! 

Yeah you do wonder if the Thai population sees what's going on in the outside world......surely they see its time to move on. 

It's not like it's as censored as North Korea or China here. 

[Stevejm]

11 hours ago, Tigermask said:

I'm going to Thailand tomorrow, down £112 on a test to be told what I already knew, travel to get it done and insurance I will never use. Hardly appealing. They could drop everything tomorrow and it would make no difference but it's more likely there will be this pointless drip feed of Thai pass going in July, insurance going in August, mask mandates going in September etc   

Don’t knock progress even if it is slower than you would like. The Doom and Gloom brigade were saying that some of these things were never going to happen not so long ago. 

[Soidog]

4 hours ago, rc1 said:

Yeah you do wonder if the Thai population sees what's going on in the outside world......surely they see its time to move on. 

I stopped wondering that after living in Thailand for three weeks. I thought previous generations who perhaps didn’t have television and didn’t have internet access could be excused. All of that changed more than 20 years ago and yet they still fail to see anything outside of their own country. In many cases they see nothing outside of their own village. It’s not seen as any value to most. 

[Stevejm]

11 hours ago, Soidog said:

Yes got to agree with that. I use online banking and I made the mistake of changing my mobile number in Thailand about 4 years ago. You simply would not believe what I had to do to get the new number linked to the account in order to receive One Time Passwords. It took many piece of paper. Lots and lots of signatures. A wait of over a week while it was sent to head office for approval. Another visit to the branch and 5 more sheets of paper and 5 more signatures. It was utterly incredible. 
 

Once something is done a particular way in Thailand, it takes a near revolution to change it; especially when it involves paperwork. I asked a Thai friend once why it was like that. His reply was interesting. He said that in order to convey authority and a position of importance, the more paperwork and stamps and signatures the better. To simply apply a few clicks on a keyboard would render the process insignificant and make it look like the bank don’t take enough care with your money. In other words, the Thais see it as a kind of Business “pomp & ceremony” when it comes to paperwork. Incredible! 

It sounds like the systems the British set up in India when it was a colony. When I was in India years ago I watched with fascination how my application for an insurance policy passed through 5 or 6 hands each step appearing to be unnecessary. When I asked why they said it had been like that since before independence and they saw no reason to change it as it kept people employed 

In hindsight it would have been easier for you to open a new account and start from scratch  

PS you should try getting your record updated if a UK credit card company happens to have the wrong date of birth on file for you. It happened to me and I couldn’t access my NI records until I fixed it as so many different systems are linked in ways that you don’t even realize until it affects you. It took me months to fix it 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Stevejm
Update

[Stevejm]

12 minutes ago, Soidog said:

I stopped wondering that after living in Thailand for three weeks. I thought previous generations who perhaps didn’t have television and didn’t have internet access could be excused. All of that changed more than 20 years ago and yet they still fail to see anything outside of their own country. In many cases they see nothing outside of their own village. It’s not seen as any value to most. 

I think it’s different for some of the younger more educated people especially the ones who have travelled overseas. People who never leave their home town tend to be pretty ignorant about the outside world in many countries ( I know that for a fact in UK and Australia)

[Stevejm]

12 hours ago, Tigermask said:

I'm going to Thailand tomorrow, down £112 on a test to be told what I already knew, travel to get it done and insurance I will never use. Hardly appealing. They could drop everything tomorrow and it would make no difference but it's more likely there will be this pointless drip feed of Thai pass going in July, insurance going in August, mask mandates going in September etc   

Why did you pay for tests?

[Stevejm]

29 minutes ago, Soidog said:

I stopped wondering that after living in Thailand for three weeks. I thought previous generations who perhaps didn’t have television and didn’t have internet access could be excused. All of that changed more than 20 years ago and yet they still fail to see anything outside of their own country. In many cases they see nothing outside of their own village. It’s not seen as any value to most. 

You characterized a whole nation after living here for a whole 3 weeks! Wow you must have really done some research to come up with that characterization so quickly

[Soidog]

3 minutes ago, Stevejm said:

You characterized a whole nation after living here for a whole 3 weeks! Wow you must have really done some research to come up with that characterization so quickly

Don’t beat yourself up Steve. Some people are smarter and quicker than others

[Stevejm]

12 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Don’t beat yourself up Steve. Some people are smarter and quicker than others

Or think they are

Edited June 7, 2022 by Stevejm

[ChrisS]

There is no doubt that tourism figures will increase if the Thai Pass is scrapped, most countries around the world have already done away with such schemes making it easier for tourists to come to them, by dragging its feet Thailand is losing tourists to these other destinations. I personally know of people not visiting Thailand at the moment due to this scheme and instead choosing to go elsewhere.

[Faz]

1 hour ago, Stevejm said:

Why did you pay for tests?

Unvaccinated, so required a test.

[Stevejm]

1 hour ago, ChrisS said:

There is no doubt that tourism figures will increase if the Thai Pass is scrapped, most countries around the world have already done away with such schemes making it easier for tourists to come to them, by dragging its feet Thailand is losing tourists to these other destinations. I personally know of people not visiting Thailand at the moment due to this scheme and instead choosing to go elsewhere.

Look like things are going in the right direction then and in 6 months hopefully the whole Covid thing will just be a bad memory.