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

[JJJ]

15 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! 

Exactly.

I’m sure the foreign ministry expects travelers framed their Thai pass when they got home to honor navigating the gauntlet of meaningless uploads and approvals just to attain that vaunted privilege previously afforded to 40,000,000 people per year. 

[Stevejm]

4 hours ago, Faz said:

Unvaccinated, so required a test.

Or got one of those insurance policies that require a test to be valid if you don’t apply 2 weeks prior to travel? 

[Faz]

34 minutes ago, Stevejm said:

Or got one of those insurance policies that require a test to be valid if you don’t apply 2 weeks prior to travel? 

Unvaccinated entering Thailand still require the Insurance, but have a choice of testing and non isolation.
 

Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers must have the following documents for entering Thailand:

• A valid passport, or a Border Pass for arrivals via border checkpoints.
• A Thailand Pass (via https://tp.consular.go.th/) (Thais are exempt from this requirement.) Once all essential details have been completed via the system, the QR code will be automatically issued (no waiting time)
• An insurance policy with coverage no less than US$10,000. Thais and foreign expatriates under Thailand’s national healthcare coverage are exempt from this requirement.

Likewise, unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers who have uploaded proof of a negative result from an RT-PCR test or professional ATK within 72 hours of travel via the Thailand Pass system will be allowed entry and are free to go anywhere in the kingdom.

Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers without a negative test result within 72 hours of travel are required to follow the public health instructions and guidelines as deemed appropriate by the Health Control officer at the point of arrival.

Thailand’s entry requirements from 1 June 2022 - TAT Newsroom

In the latter case, I understand the isolation period has been reduced to 5 days.

[Highlandman]

26 minutes ago, Faz said:

Unvaccinated entering Thailand still require the Insurance, but have a choice of testing and non isolation.
 

Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers must have the following documents for entering Thailand:

• A valid passport, or a Border Pass for arrivals via border checkpoints.
• A Thailand Pass (via https://tp.consular.go.th/) (Thais are exempt from this requirement.) Once all essential details have been completed via the system, the QR code will be automatically issued (no waiting time)
• An insurance policy with coverage no less than US$10,000. Thais and foreign expatriates under Thailand’s national healthcare coverage are exempt from this requirement.

Likewise, unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers who have uploaded proof of a negative result from an RT-PCR test or professional ATK within 72 hours of travel via the Thailand Pass system will be allowed entry and are free to go anywhere in the kingdom.

Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers without a negative test result within 72 hours of travel are required to follow the public health instructions and guidelines as deemed appropriate by the Health Control officer at the point of arrival.

Thailand’s entry requirements from 1 June 2022 - TAT Newsroom

In the latter case, I understand the isolation period has been reduced to 5 days.

You understand wrong.

Unvaccinated arrivals are treated exactly the same as vaccinated arrivals. There is no more quarantine.

You simply upload an antigen test or PCR result and you're done.

[Faz]

25 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

You understand wrong.

Unvaccinated arrivals are treated exactly the same as vaccinated arrivals. There is no more quarantine.

You simply upload an antigen test or PCR result and you're done.

I understand exactly.

Your choice was to take and upload a test result, and for those who for whatever reasons prefer/refuse the test, the latter option is a choice.
Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers without a negative test result within 72 hours of travel are required to follow the public health instructions and guidelines as deemed appropriate by the Health Control officer at the point of arrival.

Or has the Tourist Authority got it wrong with the requirements.

[Stevejm]

8 hours ago, Faz said:

Unvaccinated entering Thailand still require the Insurance, but have a choice of testing and non isolation.
 

Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers must have the following documents for entering Thailand:

• A valid passport, or a Border Pass for arrivals via border checkpoints.
• A Thailand Pass (via https://tp.consular.go.th/) (Thais are exempt from this requirement.) Once all essential details have been completed via the system, the QR code will be automatically issued (no waiting time)
• An insurance policy with coverage no less than US$10,000. Thais and foreign expatriates under Thailand’s national healthcare coverage are exempt from this requirement.

Likewise, unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers who have uploaded proof of a negative result from an RT-PCR test or professional ATK within 72 hours of travel via the Thailand Pass system will be allowed entry and are free to go anywhere in the kingdom.

Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers without a negative test result within 72 hours of travel are required to follow the public health instructions and guidelines as deemed appropriate by the Health Control officer at the point of arrival.

Thailand’s entry requirements from 1 June 2022 - TAT Newsroom

In the latter case, I understand the isolation period has been reduced to 5 days.

I was thinking of the FWD insurance policy which has a 14 day waiting period or uploading a negative test result within 72 hours of insurance effective date. Don’t know why anyone would choose this policy given these requirements as it would be cheaper to select a policy without these stipulations

[Thaidup]

Just a query, does anyone know if the cov2 response team was formed with new government funding? or did they form it within the existing government at the time? If one was a conspiracy theorist they might think that if it was a new position with pay and benefits then they might not want those pay and benefits to end, Is that stupid?

[KaptainRob]

10 hours ago, Faz said:

I understand exactly.

Your choice was to take and upload a test result, and for those who for whatever reasons prefer/refuse the test, the latter option is a choice.
Unvaccinated/not fully vaccinated travellers without a negative test result within 72 hours of travel are required to follow the public health instructions and guidelines as deemed appropriate by the Health Control officer at the point of arrival.

Or has the Tourist Authority got it wrong with the requirements.

Thanks Faz. That clarifies it well for all readers to better understand the options. It was getting a bit confusing.

[Stevejm]

4 hours ago, Thaidup said:

Just a query, does anyone know if the cov2 response team was formed with new government funding? or did they form it within the existing government at the time? If one was a conspiracy theorist they might think that if it was a new position with pay and benefits then they might not want those pay and benefits to end, Is that stupid?

What is the Cov2 response team? If you are talking about the Health volunteer program I believe that they were in existence pre C-19

https://www.who.int/thailand/news/feature-stories/detail/thailands-1-million-village-health-volunteers-unsung-heroes-are-helping-guard-communities-nationwide-from-covid-19#:~:text=The Ministry of Public Health manages 1.04 million village health,during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Edited June 8, 2022 by Stevejm

[Thaidup]

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