News Forum - Tourists from Middle East put off Thailand due to bureaucracy, costs of Covid tests

[Thaiger]

The Tourism Authority of Thailand says the high cost of Covid-19 tests, coupled with Certificate of Entry bureaucracy, is proving a deterrent for tourists from the Middle East. According to a Bangkok Post report, Chaiwat Tamthai from the TAT’s Dubai office says would-be tourists from the Middle East are in favour of the Phuket sandbox concept, but put off by everything it entails. “Feedback from tourists about the Phuket sandbox is positive, but applying for the COE and expensive PCR tests remain obstacles.” According to Chaiwat, the cost of a PCR test in the United Arab Emirates is between 200 […]

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[TheDirtyDurian]

No. I'm put off by the fact that even though cases are below 100 a day, I'm not eligible for the Sandpox, and my only option is ASQ.

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

14 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

The Tourism Authority of Thailand says the high cost of Covid-19 tests, coupled with Certificate of Entry bureaucracy, is proving a deterrent for tourists from the Middle East.

Not only the middle east, the whole world!

[Patnou]

joke !!! As if the matter is just discovered !!!! why dont they copy successful countries to get deeply needed tourism in high levels ? just 2 exemples Dubai, Maldives....the administration has no feet on earth, even TAT doesnt know how to handle the matter properly when thousands of hotels and restaurants bankrupting with high jobless figures then related people suffering over too much for over a year now for no results on Covid level !!!! Live with the virus or suicide !!!

[Griff1315]

Usual TAT counting method of possible tourists....

Think of a number x 10 then add a zero.

They should be calculating the amounts on relieve money owed by the government to all the businesses they have wrecked.

[Lowseasonlover]

What does your Moscow office say? probably the same I know a few Russians who would be here, 

On top of that I know people who came here on the sandbox and have gone home because it's boring

[Lowseasonlover]

I even know some Thai people who live in Holland who didn't come to Thailand they went to Zanzibar 

[EdwardV]

It’s clear those overly bureaucratic, and costly requirements do make a difference. If Thailand truly wants more tourists, they need to make things easier. 

[AussieBob]

No Site Sherlock - it is amazing how intelligent and smart and informed those people in TAT are.

Does the Thai Govt in anyway recognise that TAT are a huge embarrassment to the country, and that their behaviour over the last few years is in fact a major deterrent to tourism??    Don't answer that.

 

[Lowseasonlover]

5 minutes ago, EdwardV said:

It’s clear those overly bureaucratic, and costly requirements do make a difference. If Thailand truly wants more tourists, they need to make things easier. 

Nothing is ever easy here

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

42 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

it is amazing how intelligent and smart and informed those people in TAT are.

With Dubai scheduled to host the World Expo from October to March next year, the Dubai office of the TAT plans to set up a promotional booth at the event in an effort to attract 10% of attendees to visit Thailand.

I wonder which fabulous and easy to enter tourist destinations will have a booth on either side of them. And if no people turn up at the expo TAT will raise their estimate to attract 20% of the attendees.

[Lowseasonlover]

I've met loads of people from Dubai and the middle east who used to like Phuket this time of the years because of the rain, TAT are really dumb they could have made a killing

[Stardust]

1 hour ago, Griff1315 said:

Usual TAT counting method of possible tourists....

Think of a number x 10 then add a zero.

They should be calculating the amounts on relieve money owed by the government to all the businesses they have wrecked.

Exactly, good comment. How many businesses they have destroyed and how many billions of $ usd they destroyed, how many jobs they have destroyed and how many livelyhoods and lifes? They should all be taken to responsibility and brought to the courts!

[9S_]

On a sidenote looks like BP changed the original headline from:

Obstacles mar TAT's Middle East Crusade

 

[oldcpu]

What struck me the most in the article was this quote:

Quote

According to Chaiwat, the cost of a PCR test in the United Arab Emirates is between 200 and 300 baht. In Thailand, tourists are charged 8,000 baht for a mandatory 3 tests in 14 days.

Why should PCR tests in Thailand cost 8x as much as in the UAE?  Does the UAE subsidize their PCR tests?  or is there another reason?

[TheDirtyDurian]

19 minutes ago, oldcpu said:

What struck me the most in the article was this quote:

Why should PCR tests in Thailand cost 8x as much as in the UAE?  Does the UAE subsidize their PCR tests?  or is there another reason?

I believe the price is capped at

 50 Dhs, around 400 baht. 

[Fundok]

Too much bureacracy to enter, the high costs of testing and the unpredictabilty of the Thai authorities have made myself and my Thai wife to decide that we will not travel to TH this year in November as initially planned. 

So this is not only putting off tourists from the Middle East, but also from Europe. We are both vaccinated twice with BioNTech, and just getting a PCR-Test in Switzerland before getting on a plane will cost around 4-5000 THB (130-160 CHF) per person. Add another 8'000 THB/person in TH plus the requirement to stay in a SHA+-hotel for the first 14 days and this becomes a costly matter without much added value securitywise. Once I am vaccinated and tested prior to my departure, why do I need to undergo this additional and rigid  test regime in TH? So this year we'll spend our holiday money in Italy, where they allow us to enter with our Covid certificate.

Thailand urgently needs to revisit its policy if they want to attract rather than deter foreign tourists.

[Bob20]

28 minutes ago, Fundok said:

Too much bureacracy to enter, the high costs of testing and the unpredictabilty of the Thai authorities have made myself and my Thai wife to decide that we will not travel to TH this year in November as initially planned. 

So this is not only putting off tourists from the Middle East, but also from Europe. We are both vaccinated twice with BioNTech, and just getting a PCR-Test in Switzerland before getting on a plane will cost around 4-5000 THB (130-160 CHF) per person. Add another 8'000 THB/person in TH plus the requirement to stay in a SHA+-hotel for the first 14 days and this becomes a costly matter without much added value securitywise. Once I am vaccinated and tested prior to my departure, why do I need to undergo this additional and rigid  test regime in TH? So this year we'll spend our holiday money in Italy, where they allow us to enter with our Covid certificate.

Thailand urgently needs to revisit its policy if they want to attract rather than deter foreign tourists.

Yes, but they will need to wait until the vaccination rate here is high.

We are not worried about you if you test negative on arrival. But when tourism restarts, the simple new movement of people will spread the virus throughout the country. Chances are that you will be infected here and spread the virus, but not get sick because you are vaccinated.

That is only acceptable once people here have had the chance to get protected too!

[AussieBob]

2 hours ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

With Dubai scheduled to host the World Expo from October to March next year, the Dubai office of the TAT plans to set up a promotional booth at the event in an effort to attract 10% of attendees to visit Thailand.

I wonder which fabulous and easy to enter tourist destinations will have a booth on either side of them. And if no people turn up at the expo TAT will raise their estimate to attract 20% of the attendees.

LOL - but you know what will happen - they will count all people entering the Expo and walking past their stand as actually 'attending' their stand. TAT are the biggest scam in Thailand - and that is saying something I know. The Thai Govt believes all their bulldust lies - despite mountains of evidence and years of errors.

[CanadianBob]

I came for the Sandbox in July and had a great time. However,

- The COE took 10 days and I only received it the day before departure (I was provisionally approved by the Royal Thai Consulate in New York. When they saw I had a one day stopover in Dubai they made me reapply)

- I was nearly kicked off my flights both arriving and departing because of delays in receiving the  PCR test results

- The PCR tests were by far the most expensive part of the trip, considerably more expensive than the hotel.

I won't return until the PCR requirement is eliminated or the cost is reduced.

[PapayaBokBok]

Starting to see once again how thailand is blinded to facts and has its focus only on one thing--greed

Always only seeing the trees..never the forest surrounding them....hence the saying "Money #1"

Gotta ever wonder if any of the thai fellas in charge ever opened up sites like this to read what WE want...

"WE" being the ones with the "money" the thai fellas are hyper-focused on 24/7

Careful LOS...dont bite the hand that feeds(thais attack and bite anyways,as they refuse to listen)

So i counter with a thai saying" Som Naam naa"........aka you reap what you sow

[JamesE]

18 hours ago, Lowseasonlover said:

Nothing is ever easy here

Probably Thailand's most endearing feature.

[HiuMak]

On 9/15/2021 at 11:21 AM, EdwardV said:

It’s clear those overly bureaucratic, and costly requirements do make a difference. If Thailand truly wants more tourists, they need to make things easier. 

Vaccinated tourists with negative covid tests results should be the least what the Thai authorities should be concerned with. Regulated process for tourist is just a turnoff. Clean up and manage the Thai backyard first should be the priority.

[nobusinessofurs]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:26 PM, TheDirtyDurian said:

I believe the price is capped at

 50 Dhs, around 400 baht. 

I paid 7000b to a hospital for a test to visit sick family in the states back in June