Transcript of the above video: 

This video is going to be a little bit hard on this Government's proposal to create this pan-ASEAN Visa or some such thing, sort of Schengen style; it's been bandied about now for a few months. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thai Government priorities include pan-ASEAN common Visa policy. Quoting directly: "Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has stressed that Thailand is prioritizing a "Schengen style" common visa policy for six countries as part of the Amazing Thailand 2025 year." Okay. First off, we have discussed this. This is going to require a lot of coordination from a lot of different Immigration Offices throughout the region. It is possible this may happen, but it remains to be seen. I think if it is going to happen it's going to be years, not months. That said, quoting further: "The proposal once implemented would see tourists who entered one country able to visit the other five without added bureaucracy or cost. The "six countries, one destination" Visa should include Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia."

Well, my honest take on this as just sort of a person, this is kind of an op-ed piece if you will, why is the Thai Government, specifically the core coalition party, prioritizing every other country's tourism sector over Thailand's? As it sits right now, Thailand is in the cat bird seat with regard to tourism. I don't see what benefit accrues to Thailand by creating this pan, six-country Visa scheme. And let me be clear, I get where the benefits to the other five countries come from because with arguably the exception of Vietnam and maybe Malaysia to a certain extent, I mean yeah Cambodia picks up tourists but not nearly the numbers of Thailand, okay? Now yeah by having a six-country visa, maybe we will pick up the odd tourist that was only wanting to go to Vietnam and now might stop off at Thailand, but honestly anybody that knows how the tourism sector works in this part of the world, knows that no there's nobody that travels like that. That's how it works for Cambodia or Laos or even a Malaysia or Vietnam, is you're going someplace else, usually Thailand, and then you make a trip, sort of side trip to these other places; Cambodia that's a frequent thing.

So, this again begs the question, as it sits right now Thailand is in the more advantageous position vis a vis tourism versus her neighbours. Why is our Government going out of its way to mitigate that? Okay, I can understand the notion of Good Will and ASEAN and these kinds of things, and I'm not saying it will necessarily wildly damage tourism in Thailand, the tourism sector in Thailand is highly sophisticated, it will continue to attract tourists, but at the end of the day, I think the benefit of this six country visa, the benefit to Thailand is marginal, and meanwhile the benefit to all these other countries is substantial arguably at the expense of Thailand. So I ask, what is the Government's priority here? Is their priority other countries’ tourism sectors?