Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well this new Thailand Immigration System (TIS) which I have discussed in other videos, as well as the ETA, the Electronic Travel Authorization which as I have discussed in other videos, is very similar to the ESTA System of the United States. But posed in this video is the question, 'how much of this Digital Immigration Bureaucracy do we really need?' And is it any good? 

I have dealt with the digital immigration system of the United States for about the last 8 years now; roughly since they started bringing it online. It's awful. It doesn't make anything better, it makes everything worse; it makes dealing with anybody in the system terrible because anytime you go try to deal with anybody in person over exigent circumstances, they just say, "well you have got to go use the app, you have got to go use the website." It makes it worse. What worries me in Thailand is we're going to add these digital layers, only to make the bureaucracy that much more unworkable which in the context of trying to improve tourism, how does that help anything? 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Bangkok Airport Immigration speed and security to the fore. Quoting directly: "Police Maj Gen Choengron added the Bureau is developing a pre-registration system via a mobile application and a website." Yet again, ‘oh check the app, check the website.’ - "Soon foreigners will be able to use automatic channels for passport screening with the support of Airports of Thailand." And this is what? After you come to Thailand utilizing the Electronic Travel Authorization System, now you have got to somehow plug in to the Thailand Immigration system, which again as we have discussed in other videos, ETA is being created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while they're sort of off doing their own thing. Meanwhile, now Thai Immigration under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior has created its own thing. I mean how much digital bureaucracy are people willing to put up with just to go hang out on a beach for two weeks?

Seriously, this needs to be rethought; it needs to be streamlined or perhaps it needs to not exist at all. I don't see what is being added here. We saw what was added during COVID with the Thailand Pass which is effectively what the Electronic Travel Authorization is. It added nothing. It just added more bureaucracy and more nonsense that you had to deal with in order to get into Thailand. It really didn't add anything. All it was was a ring face. It just kept people out and then it makes people crazy, myself included, when you have to deal with these buggy systems or on top of it, you have a well-working app for Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the form of the Electronic Travel Authorization, and we may have a well-working app in the form of the Thai Immigration System, the TIS system, but what happens when they try to interact? Have you ever tried to get online systems of different bureaucracies, even within the same Government, to interact? It's not optimal. I'm hoping authorities, I'm hoping cooler heads will prevail and they will see how problematic this could be and perhaps we might see this system, I would prefer just not come online in many ways.

I can understand the security protocols by Immigration needing to be implemented but every time I look at the ETA, the Electronic Travel Authorization, I see nothing but a superfluous system that we don't particularly need that provides no particular added value or benefit to the country. Meanwhile, all it is doing is creating a ring fence for possible tourists who could financially benefit the Thai system and we're keeping out who? At the end of the day, our app system and all of our security that's in place within the Immigration apparatus already works well enough, so what's the point of having all these added layers except for the fact I guess if you wanted to attract people who are really into going to digital neo-Soviet beaches.