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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawHas the "2 Week Millionaire" Era Ended in Thailand?

Has the "2 Week Millionaire" Era Ended in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called "2 week millionaires". There was a recent comment on our channel that I thought was both funny and candidly insightful as well and I thought I would go ahead and make a video in response to it because we can cover some things not only with respect to what is going on to what is going on with respect to travel in Thailand as of the time of this video as well as some more overarching themes with respect to ongoing travel in the coming months, and hopefully it is only months when we start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of this COVID restriction situation. 

The comment was on one of our videos; I believe we were talking about long stayers here in Thailand and how they may be the salvation for tourism for Thailand. The comment went as this, to quote directly: "the days of the 2 week BS ST," and we all know what BS means but ST is 'short time' I believe, "millionaires are over. Thank God some good has come out of it." Talking about the overall COVID situation but the "2 week millionaire" is the fundamental point of this video. What is the notion of a “2 week millionaire”? We often would see tourists, the expat community would talk about this often. If you are out on Friday night, in a bar, out with your friends or down at the beach areas, you see a lot of tourists who are having a good time, spending heavy, just having a grand old time. You oftentimes would hear a lot of stories about how wealthy they are etc., etc. There is nothing wrong with that. You go on vacation to have a good time. Maybe to in sort of a way be someone else for a couple of weeks and the euphemism became the "2 week millionaires". Folks would show up and act like a millionaire for 2 weeks and then it is back to whatever their normal day-to-day lives are. So is this the end of that era? Well we haven't seen a lot of those folks for going on a year now. Since this whole COVID response happened back in March of 2020, of course there haven't been the level of tourists. Most of the folks that we have been seeing coming in either have a substantial connection to Thailand, family connection, business connection or they are long stay tourists, the Special Tourist Visa holders, or folks even on non-immigrant visas or even tourists, standard tourist visa holders who stay here for months at a time but they are not particularly here for the flash, bang fun of Thailand, the flash in the pan, have just a blowout, spend up a bunch of money and leave. That isn't the M.O. of most of the folks that are here at the moment, to say nothing of the retiree community. Certainly they are definitely not in that ilk that is just coming in and having one crazy couple of weeks and then leaving. 

A lot of this has to do with quarantine requirements and travel restrictions etc., etc. We just have not seen the level of tourists. Now does this mean that they are gone forever? It remains to be seen. Certainly and I made a video on this that it is always darkest before the dawn, not to be too despondent that things always change, but at least for the foreseeable future, the upcoming I would think 6 to 8, 9, 12 weeks, I don't think we are going to see a lot of so-called "2 week millionaires" anytime in that time frame. But Thailand, the Tourism Authority and Immigration, things that we have been seeing bandied about, discussed in various forum as well as various publications, the third quarter of this year I think they are aiming to see some significant changes. Now again that depends on a variety of factors and it remains to be seen. I am very hesitant to speculate as far as what is going to happen because I have been burned on that. I was saying 9, 10 months ago that, "Oh, hopefully things will be better in a couple of weeks." Well that has come and gone obviously and we are not there. But are we at the end of the "2 week millionaire" era? I don't think so. I think that we will see them again. Thailand is a great place. It is a great place to vacation. People like coming here. One thing and I am making videos on this contemporaneously with this one, the era of cheap Thailand, once you get in, this is a bargain right now. Rents are very affordable, costs of entertainment are very affordable, cost of food and beverage is very affordable. There are no lines at any museums. There is no one at any of the main attractions. It is like being backstage right now. For the moment do I think two week millionaires are going to return immediately? No, but hopefully we see them sooner than rather than later.