Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the possibility of tourists coming to Thailand sort of as we are watching this "Test and Go" re-initiative, the re-imposition, re-introduction of "Test and Go". For those who are unaware, we saw "Test and Go" being brought online, I believe it was November of 2021. Then it was suspended in December of 2021 and then it seemed to be sort of “86’d forever”, put on ice indefinitely only to have it turn around here at the end of January going into February. It is now back online and now we are here in February and yes indeed it is back online.

The reason for the video came from a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thailand set for tourist rush with quarantine-free visas. Quoting directly: "Thailand expects to welcome hundreds of thousands of holiday makers a month with the kickoff of a quarantine free visa program that is set to serve as a model for tourism reliant countries balancing safe border re-openings with economic revival." Call it a “quarantine free visa program”, I would say “border initiative” whatever you want to call it, but yeah coming in it is no longer going to be this harsh quarantine, or at least for the perceivable future. Those who are vaccinated etc. can come in and they only have to do a single test and then off they go. Quoting further: "Starting Tuesday, visitors of any nationality can apply for quarantine free entry into Thailand provided they are fully vaccinated. The Government expects between 200,000 and 300,000 travelers to take advantage of the so-called "Test and Go" program in February alone with the numbers expected to swell in the following months." Now this is kind of where I am very curious to see, I am certainly hoping against hope that 200 to 300,000 arrivals do come into Thailand moving forward. I am a little bit hesitant to say that I think that that is an overly likely outcome because one, high season is over. We are going into February, I mean that is kind of, okay the tail end of high season but most folks, they booked already, they came to Thailand in December and they have been hanging out for a month and a half. We don't usually see a lot of arrivals at this point in Thailand. 

So hopefully I am wrong on that. I certainly was very pleasantly surprised to see the number of folks that availed themselves of the "Test and Go" in November and December. I am hoping that we see similar numbers. Nothing would make me happier than to see large numbers of foreign travelers coming to Thailand moving in to the rest of this year. It remains to be seen and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.