Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not the current Prime Minister here in Thailand is sort of tying Immigration policy in a way, over to economic, well economic policy in a sense. So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's latest Visa policy reflects much wider economic hopes. Quoting directly: "Thai Government supporters say that Thailand must adapt to the realities of the 2020s and accept that Western tourism and investment are no longer the pull in Southeast Asia they were in the past. The Pheu Thai Prime Minister has made a bold move in tying Immigration Policy so closely to potential economic advantage." 

So as discussed in other videos this year going into this high season, Thailand has exempted Chinese tourists from the standard Visa protocol so effectively Chinese tourists can enjoy what has been referred to as the Visa exemption program, sort of akin to the Visa waiver program in the United States. Again now here in Thailand it is possible for Chinese nationals to come in without a Visa basically, at least through this coming high season I believe until March of next year. Meanwhile, it has been announced that Russian nationals will be able to be granted Visa Exemption status for 90 days upon arrival here in Thailand although I made another video contemporaneously with this one wherein we discussed that it has yet to be implemented; it comes into effect November 1st so we have yet to see what exactly it looks like. Secondly, and something else to understand is yes, it looks like Russians will be able to get 90 days lawful status but it is not clear whether they will be stamped in with 90 days upon entry or they will be stamped in as exempt and be able to extend to 90 days once here in Thailand. Again I have seen various sources describing this differently so for the time being I am going to kind of hold off on sort of saying exactly how this is going to play out until we actually see it implemented come November 1st.

But long story short, yeah I do think it's a fair assessment to say that the Prime Minister does see the way in which Immigration Policy interacts with economic exigencies that may be occurring in the region, in Asia generally and just how if nothing else, Immigration Policy clearly has an impact on tourism. For this reason, it will be interesting to watch this upcoming high season to see how these changes to Immigration Policies will affect the actual tourism numbers and what will actually be the overall benefit to the economy here in the Kingdom of Thailand.