Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thailand Pass and this has been a topic a lot of people have been talking about; people wanting to know what is going on with respect to this. 

A recent article from the Thai Examiner that is thaiexaminer.com, and I urge folks who are watching this video go check out that article. As always with Thai Examiner, there is a ton in there. I am just going to take an excerpt here from the article titled: Incoming Passengers Vent Frustration at Problems and Bugs with Thailand Pass System this Week. Quoting directly: "Despite this, there is a continued surge in interest as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General of Information confirmed that the system had received and processed tens of thousands of applications since last Monday with over 89% of arrivals being vaccinated tourists entering without quarantine while only a handful of visitors, six out of 4,500, in the first few days tested positive for COVID-19 virus. These were all among unvaccinated arrivals." Quoting further: "Thai Officials are working to fix and improve the Thailand Pass entry system for incoming passengers by air following a growing number of complaints during the week as users encountered bugs and difficulties in using the system and getting the appropriate approval in time to meet flights and bookings." Yeah timing with this has proven to be really an issue. We have gone out of our way with a lot of our clients to get that sorted but timing has been real problem. "The problems were particularly acute for applicants who had earlier submitted Certificate of Entry applications before that system shut down in advance of the new site opening for business last Monday, 1st November. Speaking to the Press midweek, the top spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited "External interferences" but assured potential visitors that the system was successful in processing large volumes of entrants while at the same time being constantly improved and perfected." Yeah, I mean the big thing I would say with respect to the disparity between applicants and issued Thailand Pass holders is it does take a moment for these systems to come online and begin running smoothly. Notwithstanding in my opinion, the massive similarities between the Certificate of Entry system and the Thailand Pass system, they are two different systems. They actually literally shut down one system and opened the next one and unfortunately there were some folks that got caught in a "limbo" there between they were getting their COE issued, the Thailand Pass came online and depending on circumstances that kind of put people in an awkward situation. 

The thing to take away from this video, it is a new system. It is going to take a minute, for lack of a better term to go ahead and move things on down the road and to work out the kinks. I suspect in the next few weeks it will actually be running relatively smoothly. I can't say that for certain. You never know what the future holds certainly I think in these COVID times we are definitely aware of that. But the thing to take away from this video is things are starting to move; we are starting to see people come in "quarantine free" or just one night in one of these SHA Hotels before they go on about their business. Hopefully things will be moving forward in a much more smooth pace in the coming weeks and definitely hopefully, in the coming months.