Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thai Tourism Sector and whether or not it is able to compete with other venues here in Southeast Asia, primarily. Now I have done a number of videos talking about different countries in the region with respect to their rules and regulations associated with entering the country. Basically Immigration rules and where things stood with respect to that. 

I have kind of had some correspondence back and forth. There are people who sort of say "hey, Thailand is not as difficult as other countries", I have had other people say "well I mean really it is all kind of on par". All things being equal pretty much every country right now, with rare exception, have substantial protocols associated with being able to come in, so yeah Thailand maybe a little more difficult in one area but it may be less difficult in another area. For example I believe the Philippines for example, that is just off the top of my head, I believe the Philippines has a higher threshold associated with insurance coverage compared to Thailand but at the same time some of their entry procedures are not as cumbersome as Thailand. Meanwhile Vietnam, we are hearing has more difficult entry procedures; it is really kind of a mixed bag here. 

I was reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post and it got me thinking and I decided to go ahead and make this video. The article is titled: Entry to be easier from May. Again, Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. Quoting directly, and I urge those who are watching this video to go check out that article. I am just quoting an excerpt here. Quoting directly: "The Spokesman admitted existing measures did not allow Thailand to compete with other countries that were reopening their tourism sectors and the next meeting of the CCSA after Songkran would table a further loosening of restrictions." And I certainly hope that is the case, and by Spokesman, I believe this was a Spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health and the CCSA. 

That stated, yeah I definitely think it would be a good thing to see further loosening of restrictions. For now yeah, I think there is something to be said for the notion that, hey Thailand is not going to be as competitive in terms of drawing in tourists and the big contingent of folks that I see we are missing out on are what I call long-staying tourists and that is not even quite the right word. It is almost semi-retired. Folks that are in their upper 40s, even in their 50s who may not want to spend the entire year in Thailand but may spend 90 days, 120 days in-country and a lot of these restrictions are putting those folks off and those folks really brought in and bring in a substantial amount of money. They come in and they spend for a prolonged period of time. They oftentimes stay in temporary accommodations including hotels as opposed to having a condo that they may rent long-term or even own. Again these are kind of the "the sweet spot" if you will of tourists and I think a lot of these policies are putting folks off. 

Now as noted in this article, it looks like they are going to be tabling further motions to loosen this up even further. As we have seen, there is already discussion of scrapping things like mandatory hotels and things of this nature so hopefully we will be seeing a substantial reduction in all of this in the coming weeks and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation progresses.