Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing tourism in Thailand which is kind of a hot topic right now. It is getting to be an especially in many ways for lack of a better term, a desperate topic at the moment because there are many folks whose jobs really heavily depend on tourism, especially during the high season here in Thailand. 

There has been some stuff going across the internet throughout multiple segments of the Expat news sources here in Thailand, and there has been talk about "oh we may see the "Phuket Model" being brought online nationwide", and I am making other videos contemporaneously with this one where we discuss that rather at length and there is also discussion about whether or not we are going to see tourism by the end of the year and if so under what circumstances.

A recent article that I found by way of Thai Visa, that is thaivisa.com, but the article actually comes from Bloomberg, bloomberg.com. The article is titled: Thailand to Finalize Entry Plan for Foreign Visitors by October. Let's break down the title, "to finalize entry plan", so the plan is not even finished. It is also simply a plan. It is not a fully realized fully promulgated set of regulations or legislation. It is at this time just a plan. 

Quoting directly: "Thailand is planning to reopen to long-term foreign visitors to help revive an ailing tourism sector and save millions of jobs. A plan to be submitted”, so it hasn't even been submitted, “to the government for approval” and it certainly has yet to be approved, “and targeted to be finalized before the end of October”, so again breaking this out into its component words, to be finalized before the end of October. so we are not quite there, "seeks to allow visitors coming through its international airports." So I urge you to go check that out again; the article is titled: Thailand to Finalize Entry Plan for Foreign Visitors by October. You can also find that on thaivisa.com as well as bloomberg.com. 

The long story short is and I have had a lot of people send me a lot of emails in fact shortly before making this video, where they have been saying "oh it looks like it is going to come online in October; or it is going to come online this year; general tourism may happen this year."  I am not trying to be a downer but let's look at the situation for what it is. Yes it is certainly possible and let me be clear, I really, truly hope so but based on what I am reading and the research we are doing, I think it is probably safe to say that if it does happen this year, it is going to be really close to the end of the calendar year or somewhere thereabouts. Again, to some degree this is conjecture and speculation but from what we are reading and what we are seeing and just kind of understanding the way Immigration apparatus works, I just I don't necessarily think it is prudent to believe that it is going to just be back online as it was prior to COVID-19, this whole shutdown happening. I don't think it is prudent to presume that that is going to happen November whatever date or even December whatever date. Yes they are doing some pilot programs. They are discussing doing more pilot programs and there are arrangements that apparently have been made on an Ad hoc basis. I believe I read somewhere there were four French tourists on a charter flight that were brought through Thailand. Thailand was not their ultimate destination. They were examined here and then they moved on. So yes some things are starting to happen. The thaw is definitely occurring for lack of a better term. Things are kind of thawing out but to presume any dates or to think that this is going to happen within the upcoming weeks, I think that that is being overly optimistic and it is failing to look at the bigger picture as to when this will likely come back online. I want to be clear again. I hope it comes online tomorrow. In my opinion it would be a great thing for the country if tourism just opened back up and we can all put this COVID-19 situation behind us. I don't think that is going to happen for sure.

That being said I don't think that it is prudent to presume one is going to be able to travel into the country as freely as one could prior to this whole shutdown by the end of the year