Transcript of the above video:

Unfortunately this is a video I really don't want to be making because it is kind of a sombre set of circumstances. I have been trying in a general way to keep people updated on the Immigration situation and this runs part and parcel with that.

A recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Tourism Goals Dashed after 3rd COVID Surge. Quoting directly: "The Government has halved its expected number of international visitors to 3 - 4 million this year and slashed its tourism revenue forecast." They quote Khun Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, who is the Minister of Sports and Tourism here in Thailand. Quoting directly: "His Ministry had now revised down its tourism revenue target from 348 billion Baht to 300 billion with the other 550 billion Baht coming from the domestic market down from its earlier forecast of 870 billion."

Just anecdotally, when we were making some rounds over Songkran, going places, going to the beach, we talked to a lot of people that said it wasn't so much foreign tourists who are obviously very much missed. To anyone watching this from abroad believe me you are greatly missed by the tourism sector here in Thailand, I can tell you that for sure. What folks were saying, the more immediate issue that sprung up these past couple of weeks was people that canceled their domestic tourism plans. They were domestic tourists within Thailand be they Thai nationals or foreign nationals here in Thailand who had made vacation plans. A lot of those folks' plans got canceled here recently. 

Quoting further: "The Government is now expecting International arrivals in 2021 to be just 3 to 4 million, a little over half its previous forecast of 6.5 million." Boy that is just sad to hear. There is no one at fault for it, there is no one to blame. The situation is just is what it is at this point. 

Hopefully this will turn around sooner rather than later and I hope to be making videos at some quarter in this year that are a lot more jovial than this one where I can say "Hey, wow, it looks like things are going to start turning around." I hope that happens sooner rather than later.