My friends who are coming in tell me the paperwork is a nightmare. People who are expats here are motivated to jump the hoops but tourists? That's the question with Mexico et all being much easier to navigate. There could be on the flip side a sesmic shift in tourism patterns. The Thai govt must be fully aware of this. With forecasts it's going to take a long time to recover I am sad the govt is not retraining former tourism workers to do other vocations. They really have to relook at their community empowerment programs they stopped after Me Prayuth became PM
Thanks for the update, David. I am still thinking mid March 2022, but could easily push that back to mid April or even May to give things a little extra time to "normalize." What does your crystal ball predict about a 70% plus domestic vaccination rate and more reliable entry rules by then? Cheers.
Hi Mark, I would say that March '22 looks safe. I assume you'll be coming for a solid chunk of time, so the (very low) risk of testing positive after arrival might not dissuade you in the way that it might for shorter-term visitors. The vaccination program has really picked up steam over the last couple of months (avg. of 600K doses per day) and there now appears to be plentiful supply (AZ has been meeting quotas and Pfizer has already started shipping orders in the tens of millions). It now looks highly likely that 70% of the population will be fully vaccinated by the end of this year. Of course, places like Bangkok and Phuket could end up with rates above 90% while the rates remain considerably lower in some of the backwater provinces. Anyway, I do think it's wise to wait until February-March as opposed to December-January, when updated entry systems will still be new and hiccups can be expected like in the early days of Phuket sandbox. Good luck.
My friends who are coming in tell me the paperwork is a nightmare. People who are expats here are motivated to jump the hoops but tourists? That's the question with Mexico et all being much easier to navigate. There could be on the flip side a sesmic shift in tourism patterns. The Thai govt must be fully aware of this. With forecasts it's going to take a long time to recover I am sad the govt is not retraining former tourism workers to do other vocations. They really have to relook at their community empowerment programs they stopped after Me Prayuth became PM
Thanks for the update, David. I am still thinking mid March 2022, but could easily push that back to mid April or even May to give things a little extra time to "normalize." What does your crystal ball predict about a 70% plus domestic vaccination rate and more reliable entry rules by then? Cheers.
Hi Mark, I would say that March '22 looks safe. I assume you'll be coming for a solid chunk of time, so the (very low) risk of testing positive after arrival might not dissuade you in the way that it might for shorter-term visitors. The vaccination program has really picked up steam over the last couple of months (avg. of 600K doses per day) and there now appears to be plentiful supply (AZ has been meeting quotas and Pfizer has already started shipping orders in the tens of millions). It now looks highly likely that 70% of the population will be fully vaccinated by the end of this year. Of course, places like Bangkok and Phuket could end up with rates above 90% while the rates remain considerably lower in some of the backwater provinces. Anyway, I do think it's wise to wait until February-March as opposed to December-January, when updated entry systems will still be new and hiccups can be expected like in the early days of Phuket sandbox. Good luck.