Tourism
Rejoice Thailand. 681 tourists will arrive in November!
Rejoice, roll out the red carpet and sound the bells. Here they come! Thailand is about to be flooded with 681 tourists who have applied for, and received, the Special Tourist Visa. Ok, we’ll admit that’s the number is a bit down on last year’s monthly 3.3 million tourist arrivals (average). But, twisting the numbers like only the Tourist Authority of Thailand can, that’s more than DOUBLE last months’ total tourist intake.
The perpetually optimistic governor of the TAT announced the 681 tourists will be visiting Thailand during this month under the much-discussed Special Tourist Visa (STV) program.
263 of those ‘special’ tourists had already completed the 14 day mandatory quarantine, 134 were currently in quarantine and 284 would arrive before the end of November.
The TAT governor says that the TAT, Thai Airways and hotels associations had been working on what he called the “Amazing Thailand Plus Special Package”. This was a one-stop-shop service to make it easier for the tourists to get their air tickets, apply for their visa, find out about where to quarantine and book trips around the country once they finish their quarantine period.
Thailand would have normally be welcoming around 3.5 million tourists during November (according to 2019 data) but this year’s ‘disruption’, and the Thai government’s response to it, has all but closed down Thailand’s international tourism industry.
Whilst the TAT are painting a rosy picture of the November arrivals, the reality is the tourists have arrived at great costs, on a bankrupt airline, to a country where most of the tourist attractions are closed, and the streets of the tourist hot spots empty.
As of today, there is no plans to make it any easier for tourists to travel to Thailand beyond the current restrictions and visa offerings. The 14 day quarantine remains in play, although there will be a meeting of the CCSA on Wednesday this week to discuss, again, reducing this quarantine time to 10 days, for arrivees from low-risk countries.
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The netizens found footage of the scene, in which they say they identified the faces of the offenders. The revelation came after Deputy Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Piya Tawichai blamed Ratsadon guards for the shootings and injuries.
Meanwhile, the pro-democracy leaders have been called into questionby donors to the movement, as they have criticised how the leaders have used the donations, when a guard was shot and injured. Netizens took to social media to ask what “fairy godmother” Inthira “Sine” Charoenpura and Pakorn “Hia Bung” Pornchewangkurn were buying with the donation money with some online comments mentioning the display of yellow ducks and props as a poor use of donation funds. Some criticisers pointed towards using the donations to buy protective gear for protesters after the shootings occurred, prompting the 2 leaders to issue a statement that they would now use such funds for the injured guards.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
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The pro-democracy protests are set to continue well into December, according to Thai security officials. Officials have been preparing to cope with a rise in anti-government activities as symbolic calendar events are coming up. Today the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration group says a protest will take place outside the 1st Infantry Battalion on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road in Phaya Thai District, giving credit to the predictions that there will no end in sight to the protests.
Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, a secretary to PM’s Office Minister Anucha Nakasai, made the announcement yesterday in light of the Constitutional Court being set to pass a ruling this Wednesday on whether PM Prayut is guilty of occupying a house that is meant for military officials.
Prayut is accused by the opposition of engaging in the conflict of interest by occupying the army residence. Such a move should have ended with his army chief tenure in 2014, according to critics.
Following the upcoming ruling on Wednesday, the symbolic calendar event of Constitution Day falls on December 10, a day which will ignite more protests as one of the main demands of pro-democracy demonstrators is to have a new Thai charter, along with the resignation of Prayut and reform of the Thai monarchy.
But despite the anticipated rise in rallies, security officials have ruled out the possibility of a military coup. Critics remain sceptical as many demonstrators claim the government has put police on the front lines of the protests, dressed in yellow shirts, in an attempt to spark a clash to pave the way for a coup. The current PM, when he was the head of the Thai Army in 2014, also said there would be “no coup” against the elected Yingluck Shinawatra government. A month later the NCPO led a bloodless coup and installed Prayut Chan-o-cha as the interim prime minister.
Piya Tawichai, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, says protesters yesterday gathered near the Imperial World Samrong shopping mall in Samut Prakan before marching to the Bang Na intersection to rally, partially blocking the road. According to Kissana Phathanacharoen, the deputy spokesman for the national police, the protesters did not obtain permission for staging the rally.
Some protesters also reportedly spray-painted traffic police kiosks with messages that criticised the police for “ditching the people,” and smashed kiosk windows. Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, a protest leader, posted on Facebook yesterday that she has been summoned for violating Section 112 of the Criminal Code, which bans anyone from criticising the King which states:
“Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.”
Rung says she believes the summons is linked to the September 10 anti-government rally.
SOURCE:The Phuket News
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The Australian Government is putting up A$13 million to Imagine Entertainment and film giant MGM to shoot a live-action feature film called Thirteen Lives, based on the Chiang Rai Tham Luang cave rescue story. The film will be shot in Queensland, Australia in the hinterland areas behind the Gold Coast.
The film will be directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, The Da Vince Code, Cocoon, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Splash, Frost/Nixon), and start filming in March 2021. The state’s Gold Coast hinterland will double for Thailand with a similar hot, humid climate.
The Australian Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher MP, says the production ishould inject more than A$96 million into the Australian economy, “directly creating around 435 jobs for cast and crew”.
“Thirteen Lives will tell the remarkable story of the effort by many volunteers, including Australians, to undertake an incredibly complex rescue. And I am proud to say that this story will be told here in Australia.”
“I understand this project will also undertake a significant amount of cutting-edge visual effects work here, a great opportunity for our local post, digital and visual effects companies.”
Thirteen Lives follows the true story of the 2018 Tham Laung cave rescue of the Mu Pa (Wild Boar) football team, trapped in a cave by heavy rain and flooding in Chiang Rai, far north Thailand. After the team was stuck for days with no supplies and falling oxygen levels, a group of diving and rescue experts from all over the world were called up to work together with their Thai counterparts to save the 13 young men. Among those experts were a group of divers from the United Kingdom and Australia.
The first major feature film about the rescue operation was The Cave, released in October 2019. The film was quite critical of the Thai red-tape which hampered much of the early rescue efforts.
Ron Howard has worked with plenty of Australians in the past.
“From Thirteen Lives to the animated projected I am directing with Animal Logic in Australia, I am excited about the opportunity to film and work in Australia and dramatically expand on that list of collaborators whose sensibilities and work ethic I have long admired and respected.”
Imagine Entertainment and MGM’s Thirteen Lives will be distributed by Universal Pictures International.
Watch a message from director Ron Howard HERE.
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Realist
November 21, 2020 at 10:13 am
“flooded” is a joke, right? 😉
The Thaiger & The Nation
November 21, 2020 at 10:20 am
Ummm, yeah. There is an element of cycnicism dripping from this article. Sorry if it’s not obvious.
Niels
November 21, 2020 at 10:26 am
555 that’s hilarious – maybe in the future label the cynical parts as such, for the slower members of the readership.
Realist
November 21, 2020 at 1:28 pm
just being sarcastic. my old school winky face (semicolon-dash-paranthesis) came out an emoji 555
EdwardV
November 21, 2020 at 11:19 am
That is such an appropriate picture, well done.
Remo
November 21, 2020 at 11:36 am
We should avoid calling them tourists, these Chinese people are long term expats.
Tourists dont stay here for 6-9 months, as they have jobs or businesses back home, so they have return after 2-3 weeks.
These long staying guys either make their living in Thailand or have capital income from abroad.
preesy chepuce
November 22, 2020 at 12:20 am
Expats? not so much, carpetbaggers? Ask an investigative journalist…
lou
November 21, 2020 at 12:29 pm
Great comments, great photo, for once the TAT giving the right figures its new !!!!! they should open a shop selling TAT silk ties, more comfortable to hang ourselves rather than a hemp rope, guys from the tourism sector thanking you so much for wise decisions to kill the industry and its millions members rather than implimenting more clever solutions than quarantines and hassles from heavy documentations.
Jeremy
November 21, 2020 at 12:43 pm
hahaha the title and picture of the contemplating monkey in front of the empty beach is spot on!! He must be watching for his ship to sail in?! LOL
love the sense of humor by the publicists.
Nipral
November 21, 2020 at 1:04 pm
Are the 681 sanity tests ready ?
Simple Math
November 21, 2020 at 2:20 pm
That`s 99.98 percent down on last year`s average number of monthly arrivals. Imagine you earned 1000 dollars from your investment this month last year, and this month you`ve earned just 20 cents.
liam
November 21, 2020 at 3:20 pm
Thailand would have normally be welcoming around 3.5 million tourists during November (according to 2019 data) november 2020 681 tourists
Toby Andrews
November 21, 2020 at 3:47 pm
Yes a good picture. A Thai monkey waiting for the tourists to arrive with the bananas.
But the head monkeys are preventing the tourist from arriving, and the head monkeys have plenty of their own bananas.
so they do not care . . .
Jason
November 21, 2020 at 6:31 pm
Maybe once Thailand has sorted itself out, I might return. These last months since I had to cancel my trip to Phuket I have seen so much of the way things have gone in Thailand. I am so saddened that I can’t visit. Maybe when common sense prevails again, I will be able to……
Mike Frenchie
November 21, 2020 at 7:25 pm
LOL – wondering why this TAT bureaucrats are not trying two weeks of quarantine by themselves?
Quarantine is nothing else than jail time in isolation (normally a punishment for people being already in jail) – for which you must pay for!
Except few desperate returnees or family reunion cases… NOBODY will come!
I got the details of the rules to be implemented by the hotels and this is crazy insane (no window can be open…).
The funniest part is that the country does not even test its own population although cases are appearing left and right and remain unexplained (the Korean soldier, the Thai going to Japan, the DJ in BKK…)
Although I have the means to afford a five stars quarantine, I will happily look at their economy going South and get my vaccine during Q1 2021 in Europe.
Good luck!
Branzone
November 21, 2020 at 10:37 pm
Eight months now I left my family in Chiang Rai, no reasonable hope to return.
west tiger
November 22, 2020 at 3:19 am
Farang tourism is the answer to Thailand’s sinking or sunk tourist industry, but the government is avoiding it for reasons unknown to many people
Sylvia L. Severi
November 23, 2020 at 1:15 am
When, when are they going to allow those of us who made Thailand their home, bought property, enrich the local economy, have
retirement visas which we have to renew every year and pay .. return to our home .. many os us are stranded elsewhere .. we are legitimate residents .. why are they allowing Chinese tourists enter and not us?????? Where is the logic ?
Khunplastic
November 25, 2020 at 5:33 am
Shurely this cracking picture is worth having a best caption contest with.
First prize a bunch of bananas and a bottle of Chang perhaps!
gosport
November 26, 2020 at 9:00 am
This photo is the most amazing one in this site for this topic.