Thailand News Today | Thailand advises airlines of new entry rules

International airlines have been issued with a notice from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, advising them of revised rules for entry to the kingdom from today.

CAAT chief, Suthipong Kongpool, says all international airlines serving Thailand are required to screen and categorise passengers into 3 groups.

The first group is the fully vaccinated passengers, who, if suspected of having Covid-19 symptoms, should self-test with an antigen test. Group 2 is for the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, who must take an antigen test or PCR test within 72 hours of departure. The third group is for foreign travellers who have not received a Thailand Pass QR code, in which the CAAT chief says will be denied boarding, although that’s up to the airline to enforce.

According to a Bangkok Post report, Suttipong says the Thailand Pass registration process is now easier and more convenient. Foreign nationals flying to Thailand, who have Covid insurance coverage of at least 10,000 us dollars can register for the Thailand Pass and will receive a QR code without having to wait for their application to be approved.

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Thailand’s place on a list of countries ranked for travel and tourism development has fallen a notch below where it stood last year.

Thailand fell from its spot in 35th place out of 117 countries in 2021, to 36th place, on the Travel and Tourism Development Index.

The index is based on scores from 1-7, where 1 is the worst performance, and 7 is the best. For “Travel and Tourism Policy” and “Enabling Conditions”, Thailand’s prioritisation of travel and tourism dropped to 88th place with a score of 3.7 points, the lowest in the region. The ASEAN region had an average score in this area of 4.4 points.

The president of the Thai Hotels Association, Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, said that Thailand’s problems with safety and security have been hurting the country’s reputation for many years. In the category of “Enabling Environment”, Thailand’s safety and security ranking is now 92nd place out of the 117 countries, with a score of 4.3. The ASEAN average was 5.4.

On the (slightly) bright side, Thailand improved in “Infrastructure” and “Travel and Tourism Sustainability”. But even though the Thai sustainability score improved, its environmental sustainability was the lowest in the region at 3.6 points, ranking 97th place overall. Marissa said that certain policies prevent small and medium-sized hotels from properly registering, leading to issues.

“This prevents state authorities from mandating compliance with the rules, whether safety and environmental regulations or charging taxes that can help develop the city.”

Thailand’s best score was in price competitiveness. The country earned 5.6 points in this category, which was still lower than the regional average, which stood at 5.8.

Last month, Thailand slid into 8th place in a survey of 1,500 Americans on the world’s safest travel destinations but is still in the world’s top 10.

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Chon Buri Provincial Election Commission has announced the cancellation of the Pattaya City mayor’s election result on May 22 because ballot papers had gone missing from polling stations in 2 sub-districts. The new election in those sub-districts will be held on June 12.

After 10 years of suspension of mayoral elections, the Pattaya City Mayor election was held on May 22, the same day as the Bangkok Governor election. 4 candidates for the city mayor were presented from Love Pattaya Group, Move Forward Party, Pattaya Ruam Jai Group and one independent candidate. The unofficial result was announced on the same day at 5 pm that all candidates, both councillors and the Mayor, of the Love Pattaya Group won the election this year.

Paramet Ngampichet was the unofficial winner for the Pattaya City Mayor job receiving over 14,000 votes from the residents. The other 24 council candidates also won their seats in the Pattaya City Council in all 4 sub-districts of Pattaya city.

However, the Director of Mueng Pattaya Election Commission reported that the election committee detected problems in two sub-districts. Ballot papers disappeared in 4 polling stations, and the number of ballot papers was exceeded in some polling stations.

The election committee couldn’t identify the cause of the disappearance and problems, so the Pattaya City mayor election will be held again on June 12 in the 2 sub-districts where the issues at the polling stations were reported.

Even with a new election in the 2 sub-districts, it is unlikely to change the final result for the position of Mayor.

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Four Thai police officers from Sri Racha Police Station in Chon Buri are being investigated after they jailed a woman for growing one cannabis plant at home.

56 year old Pornpimon Prakobpon was arrested at a rented house in the Sri Racha District of Chon Buri yesterday. She was accused of having a cannabis plant, currently included as a Category 5 illicit drug in the Thai narcotics list. The cannabis plant will be removed from the list on June 9. The woman was brought to Sri Racha Police Station, and detained for a night while waiting for her husband to bail her out.

The 55 year old husband, Choo Prakobpon, told the media that the cannabis plant belonged to him. He expected to use it as the ingredients for food and home remedies and thought it would be okay because the cannabis law would soon be relaxed on June 9, but his wife ended up being arrested anyway.

Choo said the officers asked him to prepare about 15,000 to 30,000 baht to bail his wife out, and he had to borrow it from his relatives. He said it was lucky that the court understood his situation and approved a temporary release without any securities or collateral.

The story of this couple went viral on Thai social media as many netizens thought it didn’t make sense to arrest locals when growing cannabis was about to be legal in the next 9 days.

Yesterday the media reported that the Commander of Chon Buri Provincial Police had set up a committee to investigate the group of police. The official announcement said the 4 police officers would be moved to work at the Office of the Provincial Police Region 2 with desk jobs whilst the investigation continues.

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A marine centre in Phuket is working to nurse an injured sea turtle back to health. The turtle was spotted washed up by strong waves on the sands of Kata Beach earlier this week.

The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources arrived on the scene after a hotel staff alerted them of the struggling little snapper.

The DMCR found the turtle’s flippers injured from the turtle getting tangled up in broken fishing nets. They also noticed the turtle was dry. The DMCR officials said the turtle was still young, and they could not identify its gender. It was 44 centimetres long, 46 centimetres wide and weighed 6.7 kilograms. It is said to be an Olive Ridley turtle, a species of sea turtles mostly found in tropical waters.

The DCMR officials have now brought the turtle to an animal rescue centre in the Phuket Marine Biological Center, located in Phuket’s main city district. The officials expect the young snapper to make a full recovery.

Discarded fishing nets pose a danger to several marine animals in Phuket, and other areas of Thailand. In April, a dolphin got stranded on Phuket’s Nai Yang beach with 3 key injuries.

Meanwhile, Thai officials are also worried about the low number of Irrawaddy dolphins in Songkhla Lake, and the Mekong River. The Natural Resources and Environment Minister said that dolphins often die when they get caught in fishing nets.