Thailand News Today | Thailand launches 10-year visa program TODAY

 

Foreign experts, professionals, eligible high-net-worth individuals, and retirees can start applying today for Thailand’s new 10-year visa.

An adviser to the Thai prime minister Chayothit Kritdakorn says the country has set a target of attracting about one million wealthy or talented foreigners over the next five years.

The new O-X visa aims to eliminate the burden on professionals and foreign experts to have to deal with one-year work, retirement, or marriage permits that generally need several trips to government offices, lawyers, and fixed deposits in local banks.

The Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce said the new visa regime will make Thailand an attractive place to work and buy a second home for global citizens, and if done right, the country should be able to reach its five-year goal of one million applicants that will bring in one trillion baht in domestic spending.

The 10-year visa option will be extended to four categories of travellers with an annual income of 80,000 dollars and at least 1 million dollars in assets. It comes with multiple entries permitted and a work permit issued and covers up to four dependents like children or spouses. Companies utilising these visas won’t be required to follow the standard four Thai employees per one foreigner rule.

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Korean Air will resume direct flights from Seoul to both Chiang Mai and Phuket this October. Both routes were suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The airline’s Phuket flights are scheduled to depart from Seoul Incheon Airport four days per week on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 5.55 pm and land in Phuket at 10 pm.

Phuket to Seoul flights will also depart on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, leaving Phuket at 11.20 pm and arriving in Seoul Incheon at 7.55 am the next day.

A Boeing 737-800 will serve the Seoul – Chiang Mai route, resuming in October, four times per week on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The flight will depart from Seoul Incheon at 5.55 pm and land in Chiang Mai at 9.30 pm.

Chiang Mai to Seoul flights will depart at 11 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays and arrive in Seoul at 6.25 am the following day.

Tickets are already available to buy through the Korean Air website, with a one-way ticket from Chiang Mai to Seoul on October 1 costing 16,095 baht. A one-way ticket from Phuket to Seoul on October 1 is on sale for 15,460 baht.

Always check the entry requirements of your final destination before travelling.

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The Tourism Authority of Thailand says a great way to boost tourism revenue is by hosting Indian weddings!

According to the Deputy Governor of the TAT Siripakorn Cheawsamut, Indian weddings are a “multi-billion dollar industry” that Thailand plans on tapping into.

The TAT said they want to bump Thailand’s tourism revenue for 2022 up to 600 – 700 billion baht (US$16 – 19 billion) by the end of the year by targeting high-spending groups like Indian wedding parties and honeymooners.

So far this year – between Jan 1 and August 28 – Thailand has generated 186 billion baht in total from 4.2 million tourists, according to the TAT.

To hit the minimum target revenue of 600 billion baht, Thailand’s tourism industry is going to have to generate 414 billion baht in the next four months. That’s a LOT of Indian weddings.

Siripakorn said the average Indian wedding in Thailand costs between 10 million and 30 million baht. They’re expensive because they can last up to one week, he said. The costs cover event planning, catering, decorations, transportation, and perhaps dance choreography.

Siripakorn said that during the past two years, many Indian couples had postponed their weddings because they want their reception and honeymoon to take place in Thailand.

In June, TAT reported that 300 Indian weddings had been booked in Thailand for 2022, mostly in Phuket.

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A group of political protestors gathered to perform a skit in Siam Square, Bangkok, as part of an awareness campaign to highlight Thailand’s missing activists.

The protestors marched toward Siam Square carrying placards and boards with the names and pictures of missing activists, some of whom were later found dead.

Some of the protestors wore photos of the victims around their necks while others walked with plastic bags over their heads, with eye holes cut out, as they trudged down Siam Square.

Police in uniform were seen watching the proceedings while some demonstrators noticed plainclothes police taking photographs of the march.

Activists staged an abduction performance at the destination. One of the activists placed a black bag over another’s head while she was giving a speech. Two others then carried her away while other activists shouted “Free our friends.”

Mint, a Thai traditional dancer-turned-activist who participated in the march, said that the performance signified that anyone could become a victim of enforced disappearance. She made it known that a human rights lawyer, Somchai Neelapaijit, was abducted in the middle of Bangkok, and added that the fates of most people who disappeared remain unknown.

A report by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in 2020 revealed that 75 people have disappeared in Thailand.

The group also reported that since the 2014 military coup, nine Thai political refugees living in neighbouring countries have gone missing, two were found dead and no one knows where the seven other people are.

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Alleged spies from the Burmese junta, disguised as Buddhist monks and nuns, were among 54 Burmese people arrested at a three-story building in Tak province in northern Thailand.

On Monday, police, and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, Mae Sot District Administrative Organisation, and Internal Security Operations Command closed in on the building in Mae Sod district.

The raid occurred after the local ISOC office received a request from monks at the Buddhism Bureau of Tak province to investigate the group.

The Buddhism Bureau had received a complaint from villagers in the Mae Pa subdistrict who were concerned that the group of monks and nuns, who had been out collecting alms in the area, were not real.

The villagers told the Buddhism Bureau that they were suspicious of the monastics because they lived with a big group of people in the building and regularly made a loud noise.

The officials found a total of 54 Burmese people residing in the building, including 11 monks, 16 nuns, 11 men, 14 women, and two children. Matichon news reports that the building used to be a detention center for Burmese illegal immigrants but was closed down when changes were made to immigration policies in Thailand.

No one in the group could provide any documentation, so all 54 people were detained and taken to the immigration officer.

ISOC’s initial investigation reveals that some of the “monks” and “nuns” are not real monastics but are spies from the Burmese junta who snuck into Thailand to investigate anti-junta activities in Mae Sot, near the border of Myanmar.

Some of the arrested told officials that they planned to travel to Bangkok to investigate resistance movements against the Burmese junta.

In February last year, democratically elected members of Myanmar’s ruling party, the National League for Democracy, were deposed by a coup d’état led by the Burmese military who took power over the country. Unrest has gripped Myanmar ever since.

Pro-democracy, anti-Junta protests in Myanmar have been violently squashed by the junta. The New York Times reported in April this year that the junta was trying to eliminate resistance movements along the country’s borders.

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