8 Tourist provinces Planning to Reopen October 1...???

[Dodger]

Brief Update:

According to a CCSA news briefing yesterday (September 17) tourists entering Thailand under sandbox schemes will still be required to quarantine for 14 days.

UK still suppressing tourism in Thailand. U.S. still recommending against travel to Thailand.

Reports of reopening's included in News releases continue to contradict each other. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Nothing new there.

Bangkok Mayor informed the Press yesterday that Bangkok would not be reopening in October regardless of what the PM says. Nice to see everybody on the same page.

Data being reported showing the current vaccination percentages across the Kingdom are all over the place. In four major newspapers these percentages don't even come within 10 percentage points of each other on the same day - which means none of these data can be trusted.

The Phuket Sandbox resulted in a situation where there are now >200 reported cases of covid every day. The CCSA doesn't want the same thing to happen on the mainland...the PM doesn't want to lose face because he told everyone 100 days ago that the kingdom would be reopened in 120 days...the Health Minister doesn't have the foggiest clue what to do next so he keeps spinning fake news...and, in-the-mean-time, potential tourists to Thailand are sitting there saying "What The Fuck".

The bottom line: They're scrambling like hell to get more vaccine but won't come anywhere close to vaccinating 70% of the population of any province in the next few weeks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. The PM of course doesn't want to lose face so there will probably another fake reopening (similar to the Phuket Sandbox) where fully vaccinated tourists who have the athletic skills needed to jump through all the hoops, can enter Thailand but will have to quarantine when they get here - and then ride around on secured tour buses to approved locations when they are free to travel outside their hotels. Of course, similar to what happened in Phuket, very few tourists will be foolish enough to jump into this mess especially when the bars and entertainment venues are still closed,, but at least the PM will be able to say there was a reopening.

I still see mid-2022 as a pretty safe bet, as long as they get the vaccine (like they should have done to begin with) and the covid numbers are down far enough to give the CCSA some confidence. At least that's the way the wind seems to be blowing.

[Oliver2]

Probably correct....the rest of the year is lost for UK visitors , either due to the situation in Thailand or issues here. Still a faint hope for January, though P is still awaiting his first vaccination in Kamphaeng Phaet and I won't be returning until this is done. The hospital he attends is still saying there's no chance of this for two months.

[gerefan2]

As far as the UK goes most tourists don’t leave until mid December which is 3 months off. A lot can change.

Thailand being on the UK Red List is a small problem for those wanting to travel now, but for those going in December and returning in January or later it should not feature too much. Again things can change.

Anyone seriously thinking of going to Thailand should delay booking until the last minute when it should be a lot clearer what the situation is.

As we have seen with Thailand and the UK things change in an instant.

[colmx]

I have finally given up the ghost on my trip to Phuket next month. BF still not fully vaccinated, no changes to the alcohol restrictions in restaurants (not to mention the reopening of pubs) and no sign of the end of curfews on the mainland

Have booked a holiday to Spain instead and will be there this time 2 weeks!

Hoping now for my usual Thai trip at the end of December...

[Gaybutton]

Whether Thailand reopens of not, if you live in the UK you won't be going to Thailand any time soon. It was expected that the UK would remove Thailand from its list of banned countries. Unfortunately, the decision was to retain Thailand on the list of banned countries.

See: https://www.pattayamail.com/latestne...hailand-372364

[billyhouston]

Technically speaking UK residents are not banned from visiting Thailand. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office "advises against all but essential travel" to the country. It is 'advice' and, having not seen my family for 18 months, I consider visiting them to be essential. I shall be doing my ASQ shortly.

[Andaman!]

Whether Thailand reopens of not, if you live in the UK you won't be going to Thailand any time soon. It was expected that the UK would remove Thailand from its list of banned countries. Unfortunately, the decision was to retain Thailand on the list of banned countries.

See: https://www.pattayamail.com/latestne...hailand-372364

It might have been expected in Thailand but certainly wasn’t expected here in UK. All the reports I read in advance of the changes announced this week suggested that Thailand would REMAIN on the red list due to the inadequate genomic sequencing of tests talking place in Thailand……and that is exactly what has happened.

[goji]

It might have been expected in Thailand but certainly wasn’t expected here in UK. All the reports I read in advance of the changes announced this week suggested that Thailand would REMAIN on the red list due to the inadequate genomic sequencing of tests talking place in Thailand……and that is exactly what has happened.

Last year, with some self interest at stake, I e-mailed gov.uk regarding the classification of another country on the UK list. Obviously they don't want to cause any diplomatic incidents, but they wrote back listing the factors that were taken into consideration. These included the general covid test programme, genomic sequencing and accuracy/integrity of information coming out of the country concerned.
So I also figured genetic sequencing could be a factor.

However, looking at the current red list, Thailand is on it and countries with less genetic sequencing, like Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam are not. Malaysia also has a higher reported incidence rate of covid.
Of course, what is missing is data about the accuracy of the reported number of covid cases AND whether or not the UK believes the Thai authorities have been honest with the figures,

Red list.JPG

[Dodger]

The UK moved Thailand to the red list because of the increase in covid case rates, as well as the low vaccination levels which leave Thailand vulnerable to the new covid variants. The data being collected and reported related to vaccination levels is clearly flawed and unreliable which may have also contributed to the "code red" designation.

I haven't seen any information released by the UK suggesting that genomic sequencing had anything to do with their decision - but could very well have missed this.

[christianpfc]

Putting Myanmar on that list is moot. AFAIK, Myanmar does not allow tourist to enter, there are no commercial flights to Myanmar anyway, and the political situation is not stable.