NoY

There are tentative discussions between various authorities here to consider using HKT as a test location for restricted arrivals by foreigners...maybe in October...maybe not. If it goes ahead expect very strict conditions to be applied. The situation/decision making here is very very fluid. Do not expect an open border in HKT by October or November as that (currently) look totally unrealistic.

quinzinho

Yes, the sheer amount of restrictions and conditions, such as 100,000 USD insurance coverage for Covid alone , will make it so unattractive that nobody wants to come to Thailand in the first place. They think they're still very special and attractive but don't realize that other tourist destinations have surpassed them years ago.

Protocol7

I would personally advise anyone planning any trip to Thailand to wait until the government makes official and clear announcements in regards to reopening to tourists. Finding available flights does not mean you can enter the Country as a visitor, there are currently 2 daily flights between Bangkok and Doha. Only Thai returnees are allowed in and they must go through a 14 days mandatory quarantine.
Greetings from Bangkok

ft101

And work permit holders, students, those with PR and those with Thai wives, children or parents, plus another couple of categories.

Richard Bell

I'm currently booked out of CNX to LHR, on the first flight of the winter-season, and am watching the tentative moves by the Thai-government to find a scheme to restart travel, but would have to agree that at-present it's not looking very encouraging from out here. I will not fly, if I can't get back into Thailand a few weeks later, under the current severe-restrictions.

At some point travel must restart, but governments globally seem very uncoordinated in their approach to this, one can only hope for improvement eventually.

NoY

Thai authorities are absolutely & 100% paranoid about even 1 case in Thailand & as a result of this paranoia I suspect they will keep borders closed (except under very very strict/impossible(?) conditions) until a vaccine is found.

Of course, no one knows for sure exactly what whacky ideas they may come up with (there have been plenty of those!) but until then the doors are closed.

We had planned many international travels ex-HKT this year but since March have travelled exclusively in Thailand as we know that if we leave we cannot get back in (easily if at all).

Richard Bell

The authorities announce daily, how many new cases they have found in quarantining-returnees, those people who have managed to get back despite the severe-barriers to entry.

They seem to regard this as a sign, of how well they're doing, and how justified the paranoia is ... but to me it only underlines the impossibility of keeping the virus out, and the futility of even trying ... it long ago became a matter of managing the disease, since eliminating it entirely was never going to be possible, the new case (after 100 days nominally 'free') of a DJ from Bangkok testing positive simply underlines that asymptomatic-cases must still be around. As would be inevitable, with a million Chinese visitors here per month, last winter.

However 'up to you', as we say here, it's their call, and we just have to try to work within the restrictions, while watching in-horror as the negative economic-effects multiply.

NoY

100% agree. The "zero case plan" is utterly futile. Sigh. Still, their country, their rules. In our case we consider ourselves to be in one of the better countries to ride this out. Same can't be said for many locals here in Phuket.

GGLwannabe

The Thai government has indeed shot itself in the foot. They've made a huge virtue of the fact that their restrictions have prevented (until a day or two ago) any new local transmission since mid-May, so they would find it hard to now move to a policy of accepting even a low level of new locally transmitted infection.

However, no more than a handful of tourists are likely to be attracted by the government's proposed 2 weeks in a quarantine hotel in Phuket scheme (if it ever gets off the ground, which is doubtful), so that isn't going to save tens of thousands of tourism-dependent businesses from bankruptcy in the peak months from November to February. On the other hand, if the government does come up with a new plan to allow in tourists under a less onerous scheme, some local transmission is likely to occur, thus denting one of the few areas where they still have some credibility with the population.

If however large numbers of soon-to-be-bankrupt tourism business owners and their staff join in the current wave of student-led protests, and public sentiment is with them, the government may be forced to change its stance

Richard Bell

UPDATE ... I just got the half-expected email from QR, telling me that my flights out of CNX (mid-Nov) and returning (early-Dec) are cancelled.

And the new Thai Special-Tourist-Visa, details yet to be fully-confirmed, looks a dog too, tortuous to obtain and very-expensive with everyone taking a taste along-the-way. It's not looking good for travel to Thailand this winter, which is very-bad news for the now-desperate tourist-trade, and the millions of people who used to work in it.

good_boy_1234

Same here...just got the email of cancellation.