VISA CHANGES For people entering Thailand by land

CLP - would you care to elucidate?

Sjaak - QED!

RE# 165.

" How many days will a Thai citizen get back in say Europe ? Yes, you guessed it, without a visa they won't even get there in the first place, the airlines will never carry a Thai citizen without a valid visa. "

Irrelevant red herring , immigration rules for Thais to Europe is a matter for the govts concerned . It has nothing to do with foreigners entering Thailand . To make it harder for them as tit for tat is cutting nose off despite face . Indonesia did that and suffered big loss of tourists as result . Malaysians don't generally get visa free entry to European countries . yet they still are happy to give Europeans 90 dats visa free.
You are right Thailand has very right to impose whatever regulations it wishes . But its not unreasonable for others to call a spade a spade and say its silly.

Well said D.E.!!

sjaak327 - you comments about Thais and visa entry into Europe is a different arguement entirely. As I mentioned previously the introduction of the 15 day rule would not have been introduced in such a way in the West - a period of transition would have been given.

That a person from SEA may struggle to get a visa to the West is not part of this thread.

.at the end of the day whatever anyone thinks these new regs aren't going to INCREASE tourism are they?

Who's going to find out about the 15 day permit and say

"OH good! I think I'll go to Thailand now they've reduced the time I can stay! "

But that's the point wilko, the vast, vast majority of people arrive through the international airports, they are still getting 30 days. Do you really believe this is going to cause a dent in tourist arrivals ? I think it will not even be noticed,

The people that arrive overland is a small minority, in fact trying to even get on an international flight to say Laos or Cambodia would be impossible for most western tourists, as there aren't any between their respective coutries of origin and those two countries. The people that do "country hopping" will find a way around the 15 days they get on arrival.

And to say it is unreasonable is besides the point, as except for Malaysia, all other neighoring countries want hard currency to allow people access to their country, and last time I looked the number of tourist to those countries has increased rapidly in the last 5 years.

Thats the point!?!?!?1 So minorities don't count????

The whole point is that it WILL affect numbers - some like you concede to a small amount, others will suggest a large amount but even you are agreeing it will have a negative affect - the fact that Malaysia is left out, shows that the TAT know this too. - "finding a way" is quite frankly a pathetic apology of an excuse.

PS - Malaysia is the biggest in numbers only, the Japanese are almost the same in numbers but spend much more....and they wouldn't take kindly to having to change arrangements to any excursions to other neighbouring countries - again something that Malaysia doesn't do - most of their business is cross the border and families.

BTW - I have still not seen ANY CONFIRMATION that this arrangement does not exist for those arriving by plane from nieghbouring copuntries

"Thats the point!?!?!?1 So minorities don't count????"

Ask the TAT and the immigration department, they seem to think they can get away with this, without loosing to much business.

Maybe this measure is in line with the TAT's quality tourist bull that they have been pusblishing about the last few years.

As far as getting 15 days at the airport if comming from neighboring countries, I haven't heard of a single case where people only get 15 days, if they are flying from Phnom Penh or KL or Vientiane.

But it is save to assume, that for your average packaged tourist, who stays for three weeks holiday at the beach, this will be of no consequence. I have quite a few friends who go to Thailand once or twice a year, they don't even know about this, nor do they care, as they go to Thailand for 4 weeks, some for three weeks, and they don't go to neighboring countries, they arrive at the airport and they leave when their time is up. If they need more the 30 days, they simply get a tv beforehand.

"As far as getting 15 days at the airport if comming from neighboring countries, I haven't heard of a single case where people only get 15 days, if they are flying from Phnom Penh or KL or Vientiane."

.........................so you have heard they are getting 30???

what ARE you saying then??