Philippines has had similar for last 3 years evolved from covid register of,arrivals for tracking. It's a shambles and effectively a database of garbage information. For Philippines if the hotel you've booked isn't recognised your forced to instead insert name of another hotel it does recognise or risk being denied boarding. The creation of your account and login also stressful. Multiple one time SMS passcodes and "invalid email address" against the email address they just emailed you thr codes. I gave up after 40 minutes of fxckin around with it. Really the last thing you need in the countdown to international travel.

No official announcement on visa period reduction. Since was first suggested there's been a serious earthquake which is detrimental to increasing tourism. In addition Thailand now has 25% tariff on vehicles to USA and 10% on everything else. Maybe now's not ideal time to discourage tourists.

@Bob ********

yes but use a bit of logic. 50k is 6 months wages in parts of SE,Asia. Either they're all lottery winners or they are not from low income families. Thailand doesn't set it's fee for Ed Visa to all average ASEAN citizens to study in Thailand. In fact they're clearly unwelcome.

@Bob ********

maybe they're from wealthy elite families because 50k baht per annum is a large chunk of a salary in most of SE Asia？

@Ilze ****************

yes unreasonably and disproportionately more expensive than retirement visa. Makes it prohibitive for ASEAN citizens to study in Thailand. Clearly a deliberate policy. Thailand doesn't want students from neighbouring countries and has made sure they can't afford it.

I respect honest humble fair minded Thai people. I can't be instructed to respect those in authority merely because they hold power. Remember. “power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I'm diplomatic and cautious. I treat others as I expect to be treated. I won't kowtow to criminals even if they wear shiny badges.

@Arnold *********

too simplistic. You ignore Thailand Immigration at LAND BORDERS actively issuing thousands of admissions every day for 60 days of people who have done multiple bounces. Big difference between Suvarnabhumi Immigration and Land Border Immigration. They wear same uniform and have same Employer. Don't assert “that's why hundreds are turned away...” try understanding what's actually happening. I'll go back after 4 months outside late June. We can't be accused of living there when we lived somewhere else for 4 months. They will be in different situation anyway losing tourists nervous about earthquakes and others who left in aftermath. In addition they're in a new situation economically with Trump doing back to them what they did to USA and western countries for years：tariffs！ so they need to be careful to protect income from foreign currencies buying the baht or the baht will sink！

@Tae'lur *******

they'll be back. Sucking off the police for free. That's how they hid in plain sight.

@Calvin *****

too risky that. I like to be able to walk away without complications. But thanks anyway. Recruitment and replacement is thankfully straight forward in Asia.

@Dany *******

u knob! Hundreds of African prostitutes and other nationalities in Pattaya and sukhumvit nana. All working. All tourist visas. High ups paid off? I paid 15k to Thai agents for border bounces for me and my gf. Not for free ok? My gf too young to retire and education visa prohibitively expensive for an ASEAN citizen. I could get retirement visa easy enough but I'd be on a different arrangement to my gf then. We do what we can and border bounce as necessary. At the moment spending 4 months in Boracay on the beach. We'll return later in year and duck and dive as necessary to stay legal.