Thailand - Online visa extensions for ex-pats coming soon

The Immigration Bureau (IB) unveiled its Electronic Extension of Temporary Stay (e-Extension) service on Tuesday to make it easier for expats to apply for visa extensions.
Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, the national police chief, said the e-Extension would enhance visa services as the system lets them lodge the extension request online.

The service covers the whole process including the payment of fees via a dedicated website, Thaiextension.vfsevisa.com.

It will reduce the time to process the application from one hour to three minutes, Pol Gen Damrongsak said.

According to the IB, over 200,000 expats seek to extend their visas each year for about a dozen reasons including taking holidays, teaching jobs, studying, working at a state agency or due to family ties.

The growing number of applicants spurred concern about the time-consuming and inconvenient nature of the process.

The e-Extension service will be piloted first for expats living or working in Bangkok.

They can file an application online at the cited website.

However, they must show up in person to verify their identity and get a visa sticker at the IB office on Chaeng Wattana Road.

The IB plans to make the service available at all IB offices nationwide in the future.

Source - Bangkok Jack

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More than 57,000 passengers arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday

 Thailand - More than 57,000 international passengers arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday, confirmed by Immigration Officers.
Immigration Bureau Spokeman Major Geneneral Choengron Rimphadee confirmed yesterday (November 10th) that there were about 25 international flights arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport with about 57,000 passengers. Of those 49,000 were foreigners.

This is approaching the same average numbers before Covid-19 which was approximately 60,000 people a day. During this time there are up to 3,000 passengers arriving at the airport per hour. Immigration Officers can check their passports at 3,500 people in half an hour. Immigration stated that they can still manage with no passengers needing to wait outside the main Immigration area.

TPN notes, however, that many complaints have surfaced online from tourists arriving stating that they personally found the arrival process hectic and crowded, depending on the time of day of arrival.

Immigration, however, has blamed most of the issues on airlines or language and communication issues with tourists from some countries and not their own staffing or processing.

Source - Pattaya News

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Russians the biggest tourist group in Phuket in November so far

Russians have made up Phuket’s biggest group of tourists so far in November. From November 1-10, Phuket saw 18,370 Russian tourists.

The total number of foreign tourists was 75,247, The Phuket Express reported. The next top four countries for tourism in Phuket were: India with 8,939 tourists, Australia with 5,275 tourists, the UK with 4,511 tourists, and Germany with  4,152 tourists.

In September, the TAT said that Malaysians made up Thailand’s biggest tourist group this year. The next three countries with the most tourists were India, Laos, and Cambodia.

But the number of Russian tourists appears to be growing in some areas of the kingdom. Last month, the first direct flights from Moscow to Phuket International Airport resumed.

Also last month, the island of Koh Samui expected to see a surge in Russian tourism, especially in December. Russian tourism has been a big revenue-producing staple of Koh Samui but was stymied by the Covid-19 pandemic and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The return of Russians is expected to bring a big boost to tourism on Koh Samui and the surrounding islands, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao. Residents of Russia and other European countries that experience freezing cold winters are plotting their escape to the warm tropical weather in Thailand.

As of October 26, Thailand witnessed 7,349,843 international tourists arriving, surpassing the 7 million mark. It’s put the country within its goal range set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of 7 to 10 million visitors for 2022.

Source - The Thaiger 

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Thai baht plunges to 38 against US dollar for first time in 16 years

The volatile Thai baht has depreciated to 38 against the US dollar even faster than foreseen by economists. The last time the baht reached 38 to the dollar was 16 years and two months ago on July 26, 2006.

The baht has hit the 38 mark even earlier than expected by the Head of Capital at Kasikorn Bank Kobsidthi Silpachai, who just a few days ago predicted that the baht would depreciate to 36.50 – 38 against the US dollar within the next month.

The baht’s depreciation is attributed to the rising strength of the US dollar. The dollar index has risen to 114, causing several currencies worldwide to depreciate. The US dollar continues to grow in value due to continued federal fund hikes.

The dollar has flown in 2022 amid the Federal Reserves’ aggressive interest rate hikes, Europe’s energy crisis, and China’s Covid-19 lockdowns. Cambridge University economist Mohamed El-Erian said the strength of the US dollar is bad news for the world economy…

“What is clear is we have this relentless increase in yields, this relentless appreciation of the dollar. They are both bad news for corporates and for the economy.”

Amid pressure from high inflation rates and the depreciating baht, Thailand’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet today to discuss raising the policy rate from 0.75% to 1%. The policy rate hike will increase interest rates between Thailand and the US with the goal of temporarily strengthening the baht and “supporting economic recovery.”

In the long term, Thailand is relying on the recovery of the tourism industry to strengthen the nation’s currency. K Bank predicts that the baht will rise to 35 to the US dollar before long as continually growing tourist arrivals pump money into the economy.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand predicts that Thailand will welcome a total of 9.3 million tourist arrivals in 2022.

Source: Bangkok Biz News / The Thaiger

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Most in Thailand already using Digital Payments

Thai consumers are typically more enthusiastic about using digital forms of payments than the average for Asia, according to Mastercard.
Most Thai consumers have now gone digital when it comes to managing a range of personal financial matters, including paying bills, banking, opening new bank accounts and financial planning, a Mastercard survey has found.

Based on the Mastercard New Payments Index 2022, 81% of consumers in the country have used digital tools for at least one financial task in the last year, with paying bills (78%), banking (75%) and opening new bank accounts (64%) forming the top three.

The latest data on payment habits, attitudes and preferences was derived from a survey of 40 markets across five regions, including seven in Asia-Pacific: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam.

Interestingly, when it came to personal financial management, the survey found that Thai consumers were typically more enthusiastic about using digital forms of payments than the regional average.

This same enthusiasm extended to Thai consumers’ broader use of payments, with 94% having used at least one digital payment method such as digital wallets, QR codes, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), cryptocurrencies, biometrics and others in the last year, compared to the Asia-Pacific average of 88%.

As well, 80% of Thai consumers increased their usage of at least one digital payment method during the same period, demonstrating momentum.

“Although digitisation brings a broad array of benefits — greater access to e-commerce, more economic transparency, more security — in many ways it is in the everyday tasks where it makes a big difference,” said Aileen Chew, country manager for Thailand and Myanmar at Mastercard.

“In recent years, Thai consumers have increased their usage of digital payment options, often showing high engagement with new and emerging technologies. The survey results indicate that this comfort extends beyond payments, and now includes daily personal financial management, demonstrating the pervasiveness of digital technology in their everyday lives.

“This change is a positive sign for the continued digitisation of the economy, and will help to spur long term, sustainable growth in Thailand.”

When asked about their reasons for using digital methods to pay bills, convenience was the top response (85%) from Thai consumers, followed by the fact that it was seen as more secure or safe (61%), and that it gave consumers more control over their money (56%).

However, concerns remain about security, indicating an opportunity for service providers to offer consumers additional education and reassurance.

Thai consumers are also among the most enthusiastic in the region about using emerging payment technologies, with digital wallets leading (63%), followed by account-to-account payments (55%) and QR codes (54%), the survey found.

Also notable is that Thai consumers have been strong adopters of cryptocurrencies, with 25% using them to pay in the last year, compared to the regional average of 13%.

Source - BangkokJack

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Airbus A380 lands at Thailand’s Don Mueang Airport for the first time ever

An Airbus A380 aircraft landed on the runway at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International rt (DMK) for the first time ever yesterday. The Emirates flight was redirected to Bangkok’s smaller airport due to heavy rainfall disrupting the runway at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

At 9.40pm, flight EK363 from Guangzhou in China descended on DMK after the runway became impassible at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand’s biggest and busiest airport. It is the first time an Airbus A380 has ever landed at DMK.

The plane circled Bangkok’s skies for 50 minutes waiting for weather conditions to improve, but they didn’t. Several flights were unable to land or take off at Suvarnabhumi for several hours last night due to heavy and continuous rainfall.

The aircraft landed safely on DMK’s west runway (21R) at 9.40pm before refuelling and flying over to Suvarnabhumi at 1.08am when the rain had subsided somewhat.

Heavy rainfall and flash flooding are expected to continue today and tomorrow throughout Thailand, according to the Meteorological Department.

Source: Dailynews 

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Thousands STRANDED as Jetstar cancels flights

Jetstar is desperately working to get its planes back in the air after engineering issues forced the company to ground almost half of its fleet, leaving thousands of Australians stranded overseas.
The budget airline confirmed that, by the end of Tuesday, four of its 11 long haul Boeing 787 Dreamliners would be grounded to undergo emergency repairs.

One plane will return to service later this week with two more 787s to take to the skies next week, leaving only one plane out of operation.

A Jetstar spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the fleet had been impacted by ‘a number of issues’, including a lightning strike, a collision with a bird, damage from an item on the runway and issues sourcing a part from the US.

‘The team is working hard to return these aircraft to service as quickly as possible however, safety remains our first priority,’ they said.

It’s understood more than 4,000 passengers have spent extra time in Bali after seeing their return flights with Jetstar either cancelled or delayed.  For the latest stories follow Bangkok Jack News on Twitter.

Some of those passengers were forced to wait up to five days to be put on another flight while others paid thousands of dollars to travel home with a different airline.

One woman from Melbourne, Meagan Mulder, said she, her husband and their two kids had a seven-hour delay in getting home, but the situation was much worse for the friends they’d travelled with around the Indonesian country.

‘We had 12 friends who were on the midnight flight (on Sunday) night, they had their flight cancelled, they can’t get another flight anywhere for seven people until Friday this week, so they’ve had to get more accommodation and everything,’ she told NCA Newswire.

Other friends she knew ended up spending $10,000 to fly via Kuala Lumpur with another airline.

Similar issues have been seen in Thailand with one woman from Brisbane due to fly home with her husband and two kids from Phuket on Saturday night only to find out their flight had been cancelled.

The family was told the next available flight was on September 12 – nine days after their original return trip, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

For those stranded overseas, passengers will be given $150 per hotel room by Jetstar and $30 per person for food.

‘Our teams are working hard to get passengers on their way as soon as possible – we are putting on five special services to bring people home and booking seats on Qantas flights also,’ a Jetstar spokesperson said.

Flight credits or refunds have also been offered.

Source - BangkokJack

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