Transcript of the above video:

It seems as though like the last 5-6 years, issues involving currency in an expat context especially, it hasn't been an overly joyful time if you will. So here in Thailand we saw many years where various currencies including the dollar and the pound were decreasing in value against the Thai baht. In fact it seems like the zenith of that I believe was back in 2011 going into 2012 when at least against the US Dollar the Thai baht hit as low as 28 and change which was staggering. I remember that was just really super strong and that was having a tremendous negative impact on many aspects of the Thai economy. There were certain folks and certain sectors of the economy, that were probably positively impacted by that but a large chunk of the economy including the export and tourism sector was really negatively impacted by that exchange rate being what it was which brings us to the reason for the video.

I thought about making this after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Expats ponder whether to gamble on the Thai Baht. Quoting directly: "With the British pound theoretically worth more than 44 Baht and the US Dollars sticking around 37 Baht, many expats, vacationers and Bloomberg wonder if they are on a roll. Whether now to move foreign cash to Thailand is the question of the day. The truism is that, in times of international economic distress, world stage investors flock to the US Dollar which represents the world's biggest economy. The fact that America has its own share of economic malaise and is run by an aging President who has seen better days won't affect that stark reality."

Well leaving all that stuff aside, I do think it is notable that 44 Baht against the Pound, 37 Baht against the Dollar those are big numbers. I haven't seen 37 against the Dollar darned near since I got here and that has been some time ago, darned near 15 years ago. So I mean it has been a long time since we have seen anything like that and I think that bodes well for tourism; I certainly hope it bodes well for this coming high season in Thailand as folks look at the present state of the Baht: Dollar exchange rate and say "hey that makes it cheaper to go to Thailand, let's look at Thailand." I really hope that's the case especially with the fact that we are looking at a much more open Thailand than we were looking at a couple of months ago. We are sitting here in the middle of the summer. Folks that are watching this video If you are looking at being tourists and Thailand, this is a great time to come. Again the dollar and the pound are pretty strong against the Baht. It would be a good time to come in; it would be a good time to have an affordable vacation here in Thailand.

But long story short, yeah I definitely think for expats here this is probably quite a good thing. Folks that are here in Thailand from Britain or the US that are using their pension or Social Security, I got to imagine this is quite a nice little bonus. It is kind of an unforeseen little windfall but a nice little bonus on being an expat especially a retiree here in Thailand; nothing but a good thing at the moment. Hopefully this trend will continue within reason. I hope it doesn't one way or the other have a tremendous impact on the overall Thai Economy but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.