Transcript of the above video:

We have discussed in a number of videos throughout the past roughly, where are we at now, it's been about 4 months, maybe 5 we've been talking about the new Government especially has come in. They have lifted a lot of restrictions on different nationalities in terms of Visa-free travel into Thailand. Now we saw the impact that had on high season; it did have a positive impact on high season but there are pros and cons to these things. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Visa-free influx proves to be a mixed blessing. Quoting directly: Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) told the Bangkok Post he was concerned that some criminals will exploit the Visa-free policy to enter Thailand and operate illegal businesses here." Quote: "Thailand will not be a paradise for transnational criminal syndicates. Thais must not support illegal foreign businesses by acting as nominees" he said." So yeah again, we have discussed the issue of nominees, I am making a video contemporaneously with this one doing a deep dive into nominees specifically.

But long story short, yeah Thai Immigration is a bit concerned and we are getting now to the tail end of high season where we see this kind of flip in terms of paradigm from "hey let's encourage tourism" to "hey let's ascertain who's now trying to live in Thailand without proper documentation as well as work in Thailand without proper documentation and go ahead and enforce relevant Thai Immigration Laws taking that into consideration." So the thing to understand about this and the thing to take away from this video in my mind, is I think it is safe to presume we are going to see a paradigm shift now leaving high season going into, well we will get over to Thai New Year. As we have discussed in other videos, this Government is really promoting that hard; I think that's a very good idea to promote Songkran; I consider it something akin to Carnival or what we call Mardi Gras in Louisiana, down along the Mississippi Delta. I think that's a great idea; I think it's a good idea to promote that.

That said, look it's just kind of a natural cadence to the economy here that in sort of late February going into March we sort of see high season kind of fade back, kind of, I won't say it declines but it's just sort of the way that it is. There are less people coming in as tourists and this is kind of the point at which Thai Immigration begins to take a different tack and look at who has been in Thailand while the rules were a bit more lax and looks at "okay are these people now trying to live here? are they trying to work here? what's going on?" If they do not have their proper documentation, they could end up in a situation where they become subject to Thai Immigration enforcement. They may be subject to detention, deportation as well as fines, possible criminal penalties associated with living and working illegally here in the Kingdom of Thailand.