The Thai government could follow in the footsteps of its rivals – Turkey, Dubai and the Maldives – and abandon testing foreign tourists for coronavirus in a month. This can happen under one condition – if after the first month of resumption of the travel program Test & Go there is no new surge in morbidity and mortality, quoted the initiatives of the Ministry of Tourism of Thailand, local media.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand plans to continue discussions on tourist bubbles with short-distance routes after the resumption of this week’s tourism program Test & Go. The Kingdom’s Tourism Council (TCT) has called for a relaxation of the PCR testing regime to bring back at least 5 million holidaymakers this year.
First, the country of smiles wants to resume initiatives to create travel bubbles, especially with neighbors – Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. They are the ones who create huge cross-border traffic, said Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. He said the issue could be discussed when Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha receives his Malaysian counterpart in Thailand later this month. The ministry plans to visit Beijing at this month’s Winter Olympics and now wants to take the opportunity to get more information from the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism regarding the travel agreement.
To obtain a permit to Thailand on February 1, the first day of the Test & Go scheme, 35,046 tourists registered, the vast majority of whom were 31,343, who chose the facilitated scheme of entry, said Thailand’s TAT Governor Yutasak Supa. . As hotels must confirm their Thailand Pass booking using the new Thailand Pass Hotel & Swap system, as of February 1, 20% of guests had confirmed it. 30 hours are given to hotels for this. Otherwise, the application for a pass to the country will be rejected, and the tourist will have to submit another application.
As TCT Vice President Wichit Prakobgosol rightly pointed out, although the tourism sector is “recovering”, strict testing rules are a major obstacle to growth, as they scare away tourists, forcing them to choose areas with milder entry conditions. The expert cited areas that do not require PCR analysis upon arrival. These are Dubai, Maldives and Turkey – popular destinations among Ukrainians. Now these resorts can attract more tourists than in 2019 to the pandemic, and such a policy of reopening has not strengthened their cunning statistics.
In this regard, the expert said: “If after the first month of renewal of the Test & Go program there is no new surge in morbidity and mortality, the government should consider abolishing the requirement for PCR testing. If that happens, at least 5 million tourists are expected to visit the country. ”
Meanwhile, the Phuket authorities, finding “kovids” among the visitors, have decided to tighten the conditions for foreign guests – vacationers under the renewed Test & Go program will have to make a financial commitment to repeat the kovid test on the fifth day of stay in the country. Details in the article “Phuket issued a decree on new strict rules for the entry of foreign tourists.”
The recent TCT Tourism Confidence Index in the fourth quarter of last year was 47, up from seven in the third quarter. However, this level of confidence is weak compared to 62 in the same period in 2020. The index surveyed 740 tourism-related operators between November 20 and December 10, 2021. A value below 100 indicates low confidence in tourism.
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