The attempt to return the covid restrictions turned into complete chaos for Thailand. Sad visual experience shows that an “individual”, on the scale of one country, an attempt to return the covid restrictions will only turn into chaos, mass cancellations of tours, and the urgent need to “roll back”. Also among the consequences of the tsunami of mass cancellations of tours are the financial and image losses of Thailand.
We will remind you that the main goal of Thailand was to prevent an outbreak of covid due to the return of Chinese tourists — and more than 3,000 of them arrived in the kingdom on Monday 09.01 on the first day alone. However, to introduce measures similar to European or American ones — and to send only Chinese tourists for mass testing tourists – Thailand turned out to be simply afraid: the Chinese authorities would consider it discrimination and would introduce fierce sanctions against Thailand.
However, the decision to introduce covid restrictions was made on the fly, and maybe even in a panic, and was adjusted several times in a row. Initially, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said that travelers aged 18 and over who do not hold Thai citizenship must provide a vaccination certificate confirming that they have received two vaccinations against the vaccine, or a certificate of recovery from Covid within the past six months (180 days). Then the first relaxations began – in the requirements, a mysterious “certificate from a doctor” appeared, which was supposed to confirm “why unvaccinated tourists are not vaccinated.” Who and how could issue such a certificate, in what form and in what language, and how to confirm that the tourist did not “draw” it himself, remained unclear.
The information appeared that the unvaccinated could still enter Thailand, but some kind of “selective testing” would be conducted among them.
Apparently, at this stage, a “tsunami of cancellations” of tours had already begun, and the Thai tourism business demanded that the government come to its senses. At the same time, the chaos was explained by the ill-conceived policy of the Thai authorities, which tried to adjust the changes to maintain the flow of tourists from “non-Chinese markets”.
As a result, the “new solution” did not work for half a day: let’s recall, Thailand quickly “backtracked” on the return of the covid restrictions: the new rules did not have time to work for half a day when the government officially announced their cancellation. Thailand’s Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has issued a statement officially ending the policy requiring visitors to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19. He cited the sufficient level of immunization in China and around the world as the reason.