International airports in Thailand have come alive over the past week, with more than 12,000 travellers flying in, mostly from 63 countries which have been exempted from quarantine or area restrictions.
If this momentum continues, the total number of incoming travellers this month is likely to overtake the total for the past 19 months, which saw zero tourists during the first nationwide lockdown in the second quarter of last year.
It will also be a big leap from the four months of sandbox programmes, which have seen Phuket and Koh Samui attract 12,000-18,000 international tourists per month.
The current flow of tourists might create a positive vibe for the travel industry, but it is still in stark contrast to the pre-pandemic era, which saw over 3 million tourists on average visit Thailand every month.
Before the sandbox programme kicked off on July 1 this year, the government vowed to bring back at least 100,000 international tourists through this scheme during its first three months.
However, after four months of countless hiccups from unsettled regulations, the total number turned out to be far below expectations, with around 63,000 foreign visitors coming through this scheme.
The sandbox, therefore, helped shape the minimal requirements of the new entry scheme, called “Test & Go”, that removes both mandatory quarantine and area restrictions for travellers from countries on the exempted list. The eligible countries will be updated biweekly, meaning more countries might be added in the future.
Fourteen of 15 countries that contributed the most revenue to Thai tourism in 2019 are on the list, with just Russia, which is still overwhelmed with new cases, missing.
As a result, the tourism outlook should be promising thanks to the relaxation of regulations. But in reality, bookings nationwide have not dramatically picked up, which is in line with many experts’ forecasts that a full tourism recovery might not be seen any time soon.
Moreover, as more countries start to loosen travel restrictions, Thailand might not be the only option for tourists to choose from, but will become one of several options for those who want to venture overseas.
Source - BangkokJack
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