Thailand tourism situation

[buksida]

Roadblock for Pattaya's reopening plan
The Public Health Ministry is baulking at Pattaya's plans to allow vaccinated foreign holidaymakers to return in the fourth quarter of the year without the need to quarantine.

The seaside town recently proposed what officials dubbed "Pattaya, Move on", a plan to welcome back tourists in the peak season after giving Covid-19 vaccinations to more than two-thirds of residents and hospitality workers.

The scheme would allow fully vaccinated foreign tourists to enter Pattaya without the need to quarantine for 14 days, even though they would have to remain in Bang Lamung and Sattahip districts for seven days before being allowed to travel elsewhere.

However, Thanes Supornsahasrungsri, acting president of the Chon Buri Tourism Council, said on Friday the ministry had voiced concerns about the idea.

Unlike the resort island of Phuket, Pattaya is more of an open town and health officials feared it would be difficult to regulate the movement of tourists, Mr Thanes admitted.

He said Pattaya still hoped to prepare for a full reopening by facilitating a "soft reopening" during August and September with the "sealed route" restriction.

This would require even fully vaccinated foreign tourists to stay at their hotels for three to five days after which they could travel to pre-approved places which have a Safety & Health Administration (SHA) hygienic standards certification.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ening-plan

The ministry of idiots needs to understand that Thailand can forget about any foreign tourism until they vaccinate 50 million of their own people.

[buksida]

TAT proposes ways to loosen quarantine
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) aims to offer city bubble and activity-based travel agreement in sandbox areas to ease quarantine requirements in Thailand and the visitor's home country.

"Even though international arrivals can visit sandbox areas with quarantine-free entry, they might face quarantine back home as Thailand is still perceived as high risk," said TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn.

The city bubble, a travel agreement which involves low-risk cities, will allow more tourists to visit safe destinations in the sandbox programme in Thailand.

Mr Yuthasak said the travel bubbles under sealed routes can be conducted based on activities such as wedding bubbles and baby bubbles for those seeking IVF treatment.

The agency will work with the Foreign Ministry to communicate with embassies in Thailand that sandbox sites like Phuket and Koh Samui are safe with low numbers of new cases.

He said the TAT will build travel confidence and encourage other countries to ease travel restrictions with Thailand in order to loosen quarantine requirements when tourists return home.

The potential markets for bilateral travel agreements are Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam. However, the discussion had to put on hold after the new outbreak in Thailand.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/21 ... quarantine

Why anyone in their right mind would spend thousands on a holiday to a country where everything is closed, you cant travel around, are tracked and traced like a criminal, and cant even get a drink with a meal in the handful of restaurants that have survived is beyond me. Phuket and Samui are ghost towns, nothing is open at all, and the center of Hua Hin looks like Pripyat without the wildlife. The geniuses at TAT still think people are falling over themselves to get here though.

[Big Boy]

Why anyone in their right mind would spend thousands on a holiday to a country where everything is closed, you cant travel around, and cant even get a drink with a meal is beyond me. Phuket and Samui are ghost towns, nothing is open at all. The TAT geniuses still think people are falling over themselves to get here though.

Some Phuket restrictions were lifted yesterday, surprise, surprise. In particular sale of alcohol in restaurants.

Phuket.png (438.83 KiB) Viewed 1034 times

However, I still can't see it attracting the thousands they are expecting.

[buksida]

That's nice for the one in ten restaurants that remain open in these tourist zones (and still no bars). What about Prachuap province? (though I notice we're always first to crack down and last to lift them). There will be no "recharging Hua Hin" if everything remains closed.

[Big Boy]

Yes, I agree, in the likes of Phuket there is a desire to succeed. In PKK we seem to be afraid of our own shadows.

Yes the stats don't look too good, but the majority of the latter problem is confined to 3 clusters, which has fields around them as natural boundaries.

The other thing with our Governor is his orders tend to arrive several days late.

[handdrummer]

The problem with bubbles, is that they burst.

[hhinner]

That's nice for the one in ten restaurants that remain open in these tourist zones (and still no bars). What about Prachuap province? (though I notice we're always first to crack down and last to lift them). There will be no "recharging Hua Hin" if everything remains closed.

I can't see Recharge Hua Hin happening very soon after the totally unexpected vaccine shortfall.

There's also a report in BP this morning about the AZ resistant South Africa variant spreading up from the south. What countries will allow tourism to a place where that's on the loose?

[STEVE G]

Why anyone in their right mind would spend thousands on a holiday to a country where everything is closed, you cant travel around, are tracked and traced like a criminal, and cant even get a drink with a meal in the handful of restaurants that have survived is beyond me. Phuket and Samui are ghost towns, nothing is open at all, and the center of Hua Hin looks like Pripyat without the wildlife. The geniuses at TAT still think people are falling over themselves to get here though.

Yes, in Europe the framework is coming into place to allow free travel within the Schengen area with an electronic vaccine certificate from July 1st which then opens up all of the traditional Mediterranean resorts, so I don't see many people without connections to Thailand bothering to jump through hoops to get there.

[PeteC]

I think all your going to see in Phuket will be Chinese, if their controllers let them loose up there.

[hhinner]

If there's a hint of the beta variant in Phuket I don't think the Chinese will risk letting their citizens be exposed. Anyway don't Chinese still have to quarantine on return?

[caller]

Does anyone know the current rules for Chinese wishing to travel abroad right now? I'm assuming they are barred from travelling, but can't find anything on the net. Obviously this will impact on Thailand.

Interesting to learn that there are still outbreaks happening in China and that they have vaccinated about 70% of their people with their own vaccines.

It seems they won't be opening their borders for foreign travel until next year, as opposed to business.

[HHTel]

https://www.trip.com/travel-restrictions-covid-19/

The above gives all restrictions for each country. Open up 'partially restricted' on Mainland China. Info is said to be updated as of today. Where vaccines are mentioned, they only recognise their own vaccines.

[caller]

https://www.trip.com/travel-restrictions-covid-19/

The above gives all restrictions for each country. Open up 'partially restricted' on Mainland China. Info is said to be updated as of today. Where vaccines are mentioned, they only recognise their own vaccines.

Thanks, but that info is pretty easy to find and I found very up to date reports .But nothing about whether Chinese citizens in China are restricted from travelling abroad for a holiday.

[handdrummer]

https://www.trip.com/travel-restrictions-covid-19/

The above gives all restrictions for each country. Open up 'partially restricted' on Mainland China. Info is said to be updated as of today. Where vaccines are mentioned, they only recognise their own vaccines.

Thanks, but that info is pretty easy to find and I found very up to date reports .But nothing about whether Chinese citizens in China are restricted from travelling abroad for a holiday.

There only allowed to travel for defection.

[Gregjam]

I have PRC Officers and Crew on my current ship and they face strict quarantine when they leave the ship in China (no shore leave, only join or leave the vessel) so I would imagine any tourists would also face quarantine on their return. I think that there will be some national celebrations in China in July, a 100th anniversary of something and the authorities are being very restrictive in any interaction between the ship and shore so it would not surprise me if this extended to all travellers. I get the impression there are some Covid issues there at the moment but very little information is released which only serves to fuel speculation.