Destinations known | As Thailand prepares to reopen to tourists, will Bangkok’s red-light district stay dark?
- From July, Thailand will start to welcome international travellers, probably from those places that have successfully put down the pandemic
- But special ‘long-stay packages’ that siphon visitors from cities to isolated islands could have a lasting effect on go-go bars
Thailand is all set to open its borders to travellers from overseas on July 1, although with coronavirus caveats. On May 28, the Bangkok Post reported that the nation’s state of emergency, in place to stop the spread of Covid-19, was “likely to end” on June 30, and with it, “all business and activity lockdowns”. Admission to the Land of Smiles is expected to be granted only to those from places that have successfully put down the pandemic, though.
“We are not going to open all at once,” the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Yuthasak Supasorn, recently told CNN Travel. “We are still on high alert, we just can’t let our guards down yet. We have to look at the [tourists’] country of origin to see if their situation has truly improved.”
02:16
Future still dim for red-light districts despite Thailand’s plan to restart tourism amid Covid-19
Micro breaks – millennial-speak for weekends away – are also expected to be off the agenda, with Thailand “offering special long-stay packages in isolated and closed areas where health monitoring can be easily controlled”, according to Yuthasak. Sounds a little like quarantine to us, albeit in tropical surrounds (Koh Phangan and Koh Samui have been proposed as two such places). And it could mean that the country’s capital, and its infamous go-go bars, remains off-limits, potentially extinguishing the red lights of Patpong forever.
Across the country, bars and clubs have been closed since mid-March. The reopening of such establishments will not be “considered” until June 15, reported online newspaper Pattaya Mail. In light of changing perspectives regarding health and hygiene as well as shifting attitudes towards sex tourism, there are those who wonder whether visitors will ever throng to Bangkok’s narrow, neon-lit sois in search of “entertainment” again, especially if social distancing is here to stay.
“This kind of place will be the last to reopen,” a dancer at the Barbar Fetish Club told Reuters. “Even when it does reopen, customers will be worried about their safety.”