Explainer | Why Thailand’s 10-day coronavirus quarantine rule is sparking hope for tourism
- Thailand has reduced quarantine for unvaccinated tourists from 14 to 10 days
- The restrictions will ease further in the coming months but would-be travellers still need to consider their home city’s rules
It is the first Southeast Asian country to reduce quarantine restrictions to speed up the recovery of its tourism sector, which has so far seen millions forced out of work and has plunged the country’s GDP to the lowest in the region.
The announcement was issued ahead of Thailand’s annual Songkran, or water festival, which takes place from April 10-18. While last year’s event was cancelled, the government is hoping to boost domestic tourism with this year’s Songkran. It will allow some celebrations to go ahead, but has banned the spraying of water guns in what has been described as the world’s biggest water fight.
What are Thailand’s rules exactly?
Visitors from almost all countries including the rest of Asia will only need to quarantine for 10 days from this month, while those who have completed their full vaccination course and have received a certificate only need to do seven days.
The rule does not apply to travellers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana and Tanzania, who will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine to prevent the spread of the South African variant of the coronavirus, according to the government.
It gets better. The government intends to do away with quarantine completely by next year, as it banks on more people being vaccinated.
From July, Phuket will get a boost when anyone who has been vaccinated will not need to quarantine, while those who have not received a jab must quarantine for seven days.
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To prepare, the popular resort island hopes to fully vaccinate more than 400,000 people by end-June. “The population of Phuket is about 400,000 and there are almost 200,000 workers in the tourism sector as well as migrant workers. We plan to vaccinate 80 per cent of them in three months,” said Vachira Phuket Hospital director Chalermpong Sukontapol. Authorities hope about 2 million foreign tourists, mostly from China and Europe, will visit this year.
From October, vaccinated tourists can go to Krabi, Phang Nga, Samui, Pattaya and Chiang Mai without having to quarantine. From January 2022, this rule will apply to the whole country of more than 60 million, in a bid to revive tourism which has been a key driver of growth, accounting for about 11 to 12 per cent of the economy. Last year, foreign tourist arrivals fell to 6.7 million from 40 million in 2019.
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Will tourists come? What do businesses think?
Tourism industry insiders welcomed the news.
“It’s still quarantine even if it’s a few days less, but it should be good news for travellers amid the negative global economy,” said Piyapat Suban na Ayudhya, CEO of Thailand Longstay Management, a tourism company in which the government holds a 30 per cent stake.
“But April is a low season in Thailand for European tourists since they usually visit between September and March.”
About 95 per cent of Thailand’s foreign arrivals are tourists so a 10-day quarantine might not help bring them back that much
About 136 hotels in Thailand offer quarantine packages priced from 25,000 – 200,000 baht (US$797-6,382) for a 15-night stay including meals, according to travel blog Thai on Tours.
Wichit Prakobkosol, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said the 10-day quarantine would help foreign visitors who are businesspeople or those visiting relatives, but he was sceptical about whether it would bring in tourists.
“About 95 per cent of Thailand’s foreign arrivals are tourists so a 10-day quarantine might not help bring them back that much.”
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However, Wichit said Thailand had an advantage in kick-starting the new quarantine rule ahead of many other countries. He urged the government to include Bangkok in the list of provinces that will allow tourists to bypass quarantine in October since it is an aviation hub.
“About 90 per cent of foreign tourists in Pattaya arrive there from Bangkok and to fly to other provinces you need to transfer in Bangkok,” he said.
Wichit expects some 6 million foreign tourists in Thailand this year if Bangkok is included in the scheme by October, but only half that number if it is not.
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What are the concerns?
As of March 30, the country had vaccinated 180,000 people but hopes to administer doses to about half of its population, or 33 million people, by year-end.
Then there is the question of whether people will travel if their home cities still have harsh quarantine rules. For example, Hong Kong has a 21-day hotel quarantine for arrivals, though authorities have promised to ease restrictions for those who have been vaccinated, and also launch travel bubbles with other locations.
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Chanapan Kaewklachaiyawut, a Bangkok operator for Chinese tour groups, said it would take some time before his business is up and running again.
“It is a good thing that Thailand plans to reopen but if China does not have a compatible policy, it would not work for me because I only wait for China to confirm which groups of travellers will be allowed to travel again.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
