Thailand sees first trickle of tourists in October as curbs ease

By Orathai Sriring

 

A man walks on an almost empty beach which usually crowed with tourists following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Pattaya, Thailand March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand recorded its first 1,201 foreign tourists in October since a ban in April aimed at averting coronavirus outbreaks, as the country gradually opens up to a select number of visitors to help its struggling, tourism-reliant economy.

 

Southeast Asia's second-largest economy contracted 6.4% in the third quarter from a year earlier after the second quarter's 12.1% slump as most virus restrictions were eased, but an absence of tourists is limiting the recovery.

 

The 1,201 foreign visitors in October is a fraction of the 3.07 million arrivals in the same month last year.

 

Tourism ministry data showed the latest visitors included 471 from China, 231 from neighbouring Cambodia, 178 from Middle East countries and 116 from Europe, all travelling on special 90-day visas that require two weeks of quarantine.

 

Thailand's entry restrictions have helped keep its coronavirus case tally to less than 4,000.

 

It plans to restart talks with China on a travel bubble to boost an economy the government predicts will shrink by 6% this year.

 

But the country has yet to agree any such arrangements and previous plans were abandoned in August after coronavirus cases in Asia increased.

 

New outbreaks have seen several other travel bubbles between Asia-Pacific countries aborted or fail to take off, including between New Zealand and Australia, and Hong Kong and Singapore.

 

In January-October 2020, the number of foreign tourists in Thailand dropped 79.5% to 6.69 million - there were zero tourists recorded in April-September.

 

The state planning agency has forecast 6.7 million foreign tourists this year after last year's revised record 39.9 million visitors who spent 1.91 trillion baht ($63 billion), or about 11.3% of gross domestic product (GDP).

 

It predicts only 5 million foreign visitors in 2021.

 

($1 = 30.33 baht)

 

(Reporting by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Martin Petty)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-26

 

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12 minutes ago, webfact said:

It plans to restart talks with China on a travel bubble to boost an economy the government predicts will shrink by 6% this year.

be careful what you wish for, look at the Singapore/Hong Kong travel bubble situation, it says it all

 

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-singapore-travel-bubble-000511401.html

How much risk will a vital hub of global commerce entertain to open an important chunk of the economy? None, appears to be the answer, judging by the suspension of the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble on the eve of its debut.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-singapore-bubble-delay-055311379.html

Hong Kong, Singapore bubble delay highlights hurdles to travel recovery

 

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A delay to Asia's first travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore has hit the shares of their flag carriers and highlighted the challenges facing the global travel industry as it tries to rebound from the pandemic.

The arrangement was postponed on Saturday, one day before it was due to launch, after Hong Kong reported a jump in coronavirus cases.

It's pretty obvious by now most if not all countries are waiting for the vaccine rollout before international travel gets moving of any noticeable degree. 

I have travelled around a fair bit since my return to LOS in late Sept.

 

All the hotels i have stayed only have Thai families very little expats and those are with Thai families.

I think this article is absolute crock shiiitee.

If there has been 1200+ tourists i would be gobsmacked 

Time to drop the paranoia.  No one else seems to have noticed that the deaths per million in all SE and E Asian countries is an order of magnitude less than Europe and the Americas.

45 minutes ago, chasboyuk said:

If there has been 1200+ tourists i would be gobsmacked 

Be fair, it probably included 800 departing !

Where have they got these figures from? Totally different from anything else I've seen.

A better headline would read something like:

 

Thailand sees 0.05% of last year's tourist numbers arrive in October as curbs ease

 

With a sub-heading along the lines of:

 

Hopes rise for 0.08% to arrive in November

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

It plans to restart talks with China on a travel bubble

the sooner the better 

1 hour ago, chasboyuk said:

1200+ tourists i

you ex-pats that have jumped through the hoops and have wife and family here?

The numbers never add up. I recently returned on a flight with 45-60 passengers and  I did not see anyone that looked to be on a holiday.

And we were NOT, just returning ex-pats. And what a pile of you know what to achieve that.????

I think the 471 foreigners were the Chinese tourist/ business people we heard about. Baring the 100 odd Europeans who were probably expats getting back to their families and home, the rest were most probably medical tourists from Middle East and Cambodia, figures sound right to me. The 6.7 million were the tourists  entering  in the first quarter of 2020. Once the expats get back to Thailand , there will be hardly any tourists trying the SETV or STV . There won’t be a high season and that’s when the real problems will begin. 

Ha ha........  Finally a confession......." tourism-reliant economy ".   

2 hours ago, madmitch said:

Where have they got these figures from? Totally different from anything else I've seen.

 

Particularly since they previously announced - less than two weeks ago - that only 331 people entered on the STV in October. 1201 might be the total number of foreigners who arrived during the month, but only 417 of them (per TAT) entered on any type of tourist visa, and of those my guess is that 0% were actual "tourists" - they were people with homes or families or lives here who couldn't get a COE through any other means.

 

i would also bet dollars to donuts that the 231 Cambodians were laborers, not tourists.

Edited November 26, 20205 yr by khunjeff

4 hours ago, Sharp said:

It's pretty obvious by now most if not all countries are waiting for the vaccine rollout before international travel gets moving of any noticeable degree. 

The problem for anyone from Europe or the US is that even if we are vaccinated we would still need to quarantine . there’s no evidence that tells us that we do not infect others when vaccinated. you are only protecting yourself. you could be a carrier. unless everyone in Thailand is vaccinated tourists will still be subject to quarantine . please tell me i’m wrong because I wish to return but will not quarantine for 2 weeks alone. no way. 

1.201 tourists... a trickle...? It's not even a flash in the pan. Get real, folks!!!!!!!!!!

Thailand - hub of delusion.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand recorded its first 1,201 foreign tourists in October since a ban in April aimed at averting coronavirus outbreaks, as the country gradually opens up to a select number of visitors to help its struggling, tourism-reliant economy.

I'm speechless... 

1 hour ago, terryofcrete said:

The problem for anyone from Europe or the US is that even if we are vaccinated we would still need to quarantine . there’s no evidence that tells us that we do not infect others when vaccinated. you are only protecting yourself. you could be a carrier. unless everyone in Thailand is vaccinated tourists will still be subject to quarantine . please tell me i’m wrong because I wish to return but will not quarantine for 2 weeks alone. no way. 

I think that's probably right. Even with a vaccine a person can still contract or spread the virus. There have been very few details as to what 70 or 90 or 95% effectiveness means. Is that the percentage chance of avoiding contracting the virus, percentage chance of having lesser symptoms? Reduced chance of dying? If its been clarified I must have missed it. I am betting mandatory vaccination to travel but not necessarily resulting in removal of masks, social distancing, quarantine of travelers. I hope I'm wrong though.

Think traffic, stray dogs and prostitutes, scam taxi drivers are biggest hazard for tourists in Thailand ????

Must have missed this easing probably fell asleep ????

Nice to see they admit "tourism-dependent".... now that they are no longer "fat and happy" with tourists!  Maybe the Thai people will appreciate expats again!  We certainly appreciate them!   

I love Thailand but I am going to stay in the good ole USA until the quarantine requirements are dropped. Quarantine is pretty much 14 days of hell for a guy like me, regardless of how luxurious the room is. Hopefully the vaccine puts an end to all this Bulshovic, but I'm not going to flinch if the theater goes on for another year.

18 hours ago, webfact said:

231 from neighbouring Cambodia

Uh, these visitors are not here for tourism, I'm sure.

16 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Be fair, it probably included 800 departing !

Business people and visiting dignitaries included.

19 hours ago, webfact said:

Tourism ministry data showed the latest visitors included 471 from China, 231 from neighbouring Cambodia, 178 from Middle East countries and 116 from Europe, all travelling on special 90-day visas that require two weeks of quarantine.

So that is 471 businessmen looking for cheap property, 231 coming here to work and 294 "aliens" normally resident here prepared to pay and jump through the hoops to get back to their homes, families and businesses or get medical treatment...

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by herfiehandbag

14 hours ago, Bluedan said:

I think that's probably right. Even with a vaccine a person can still contract or spread the virus. There have been very few details as to what 70 or 90 or 95% effectiveness means. Is that the percentage chance of avoiding contracting the virus, percentage chance of having lesser symptoms? Reduced chance of dying? If its been clarified I must have missed it. I am betting mandatory vaccination to travel but not necessarily resulting in removal of masks, social distancing, quarantine of travelers. I hope I'm wrong though.

 

You're quite right, the meaning of the "effectiveness" statistics have not been explained well. The best description I've read was this article from Time, which said:

 

"[I]t’s important to understand what effectiveness means in [Pfizer's] and Moderna’s studies. Both measured their vaccines’ ability to prevent COVID-19 disease, not to stop infection from the virus.... But some people can be infected and never develop any symptoms, and in both the Pfizer and Moderna studies, these people would not have been tested.

 

"That means that the study did not necessarily compare how many total infections there were among those getting the vaccine and those receiving a placebo. For now, the 94.5% efficacy refers to the fact that among those who tested positive for COVID-19, the vaccine protected that percentage of people from getting disease v preventing them from getting infected with the virus in the first place."

 

 

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by khunjeff

1 hour ago, khunjeff said:

 For now, the 94.5% efficacy refers to the fact that among those who tested positive for COVID-19, the vaccine protected that percentage of people from getting disease v preventing them from getting infected with the virus in the first place."

 

 

Interesting. But we already know that a significant proportion of people exposed to the virus don't get sick (without any vaccination) presumably due to prior immunity. So it has me scratching my head how they can calculate or claim this level of effectiveness. 

When will they stop to call these people tourists ?

Here in Pattaya I see more and more new faces and also old snowbirds at my condominium complex. I also see an increasing number of Farangs walking from bars with a personal entertainer. 

 

It would be interesting to know how many tourists arrive on which visa from which country. Also it would be interesting to know how many of them tested positive and what happened with them. We get the daily statistics about people that have Corona. Why are tourists not included? 

23 hours ago, chasboyuk said:

I have travelled around a fair bit since my return to LOS in late Sept.

 

All the hotels i have stayed only have Thai families very little expats and those are with Thai families.

I think this article is absolute crock shiiitee.

If there has been 1200+ tourists i would be gobsmacked 

 

It is possible that these famous tourists have also been counted expats who have returned with family to Thailand, so tourists are annual tourists but what matters are the numbers, this is Thailand where noting is seriously.