OPINION

 

Quarantines are killing Thailand’s tourism industry, and not even a long holiday can offset 14 days of isolation

• Despite reopening to long-stay tourists in October, Thailand attracted relatively few arrivals
• By comparison, the Maldives, which is quarantine-free, has recorded relatively respectable visitor numbers

Mercedes Hutton

 

For many prospective tourists, the prospect of spending 14 days in a hotel room is enough to put them off travelling altogether. Photo: Shutterstock

 

In the halcyon days of 2019, Thailand welcomed almost 40 million holiday­­makers from overseas. The average international hotel guest’s length of stay that year was 9.26 days, according to data platform Statista – precisely 4.74 days shorter than the quarantine period required from all visitors nowadays, which perhaps explains why so few tourists have taken the Land of Smiles up on its long-stay special tourist visa (STV) offer

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Launched in October to provide a lifeline to a depressed tourism-dependent economy, the STV scheme is open to travellers from all countries providing they present a negative result from a recent PCR test and isolate for 14 days on arrival. After quarantining at a government-approved hotel, tourists are free to roam for up to 90 days from their date of entry, with the option of extending the visa twice. In December, Thailand added the option of a shorter stay tourist visa, valid for a period of 60 days, with a 30-day extension allowed.

 

But news service Bloomberg reports that “Just 346 overseas visitors have entered the country on average each month on special visas since October,” citing figures provided by the Thailand Long­stay Company, which helps facilitate the travel permits. “That’s well below the government’s target of about 1,200 and a tiny fraction of the more than three million who came before the pandemic.”

 

Full story: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3120232/quarantines-are-killing-thailands-tourism-industry

 

 

-- © Copyright South China Morning Post 2021-02-03

 

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Finally the penny has dropped.

 

Edit. But not in the right camp.

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

Quarantines are killing Thailand’s tourism industry

You think? I mean really? Wow! What an epiphany that must have been when they worked it out?

but there also can be:

- quarantine on designed islands

- quarantine is a seaside resort with 1km perimeter, even with a beeping gps bracelet

- shorter then 14 days, especially those with vax or taking additional tests coming negative

- travel corridors, travel bubbles

- no quarantine for those who already had covid

 

mixture of those options, as well as many other options 

 

it's better to put into coma industry, which can be re-vived, than literally kill workers in this industry, their families and the rest of population

 

Passage without impendence or financial pummelling is the only way back for me ????   

They will have to open for vaccinated tourists from low risk countries, when next high season starts. Of course with tests before departure and on arrival. 

4 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

They will have to open for vaccinated tourists from low risk countries, when next high season starts. Of course with tests before departure and on arrival. 

 

Of course they do. They just cant keep closed and totally destroy tourism forever for the country.

 

Obviously after a significant amount of the Thai population is vaccinated, they have to open to low risk countries with tourists who have had the vaccine.

And I would be happy to have a test before i fly and on arrival if that was part of the condition to enter.

 

Just my opinion

 

 

The quarantine is certainly a deterrent but not the only problem with the Special Tourist Visa.

 

The mandatory :400/40 insurance  is at least as much of an issue.

7 minutes ago, Big Yuley said:

 

Of course they do. They just cant keep closed and totally destroy tourism forever for the country.

 

Obviously after a significant amount of the Thai population is vaccinated, they have to open to low risk countries with tourists who have had the vaccine.

And I would be happy to have a test before i fly and on arrival if that was part of the condition to enter.

 

Just my opinion

 

 

.....but that it might well be the end of 2022 before that ‘significant amount’ has been vaccinated.

49 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

You think? I mean really? Wow! What an epiphany that must have been when they worked it out?

Yes, it must have come as a complete surprise, like a bolt of lightning from nowhere. 

9 minutes ago, Big Yuley said:

And I would be happy to have a test before i fly and on arrival if that was part of the condition to enter.

And just where exactly do say 100,000 people a day wait for the test result at the arrival airport before released ? Planning to test on arrival is just plain nuts in the long run, Short term with 3 planes a day maybe , 200 planes a day and the logistics make it impossible !

19 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

They will have to open for vaccinated tourists from low risk countries, when next high season starts. Of course with tests before departure and on arrival. 

Why from low risk countries? A vaccine is a vaccine, no?

Comparisons to the Maldives isn't really apples with apples. Its a completely different tourism model.

Maldives is isolated self contained resorts, off the plane, 2 weeks in a self contained resort then back on the plane home.

 

1 minute ago, RichardColeman said:

And just where exactly do say 100,000 people a day wait for the test result at the arrival airport before released ? Planning to test on arrival is just plain nuts in the long run, Short term with 3 planes a day maybe , 200 planes a day and the logistics make it impossible !

Oh b ugger! , we didn't think of that. 

something interesting<
Singapore airlines will start Singapore- Phuket flights march 1st>
IF this happens, ( phuket airport is currently not open for international flights) we could get visitors from Australia and Singapore quarantining in Phuket..

and not having to go to Bangkok

and IF, they start the vaccine passports.

 

Yea, I know,  Lots of ifs

3 minutes ago, alyx said:

Why from low risk countries? A vaccine is a vaccine, no?

Vaccinated people can still carry the virus, but with a lower viral load and less symptoms. 

And government forced business closures are destroying both the foreign as well as the domestic segment of the Thai economy.
But?
Like globally, those government officials destroying the small and medium business sector continue to get a paycheck and live the good life.

7 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

Comparisons to the Maldives isn't really apples with apples. Its a completely different tourism model.

Maldives is isolated self contained resorts, off the plane, 2 weeks in a self contained resort then back on the plane home.

 

 

beat me to it.

 

might also add the type of client the maldives receives can only be found in the wettest dreams of our junta overlords.. $5K per night.. lol - those guys (and gals) wouldn't be seen dead here

 

worst case scenario in the maldives they isolate the island resort.. here its 1 month+ national lockdown and all the GDP losses that go with it

 

 

4 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Vaccinated people can still carry the virus, but with a lower viral load and less symptoms. 

Can you supply the source to support your statement regarding "lower viral load?" 
All I've heard from the vaccine companies is that the vaccine will lessen the symptom if you contract the virus.  Well, unless still wearing 1 or 2 or 3 or more masks after getting the vaccine the maybe the viral load will be lessened.  I'm hearing now that at least 3 masks may now be required by each potential Covid carriers in order to stem the tide.  Maybe 4 or 5 soon.

Isn't it high time to just shut up about tourism? You'd think that was the only casualty of this panic. Yeah, 9 percent of GDP comes from foreign tourists, but the vast majority of Thais (and expats living here) don't see anything from that and care less about missing out on coachloads of [deleted] tourists getting in everyone's way. Round our way, no-one wants mass tourism back.

Moreover, any of this hot air about letting people in with vaccinations is fiction unless/until IATA and "governments" agree on and implement a workable certification process. Only yesterday Europol had to issue a warning about "organised crime gangs selling fake Covid-negative certificates at airports, sometimes for as much as 300 euros each" after several people were caught at airports. Until there's a better system than handing over 250 baht just off KSR, all bets are off even for bona fide travellers, let alone largely unwelcome "tourists".

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Quarantines are killing Thailand’s tourism industry, and not even a long holiday can offset 14 days of isolation

 

Covid is killing people, and not even a long holiday can reduce the chances of that happening.

33 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

The quarantine is certainly a deterrent but not the only problem with the Special Tourist Visa.

 

The mandatory :400/40 insurance  is at least as much of an issue.

Why would you say that?  My standard travel insurance includes much more than those levels of cover, as long as I remain a tourist and limit my trips to 90 days at a time.

Or are you looking at long-stay in excess of that?

26 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

something interesting<
Singapore airlines will start Singapore- Phuket flights march 1st>
IF this happens, ( phuket airport is currently not open for international flights) we could get visitors from Australia and Singapore quarantining in Phuket..

and not having to go to Bangkok

and IF, they start the vaccine passports.

 

Yea, I know,  Lots of ifs

& the biggest IF is not to tell Auss gov your travel is just for a holiday

Otherwise to the end of the que for you

Did thailand take into consideration that most tourists wont come because not only quarantine in thailand but quarantine on the their home country.

 

Dont think many fancy 3 or 4 weeks of annual leave in quarantine hotels.

16 minutes ago, connda said:

Can you supply the source to support your statement regarding "lower viral load?" 
All I've heard from the vaccine companies is that the vaccine will lessen the symptom if you contract the virus.  Well, unless still wearing 1 or 2 or 3 or more masks after getting the vaccine the maybe the viral load will be lessened.  I'm hearing now that at least 3 masks may now be required by each potential Covid carriers in order to stem the tide.  Maybe 4 or 5 soon.

"If neutralizing antibodies from the vaccines do their jobs, the viral load in a person infected with SARS-CoV-2 is much lower than in those who haven’t been vaccinated. A lower viral load may mean that they are less likely to infect others with the same efficiency that an unvaccinated person may."

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/01/27/israeli-study-shows-majority-of-those-vaccinated-can-be-infected-by-sars-cov-2/?sh=5e0861986053

31 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

something interesting<
Singapore airlines will start Singapore- Phuket flights march 1st>
IF this happens, ( phuket airport is currently not open for international flights) we could get visitors from Australia and Singapore quarantining in Phuket..

and not having to go to Bangkok

and IF, they start the vaccine passports.

 

Yea, I know,  Lots of ifs

You wont get any tourists from australia. The oz govt wont let you fly out as a tourist.

32 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Vaccinated people can still carry the virus, but with a lower viral load and less symptoms. 

Heaven's mate exactly how long are you going to let that go on . If covid is supposedly here forever are you saying we will be only letting in fully tested tourists forever ? 

people all over the world are falling ill, losing their jobs, losing loved ones,spending their life savings and going broke, petrified to be outdoors and travel, airlines now requiring PCR test before boarding, virus keeps getting mutated, vaccines  may not be able to fight these mutations, there's uncertainty in the air..

 

So who the hell is going to travel half way around the world to sit in a red-light street bar with a drunk, loud, needy  middle aged  sex worker if there is a deadly virus and death in the air???

Tourism. Not needed.

 

1. The World Bank in news last week said the Thai Economy in 2021 will grow 4%. It grew 3.8% in 2019 with over 40 million tourist arrivals. So, no tourist needed.  The Economy is projected to grow more than  2019 with much less tourism.

 

2. "Finance Minister says economy must pivot away from tourism with a switch to S-Curve industries"

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/12/03/finance-minister-economy-pivot-from-tourism/

 

I believe the Finance Ministry more than the Tourism Ministry. All Tourist industry's are trying to keep their chin up; but I think think it is clear that the Government want to move away from Tourism; and is trying to placate the those with investments in the tourism with unrealistic tourism projections.

5 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Heaven's mate exactly how long are you going to let that go on . If covid is supposedly here forever are you saying we will be only letting in fully tested tourists forever ? 

I believe they'll keep that requirement until the pandemic has calmed down significantly , who knows, but probably at least a year is my guess.