Thai government officials assessed the status of the country’s airports on Wednesday to welcome quarantine-free travellers, who are expected to return next month after nearly two years of stringent COVID-19 rules that halted their vital economic revenue, that is travel and tourism.
Beginning on November 1st, the country will allow vaccinated visitors from low-risk countries to return to popular sites such as Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
Prior to the pandemic, tourism was a major economic driver, accounting for 12 percent of the total GDP of Thailand. However, the tourism board predicts that international arrivals would fall to 100,000 this year, down from 40 million in 2019 before the outbreak.
Thailand experimented with reopening earlier this year on its resort island of Phuket, letting fully-vaccinated tourists to avoid Thailand’s mandated two-week quarantine as long as they stayed on the island.
On Wednesday, Saksiam Chidchob, the Thai Transport Minister said while on a visit to Bangkok’s Don Muang airport, that the wider reopening would be much easier for travellers, because testing upon arrival could be done at hotels and other lodgings rather than at the airport.
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