Team News Riveting
The Thailand government is mooting a plan to allow selective long-stay tourists who agree to spend 14 days in quarantine upon landing.
It may allow long-stay tourists from next month.
More than half of Thailand’s 60,000-plus hotels and guest houses still close since the government sealed the national borders in April. The waiver on interest payments offered to hotels and resorts owed to banks would also end in October.
The hotel industry in Thai seems primed for a Covid-19 fire sale.
Adding to hoteliers’ woes is the murky future of Thailand’s tourism industry, with the enduring lack of a Covid vaccine and the Thai government’s reluctance to reopen the country to mass tourism given the resurgence of the pandemic in other countries.
Only selective long-stay tourists who agree to spend 14 days in quarantine upon landing may be allowed starting in October.
Thailand’s economy is unusually dependent on tourism, accounting for an estimated 18 per cent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP), with 12 per cent of that recently contributed by foreign tourists. Tourism revenues hit an estimated 1.9 trillion baht (US$62 billion) in 2019.
The sector had been one of the few success stories and expected to rebound in the next two to three years given the right circumstances.
