Coronavirus Thailand

Despite special tourist visa approval, hoteliers remain skeptical about reopening

Published

7 months ago

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Despite special tourist visa approval, hoteliers remain skeptical about reopening | Thaiger

As news comes of the cabinet approving a special long-term tourist visa scheme, hoteliers are remaining skeptical about reopening due to the lack of clarity in the recent announcement, which will reportedly take effect next month. The president of the Thai Hotels Association’s southern chapter says more hoteliers will consider reopening if the government gives further information about the plan in terms of prospective markets, arrival dates, origin countries, and flights.

Such details would allow hotels to prepare themselves ahead of time to offer services as alternative state quarantine premises as at least 60 hotels in Phuket are awaiting approval to operate as such a facility.

Around 90 percent of Phuket hotels reportedly remain closed and are revising their plans on a monthly basis to ensure any future income will not fall behind operation costs. In Chon Buri, the Tourism Council says only half of the 200 registered hotels have reopened, with up to 20 hotels applying for ASQ certification.

Another issue keeps hoteliers on standby as most international flights are currently only operating at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, giving foreigners entering Thailand limited options for undergoing a state quarantine. Apart from landing in the country’s capital, tourism-related agencies also have to find appropriate marketing campaigns that would target visitors willing to comply with the 14-day mandatory quarantine requirements upon arrival.

Areas outside of Bangkok will need special transportation allowances set up for those entering through Suvarnabhumi to be transferred to their end destinations without being exposed to large groups of people.

Otherwise, as seen in the North with only 30% of hotels having reopened-some with only a 10% occupancy rate, hoteliers await further details of the scheme which is reportedly set to run between October 2020 to November 2021.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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News Categories: Coronavirus Thailand Tourism

6 Comments

Mike frenchie

Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 6:46 pm

This plan is a non sense. Few retired guys and then it is over… Who will ship 2000 billion to keep the tourism industry alive (what foreigners were spending)? Nobody… Prepare for banks ‘pretending and extending loans’ until the system cannot hide its lies.

Reply
Harsh vardhan saraf

Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 6:48 pm

Please allow indian also ,please think about indian

Reply
EdwardV

Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 7:11 pm

Not surprised the hotels are skeptical, I would be too in their shoes. With only 1,200 tourists per month scattered all over Thailand what hotel in their right mind would open? They might. Get a couple , they might get none. Either way those are bottle odds. At least as a quarantine hotel they have more certainty. Regardless the hotels have to know the scheme is designed to fail the industry as a whole. No one is going to makes a living at only 1,200 tourist a month. The numbers are so low as to be insulting to the industry. On a side note Hawaii is opening on October 15 with only a pre travel test, no quarantine. Options , it’s all about options …

Reply
Jen Sen

Friday, September 18, 2020 at 7:17 am

I wish the Thais well. It would be nice if the Thai government better treated the expats who are already here. Remember: a happy farang spends more.

Reply
TS

Friday, September 18, 2020 at 8:04 am

Don’t forget, the low paid staff of these select hotels will probably need to commit to quarantining as well as the thousands of guests comming here for a minimum of 90 days. What a joke-‘cept no one’s laughing.

Reply
Patrick Kelly

Sunday, November 15, 2020 at 11:58 pm

When will Thailand open up to tourism? When there is extremely limited possibility of COVID transmission.
That’s 2022 most likely. By then the economy will be in shambles.

Reply

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Coronavirus Thailand

One more Covid-19 death in Thailand

Published

1 month ago

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Andrew Reeve

One more Covid-19 death in Thailand | Thaiger

Photo via Facebook/อนุทิน ชาญวีรกูล

One more person has died from Covid-19 in Thailand and 78 new cases reported. The total number of deaths now stands at 86 with 26,757 Coronavirus cases

The most recent death was a 56 year old Woman from the central province of Samut Sakhon. On February 19 she tested positive for Covid-19 and 4 days later she was put on a ventilator.

She had been in the hospital for several weeks and was also a diabetic according to the centre for Covid-19 situation administration. Her Symptoms had been a cough, fever, and muscle pain.

Of the 78 new cases, 11 cases were discovered from people who had arrived in the country and were already in quarantine. 34 cases were found through active case finding with the highest number of 32 located in the Samut Sakhon province. 33 cases were detected at outpatient departments, with the highest number (16 cases) also found in the Samut Sakhon province and 13 found in Bangkok.

Thailand, in total has had 26,172 cases, of which 26,086 have recovered with 86 having succumbed to the virus. Worldwide, 488,414 new cases and 9,361 additional deaths were recorded, bringing the world total to 119.6 million cases and 2.6 million deaths.

The United States has been the hardest hit with Covid-19 and has had 29.9 million cases and 545,544 deaths. Brazil is now the second worst-hit country in the world with 85,665 new cases and 2,216 deaths reported yesterday, increasing the total number of cases overall in the country to just short of 11.5 million. The total number of deaths in Brazil now stands at 275,105

India is now ranked third with 11,333,728 million total cases and 158,483 total deaths and Russia is ranked 4^th with 4,380,525 million cases and 91,696 deaths.

Source: Worldometer/Bangkok Post

Coronavirus News & Updates

10 new cases of Covid today in Thailand, all in quarantine

Published

5 months ago

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Thaiger

Thailand has 10 new cases of Covid-19 reported today by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). The infections were from those arriving from 8 different countries, with all being in quarantine. The new cases bring the total to 3,902 with the death toll remaining at 60. Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, US and India were the countries that the visitors have arrived from, with most having no symptoms upon entering Thailand.

A 55 year old from Germany who was a Dutch businessman tested positive in quarantine after arriving in Bangkok on November 6 without any symptoms.

A 30 year old Thai woman tested positive in quarantine with symptoms after arriving from Sweden on November 12 while a day later a 56 year old Swiss man tested positive after arriving from Switzerland with no symptoms. Another case was a 43 year old Thai masseuse who arrived from the Czech Republic on November 14. That person was also on the same flight as another previously confirmed case.

An engineer from Belgium tested positive after arriving on the same day as the Thai masseuse, and was on the same flight as another confirmed case. The Belgian displayed no symptoms. Again on the same day, a 15 year old Indian student tested positive after arriving in Bangkok. That student was also on a flight with a previously confirmed case.

2 Thai women, who also arrived on November 14 from the Netherlands tested positive. One was a 52 year old housewife with virus symptoms and the other was a 22 year old student with no symptoms. 2 more Thais returned from the US in which both tested positive on the same day as the others, with one displaying symptoms. The other, was a 61 year old retired official.

Globally, the amount of cases rose by 659,511 over the last 24 hours to 57.9 million. The death toll worldwide also rose to 1.37 million. The US remains as the country with the most cases, at 12.27 million, followed by India with just over 9 million. Thailand currently ranks 151st worldwide for the number of cases so far reported.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

Coronavirus Thailand

WHO praises Thailand for being successful model of Covid containment

Published

5 months ago

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Thaiger

The director of the World Health Organisation is praising Thailand for being a successful model of Covid-19 containment. Dr. Panprapha Yongtrakul, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health says the WHO director noted that despite Thailand having a population of 70 million with many densely populated cities, the total number of cases is less than 4,000 with only 60 deaths so far.

But she says that the success isn’t coincidental, but more of a result of over 40 years of investments by past and present governments to improve the public health infrastructure, including recruiting public health volunteers, which have played an important role in the regions during SARS and now Covid.

Today, Thailand is reporting 8 new cases of Covid-19, all arrivals from abroad, and undergoing state quarantine. Currently, the total number of cases is 3,874 with the death toll remaining at 60.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World