Tourism News
Thailand tourism news, travel updates, visa policies, and destination highlights—stay informed on hospitality trends, cultural experiences, and major infrastructure projects. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for Thailand travel news.
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Starting a new life abroad is exciting—new culture, new lifestyle, and new chances to grow. But living far from home also means taking steps to protect your health in unfamiliar surroundings. Without the right coverage, even small health issues can...
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Samui tourism official calls for inter-provincial travel ban to flatten the curve prior to July re-opening
The president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui says the island is still pinning its hopes on a July 1 re-opening for vaccinated foreign tourists. Ratchaporn Poolsawadee remains optimistic, despite Thailand now battling a third wave of Covid-19, with Samui reporting 50 infections. He says vaccines are being rolled out out on Samui, although a number of doses have…
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‘One Night In Bangkok’, an unlikely hit about a bygone era in Thailand
“One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free” When ‘One Night In Bangkok’ was released in 1984 it was an unlikely hit. It was the opening song from a (at the time) little-known stage pop-opera called ‘Chess’. The song made Number 1 in South Africa, West Germany, Switzerland and Australia,…
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Thai Airways employee union push against forming a new airline
Plans to create a new national airline to replace the struggling Thai Airways are meeting oppositions from the employee union. The union insists that Thai Airways is a known brand worldwide and has contributed significantly to the economy of Thailand and deserves aid and rehabilitation. In the past, Thailand’s flagship international airline spent years as a state-owned property until the…
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Koh Samet to close from today for at least 2 weeks, Koh Chang may follow
The island of Koh Samet, in Thailand’s eastern Rayong province, is closing to visitors and non-residents for at least 14 days to help stop the spread of Covid-19. The province saw 21 new infections yesterday, with at least 1 being linked to Koh Samet. The shuttering is effective as of today with another popular island, Koh Chang, also possibly following…
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Government insists Phuket re-opening will go ahead as planned
The Thai government is adamant the planned re-opening of the southern island of Phuket to vaccinated foreign tourists will go ahead. However, with Covid-19 infections rising across the country, some tourism operators say they need more clarification on how. Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit insists the “Phuket sandbox” model is on track for July 1. “We have neither cancelled nor changed…
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Top 10 busiest airports: Atlanta bumped as China dominates list
After 22 consecutive years as the busiest airport in the world, Atlanta slips to number 2 while China and the United States dominated the entire top 10 list of the 2020 world’s busiest airports. With the covid-19 pandemic stifling travel around the world all the airports on the list saw massive drops in passengers and rankings climbed and fell and…
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Lumbini Airport aim to bring Buddhist Thais to Nepal
Nepal is hoping to attract Buddhist pilgrims from Thailand to the birthplace of Lord Buddha with the opening of the Lumbini Airport scheduled later this year. The area is an important Buddhist site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nepalese officials hope to attract Buddhist Thai travellers on sacred pilgrimage trips. The Nepal Tourism Board recently met with the Royal…
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Tourism officials revise revenue forecast, insist Phuket will re-open on schedule
The governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand admits it may need to revise its 2021 revenue forecast, but insists the Phuket “sandbox” project is still going ahead – and on time too. Yuthasak Supasorn says tourism officials will set a new revenue target, for both domestic and international tourists, as Thailand battles with a third wave of Covid-19. In…
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Thailand’s covid vaccine passport – will it only be used for travel?
Hi. Im Tim Newton. Just upfront saying that these are my personal opinions and don’t necessarily reflect that of The Thaiger. So today the Thai Government now has officially announced vaccine passports. The documents are going to be the next big thing in the long and winding Covid road. Firstly, before some comments, the details that we actually know. This…
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‘Entry Thailand’ website launched to facilitate process for international travellers
To facilitate the process for travellers entering Thailand, tourism officials have launched a website as a one-stop-shop to make arrangements to travel to Thailand including booking an alternative state quarantine hotel. As to who these travellers would be at this time, that hasn’t been made clear. The “Entry Thailand” website set up by the Tourism Authority of Thailand outlines 6…
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Thai hotels consider temporary shutdown amid low tourist demand
The president of the Thai Hotels Association says many properties are considering shutting down for the low season as a result of the Covid-19 resurgence. Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi says smaller hotels that don’t necessarily have the resources of the large chain properties are struggling with cash flow and crippled by low tourist demand. Many are considering shutting up shop between…
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World’s most travel-friendly passport list – 2021
The Henley Passport Index, which rates which passports are the most travel-friendly, has just released the list for 2021, with Japan once again at the top of the list. But the Index noted that this year’s international travel freedom comparison is mostly theoretical as the current Covid-19 situation continues to limit most international travel. With a Japanese passport, travellers can…
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Thailand’s 3rd wave wreaks havoc on the Tourism Restart Plan – where are we now?
OPINION by Andrew J Wood Thailand Ministers ponder the next steps to re-start it’s massive tourism industry, initially set for July 1, 2021 in Phuket. The plan may need to be overhauled as Phuket struggles to immunise the whole island in the wake of the third wave of hotspots. Phuket, prior to the third wave had already secured more than…
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Australia and New Zealand welcome the first passengers in the southern travel bubble
Whilst travel bubbles remain a bureaucratic nightmare for most SE Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand have opened their first green lanes since April last year, nearly 400 days. For the two countries it allows family and friends to re-unite. For New Zealand it opens the gates for its largest chunk of tourists. In 2019 some 1.5 million tourists visited New Zealand…
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Thai Hotel Association pushes “hospitels” – hotels as hospitals
With the third wave of Covid-19 ripping through Thailand, hospitals are rapidly filling up and the Thai Hotels Association has proposed “hospitels” as a creative solution. The portmanteau of “hospital” and “hotel” is the THA’s brainchild for creating more space for the growing number of Covid-19 infections that require treatment or at least observation as Thailand hits record daily case…
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Phuket’s July Sandbox no-quarantine model “needs a major revamp”
Thailand’s Sports and Tourism minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn is acknowledging that Phuket’s ‘Sandbox’ model for a no-quarantine re-opening in July will need “a major revamp”. As the Songkran travel bubble bursts and the monsoon season waves start to roll onto the island’s west coast beaches, Phuket’s scheduled July re-boot suddenly seems a long way off. Minister Phiphat says he plans to meet…
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Hotel blog suggests Phuket should push ahead with July reopening despite Covid surge
A hotel information blog is claiming that, despite growing Covid-19 numbers, Phuket should stick to its schedule in reopening to travellers without quarantine in July. That’s only 2 and a half months away. In an interview with the Director of Travel and Tourism Consulting at GlobalData, they stressed that while it is crucial to rein in the spread of Covid-19…
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Tourism officials slash Songkran travel expectations by half
The TAT, ever the optimists regarding anything tourism related, even domestic tourism, predict that the Bangkok clusters that have emerged in the week before the Songkran break could reduce traffic and spending by up to half. Today the CCSA is reporting 789 new infections and one additional death. 522 were local infections, mostly walk-ins to Bangkok hospitals, 259 were discovered through…
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Transport Ministry: refunds to cancel travel for Covid-19
The Transport Ministry is launching plans to deal with forced cancellations of travel plans due to the most recent Covid-19 outbreak. With recent restrictions on entertainment venues, Songkran festivities, and some areas implementing quarantines for domestic travel, many holiday travellers will likely have no choice but to cancel their plans. The Transport Ministry has declared that all passengers by bus…
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Airlines and hotels try to cope with cancellations for Songkran
Press Release Airlines and hotels are reporting cancellations from many of their customers as travellers react to the news of the new clusters and infections being detected in the provinces. Bars and entertainment venues close for 2 weeks in 44 provinces from midnight tonight, according to an order from the Thai PM. Entertainment venues in the other 35 provinces will…
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Sony, Amazon Falls to set up amusement park in Thailand
Sony Pictures Entertainment is setting up an amusement park in Thailand that is based on its Columbia Pictures movies. The entertainment giant is working with Thailand’s Amazon Falls to plan the venture, with an opening date set for this October. The water park, named Aquaverse, will be spread out among 14 acres and feature rides and attractions with Jumanji, Bad…
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Thailand tourism leaders come together to discuss the industry’s future
The following story was submitted by Bill Barnett, the managing director for C9 Hotelworks. The Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest global crisis tourism has ever faced. Against this unprecedented upheaval, many of Thailand’s leading hotel operators and other key players came together under the #ThaiTourismUnited banner at an event in Bangkok, creating a single unified voice to drive the Kingdom’s…
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Australia sets travel bubble with New Zealand, Asian countries by August
Travel bubbles for those travelling from Australia to destinations in Asia and the Pacific region could be imposed by August. The country has already agreed on the Trans-Tasman travel bubble with New Zealand, set to start in a few weeks. Singapore is in the cards to be set up next while Australian authorities are looking into other potential bilateral agreements…
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Unemployed elephants walk 500 kilometres from Pattaya to Surin
A group of 5 elephants and their owners began the long walk today from Pattaya to Surin after giving up on the return of tourism anytime soon. The 500 kilometre journey has to be done on foot as they couldn’t afford to hire trucks large enough to carry each elephant. After waiting a year for the Chinese tourists that make…
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Has the full moon set on Koh Pha Ngan’s Full Moon Party?
A full moon used to mean a full beach of party-goers along the Haad Rin strip on Thailand’s Koh Pha Ngan. But it hasn’t been like that for a year now as the Gulf of Thailand island waits out the restrictions and border closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The crowds of backpackers and revellers aren’t flocking to the monthly…
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Thailand to discuss travel bubble with Singapore
Thailand is looking into setting up a travel bubble with Singapore. Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Ministry will discuss the idea this week with officials from the Singapore Embassy. Tourism officials are also looking at potential travel bubbles with other neighbouring countries with a low number of active Covid-19 cases, such as Vietnam and Laos, according to sports and tourism minister…
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Phuket hammering out Covid vaccines, beating out rest of Thailand | VIDEO
The tourism-heavy island of Phuket is ramping up its local vaccine roll out, beating out the rest of Thailand in an attempt to achieve a herd immunity before it is able to reopen to tourists. The island is holding vaccination drives, with 9 centres in place to handle the estimated amount of 460,000 residents who are scheduled to get jabs…
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Phuket’s pilot program to reopen Thailand – Interview Bill Barnett | VIDEO
There’s a lot more of Thailand besides Phuket, but the southern Thai island has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks because of the intention to remove quarantine for vaccinated international arrivals from July this year. There’s a lot at stake as the rest of Thailand will be watching the pilot program, eager to see it work…
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16 German tourists kick off Phuket’s tentative re-opening plans
3 months away and Phuket will be Thailand’s first province to waive the mandatory quarantine stay for foreign travellers who have been vaccinated. Well, that remains the plan as Thailand starts to work through a 4-phase re-opening schedule which will take the rest of 2021 to roll out. The subjects of these re-opening experiments will be the expected tourists who,…
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Busy in BKK – dust off the planes, Thais are travelling again! VIDEO
BKK is busy, well, compared to the last 10 months in Thailand. Bangkok’s two airports were closed as part of the 2020 ‘lockdown’ and only reopened at the end of May after about 8 weeks, and only to domestic traffic (with some limited international repatriation, cargo, and a few passenger flights). Over the past 10 months Tim has been flying…
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