Chinese company rewards 10,000 employees with trip to Pattaya

Thailand has hosted the first group of international tourists to carry out a “golf quarantine” stay. 42 golfers (41 from South Korea and 1 from Japan) flew into Thailand on February 19, entering quarantine at the Artitaya Golf Resort in the central province of Nakhon Nayok.

Guests following Thailand’s golf quarantine programme are required to remain in their rooms for the first 3 days of their stay, after which they can roam freely around the resort and play golf. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has confirmed that during their stay, guests are tested 3 times for Covid-19.

In order to qualify for golf quarantine, travellers must arrive from a “low-risk” country and be in possession of all the paperwork required to enter Thailand, including a Certificate of Entry, adequate health insurance, and evidence of a negative Covid-19 test taken 72 hours before travel.

On March 2, 12 days into the golfers’ quarantine stay, a number of officials, including Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn and TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn, conducted an inspection of the resort. They were accompanied by Thares Kratsanai Rawiwong from the Department of Health Service Support and were welcomed by provincial governor, Amphon Angkapakornkul.

The TAT says the purpose of the inspection is to boost confidence in Thailand’s golf facilities. In addition to the Artitaya resort, Thailand has another 5 golf resorts that have been approved as quarantine facilities: 3 in the western province of Kanchanaburi, 1 in the central province of Phetchaburi, and 1 in the northern province of Chiang Mai.

SOURCE: TAT News

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Industry representatives are urging the Thai government to press ahead with the adoption of a vaccine passport scheme to re-ignite international tourism. The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking is also pushing for Thailand to form travel bubble arrangements with countries where Covid-19 infection rates are low to moderate.

Kalin Sarasin from the Thai Chamber of Commerce and a JSCCIB member points to the Digital Green Pass being introduced by the EU, which allows vaccinated people to travel more freely. He believes Thailand should introduce something similar.

“JSCCIB is confident a vaccine passport would boost economic sentiment. Many countries have already started mass vaccination regimes for their people.”

(Video below about the current world and Thailand Covid travel situation)

He adds that private companies should be allowed to purchase and distribute vaccines to employees in order to accelerate the national vaccine rollout.

The push for a vaccine passport scheme follows confirmation from the Thai PM that he has ordered a study into the idea. However, Prayut Chan-o-cha points out that nobody knows how effective such a scheme would be. The idea does have its critics, particularly among rights’ groups and doctors, who say there is not yet enough data to show that vaccines prevent transmission.

A limited number of Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in Thailand and have been distributed to 13 priority provinces. Healthcare workers and vulnerable groups are among the first people to be inoculated.

Supant Mongkolsuthree, a JSCCIB member from the Federation of Thai Industries, says a vaccine passport policy is one more way to restore tourism and, as vaccines are rolled out in the Kingdom, the economy has a chance at recovery.

“JSCCIB believes the economy is recovering. The vaccine will gradually build up confidence among business people.”

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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Today we’ll look at the larger world travel picture in this Covid era, and then we’ll check the latest opportunities if you want to come back to Thailand for travel.

So when can we pack the bags and travel again? Well, in theory, right now. But in practice, depending where you’re coming from and where you want to go, that may still be very complicated… and remain so for at least the rest of this year. But some of the world’s travel so-called experts are now speaking in terms of months and not years. Whilst some of that might be optimistic travel industry spin, there may be some greater certainty on re-openings of some sectors of the world travel industry in the next few months.

But first, consider all the variables that need to fall into place for things to go smoothly..

Despite the roll out of various vaccines, and more on the way, some countries are more advanced in that process than others. The appearance of virus mutations could send all the best guesses for an improvement in travel opportunities into disarray. Whilst it seems the vaccines will be a great benefit for victims to avoid the worst ravages of Covid-19, there is still a long way to go to measure the longer term effects on the changes in transmission and community immunity.

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