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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Sponsored Bangtao, Phuket: The neighbourhood expats and investors are eyeing in 2025
Bangtao didn't become Phuket’s most talked-about neighbourhood overnight. For a long time, it was a quiet place on the island’s west coast where locals walked their dogs at sunrise and tourists flocked to sunbathe along its eight-kilometre stretch of beach....
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Thai Airways offering round trip Sydney-Phuket flights
To boost tourism and promote Phuket’s island quarantine “sandbox” scheme, Thai Airways will run round trip flights between Phuket and Australia with three flights a week starting on today. The flights will be offered until January 25. The flight from Phuket to Sydney is available on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Flights depart from Phuket at 6:50pm and arrive at 7:30am.…
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Recovery of Thailand’s international tourism sector likely to take years
International tourism demand for Thailand is still low, according to a Bangkok Post report, with a full recovery predicted to take years. Just 133,061 foreign arrivals touched down in Thailand between November 1 and 30, well below the 3 million visitors a month of pre-pandemic times. However, despite low visitor numbers to his province, Pongsakorn Ketprapakorn from the Tourism Council…
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Germany removes Thailand from its list of high-risk countries
The Thai embassy in Berlin says Thailand has been removed from Germany’s list of Covid-19 high-risk countries, according to a Thai PBS World report. Provided they are fully vaccinated with an approved vaccine, travellers from Thailand can now enter Germany without having to quarantine. The accepted vaccines are Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. In addition…
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Maya Bay on hold, but preparations for an eventual reopening continue | VIDEOS
This week The Thaiger revealed that Maya Bay, on Koh Phi Phi Leh, may remain closed beyond its proposed January 1 reopening, following a groundswell of local support to keep the famous Bay closed. For a while anyway. This is partly spurred on by environmental concerns for the iconic bay which has been closed to visitors since July 2018, and…
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Fiji tourism reopening after nearly 2 years of Covid-19 closure
Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama announced the island nation has reopened its borders for international tourism for the first time since many of the world’s borders closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic nearly 2 years ago. Fiji’s population of just 1 million people have struggled without the tourism that makes up a lion’s share of the economy after borders closed…
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Muang district in Ayutthaya allow to serve alcohol in restaurants
The CCSA seems to be slowly rolling out the lifting of the alcohol ban in Thailand on a province by province, and sometimes district by district, basis. Muang district in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya is the latest district to receive the green light to ease Covid-19 restrictions and allow alcohol to be served in restaurants. The district in Ayutthaya has…
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TAT predicts 500,000 travellers before 2022, 133,000 arrived so far
After 1 month of Thailand’s reopening, the Kingdom saw over 133,000 arrivals total from countries around the world, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand is confident that the goal of 500,000 international travellers will be met, despite the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 that has seen countries scrambling to limit or block travel from at-risk countries. In the month of…
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Cha-am permitted to sell alcohol in restaurants from December 1
While tourist areas all across Thailand are fighting to be allowed to sell alcohol, Cha-am will be the next tourist pilot area to get to sell drinks. The Phetchaburi Provincial Communicable Disease Committee is preparing to test allowing restaurants and shops to sell alcohol in the tourist city until 10 pm. The trial run of the new permission will be…
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No plans to reverse re-opening, despite Omicron variant – Tourism Ministry
Thailand’s Tourism Minister says there will be no going back for the country’s re-opening plans, despite the emergence of the Omicron variant. According to a Bangkok Post report, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn says closing the borders is not an option anymore. “Nobody wants another border closure as it was really difficult for us to re-open the country. Our economy still suffers from…
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New variant could dampen Thailand’s reopening enthusiasm
Thailand was the first country in Asia to more fully reopen to foreign travellers, and it is seeing a slow recovery, with more bookings for hotels, and new faces along shopping strips and markets in the country. November 1 was the launch of the Thailand Pass and a broader reopening to fully vaccinated travellers and tourists from 63 low-risk countries.…
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Thailand’s nightlife venues and bars told to keep closed until January 16
Thailand’s nightlife cat and mouse game between authorities and desperate bar and nightlife businesses will continue until the middle of January 2022. Following deliberations from the CCSA yesterday, entertainment venues will have to keep their doors closed until at least January 16. To put an exclamation mark after the latest announcement, the Thai government has also extended the emergency decree…
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“Omicron” – a new Covid variant triggers travel alarms as flights disrupted
A reminder today that there is still more steam left in the Covid-19 coronavirus. Just as the world started to peek from behind the curtain of uncertainty, another Covid “variant of concern”, named Omicron, has been discovered. The World Health Organisation says Omicron has a large number of mutations, and early evidence suggests an “increased reinfection risk”. Officially, it is…
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Bangkok is back – Thailand’s capital roars back into gear
OPINION Before the pandemic, Bangkok was the most-visited city on the planet – a thriving hive of energy and activity which attracted over 22 million international visitors per year. Then, without warning, it all went quiet. Now, following the long-awaited reopening of Thailand’s borders on November 1, 2021, Bangkok is back. The city is welcoming the world’s travellers once again,…
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Thailand entry may be simplified by switching to antigen test
At the CCSA meeting on Friday, the Ministry of Public Health will propose easing entry requirements by replacing RT-PCR tests with a much cheaper and faster antigen test. Health authorities report that Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul will propose the revision at Friday’s meeting to be enacted from December on. The simplifying of the required Covid-19 test is part…
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Travel agents call for tourism fee to be postponed until industry recovers
The Association of Thai Travel Agents is urging the government to postpone the implementation of a new tourism fee until the sector has fully recovered. Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn says Thailand has averaged around 3,000 – 4,000 foreign tourists per day, since re-opening on November 1. According to a Bangkok Post report, he says confidence is low ahead of the coming high…
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Pattaya mayor expresses frustration over no entertainment venues
In Pattaya, the fight goes on to allow alcohol in restaurants and to reopen entertainment venues, at least in time for New Year’s festivities. After petitions and protests from various sectors, business groups, and tourism associations, Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunploem is again calling for nightlife businesses to be allowed to reopen in the city famous, or perhaps infamous, for…
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The future of Thailand’s Maya Bay – Report #1 | VIDEO
Should Maya Bay reopen? Of course it probably will, at the start of 2022. But there are fears that, despite the best intentions, it will be back to mass tourism and ‘market forces rule’. Maya Bay is the Andaman region’s most popular tourist destination, based on interest generated from the 2000 Hollywood movie “The Beach” from the Alex Garland novel…
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CCSA admits some hotels are scamming Thailand Pass travellers
Some Thai hotels are deceiving foreign arrivals by letting them book a room without transport or Covid testing, then trying to sell them a new package on arrival. CCSA spokesperson Apisamai Srirangson says some hotels are deliberately only selling a room, whereas the Thailand Pass requirements stipulate that the package must include transportation from the airport to the hotel and…
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Direct flight between Istanbul and Phuket reopens
A direct flight into Phuket operated by Turkish Airlines has just reopened. The first flight of this renewed Istanbul to Phuket route landed on Saturday, according to the Phuket News. This is the first flight directly from Istanbul Airport, historically a major travel hub, since the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown disrupted international air travel. The Turkish Airlines flight landed…
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Government agency ups 2021 foreign arrivals prediction to 200,000
An agency under the Ministry of Finance has increased its 2021 tourist arrivals forecast to 200,000. The Fiscal Policy Office had previously stated that it expected 180,000 foreign arrivals by the end of the year. According to a Bangkok Post report, Pornchai Thiraveja from the FPO says this now looks likely to increase. During the first 2 weeks of November,…
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TAT: 400,000 tourist in 2021, 18 million in 2022 worth 1 trillion
The November 1 reopening of Thailand has received mixed results, with Pattaya reportedly seeing the vast majority of arrivals being expats coming home, and Hua Hin welcoming less than 100 of the 100,000 predicted tourists. But, as always, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has nothing but rosy predictions for the boom that will start any minute, with TAT Governor Yuthasak…
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TAT touts another rosy outlook for 2022 arrivals into Thailand – VIDEOS
Whilst the Ministry of Tourism and Sports approve marketing spending for 2022, their tourism promotion arm, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, have been throwing around more highly optimistic arrival figures for next year. “TAT set the revenue target from tourism in 2022 at 1.5 trillion baht, or about 50% of tourism revenue in 2019 (before the Covid-19 situation)”, according to…
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Pattaya tourism quiet until entry and booze rules are eased
According to the acting president of the Chon Buri Tourism Council, Pattaya is still quiet, and 95% of tourists there are Thai since the reopening to international tourists on November 1. Of the 200 to 300 people per day who do come, the majority are not tourists but businesspeople and expats. And many of the tourists who do come end…
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Of 100,000 predicted for 2021, Hua Hin has seen 56 tourists
The math doesn’t look good as tourism associates estimated that the last quarter of 2021 would bring 100,000 international tourists to Hua Hin, but so far only 56 have arrived. The Thai Hotel Association explains the disparity is due to the entry process being complicated, the quarantine and testing fees being expensive, and the ban on booze and entertainment venues…
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Boost in tourism expected over Loy Krathong Festival
The Tourism Authority of Thailand said that they are anticipating a slight boost in tourism for this year’s Loy Krathong Festival. While still much quieter than in the days before the pandemic, this year a bit more travelling and tourism related to the event are expected than last year. The TAT estimates that tourists throughout the country will spend around…
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Emirates A380 to return to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to meet increased demand
The A380 is to return to the skies over Bangkok as Emirates upgrades capacity on flights to the capital to meet increased demand. TTR Weekly reports that Thailand’s recent re-opening to vaccinated tourists from approved countries has led to strong demand, with around 10,000 arrivals registered at Suvarnabhumi every day. In order to add capacity and frequency to its services,…
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New Thailand tourism music video features PM Prayut
The Thai Khu Fah Facebook page that is run by the government to encourage tourism has launched a new music video starring PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. The video features photos of the prime minister and the group of government officials that accompanied him on a recent trip to Nopparat Beach in Krabi. The pictures and video of the prime minister on…
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Phuket’s Bangla Road inspected by national and local health officials
Health officials went to Phuket’s Bangla Road, but not for a beer. The deputy director of Thailand’s Department of Health went to Phuket and inspect the famed walking street in person, reviewing Covid-19 prevention measures. While bars and nightclubs are ordered to be closed nationwide, photos from the provincial health office show bars are the street packed with people, and…
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Thailand’s Maya Bay set to reopen in January
Maya Bay. Remember that breathtakingly pretty beach on Koh Phi Phi Leh off Krabi? Now, the beach that featured in “The Beach” is now poised to reopen. The iconic natural cove of limestone karsts, turquoise waters and THAT beach was one of Thailand’s most popular attractions for a decade with up to 6,000 visitors everyday. But in the end even…
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Only 8 foreign tourists visit Hua Hin since November 1 reopening
Despite Thailand’s reopening, the beach destination of Hua Hin is still extremely quiet. The country officially reopened its borders on November 1, and has seen almost 45,000 international visitors arrive in the last two weeks. But in that time, the town of Hua Hin has seen only 8 foreigners arrive. Hua Hin has historically been a popular beach town in…
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