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 November, a total of 133,061 international travellers landed in Thailand and the lion’s share of those travellers entered under the Test & Go scheme that allows vaccinated travellers from 63 countries to enter Thailand without quarantine except for a brief sequester in an approved hotel while RT-PCR Covid-19 test results are processed.

Of the 133,061 travellers who entered Thailand in the first month of reopening, 106,211 were Test & Go passengers. Another 21,438 tourists arrived using the Sandbox scheme that requires a 7-day soft quarantine where travellers must stay at the arrival destination for a week before travelling on. 5,412 utilised the Happy Quarantine option, where they submitted to a 10-day quarantine on arrival.

TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn says that they still expect to hit 500,000 international travellers by the end of 2021, even though new figures have shown signs of travel slowing from some European countries. Europe is a main tourism market for Thailand and the president of the Thai Hotels Association says the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 will likely hurt the tourism sector, though it’s hard to know just yet if the impact will be minor or major.

The TAT believes Thailand can still hit its goal, pointing out that over 300,000 applicants have applied online for the needed Thailand Pass to enter the country. Those numbers could possibly be inflated though as reports are common of travellers having to register multiple times to get approval and it’s unclear if those multiple registrations are being considered 1 person or if each application or reapplication are counted.

Below are the top ten originating countries with travellers arriving into Thailand for the first month of reopening.

1. US – 14,730
2. Germany – 12,099
3. Netherlands – 8,478
4. UK – 6,701
5. Russia – 5,307
6. Japan – 5,146
7. South Korea – 5,003
8. France – 4,741
9. UAE – 4,338
10. Israel – 4,035

Of the top ten countries, the list of countries with the most to least Covid-19 infections found in incoming travellers (with their ranking in number of passengers listed after) is as follows:

1. Russia – 0.38% – 5th
2. UK – 0.31% – 4th
3. UAE – 0.25% – 9th
4. France – 0.15% – 8th
5. US – 0.14% – 1st
6. Germany – 0.11% – 2nd
7. Netherlands – 0.08% – 3rd
8. Japan – 0.06% – 6th
9. Israel – 0.05% – 10th
10. South Korea – 0.04% – 7th

SOURCE: Thai PBS World