Thai tourism officials will propose cancellation of Test & Go at next CCSA meeting

At least two terms travellers will be glad to hear anymore – Test & Go and Thailand Pass.

Now tourism officials plan to present a proposal to cancel Thailand’s Test & Go entry scheme at the next meeting of the CCSA. The Tourism Authority of Thailand, along with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, will present the proposal at the next meeting on April 22.

Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said last week that if the changes are approved, starting May 1, tourists will be able to enter Thailand using only vaccine passports. They would no longer have to to wait three to five days for their documents to be approved in the Thailand Pass online registration system. In the proposed plan, PCR tests on arrival for foreign travellers are expected to be replaced by antigen tests on arrival at the airport.

“Thailand is ready to welcome foreign visitors again because our public health system is adequately equipped.”

It should be noted that these are proposals from the TAT and the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, both with vested interests in reopening Thailand to as many tourists as possible.

The proposed suggestions to relax restrictions and remove the Thailand Pass have NOT been discussed by the CCSA and need to be approved by CCSA members in a meeting, the Thai cabinet and then approved via the Royal Gazette before the changes become law.

The tourism ministry predicts at least 10 million international arrivals and over 1 trillion baht in revenue for the rest of 2022, the latest in its regular pie-in-the-sky random stabs in the dark. The Ministry, and the TAT, have variously predicted 3, 5, 11 and 15 million visitors for 2022.

Thailand had a surge of tourists at the start of April, but even if that rate of 9 – 11,000 travellers arrived every day for the rest of the year Thailand would still reach only 8% of its tourist traffic pre-Covid (2019).

To reach the ministry and TAT goals for 2022, the numbers of tourists would have to increase to an average of 35,000 – 40,000 tourists arriving from overseas every day for the rest of 2022.

Minister Piphat says the government will take into account daily caseloads of infections after Songkran when it considers further reopening the country to tourists.

SOURCE: The Daily Star

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If you are fully vaccinated and looking to travel to Thailand, you may enter by a 1 Day Test & Go Packages.

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