Thai Authorities Hard at Work to Finalise a Re-entry Plan for Foreign Tourists by October 2020.

Covid-19 has had a catastrophic effect on global markets as worldwide authorities have collectively shutdown their economies in a coordinated effort to “flatten the curve” and limit the number of Covid-19 deaths in their respective countries.

A recent article in “Bloomberg” has announced that the Thai authorities plan to re-open their borders to international “long-term” tourists starting this October, which is fantastic news. Since the start of Covid-19 back in early February or March 2020, the hospitality and tourism sectors world-wide have all haemorrhaged massive amounts of money as their net cash inflows have dropped like a stone literally overnight. Worse still when sustained over time this is almost guaranteed to lead to mass layoffs and bankruptcies, which the Thai Government understandably wishes to avoid.

In a bid to potentially save millions of jobs, a plan to reopen Thailand to foreign tourists by the end of October 2020 has already been submitted to the Thai Government for their approval. Basically, the proposed plan would allow foreign “long stay” tourists to fly into Thailand via its many international airports, subject to the tourists first agreeing to enter into a mandatory 14 Day quarantine at the port of entry and thereafter they’d be allowed to travel freely throughout the rest of Thailand without restriction apart from partaking in preventive measures such as social distancing and the wearing of face-masks

Obviously, if you only have 2 weeks’ vacation time off every year this is a non-starter, whereas if you’re planning to stay in Thailand for a month or more, then this does become a viable option.

Prior to the onset of Covid-19, the hospitality and tourism sector made up a sizeable proportion of Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it’s hoped that the return of foreign tourists will reverse the slump in business and save up to 3.27 Million jobs which the Thailand Development Research Institute estimates to be at risk with many economists expecting the overall Thai economy to shrink by 8.5% this year.