As many travelers cancel their trips to Thailand, tourism professionals are asking the government to ease restrictions.
See: 7 new rules for traveling to Thailand starting January 9
Updated January 10: Thailand has canceled the requirement for travelers to present proof of vaccination:
Thailand withdraws requirement for two vaccinations amid cancellations
The tourism industry associations of Phuket, Phangnga and Krabi are requesting the government to relax the Covid-19 restrictions for incoming air passengers, which were abruptly announced on Saturday in response to China's decision to reopen its borders and are effective today (January 9).
International travel agencies are now facing the fallout from this announcement, as many travelers have been forced to postpone and/or cancel their trip outright due to additional requirements.
The associations addressed a petition to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday to reconsider these rules, said Phumkit Raktaengam, principal advisor to the Phuket Tourism Association.
The petition was also sent to the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the Minister of Public Health, Anutin Charnvirakul, and the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Yuthasak Supasorn, he added.
In the petition, the government is urged to remove at least the rule requiring incoming tourists to have received at least two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, a requirement that international travel agencies have complained about the most.
If the government truly wishes to protect the public, it should impose this requirement only on tourists from countries that have not yet fully lifted their Covid-19 restrictions, they said.
“As most, if not all, European countries, as well as Russia and Australia, have lifted their Covid-19 travel restrictions, imposing such rules on their citizens will only compromise Thailand's good relations (with them) and economic recovery,” he said.
Given that the number of tourists has only recovered to around 70% of its pre-pandemic level, the government should rethink any plans for new travel restrictions in order to maintain the confidence of international travelers in Thailand, the associations said.
Many travel agencies in the UK have complained about the sudden announcement of the restrictions, as many passengers have been forced to reschedule their flights to meet the additional requirements, which include proof of vaccination.
Some agencies have stated that they may have to refund their clients, as many of them are unlikely to comply with the restrictions in time before they come into effect today.
Others have complained that the new rules were not accompanied by a government announcement on one of its websites.
Travel agencies in Scandinavia, Germany, France and Russia have made similar complaints.
Many passengers, meanwhile, are concerned that while this new requirement may be a source of trouble, it is unlikely to be considered a case of force majeure, which means that tour operators and travel agents will not be required to refund them if they fail to catch their flight due to this new requirement.
As a result, Thailand could lose a large number of visitors who are not vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the summary of the petition.
After receiving the petition, Mr. Phiphat announced that he had convened an emergency meeting with Mr. Anutin to discuss the possibility of canceling the restrictions.
However, TAT chief Mr. Yuthasak said the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) had decided late on Saturday to change the wording of its announcement.
As a result, travelers who do not have proof of the required Covid-19 vaccination can still take the plane and travel to Thailand, he said.
He added that the committee of the Ministry of Public Health that proposed these restrictions on the Covid-19 vaccine will discuss today the possibility of easing these restrictions in the interest of the country's tourism industry.
The Minister of Transport, Saksayam Chidchob, has stated that the CAAT's opinion on restrictions will take effect from 8 o'clock today and will last until January 31.
The notice states that passengers who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 must provide a medical certificate explaining the reasons for their non-vaccination, failing which they will be refused boarding.
See also:
Consternation after the return of Covid restrictions in Thailand
Source : Bangkok Post
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22 comments
5555 LOL
Flights authorized for tourists who have received 2 doses of vaccines, but since when or is there no deadline for inoculation of these vaccines?
Covid insurance mandatory for certain tourists coming or returning to certain countries, but not all… those under 18 exempt from any constraint, regardless of their nationality?
Tourists coming by land borders (cars, trains, international buses) not controlled?
The Thai TAT that would allow all tourists to board, even without proof of vaccination?
Are the senior officials of the Tourism Authority, the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister preparing an emergency meeting to review the decisions taken the day before yesterday?
WHAT A MESS… A real Spanish inn…
Good Lord, what a lack of maturity and common sense among government officials, what incompetence, what generalized political and social amateurism!
And to think that in two weeks, 700 million Chinese people (and that's a minimum) will travel to all regions of China and abroad to celebrate the Chinese New Year with their expatriate families, even as it is confirmed that the COVID epidemic and the number of deaths continue to grow with an uncontrolled saturation situation in hospitals throughout China.
Happy New Year to all Chinese people, and long live China!!!
Thank you very much for this new information.
Avoid Thailand even if they change their minds about the health pass, you'll leave and 1 or 2 weeks later they'll change their minds again and you'll find yourself trapped and have to buy new plane tickets. Country to be avoided as long as there's covid.
I arrived this morning, on 1/11 at BKK and never passed so easily, nothing asked…
Passport control, 45-day stamp and goodbye. But it's true that there's not a crowd…
All these comings and goings smell of incompetence.
Could these gentlemen of the government consider interrupting their game of golf and meeting with professionals before making 'absurd' decisions?
They lose all credibility once again.
To govern is to foresee. Let them forget their privileges for a while and come back down to earth. Tourists are not cattle, no more than Thai tourism professionals.
Maybe one day they will understand before it's too late.
Hope keeps us going.
It seems that we must not let our guard down against this virus and that all control measures should be if not strengthened, at least maintained at the entrance to a country.
It's not when it's too late that you should worry.
Hello,
I took the plane yesterday from Nice and indeed, the verification of the 2 vaccines is on the agenda (although I had heard on the news that all restrictive measures had been lifted).
On the other hand, no masks on the plane.
One time yes, one time no, it's not very reassuring all this.
The Thai government in all its splendor with the return of obsolete and absurd rules.
Bending a knee to the Chinese is surely not the best idea.
I understand the anger of travelers taken hostage.
Especially since it is in China that the epidemic is raging, the Thai government would have been better off banning the Chinese from coming to contaminate Thailand.
An incomprehensible short-term policy and a medium-term disaster.
Hello,
Today, even the government has cancelled everything.
There are no more restrictions to come to Thailand.
Source Thai Embassy in France, there are also 2 articles in the Bangkok Post.
The Thai Government or how to embarr... All tourists because of a single country, China.
Really, a lot of nonsense and all this to collect the money from Chinese tourists and not to offend their dear Chinese dictator.
When Covid makes its big comeback in Thailand due to Chinese covids, it will cause major damage to their economy.
Tourists are getting really fed up with Thailand and will turn to countries that are much less complicated like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia… and won't come back.
Just a bunch of nonsense. I almost bought a plane ticket this week.
I will therefore change my mind. In any case, the management of covid has been a mess since the beginning of the pandemic.
After accusing China of being at the origin of the pandemic (this is to be proven), we will now accuse them of spreading new variants nearly 3 years later.
The whole world is now talking about endemic, with Biden leading the way, and restrictions are being lifted everywhere.
So, let's stop talking about it and even stop testing!
We just have to live and let the vulnerable (we should never have thought otherwise) and the frightened of the planet get vaccinated.
LET'S LIVE before we end up dying of fear
Bravo to you, sir.
I couldn't have said it better than you did!
I'm fed up with boomers who want to live forever and are afraid of everything.
This generation is just a cancer to everyone.
It's the one that should have been confined from the start, and it's because of them and their selfishness that we've had three consecutive confinements.
They've had it all in their lives: easy, well-paying jobs, affordable real estate and huge capital gains, golden pensions, all resources in excess, everything for their own benefit, and they leave behind their neuroses and a field of ruins for us who follow.
That's enough now!
If you're afraid of boomers, then stay home and stop bothering everyone!
Go get jabbed 20,000 times and leave us alone now.
This is another example of the decisions made in Thailand hastily without reflection or hindsight which justifiably makes one think that in Thailand everything can change brutally from one day to the next.
The worst of the consequences is the loss of tourist confidence.
Indeed, even in the event of a very probable and usual about-face in the decisions, this loss of confidence is lasting.
And this hurts the image of this country, which will pay dearly in terms of attractiveness compared to its neighbors.
I notice that this country is still crazy with the management of covid.
I used to go to Thailand every year, but I haven't been back since 2020, I miss it, I was thinking of going maybe in the winter of 2023-2024 but I think I'll continue to boycott it.
That's the best thing to do and they shouldn't come crying…
PS: there are plenty of other very friendly countries without hassle or paperwork or visa…
Here's a smart country. The various reactions prove it: we don't care about prevention, just like we don't care about contagion.
It's only business that matters and it's no longer doctors who suggest, but tour operators who are putting pressure.
But where are we going?
We're heading towards the truth that says this fake vaccine is useless and that the vaccinated are not in the majority as we're being made to believe.
And it's reassuring because millions of people haven't been stupid enough to be manipulated.
That's where we're headed.
Alright, bye for now!
What's the point?
Anti-covid vaccines are ineffective and dangerous with serious side effects.
The unvaccinated have become more resistant.
The least vaccinated countries are the least contaminated.
Certain clumsiness of all these men in gray foresees a coming chaos, when an empire collapses the most absurd laws are passed and the volte-face are never a good omen.
As if the vaccine was going to stop the epidemic.
I thought I was the only one not vaccinated, I realize we're going to torpedo the Thai economy.
We were sworn that 80% of the Western population was vaccinated.
That's exactly what I thought too.
And yes, for 3 years, they've been telling us anything.
And if you read all the articles on this site on this subject over the past 5 days, you'll come across a passage that says that even the Chinese are not mostly vaccinated…
While in France, we're told that over there, they're mandatory, with fake videos to support them on fake news channels that are more propaganda than information.
Similarly, in this series of articles on this site, it is said that after China, it was all the Western countries, including the United States, that put pressure on Thailand to lift all restrictions.
The United States, where supposedly everyone got vaccinated too…
In short, we understand between the lines that no one went to get vaccinated en masse.
Otherwise, obviously, no one would have said anything about Thailand, and it wouldn't have been a problem, would it…