Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    World
    Home / World / Asia-Pacific

    Thailand's welcoming doors for tourists open slowly

    By YANG HAN in Hong Kong | China Daily | Updated: 2021-07-19 09:36
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    Women receive the Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as the Thai resort island of Phuket rushes to vaccinate its population amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Phuket, Thailand, June 28, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

    With Thailand welcoming back foreign tourists to select destinations, Ulas Mehmet Isci is cautiously optimistic that his tourism business will finally recover after it came to a standstill from early last year as the pandemic broke out.

    "We really hope that tourism is going to come back in the (next) five to six months, or perhaps over the coming year," said Isci, chief executive officer of Tropics Travel, which operates travel agencies throughout Thailand, including Koh Samui Tours, Chiang Mai Tours, Phuket Tours and Krabi Tours.

    "I see a sign of recovery, but the recovery may come… a little slowly," Isci said. His business, in which tourist numbers dropped to zero at times over the past year, has recovered by only about 3 to 5 percent after Thailand began its reopening programs this month.

    Following a program that began allowing vaccinated foreign tourists into the resort island of Phuket from July 1, Thailand launched a similar scheme called Samui Plus on Thursday to enable travel to Koh Samui, the country's second-largest island after Phuket, via direct international flights or sealed routes from Bangkok.

    Unlike the program that allows quarantine-free travel, an expansion to it requires tourists to stay at an approved hotel in Koh Samui for a week and stay within their accommodation for the first three days, the Tourism Authority of Thailand said.

    Tourists with negative COVID-19 test results will be allowed to travel to the neighboring islands of Koh Tao and Koh Phangan after their first week on Samui.

    Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said the reopening of the three islands is another significant step toward achieving the goal set by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha last month to reopen the whole country within 120 days, or by the end of October.

    The tourism authority expects as many as 1,000 tourists to arrive in the first month and generate at least 100 million baht ($3 million) for the local economy.

    The opening up of more islands comes even as Thailand experiences a rising number of COVID-19 infections.

    Mainly driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, the country recorded more than 8,000 daily cases in the nine days to Saturday.

    Significant risk

    "There is a significant risk in the Thai approach to reopening, given cases are not just increasing across the country but increasing aggressively," said Jeremy Lim, associate professor and director of global health of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health in the National University of Singapore.

    Thailand has yet to achieve the necessary levels of vaccination, a key to successful reopening, Lim said. The country had administered about 14.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by Sunday. It started the campaign in February. To realize its reopening plan, Thailand needs to have a threshold of 50 million people given first shots by early October.

    Bill Barnett, managing director of the hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks in Thailand, said he is still "cautiously positive" about Thailand's reopening, given that only 10 people tested positive among about 5,473 travelers arriving in Phuket in the first two weeks.

    Most Viewed in 24 Hours
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    一本大道久久东京热无码AV| 亚洲AV无码不卡在线播放| 中文字幕精品一区二区精品| 痴汉中文字幕视频一区| 欧美中文字幕无线码视频| 久久亚洲AV成人无码软件| 欧洲Av无码放荡人妇网站| 亚洲男人第一无码aⅴ网站| 亚洲av永久无码精品表情包| 无码AV动漫精品一区二区免费| 成人精品一区二区三区中文字幕| 无码国内精品久久综合88| 人妻少妇伦在线无码专区视频| 亚洲欧美精品一区久久中文字幕| 免费A级毛片无码A∨| 国产aⅴ无码专区亚洲av麻豆| 人妻精品久久久久中文字幕一冢本| 国产a v无码专区亚洲av| 精品久久久久久久中文字幕 | 一本加勒比HEZYO无码人妻| 本道天堂成在人线av无码免费| 亚洲v国产v天堂a无码久久| 免费人妻无码不卡中文字幕系| 在线播放无码高潮的视频| 中文字幕精品无码一区二区 | 免费无码黄十八禁网站在线观看| 久久精品无码一区二区无码| 无码国产精品一区二区免费3p| 日本中文字幕一区二区有码在线| 中文有码vs无码人妻| 免费a级毛片无码a∨免费软件| 色综合久久精品中文字幕首页| 天堂网www中文在线| 日韩亚洲欧美中文在线| 狠狠躁天天躁中文字幕无码| 欧美巨大xxxx做受中文字幕| 中文字幕精品亚洲无线码二区| 人妻少妇精品中文字幕AV | 无码精品A∨在线观看十八禁| 中文字幕人妻在线视频不卡乱码| 开心久久婷婷综合中文字幕|