Thailand will reopen Phuket to vaccinated tourists Starting in July

Photographer: Taylor Weidman / Bloomberg

Thailand will waive quarantine requirements for vaccinated foreign visitors arriving on the tourist island of Phuket from July 1, the first key reopening for the tourism-dependent nation.

A panel presided over by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha on Friday approved the proposal by the private sector and business groups in Phuket to inoculate at least 70% of the island’s residents to prepare for the reopening of vaccinated tourists, according to Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn.

The government plans to test the reopening plan in Phuket before expanding to other key tourist spots, including Koh Samui, to help restart the tourism industry that suffered a year without its millions of tourists, which contributed to a fifth of the economy before the pandemic.

Thailand supports vaccine passport before wider reopening

Approval means Phuket will reopen three months earlier than the rest of the country, which is expected to welcome fully inoculated visitors. only in October. Phuket residents will also be prioritized in the deployment of vaccines, and more than 930,000 doses are expected to be administered before reopening, said Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, president of the island’s tourism association earlier this year. week.

Shares of Thai hotel operators rallied on Friday with the Tourism & Leisure SET index rising 2.4%, surpassing the 0.2% gain of the benchmark SET index. Minor International Pcl, the largest hotel operator in the country, rose 3.2%, Asset World Corp. Pcl gained 3%, Central Plaza Hotel Pcl i Erawan Group Pcl advanced more than 4% each.

An early reopening could add more than 30 billion baht ($ 963 million) to the economy, but its success depends on international vaccine passport agreements and negotiations with other countries to allow free travel, Bhummikitti said. .

Ready to travel

“Some people are completely vaccinated and ready to travel. But they would only choose destinations that have vaccinated their residents and do not require quarantine, ”said Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Thailand Tourism Authority, which expects at least 100,000 visitors to Phuket in the third quarter.

Despite the onset of infections earlier this year, Thailand largely contained the pandemic, with only 92 deaths and 28,577 cases throughout the pandemic. This has spurred the government to do so shorten quarantine for visitors to ten days from two weeks from April 1, with a plan to reduce it to one week for those with vaccination tests traveling to Phuket, Koh Samui , Chiang Mai and three other destinations.

The government will continue to do so gradually relax control measures as it considers the health of the economy and people equally important, Prayuth said Thursday.

Central Bank of Thailand it reduced its growth forecast for this year to 3%, while it reduced its tourist arrivals forecast to 3 million from the December estimate of 5.5 million. The pandemic has devastated the country’s tourism industry, which provided more than $ 60 billion in revenue from some 40 million foreign visitors in 2019.

– With the assistance of Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Anuchit Nguyen

(Updates with the market reaction to the fifth paragraph.)