The world’s conscience is now adapting to the changing identity of the COVID-19 pandemic into an endemic. People have got used to the COVID-19 restrictions and protocols and have imbibed the habits as norms. Plans to break the quarantine and lockdown blues are simmering, and one place that is on almost everybody’s possible destination list is slowly opening up to allow visitors to have a great time.
As of February 1, Thailand has opened its borders for travellers under the shadow of its Test and Go programme. According to the programme, travellers who are fully vaccinated are allowed to enter the borders of Thailand, on the condition that they agree to undergo two RT-PCR tests upon arrival – one after landing and one on the fifth day in the country – reported Bloomberg.
The government has let go of the mandatory quarantine period for the visitors in an attempt to kickstart the tourism industry, contributor to one-fifth of the country’s GDP, again. The Thai government is expecting as many as 1.5 crore foreign visitors in the country this year, which is an exponential rise from last year’s footfall of 4.2 lakh. However, the arrivals expected are almost three times lower than what the country witnessed a year before the pandemic hit the world. As per Bloomberg’s report, Thailand welcomed 4 crore visitors in 2019.
Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, is expected to be much quieter than it used to be as the tourism industry is yet to reach its full momentum. However, business owners and service providers in the country are again getting out, fuelling the market, and tightening their laces to attend visitors again. As of now, 70 percent of Thailand’s population is fully vaccinated, and roughly 20 percent have received their booster shots.
With the relaxed restriction, it’s time that Bangkok’s spirit breathes again as the nightlife, the energy, and the enthusiasm in the aura of the city come back to its old vigour in 2022. The ease-up comes after Thailand closed itself in December amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
