Travel industry takes the road to recovery

Island arrivals

On July 1, Thailand launched a pilot opening program, dubbed the Phuket Sandbox, allowing quarantine-free travel for vaccinated tourists to the popular resort island.

This month, the country expanded its reopening, welcoming back vaccinated visitors from 63 "low-risk" countries and regions, including China.

These visitors are allowed to enter Thailand without quarantine requirements, but must stay at a designated hotel for the first night to wait for their on-arrival COVID-19 test results.

The Thailand Pass was launched to support the reopening, allowing foreign travelers to complete their travel and health information and upload related documents before arriving in the country.

Suchira, the Thai travel industry worker, who has been an independent tour guide since 1998, said it was a big shock when the country shut its borders to most foreign visitors in April last year after local transmissions of COVID-19 started to rise.

"I had no income," she said, adding that like many of her peers she had to rely on savings to survive.

A former journalist, Suchira started a YouTube channel, on which she discussed Thai tourism and culture. With nearly 30,000 subscribers, her earnings from the platform helped cover her daily expenses.

Since Thailand's broadened reopening on Nov 1, she has received many more inquiries from foreigners interested in visiting the country. She has also had to hire more people to help her respond to the inquiries and provide trip-planning services.

"I used to work by myself, but now I have seven people on my team. I have to read almost 200 emails a day, but the recovery is a very good sign," Suchira said.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, or TAT, will expand its special exemption from quarantine, or TEST and GO, from Jan 1 to cover tourists from all over the world.

Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, the agency's deputy governor for marketing and communications, said on Nov 1 that with the reopening, TAT is targeting total tourism revenue of 1.58 trillion baht ($48 billion) next year, with 818 billion baht coming from 13 million international arrivals.

The Bangkok Post quoted TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn as saying the tourism industry has already passed the lowest point, with 2,000 to 3,000 visitors a day now arriving in the country.

Bill Barnett, managing director of hospitality consultancy for C9 Hotelworks in Thailand, noting there were some 14,000 arrivals in Bangkok and 8,000 in Phuket in the first week of this month, said the numbers are a positive indication even though the reopening is still in the early stages.

Hotels' reservations for next month are quite strong, as they are seeing their booking pace pick up, Barnett said.