Thailand's recovery lags on COVID-19 rule changes

 

BANGKOK: When 23-year-old Norwegian Anastasia Johansen and her boyfriend were planning their first vacation in two years, they considered going to Thailand but chose nearby Vietnam instead, for its simpler entry rules on the coronavirus.

"The regulations to enter Thailand ... were complicated to me and we had to pay for the hefty PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test," Johansen said.

Thailand, one of the world's tourism destinations before the pandemic, was among the first nations in Asia to reopen its borders to vaccinated visitors last year with limited quarantine norms, hailed at the time as a model for re-opening.

But as regional peers have eased entry requirements, Thailand has clung to a cumbersome process.

"Whichever (country) offers easy, smooth, less complicated procedures wins my heart," said Johansen.  

Tourism professionals say Thailand's complicated entry rules are now holding back recovery in an industry that contributed 12 per cent of the country's gross domestic product before the pandemic.

Forward bookings for 2022 show Thailand reaching 25 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, behind levels of 72 per cent and 65 per cent each for Singapore and the Philippines.