Restrictions on Indian Tourists Should Be Lifted – Thailand Tourism Officials

Tourism authorities believe the country should allow Indian guests to return since the country’s COVID-19 situation has substantially improved. Since April all flights between Thailand and India were suspended and authorities deferred the release of COE to tourists from India in response to the dominance of the contagious Delta variant and sudden increases in infection rates.

Thailand began accepting applications for COE’s from businessmen in India and those who have relatives staying in Thailand last week.

Cholada Siddhivarn, TAT’s head in Mumbai said that India was the 3rd biggest market for tourism in Thailand in 2019. In addition, 2 million Indian visitors who visited Thailand in 2019 provided 80 billion baht in revenue.  Once Thailand considered opening tourism to Indian nationals, Cholada estimates that about 21,000 visitors may add 938 million baht of tourism revenue for the country in the last quarter of the year.

These past few weeks, many Indian nationals have traveled to countries and areas with loosened restrictions, such as the United Kingdom, Dubai, and the Maldives.

According to Vachirachai Sirisumpan, TAT’s head in New Delhi, the government has expedited its vaccine rollout.  Almost 10 percent of India’s population is fully inoculated. Sirisumpan noted that the spread of the virus has been slowed down in key cities.

However, Sirisumpani notes that one of the main challenges is educating the Thai locals. Some locals believe that India has a high Covid-19 because of the Delta variant which was first detected in India and has currently become the dominant COVID-19 variant in Thailand.

Source: Bangkok Post