Travelers planning trips to Thailand in 2022 will be pleased with the news. According to the most recent sources, Thailand will resume its quarantine-free travel system for foreign travelers on February 1 as previously announced. Officials in the know-how told us that, as a result of the suspension of the program owing to the increase in Omicron cases, the kingdom’s tourism-dominated economy suffered greatly, with visitor numbers dropping to a trickle.
It has been reported that passengers who are completely vaccinated will now be allowed into the nation under the Test and Go system, and that they would be required to do COVID tests on their first and fifth days in the country after arrival. As Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokeswoman for the country’s COVID-19 taskforce, put it, “the situation is dire.”
Consequently, travelers will be obliged to isolate themselves in a hotel while they await the results of their tests, and they will be asked to download a monitoring software to guarantee that they comply with the restrictions. Thailand introduced the Test and Go program in November as an alternative to the country’s traditional two-week hotel quarantine policy in an effort to improve the country’s economic performance.
The abovementioned program was discontinued late last month after the nation reported an increase in instances of Omicron. However, since hospitalizations have not increased, the spokeswoman noted that the program may be reinstated, but the authorities would continue to monitor it closely. Additionally, he said that in the event that the situation changes or if there are other infections, a re-evaluation of incoming travelers would take place, and they will be moved closer to the sandbox plan.
According to the sandbox program, which was implemented last year, fully vaccinated travelers were permitted to stay seven nights in certain specified regions, such as the resort island of Phuket, before being permitted to continue their journey across the rest of Thailand.
According to the Tourism Ministry’s predictions, around five million international tourists are expected to visit Thailand in 2022, a decrease from roughly 40 million in the year before the outbreak.
