This week’s tourist arrivals may now be delayed
Plans for the return of tourists to Thailand have again been thrown into complete confusion as nobody seems to know what they are doing.
The first arrivals of Chinese tourists were supposed to be landing in Phuket tomorrow (Thursday) but now the secretary of Thailand’s National Security Council and chief of CCSA or Covid-19 response committee has put the plans on hold.
Yet another committee meeting will now be held on Friday.
Gen Natthaphon Nakphanich indicated that he wanted everything “airtight” including in-country testing, places of quarantine and track and tracing measures.
How locals are informed about the arrival of tourists will also be discussed.
Ministers and concerned authorities will be meeting on October 9th at a “special committee”.
The STV – that includes a huge amount of hoops and which has been universally criticized as both unworkable and a drop in the ocean – is the ‘brain-child’ of tourism minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn and TAT chief Yutthasak Suphasorn.
It appeared to be all systems go for the arrival of the first 150 tourists from Guangzhou China but they will now have to wait despite it being announced that a charter plane was virtually on the tarmac in China.
The announcement of the meeting on Friday brings into question the whole issue of whether Thailand has the appetite to open to tourism post-pandemic.
And if it does WHAT that form of engagement will take and WHEN it might actually happen.
The Thai government say that the STV was only ever a test for the readiness to open up – but even that test is proving to be a situation of much deal-making and uncertainty. – Manager Online
