With the aim of relieving its tourism sector in great difficulty because of the pandemic, Thailand will introduce a tax for foreign travelers entering its territory. Kingdom officials said on Wednesday that they would introduce an entrance fee of $ 9 for visitors from April.
The tax will aim to finance the management of tourist attractions and cover accident insurance for some vacationers unable to pay the costs themselves, said Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. It will be incorporated into air fares, government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said.
One of the most visited countries in the world, Thailand closed from 2020 by imposing strict quarantine rules to fight the pandemic. Only some 100,000 visitors went there from January to October 2021, compared to several tens of millions in the years preceding the onset of the pandemic. At the end of 2021, the kingdom relaxed its draconian entry rules, before closing once more with the Omicron variant.
“Sandbox” program
The “Sandbox” program aimed at boosting tourism has, however, been developed. As part of the plan, fully vaccinated travelers spend seven nights in a “sandbox” area, consisting of the island of Phuket and three other resorts. If their Covid test is negative, they can travel freely throughout Thailand. A mandatory 10 to 14 day quarantine is applied for those who are not fully vaccinated.
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Authorities hope to attract five million foreign tourists in 2022, a figure that might triple if restrictions from China and India, two of the main markets for the sector, are lifted. A goal still far from the 40 million visitors who flocked to Thailand in 2019, the year before the spread of the pandemic around the world.
