Thai Tourism Heavyweights Willing to Front Vaccine Costs to Push Government to Reopen

Exasperation is palpable in Thailand’s private tourism sector, which is pressing the government to move faster with vaccinating its population and to reopen the country to inoculated tourists without mandatory quarantine by July 1. This runs counter to the government's plan to reduce quarantine from 14 to seven days for vaccinated visitors from April 1, with the possibility of removing it completely only from October 1 subject to factors such as Thailand achieving herd immunity. This plan was approved by the country's Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration last week. But tourism businesses are clearly at their wits' end, having endured a long year marked by dashed hopes of reopening that have time and again left the trade confused and crushed. The business is in a “dire” situation; even a four-month wait until July is already too long — let alone October, warned major hotel owners. They called for the government to speed up the vaccination process in order to gai