A good omen

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From Bangkok Post

Bangkok traffic back to gridlock as coronavirus measures ease

Cars, trucks and motorcycles jostled on Monday in a return of the capital's familiar gridlock as commuters headed back to work in the second phase of easing coronavirus restrictions to get the economy back on track.

As snarl-ups grew in Bangkok's notoriously congested streets, travellers headed to its northern bus terminal to get out to the provinces for the first time since March, most sitting beside empty seats, in line with social distancing rules.

Queues formed on Sunday at the reopening of the country’s malls, where some operators are using touch-less elevators and deploying robots to take customers' temperatures.

Even though Thailand has been reporting fewer coronavirus cases in recent weeks, the government is keeping closed places that typically attract large groups of people, such as cinemas.

"Do not sit" signs have been posted on many of the seats on Bangkok's elevated train network to give sufficient gaps between passengers, and floor markers are in place to control lines.

 

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Extracted from The Financial Times

Thailand’s travel industry readies for relaunch

At Bangkok’s flower-garlanded Erawan shrine, right downstairs from my FT office, the female dancers who have figured in decades’ worth of tourist snaps are back in action. They are wearing the same spired, bejewelled, gold hats but their faces are masked behind plastic shields.

Just down the block, staff at the Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel are being trained in the deep cleaning of a hotel room, using hospital-grade disinfectants, in preparation for reopening. In the reception, plexiglass shields have been erected at the counter, chairs and tables carefully spaced, and discreet red Xs taped on the floor to mark the spots where guests will wait to check in.

Thailand was the first country after China to report coronavirus cases and is among the first to be exiting lockdown. Bangkok is the world’s most visited city, according to Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index, and it is also home to international hospitality groups such as Minor Hotels (whose brands include Anantara, Tivoli, Avani and NH) and Sansiri, owner of The Standard Hotels, known for its flagship property straddling New York’s High Line and its recently opened St Pancras hotel. As such, what happens in Thailand can perhaps be seen as a bellwether of global things to come.

“Before this hit, tourism was booming; it was a heaven for all nationalities — Europeans, Americans, Chinese, Indians, they all love Thailand,” says Srettha Thavisin, Sansiri’s president and Standard Hotels’ chairman. “When this thing is over . . . my guess is people will feel safe to come here again, maybe in the third quarter, when flights return to normal.”

Thailand earned a name and a global niche for itself with exotic, tactile experiences, from beach raves to Chinatown street meals, Thai boxing matches, jungle treks and traditional massages. As the industry prepares to reopen, the question is whether the masks, temperature checks and abundant hand sanitiser won’t be the ultimate mood killer.

Thailand hosted a record 39m visitors last year, but the Tourism Authority of Thailand expects just 16m to come in 2020, and many in the industry think it will be lucky to get 10m. Hoteliers and restaurateurs insist that returning guests can still expect the familiar pleasures, albeit with some new additions.

Contactless technology — cards, touch-free buttons, even facial recognition — will increasingly be used at check-in, to operate lifts and open doors or rubbish bins. Hotels’ public spaces will be reconfigured or redesigned to let more ventilation and sunlight in. Breakfast buffets will mostly be replaced by table service; servers will have their smiles hidden behind masks, and will be wearing gloves when they serve you your som tam (spicy papaya salad).

For long-haul visitors, extended stays in one place will be more common than multi-destination jaunts around Thailand and south-east Asia. Private villas promising socially distanced seclusion will command a bigger premium than before over high-rise hotel rooms.

And hospital-quality levels of hygiene and cleanliness, and minimised but bespoke human contact, will become not just a feature but an integral part of the product, especially at the high end.

“The same level of personalisation will be there, but we will minimise the number of staff guests meet,” says Thomas Harlander, managing director of the luxury group Rosewood’s Bangkok hotel. Like Anantara, the hotel is promising a “seamless” experience for guests from their arrival at Suvarnabhumi airport. Vehicles carrying guests will be disinfected, and a note put in the car saying it was professionally cleaned. “It’s going to be even more seamless, and fewer people, fewer touchpoints, less intrusive,” Harlander says.

Anantara is planning to offer gym services, but on an individual basis, with equipment carefully sanitised and private training sessions booked in advance. Room service will continue, but servers will roll the trolleys up to guests’ rooms without entering themselves. “You don’t want a stranger in your room,” says Thomas Meier, the group’s senior vice-president for Asia. “We will help you push it in, and then you will set it up yourself.”

Now, after two months of lockdown, Thai beaches are their cleanest in years and are being visited by otherwise seldom seen wildlife such as hornbills, pink dolphins and dugongs. In a recent call with journalists, Bill Heinecke, Minor’s chief executive, marvelled at the corals now visible off Thai beaches and water clarity “like I’ve never seen before”. “I think we’re going through a reset,” he said.

Thai authorities are now also speaking of easing international travel, starting with Asian countries such as China and South Korea that have brought their coronavirus caseloads under control. Hotel groups expect that the Chinese in particular, newly freed from lockdown, will be keen to come back.

“If they are looking to travel again, one of their first destinations will be Thailand,” says Suphajee Suthumpun, chief executive of Dusit International.

Dusit has nine hotels in China and, as such, a preview of the group psychology of tourists recently freed from home quarantines. “When they lifted lockdown situations, people got excited and began to travel,” Suthumpun says. “Then they realised they shouldn’t do it so much, and became more rational.”

For its 12 Thai hotels, Dusit is preparing a “comeback campaign”. Alongside the shampoo and soap offered in guest rooms, there will be a “personal protection pack” that includes hand sanitiser, a mask and gloves. At its Hua Hin and other properties, the chain will be offering guests the option of getting local food, handicrafts or other “must-try” items in their rooms via concierge service. Gyms will be moved outdoors.

Sansiri is doing “minor to major renovations” of its two Thai hotels, opening them up to sunlight and the gardens more, and enlarging communal areas. Similar design features are being incorporated into Standard’s planned properties in Hua Hin, Ko Samui, Pattaya and Phuket. “The feeling of being too close together won’t be desirable,” says Thavisin. On entering hotels, guests may be given something to disinfect the soles of their feet, or an ultraviolet light that “cleanses you”, he says.

Hoteliers are resisting the urge to discount at a time when they face lower occupancy and higher health-and-safety related costs, but are adding some extra inducements to come. In Ayutthaya, the Unesco World Heritage site a 90-minute drive outside Bangkok, the boutique Iudia hotel is maintaining room rates but offering free dinners, in part because many restaurants remain closed. The ruined city’s monumental plazas, stupas and temples — ordinarily swamped by day-trippers from Bangkok — are now being enjoyed by a handful of Thai tourists, and that is unlikely to change until airlines restore more long-haul flights.

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From Reuters

Thailand Says It Expects Coronavirus Vaccine Next Year After Tests in Mice

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand expects to have a vaccine for the novel coronavirus ready next year, a senior official said on Wednesday, after finding positive trial results in mice.

Thailand will begin testing the mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine in monkeys next week after successful trials in mice, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the government's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

"The Thai vaccine is expected to be used next year,” he said.

More than 100 potential vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but the World Health Organization in April had warned that a vaccine would take at least 12 months.

The Thai vaccine is being developed by the National Vaccine Institute, the Department of Medical Science and Chulalongkorn University’s vaccine research centre.

Messenger RNA prompts body cells to produce so-called antigens, molecules on the surface of viruses, that spur the immune system into action.

Thailand was ranked fifth globally, just ahead of South Korea, for rapid response to and mitigation of the spread of an epidemic in the Johns Hopkins Global Health Security Index report in 2019.

U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc's experimental COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the United States, produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers, according to very early data released by the company on Monday.

Drugmakers such as Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc, which is working with Germany's BioNTech SE, are also working to develop vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

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From The Thaiger

Thailand scores highest for mask-wearing in survey of ASEAN nations

A survey carried out by internet-based market research firm YouGov reveals that Thais are the most likely to wear face masks and to use hand sanitiser. Khaosod English reports that the survey examined the habits of citizens from 6 ASEAN member-states and found that 95% of Thais always wear a face mask in public.

Vietnamese citizens were a close second at 94%, followed by the Philippines (93%), Malaysia (89%), and Indonesia (87%). Singapore came in last with just 66% of people saying they always wear a face mask in public. Those surveyed were chosen based on age, income, education level and gender to ensure a wide representation for each country.

[floridarob]

where do you suppose the USA would come in?

[reader]

Probably about the same as other western countries (i.e, France, Italy, UK and Spain). But I'm basing this primarily on what I experience in the Northeast. What do you think from experience in your neck of the woods?