When will Thailand open to Tourists- question/speculation?

[reader]

From CNN

If you want to travel next year, you may need a vaccine passport

San Francisco (CNN Business)Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the US and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again. But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application.

Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries.

 

The Common Trust Network, an initiative by Geneva-based nonprofit The Commons Project and the World Economic Forum, has partnered with several airlines including Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, as well as hundreds of health systems across the United States and the government of Aruba.

 

The CommonPass app created by the group allows users to upload medical data such as a Covid-19 test result or, eventually, a proof of vaccination by a hospital or medical professional, generating a health certificate or pass in the form of a QR code that can be shown to authorities without revealing sensitive information. For travel, the app lists health pass requirements at the points of departure and arrival based on your itinerary.

"You can be tested every time you cross a border. You cannot be vaccinated every time you cross a border," Thomas Crampton, chief marketing and communications officer for The Commons Project, told CNN Business. He stressed the need for a simple and easily transferable set of credentials, or a "digital yellow card," referring to the paper document generally issued as proof of vaccination.

 

Large tech firms are also getting in on the act. IBM (IBM) developed its own app, called Digital Health Pass, which allows companies and venues to customize indicators they would require for entry including coronavirus tests, temperature checks and vaccination records. Credentials corresponding to those indicators are then stored in a mobile wallet.

 

n an effort to address one challenge around returning to normalcy after vaccines are distributed widely, developers may now have to confront other challenges, ranging from privacy issues to representing the varied effectiveness of different vaccines. But the most pressing challenge may simply be avoiding the disjointed implementation and mixed success of tech's previous attempt to address the public health crisis: contact tracing apps.

 

Early on in the pandemic, Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) set aside their smartphone rivalry to jointly develop a Bluetooth-based system to notify users if they'd been exposed to someone with Covid-19. Many countries and state governments around the world also developed and used their own apps.

[vinapu]

16 hours ago, reader said:

 

 

The CommonPass app created by the group allows users to upload medical data such as a Covid-19 test result or,

 

........ effort to address one challenge around returning to normalcy ...

what's next ? , code  scanner at entry to say,  Moonlight or Arena to see if one is HIV-negative 

and then calling it normalcy ?

scary stuff

[Guest]

At the entrance to many businesses in Thailand, they have temperature checks, hand gel and a sign in via an app or paper.

Almost all Thais ignore the sign in, so I follow the locals.  Who knows what requests might be made if a carrier is on the premises even after I have left ?

The temperature check often involves putting your hand up to a non-contact temperature sensor.  My testing shows that if you hold a cold bottle of water before the test, it has a "Low" error and you get waved through.

[anddy]

7 hours ago, z909 said:

My testing shows that if you hold a cold bottle of water before the test, it has a "Low" error and you get waved through.

 while that is pretty obvious, it hadn't really occurred to me, probably due to a lack of need to fool the system. Having said that, I have employed a similar technique in Singapore almost a year ago. After walking around in the heat for some time, I was denied entry to a tourist attraction due to too high temperature (using one of those pistols pointed to the forehead). My assertion that it will go down in the airconditioned inside was politely rejected. So went to a nearby airconditioned coffee shop, got some ice cubes and rubbed it on my forehead for some time. Back to the attraction entrance: all cleared! 

[reader]

From Thai  Examiner

Strict entry criteria to remain as officials await clarity on the medical status of vaccinated people

The widespread vaccination programme currently underway in the western world will not mean the opening of Thailand’s doors to foreigners, even with vaccine passports, for quite some time. This week, as the kingdom began to contend with the growing realisation that a second wave had already descended upon it, health officials confirmed that the 14-day quarantine scheme and current entry criteria will be strictly upheld until more clarity emerges on the status of those inoculated through the use of worldwide vaccines.

Thailand’s Disease Control Department Director, Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, has indicated that the country’s public health officials have no intention, as of now, in making it easier for those vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus to enter the kingdom.

However, the expert official did suggest that the matter would be kept under review by authorities. Dr Opas said it was too early to tell whether an inoculated person could still be a transmitter of the infection or not. His answer did suggest that this is something that the Thai government will consider when there is more scientific clarity on the matter.

In the meantime, Thailand will be adhering to its strict 14-day quarantine system which is now working effectively within the commercial Alternative Quarantine Scheme run by the Ministry of Public Health in association with a network of luxury hotels throughout the country. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, anddy said:

 while that is pretty obvious, it hadn't really occurred to me, probably due to a lack of need to fool the system.

I wasn't exactly expecting to get a Thermodynamics PhD off this.   The main unknowns were how the instrumentation and the staff behave.

I imagine repeating the test with a hot coffee would also result in an audible alarm, but denied entry. 

[reader]

From South China Morning Post

Vaccine passports, domestic tourism, pricey flights – is this the future of travel in a post-pandemic Asia?

When international travel returns, it’s likely tourists will have to use a second passport – a globally recognised one that shows all the vaccines they have taken. Even with the new documentation, however, the free movement of people that happened in pre-pandemic times is unlikely to return this year, with travellers mostly limited to travel bubbles or business lanes. And with fewer flights and more vaccines and tests, hopping aboard a plane is likely to become a lot more expensive – and a lot less frequent.

Those were the predictions of tourism experts who spoke to This Week in Asia – with the additional point that just like last year, travellers are more likely to stick to exploring their own countries rather than heading overseas.

Hotelier Ho Kwon Ping – the executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, which runs hotels across Asia, America, Africa and the Middle East – told a recent conference that travel would become more purposeful, with people thinking harder before buying a flight ticket, whether for leisure or business. Meanwhile, Abhineet Kaul, senior director of public sector and government at Frost & Sullivan, said it would be “at least 2024 before tourism is back to the levels of 2018 and 2019”.

Travel has changed drastically since January last year, when countries around the world began to ban flights from China in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus there. As the restrictions spread in the wake of Covid-19, international travel ground to a standstill. Little has changed almost 12 months later, with many countries now banning arrivals from Britain and South Africa due to a more infectious variant of the disease.

There have been incremental efforts to open some travel channels. Thailand recently eased travel restrictions on visitors from 56 countries, including Singapore, Japan and the United States , allowing entry to tourists with a health certificate to prove they are free of Covid-19 – though they must still quarantine for 14 days.

Vietnam has from September allowed outgoing commercial flights to seven Asian destinations, but domestic carriers are still barred from operating inbound flights. Visitors from the likes of Brunei,Vietnam and New Zealand are allowed to enter Singapore, but travel is not permitted in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, a highly anticipated travel bubble between the island nation and Hong Kong collapsed when the latter saw a resurgence of Covid-19.

The Asia-Pacific region saw the biggest decrease in foreign tourist arrivals, at 82 per cent, while the UNWTO expects that a rebound in international tourism will occur no sooner than 2023. This was a devastating blow for the region, where tourism has long been a huge driver of economies.

In 2018, receipts from the industry accounted for 17.8 per cent of Cambodia’s gross domestic product, and more than 11 per cent of Thailand’s. On the Indonesian island of Bali, up to 70 per cent of residents depend on tourism. Figures from countries such as Vietnam also help illustrate the situation: it hosted just 3.8 million foreign tourists last year, a far cry from its record of 18 million in 2019.

Airline data also reflects the extent of the catastrophe. In November last year, Singapore Airlines flew just 45,600 passengers –a 97.6 per cent drop from the year before, while Malaysia Airlines has grounded 75 per cent of its aircraft.

 

Some of the damage is permanent, with airlines such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Dragon and Thailand NokScoot folding. The situation is slightly less dire for countries with a huge domestic market, but even domestic air travel in India , for example, is at 65 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

 

“When we emerge from the pandemic, our world and our industry will undoubtedly be different,” said Nuno Guerreiro, regional director at Booking.com, who anticipates that travellers will expect more flexibility and reassurances, such as the ability to cancel and change dates without charge.

Nguyen Ai Ngoc, 32, founded Local Buddy Tours in 2017 with a few of his friends. Their outfit provided personalised private tours to popular destinations in central Vietnam, such as Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue, benefiting from the rise of cheap and convenient travel that drew European, Australian and American travellers in droves.

It was so easy to buy a budget ticket and move around Asia, booking cheap accommodation on the go, that Local Buddy Tours served over 200 customers a month before the pandemic. But if the future holds more “purposeful” travel and tourists no longer arrive in hordes, Ngoc’s business cannot be sustained. Last year, he had just one customer every few months. He has already turned to tutoring to make ends meet.

Others have also realised the need for a pivot. Kaul from Frost & Sullivan said this meant new tourism strategies with a different mix of products and markets, and products such as long-stay tourism, vaccine tourism – in which people travel to other countries with the express purpose of receiving a certain inoculation – or mental wellness tourism.

With China banning outbound tours, many tourists from the country have taken to exploring at home. In August, the volume of domestic flights in China recovered to 95.4 per cent of 2019’s level, while 13 Chinese carriers operated more flights compared with a year earlier. At Booking.com, domestic travel made up more than 70 per cent of their global room bookings in the third quarter of 2020, up from 45 per cent in 2019.

Continues at

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3116142/vaccine-passports-domestic-tourism-pricey-flights-future-travel

 

[reader]

From The Thaiger / Chiang Rai Times

Deputy PM says relying on tourism is “unacceptable”

Thailand’s deputy PM says that relying too much on tourism is “unacceptable.” In Supattanapong Punmeechaow’s speech, he said that the tourism industry will never be allowed to recover to its previous levels.

For years, Amazing Thailand was the nation’s slogan, which brought in $56.2 billion in 2019 alone, but after Covid struck, it is clear that there has been a major policy shift in thinking by PM Prayut’s cabinet.

As the nation’s travel and tourism industry accounts for up to 20% of GNP and around 10% of all jobs, the revelation is troublesome for the country’s investors and property developers, which may see no point in continuing to build up Thailand with more hotels, if the industry may never see a repeat of the 39 million+ tourists that arrived in 2019.

The deputy PM admitted that the Covid outbreak exposed cracks and flaws in the economy.

Thailand’s deputy PM says that relying too much on tourism is “unacceptable.” In Supattanapong Punmeechaow’s speech, he said that the tourism industry will never be allowed to recover to its previous levels.

For years, Amazing Thailand was the nation’s slogan, which brought in $56.2 billion in 2019 alone, but after Covid struck, it is clear that there has been a major policy shift in thinking by PM Prayut’s cabinet.

As the nation’s travel and tourism industry accounts for up to 20% of GNP and around 10% of all jobs, the revelation is troublesome for the country’s investors and property developers, which may see no point in continuing to build up Thailand with more hotels, if the industry may never see a repeat of the 39 million+ tourists that arrived in 2019.

The deputy PM admitted that the Covid outbreak exposed cracks and flaws in the economy.

“The Covid-19 outbreak that hit Thailand since April has exposed the fragility of the economy and shed light on the fact that we rely too much on export and tourism.”

[vinapu]

10 hours ago, reader said:

Deputy PM says relying on tourism is “unacceptable”

“The Covid-19 outbreak that hit Thailand since April has exposed the fragility of the economy and shed light on the fact that we rely too much on export and tourism.”

while it may be some merit in it as soon as scare will go away , so will that way of thinking.

Country's attractiveness will not go away and most of infrastructure is already in place. Becoming space conquering nation or industrial powerhouse is noble goeal but  requires investment and patience and in meantime hungry masses must earn living somehow.

[Guest]

A country cannot move overnight from being strong in one area of business to being a leader in a sector perceived as more desirable.

When the education system is weak, the government is incompetent and corruption is rampant, such changes will be even more difficult.

Note: Thailand does not have a monopoly on incompetent government, as citizens of many countries can verify.

[18past19]

On 1/1/2021 at 9:48 AM, reader said:

the country’s public health officials have no intention, as of now, in making it easier for those vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus to enter the kingdom.

Sad.  It really burst my bubble. I was hopeful after I got my second shot. 

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, 18past19 said:

Sad.  It really burst my bubble. I was hopeful after I got my second shot. 

 

relax , you are one step ahead of most of us

[Guest]

If Thailand manages to get back to an almost zero covid infection rate, the only way they will ease entry for vaccinated people is if there is evidence of near zero transmission from vaccinated people.

Currently there is no such evidence.

[spoon]

24 minutes ago, z909 said:

If Thailand manages to get back to an almost zero covid infection rate, the only way they will ease entry for vaccinated people is if there is evidence of near zero transmission from vaccinated people.

Currently there is no such evidence.

One way to start seeing this is if countries with high daily cases started to see the daily cases going down after enough people got vaccinated. That wont be anytime soon though. A quicker indicator is probably lower new cases amongs frontline workers. Whether thai gov want to use this as evidence, who knows.

[Guest]

If the vaccine cuts transmission by 75% so the R is below 1, that achieves a good result in a vaccinated population.

Cutting transmission by 75% in people travelling to an unvaccinated and potentially covid free area is unlikely to be considered sufficient.   Of course, Thailand is no longer covid free.

[eurasian]

I participated in the Sinovac vaccine trial , 6 weeks ago first shot 4 weeks ago second shot , I was wondering if I was in the real vaccine arm or placebo arm , as I had no complaints after the shots I thought I had placebo . Last week after antibody testing I got the good news , test showed I have plenty of antibodies against Covid . To celebrate this very good news I decided to visit Brazil in February . Pity the Rio Carnaval was postponed to July . Hope Thailand announces soon no quarantine for the vaccinated visitors .  

[Guest]

16 hours ago, eurasian said:

 I was wondering if I was in the real vaccine arm or placebo arm , as I had no complaints after the shots I thought I had placebo . Last week after antibody testing I got the good news , test showed I have plenty of antibodies against Covid .

 

Did you arrange an antibody test independently of the trial ?

The trial would no longer be blind if they do antibody tests and share results.  However, it's a good way to go if you want a holiday in Brazil.

Also AFAIK, there is no evidence that vaccines eliminate transmission of covid.   In the absence of such evidence, why would Thailand relax entry rules ?

 
 

[hank75]

2 hours ago, z909 said:

Also AFAIK, there is no evidence that vaccines eliminate transmission of covid.   In the absence of such evidence, why would Thailand relax entry rules ?
 

No evidence either that Sinovac in particularly (reportedly the lowest rate of efficacy among all vaccines bar Sputnik V from Russia) eliminates COVID. I suggest you still travel with extreme care

Randomly, in blind trials I assume they would notify you at some stage what you received otherwise placebo recipients would continue to be vulnerable?

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, z909 said:

Also AFAIK, there is no evidence that vaccines eliminate transmission of covid.   In the absence of such evidence, why would Thailand relax entry rules ?

 
 

to let us and our wallets in

[10tazione]

2 hours ago, vinapu said:

to let us and our wallets in

You can send your wallet by transferwise ... the boys will happily take care of it until you follow!

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, 10tazione said:

You can send your wallet by transferwise ... the boys will happily take care of it until you follow!

Whilst Vinapu is generous, I imagine he still expects to receive very good "care" before opening the wallet.

[vinapu]

10 hours ago, 10tazione said:

You can send your wallet by transferwise ... the boys will happily take care of it until you follow!

no, I have that rule, me first , wallet follows, not other way around except of genuine emergencies

9 hours ago, z909 said:

Whilst Vinapu is generous, I imagine he still expects to receive very good "care" before opening the wallet.

You are so right . I'm not very demanding  but I don't believe in up-front payment for services

[Guest]

Yes.

Rule #1: NEVER pay a MB up front, as it will go wrong.   In most of the world.

The only exception I make is for the very professional host bars in Tokyo, where payment is made to the bar before leaving with the host.

[spoon]

I had compromised once only by paying half the amount asked and the other half after the deeds is over, when asked to pay upfront before. Of course we were both already in the room. Turns out boys also had been duped before, where client didnt pay, or didnt have money or enough money with them, hence the request. Luckily it turns out great and we met few more times after, of course without the need to pay upfront. Ill never pay upfront before meeting though. Thats a telltale scam.

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

Position-tracking app required in 5 provinces

People in the Covid-19-hit provinces of Chanthaburi, Chon Buri, Trat, Rayong and Samut Sakhon must use the MorChana position-tracking app, according to the spokesman of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.

Spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin said on Friday that use of the app would allow quick control of Covid-19 in the five provinces, which have the highest levels of infection. 

Its use is stipulated under regulation number 17 newly issued under the executive decree for public administration in emergency situations, imposed to control Covid-19.

Records from the MorChana app would protect infected people against charges of concealing information in the event they cannot remember every place they have visited, Dr Taweesilp said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Thursday urged people to download and use the app,   but said there would no penalty for not doing so --  so long as people inform officials of their travel plans when crossing provincial borders.

=================================

High season lost, operators ask for 50% salary subsidies

he ongoing outbreak is ruining any hopes for high-season tourism, with operators urging the government to subsidise 50% of monthly salaries to help employees in the industry.

"The latest surge halted tourism demand during the high season in Chiang Mai, following good numbers in November," said La-Iad Bungsrithong, president of the Thai Hotels Association's northern chapter.

There are growing cancellations and no new hotel bookings, she said.

Bangkok, a key domestic market for Chiang Mai, has been declared a red zone and people are encouraged to refrain from travelling. Overall hotel occupancy in Chiang Mai fell to 10% and some hotels decided to temporarily close.