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Covid-19: Thailand ready to welcome vaccinated travellers from UAE

Bangkok - 'Phuket will be the first destination to welcome travellers in July this year'

Thailand - one of the most popular destinations for travellers from the UAE - is getting ready to welcome tourists.

Pichaya Saisaengchan, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand for Dubai and the Middle East, said: “At the start of the pandemic, the Tourism Authority of Thailand introduced the ‘Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration: SHA’ certification to elevate the country’s tourism industry standards, with over 8,000 businesses receiving the certification.”

Since then, plans are now in place to gradually reopen the country’s borders to fully vaccinated travellers without the need to quarantine, Saisaengchan said.

“Phuket will be the first destination to welcome travellers in July this year. A vaccination programme is also under way to achieve herd immunity for 70 per cent of Phuket’s population,” he added.

Visitors looking to travel around Thailand would need to remain in Phuket for seven consecutive nights without quarantine before travelling to designated destinations like Krabi, Phangnga, Samui, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

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The next phase of Thailand’s reopening will enable travellers to visit the designated destinations directly without the need to quarantine. They would be required to spend seven consecutive nights at the selected destinations before travelling to other points across Thailand, said Saisaengchan.

Japan, on the other hand, is set to open a tourism office in Dubai this year. Satoshi Seino, president of Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO), said: “The JNTO office in Dubai will be the first of its kind in the Middle East.”

Tomoko Kikuchi, the executive director of JNTO Dubai Preparation Office, added: “The number of GCC citizens visiting Japan reached a record high of 28,222 in 2019, an increase of 28.4 per cent compared to the number of visitors in 2018. This number has doubled in the last five years, and indicative of Japan’s rising popularity as a travel destination within the region.”

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com