Thailand’s Covid success turns economic failure - Asia Times
▻https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/thailands-covid-success-turns-economic-failure
Authorities have indicated that Thailand could remain closed to international tourism until next year, with earlier plans to create “tourism bubbles” with countries that have likewise successfully controlled the virus.
That means hotels, travel agencies and related tour services will miss out on the country’s traditional revenue-generating November-January peak season. The government’s guarded approach is raising grumbles among tourism operators. “Thailand is now being run by doctors who are overly cautious,” said Luzi Matzig, chairman of Asian Trails Group and five-decade veteran in Thailand’s tourism business. “It’s as if the Ministry of Transport were to say now we have to lower the speed on highways to zero so we can have zero accidents.” Currently, all foreign arrivals in Thailand, including diplomats and businessmen keen to invest in the country, must endure 14 days of state-run quarantine in selected Thai hotels. Thai health authorities have been spooked by Vietnam, a country that had contained the virus in early 2020 but then suffered a resurgence in cases after it opened up domestic travel through an outbreak erupting in the seaside town of Danang that quickly spread nationwide. Since July 1, Thailand has subsidized domestic tourism spending – which accounts for 6% out of the 18% tourism contributes to GDP – without suffering a Covid resurgence.
But Thais are still on edge. The last reported foreign Covid case was an Egyptian VIP military officer who traveled on a diplomatic visa and disobeyed a government order to stay in his hotel by sneaking out to visit a shopping mall. There were no local infections in Rayong province where the quarantine violation occurred reported but the solitary case of an infected foreigner irked many Thais and sparked an avalanche of criticism on social media
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