Photo:Arnun chonmahatrakool
The Thai Cabinet agreed to allow foreign tourists that have agreed to 14-day quarantine and a stay of minimum 90 days to enter the country to assist with recuperating the economy. This means that 90-day VISAs or 3 month long visa are now approved to encourage stimulation in the cripple economy. According to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha the cabinet meeting concludes that special tourist visas will be issues for long-staying tourists with the condition that there is mandatory 14-day quarantine.
According to the statements by the Prime Minister, visitors expecting tourism of health services may opt to stay at various state quarantine facilities and certain areas or even at hospitals which function as quarantine facilities. As well as emphasizing that the public health system is indeed one of the best and that there should be confidence placed in it.
Furthermore, the spokeswoman for the deputy government Traisulee Traisaranakul elaborates that long-staying tourists should first present means of proof of payment to show that they are staying long-term which can be in the form of hotel reservation receipts or leases for condominium rooms. According to her statement the goal is to have an upwards of 1200 visitors a month and up to 100 to 300 tourists a week which should be able to generate the ideal income of 1 billion baht per month. Furthermore, she emphasized that the 90 day extension can be extended twice and that it is expected to allow long-staying tourists to begin entering the kingdom within the next month.
The finance permanent secretary Prasong Poontaneat says that the country must generate income from foreign visitors and that ideally they should be coming from countries where the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided and no new cases have raised especially nations like China, Taiwan and various European countries. With twenty Chinese province corona virus case free and with an estimated combined population of roughly 800 million it is presumed that if one percent which is about 8 million were to visit Thailand it could help revive the Tourism sector.