Bangkok, Thailand-
The Minister of Tourism and Sports has stated that Thai government officials will be meeting with Chinese Embassy officials in the near future to discuss a potential tourism bubble with China.
Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the Minister of Sports and Tourism, made the comments this week following a meeting of the Thai Cabinet and Prime Minister visiting the hard hit Southern islands of Phuket and Koh Samui. One of the ideas brought up was exploring a potential tourism bubble with China which, due to low cases of Covid-19 is seen as officially a low risk country. China also saw the highest number of visitors to Thailand in 2019, followed by Russia.
The Pattaya News notes, however, that these are very early, very preliminary discussions and there is no guarantee of any sort of bubble taking place but that both sides are interested in discussing it. The proposed date for any sort of bubble would be before the critical Chinese New Year which falls in mid February of 2021. The travel bubble would remove the need for quarantine and only require minimal Covid-19 testing.
Any sort of tourism bubble, of course, would need approval at the highest levels of government on both sides but would be seen as beneficial for both countries and for the tourism industry of Thailand. Thailand has continually ranked number one as the place Chinese tourists most want to visit following the Covid-19 pandemic according to Chinese media.