Opinion: If Thailand wants tourism to return, even slowly, we must ensure there are no “knee-jerk” changes once open

The following is an opinion article. The opinions are the authors own

Every day it seems we hear a new announcement about tourism restarting in Thailand, be it from Phuket officials stating the plan to reopen Phuket in only FOUR weeks to foreign vaccinated tourists will take place or Pattaya officials stating the October plan for reopening will also take place.

The announcements, and posts about it, always bring a fair bit of diverse comments (mostly negative) and discussion here on The Pattaya News and I wanted to take a moment to address that, as well as some opinions on that.

It’s understandable why so many people are negative, first of all. It’s been well over a year since Thailand closed its borders to foreign tourists who don’t go through quarantine or other hoops.  Other countries, despite the messy situation, have many fewer hoops and restrictions for tourists, such as Mexico, Turkey, Dubai, Maldives, Seychelles, etc. Pretty much all of these have had outbreaks and a rise in infections at one point or another since reopening to tourists…but for the most part did not impose additional restrictions on tourists or resort to quick reversals in tourism policy.

Seychelles, for instance, has recently had a major tick in cases, despite their vaccination levels, but an understanding of how important tourism is did not stop flights, raise tourism quarantines or take the situation out on tourists. They addressed it in other ways.

Turkey, despite its strictest lockdown since the start of the Covid-19 situation, allowed tourists an exception, keeping museums and some popular tourist attractions open.

These and many other examples from tourist-reliant economies showed that the country understood how valuable and important their tourists were and how important they were to the economy. In Thailand, the exact percentage of GDP that tourism contributes to the economy is widely debated but given that the officially non-existent “red-light” industry isn’t included that brings well over a billion baht yearly to the Thai economy (prior to Covid-19) as well as millions of informal workers like motorbike taxi drivers, street cart vendors, guesthouse operators, and many more the true percentage is much higher than the “official” number of 14%. In fact, the “official” number, without informal workers, is as low as 9%. The true number, however, including all of the informal workers and “it doesn’t exist adult industry” is likely around or even over 20%.

An informal worker is one, by the way, who does not collect social security and is not officially “working” per the Ministry of Labor. In the tourism industry (and indeed many other industries) this is the vast majority of employees and encompasses millions of people in Thailand, from your waitress to your maid, to the DJ, to the security guard, and yes, to the bar girl…and on and on.

It’s quite clear right now that Thailand is having the worst outbreak of Covid-19 since the virus reared its head early last year in 2020. There are likely all sorts of reasons for that and we aren’t getting into that in this particular article. Last year, Thailand had a very clear phase plan for getting out of endless restrictions and closures of business. That isn’t the case right now, and as the vaccination program is in a very early period it likely won’t be for some time.

That being said, if Thailand truly wants to bring back foreign tourists, (And I believe they do, and yes, I believe some people will come. I saw this personally during the ASQ period last year when many online commenters claimed nobody would do it-yet I met many that did and it was just enough-barely-to keep some businesses running) they need to ensure there are no knee-jerk reactions or penalties to the tourists like the countries I listed above.

Now, there are still MANY questions that remain about Thailand’s plan to bring back tourists and we have written about that previously HERE.

This article isn’t about that either, however. One thing pretty much everyone can agree on is that the current “Sandbox” or “Move On” plan or whatever it will be called has more questions than answers.

If there is one thing that will give tourists confidence who decide to go through with Thailand’s plans it will be that they will not take a “knee-jerk” reaction on tourists if some more cases (especially without hospitalizations) take place. What do I mean by a knee-jerk reaction? I will give you a perfect example.

Thailand recently changed its quarantine program to fourteen days for everyone after the recent outbreak. Including vaccinated tourists. Even from low-risk countries. Everyone is currently fourteen days (And in reality, it is closer to sixteen days due to how they count a day). They had previously recently reduced quarantine prior to the current Covid-19 outbreak, especially for vaccinated tourists. More so, those on quarantine now currently cannot leave their room (officially) and there is no more pool, gym, or free time currently. This decision was made very quickly shortly after the current outbreak took place, despite having nothing to do whatsoever with foreign tourists or quarantine.

This, quite frankly, was a “knee-jerk” reaction. It left many people who had booked and bought tickets out of luck and caused many people to scramble to book longer hotel stays and other things. Some people had their entire trip back to Thailand canceled. Yes, there was a small “leeway” period for those who had already booked, but it wasn’t significant.

If Thailand has another round of cases, especially after the majority of people in tourist “sandbox” test areas are vaccinated, they simply must avoid kneejerk reactions that penalize tourists. There might be a need, like Turkey or Seychelles, to put some restrictions in place and tighten the rules for the general area or business, but putting those specifically on tourists or “ruining a holiday” will only hurt the already badly damaged tourism industry in Thailand.

I truly hope that a big reason so few details have been released on the current Sandbox plan is because officials understand this. Many major tourism industry associations and business owners are taking part in the planning for the “restart” of tourism and I am aware they understand how critical it is not to put blame or strict rules on tourists coming on a holiday. However, if this ever-changing Covid-19 situation in Thailand has taught us anything, it is that things can change literally within an hour.

It will be very important that those changes and rules are not directed at true tourists with “knee-jerk” reactions, or it is going to be a very rocky and long road to bringing back a significant part of Thailand’s economy. (And for places like Koh Samui, Pattaya, and Phuket, the vast majority.)

Thanks for listening,

Adam Judd, Pattaya News Co-Owner

March 28th, 2021

Feedback? E-mail me, Pattayanewseditor@gmail.com

 

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Adam Judd
Mr. Adam Judd is the Co-owner of TPN Media since December 2017. He is originally from Washington D.C., America, but has also lived in Dallas, Sarasota, and Portsmouth. His background is in retail sales, HR, and operations management, and has written about news and Thailand for many years. He has lived in Pattaya for over nine years as a full-time resident, is well known locally and been visiting the country as a regular visitor for over a decade. His full contact information, including office contact information, can be found on our Contact Us page below. Stories please e-mail Editor@ThePattayanews.com About Us: https://thepattayanews.com/about-us/ Contact Us: https://thepattayanews.com/contact-us/