Thailand to begin waiving mandatory quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated travelers

Thailand will waive mandatory quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated travelers starting from today.

The measure is part of a larger effort by Thailand to revive its battered tourism industry, which has suffered from 18 months of strict entry restrictions. In 2019, Thailand enjoyed 40 million tourist arrivals, in 2021 this number dropped to 100 thousand.

Tourism in the country makes up around 6.78% of its GDP and is valued at $30 billion. These restrictions have caused a loss of around 3 million jobs and close to $50 billion in revenue.

The Thai government initially struggled with vaccine supplies in its mass vaccination campaign but has introduced legislation to purchase 3.35 million doses of vaccines from Spain and Hungary.

Thailand will certainly benefit from a large boost in vaccinated tourists who have been itching to travel during the course of the pandemic. However, Thailand has only vaccinated 42% of its population and its daily infection rate remains at almost 9,000.

Today’s announcement heralds the beginning of a recovery for Thailand’s massive tourism sector, but the measure may have come too early as crowding at tourist hotspots might increase the spread of the more infectious Delta variant.