clutchcargo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:03 pm

Worse still, giving privilege to these specific foreign visitors while still imposing the 14-day quarantine on Thai nationals being repatriated will likely prompt negative reaction by those Thais, the source said.

Oh dear! We can't have nationals treated as 2nd class citizens

In any normal democracy, this might actually matter.

Foreign travel bubbles:

ooowww, I immediately thought of Anuttin and a brain-fart idea of one of those clear plastic blowup bubble thingies you get inside of and can sort of walk around in...
come on now, I wasn't the only one!

glennb6 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:14 pm Foreign travel bubbles:

ooowww, I immediately thought of Anuttin and a brain-fart idea of one of those clear plastic blowup bubble thingies you get inside of and can sort of walk around in...
come on now, I wasn't the only one!

Yes you were

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coron ... =%%user_id%%


Thailand's restaurants and hotels cleared to serve alcohol
Lack of inbound tourists creates large barrier to bringing back economic growth


Thailand gives the go-ahead for restaurants and hotels to start serving alcohol again, beginning June 15, when a late-night curfew will also be lifted. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)
MASAYUKI YUDA, Nikkei staff writerJune 12, 2020 21:24 JSTUpdated on June 13, 2020 00:11 JST

BANGKOK -- Diners in Thailand will again be able to enjoy traditional grilled chicken and papaya salad with a glass of cold beer at eateries as the government has decided to allow the serving of alcoholic beverages beginning Monday.

Restrictions on alcohol were part of the kingdom's anti-coronavirus measures that are now all but lifted as the outbreak has been brought under control.

An 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. curfew will also be scrapped from Monday.

The restored freedoms are part of a fourth round of easing proposed by the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration. The government gave its consent to the proposal on Friday, according to the Royal Gazette.

The round also includes the reopening of international and tutorial schools, seminars and training programs, though these businesses will be required to exercise proper hygiene. In addition, day care centers for children and the elderly can resume operations.

Amusement parks, playgrounds, convention centers and exhibition halls will also be allowed to reopen on Monday. So will health-oriented spas, saunas, outdoor stadiums, martial arts schools, gymnasiums and exercise facilities.

This is the final round of the government's four-phase plan to bring the economy back online, and the next two weeks will be an assessment period during which authorities will watch out for signs of any renewed outbreak.

Thailand confirmed 27 new COVID-19 cases during the seven days through Friday. All of the infections were discovered among arrivals during mandatory 14-day state quarantine procedures for those entering the country from abroad.

No local transmissions have been reported for 18 days now.

Restrictions were first imposed in March in an effort to contain local transmissions of the novel coronavirus.

The first easing phase began on May 3, when restaurants were allowed to accept dine-in customers, though all diners had to sit apart to maintain social distancing requirements and refrain from drinking alcohol.

Round 2 came on May 17, when shopping malls reopened, though shoppers have had to log in so as to enable contact tracing.

On June 1, massage salons were allowed to reopen as long as they close every two hours for cleaning.

Although the curfew is also being lifted, the country's state of emergency will remain in place until the end of June.

While all four rounds of the phase-in have been approved, some businesses and activities that gave rise to clusters in the early days of Thailand's outbreak remain closed and banned as the government remains cautious.

These businesses include pubs, bars and nightclubs. In March, a pub in Bangkok that attracted Thais and tourists from Hong Kong gave rise to one of Thailand's first clusters.

Professional sports will get the go-ahead but spectators will not. Many fans at a Thai kickboxing event at the army-owned Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in March spread the virus to one another as they screamed and cheered.

According to the cabinet's advisory National Security Council, 95% of businesses and activities will be unrestricted on Monday.

But the Thai economy will still be missing its biggest engine, foreign tourists. Tourism accounts for broadly 20% of the kingdom's gross domestic product. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has a landing ban in place for all incoming international flights, excluding repatriation flights for Thais, until the end of June.

Thailand plans to strike up bilateral deals with Asia-Pacific nations and territories to resume flows of first business travelers and eventually tourists. Such agreements would open so-called "travel bubbles." Destinations within these bubbles would allow travelers to forego 14-day quarantines at each end. "Once the situation improves," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on June 2, "we'll allow travel between countries that we have an agreement with."

Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson of the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, said Friday that the kingdom is considering travel bubbles with China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, and some countries in the Middle East. Further talks with some of these countries are expected at an online Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit on June 26.

The Thai government is also rolling out a series of measures to help Thais get back on their feet. It has introduced cash handouts for informal workers to support consumption. It also seeks to dole out travel coupons to Thais to boost domestic tourism.

These steps will not be enough to pull the Thai economy out of a contraction, however. Earlier this month, Kasikorn Research Center lowered its economic growth projection from a 5% contraction to 6% negative growth.

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Thailand fights to revive reputation as top tourist destination
COVID-19 tracing measures and troubled Thai Airways' cloud tourism revival


Travelers wearing face masks are seen at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Thailand wants to create "travel corridors" or "travel bubbles" with certain countries, including China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)
MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR, Asia regional correspondentJune 15, 2020 17:39 JST

BANGKOK -- A leading business hotel in Bangkok is sprucing up rooms, restaurants and hallways to meet new hygiene and safety standards as it prepares to welcome the first trickle of regular customers -- foreign airline crews -- in August.

"This is now a priority, including deep cleaning of our ventilator and air conditioning systems," said Marisa Sukosol, executive vice president of Sukosol hotels, which owns five properties in the Thai capital and in Pattaya, a seaside resort southeast of the city. "We have a loyal market, like airline crews from South Korea, and we need to be ready for them."

The government has encouraged the preparations after warming to "tourism bubbles" between Bangkok and select Asian cities to revive a travel industry battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Countries on an emerging shortlist for these new air bridges are China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, all of which have largely contained the spread of COVID-19, just as Thailand has.

Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the tourism minister, has hinted that the welcome mat will first be rolled out to business travelers and patients arriving as medical travelers when airports open in July for international travel. This plan includes limiting the number of foreign arrivals to 1,000 per day. But even then, the thorny -- and lifesaving -- issue of imposing a 14-day quarantine on new arrivals remains unresolved.

Seasoned travel industry observers say that "travel corridors" or "travel bubbles," which other Asian countries such as China, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam, among others, are also pursuing, has raised the stakes of mutual trust in ongoing talks. "Some of those discussions are bilateral, while others are looking at multilateral agreements," said Mario Hardy, chief executive officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, a Bangkok-based industry network.

"Setting up a 'corridor' or 'bubble' is complex and requires a high level of trust and coordination between respective health authorities," he added. "This would also require a range of various health controls to be implemented at border control."

Not surprisingly, this shift toward "tourism bubbles" has brought into focus privacy concerns and data protection in a region peppered with governments that are authoritarian or military-backed, such as the Thai regime. Western governments are keeping an eye on the "enforceable privacy protection safeguards" for people in the new environment.

"Whether it is within a 'tourist bubble' or after fully reopening travel, collecting additional traveler information relating to their movements, contacts and their health status clearly raises sensitive issues," said a senior diplomat from a Western country based in a Southeast Asian capital. "Once a covid infection is detected, the affected persons as well as their contacts will have to forego their anonymity, including highly sensitive information on their respective health status."

The Tourism Authority of Thailand, a government body, has come up with its own way to win the trust of inbound travelers: rebrand Southeast Asia's second-largest economy as a "trusted" tourist destination. To this end, it is backing a health certification system the government has rolled out for hotels and restaurants as a "tool to build trust."


The Thai government is encouraging the public to continue wearing masks and observe social distancing as the country tries to jump start its tourism sector. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)

Thailand has eased restrictions in the country on the back of its success to contain the spread of COVID-19. By this week, the government will permit hotels to fully open, restaurants to serve alcohol and organizers to host government and private seminars and meetings. This adds to a list of public places that have already opened, ranging from shopping malls and public parks to tourist attractions and beaches.

Public health authorities are playing up the absence of no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 for nearly three weeks. Thailand has reported 3,135 infections and 58 deaths since the pandemic struck. Still, the government wants the public to wear face masks and maintain social distancing.

COVID-19 delivered a harsh blow to a sector that has become a key economic driver in Thailand, accounting for nearly 20% of gross domestic product. In April and May, Thailand recorded no new tourist arrivals, an unprecedented slump. Consequently, Phiphat, the tourism minister, estimates that the tourism sector could lose 1.78 trillion baht ($57.3 billion) in 2020 because of disruptions to foreign travel.

By contrast, during the record-breaking year in 2019, Thailand attracted nearly 40 million foreign holidaymakers, confirming its position as the market leader in mass tourism in Southeast Asia. The largest flow was from China, with nearly 11 million. Others among the top 10 inbound markets were Malaysia, Japan, Russia, South Korea and India.

But Thailand will not be able to establish "tourism bubbles" for all of them, travel industry analysts say. "The major inbound markets like India and Russia are still struggling to contain COVID-19, so it is unlikely you will see travelers from these countries soon," said Imtiaz Muqbil, executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, which specializes in the tourism sector across Southeast Asia. "The so-called 'quality' tourists -- the high-spenders from the Middle East, who were an important market for Thai tourism -- also face a slowdown because of the slump in oil prices and the downturn in those economies."

Likewise, the tourism revival plans face headwinds from the fate of debt-burdened Thai Airways, which travel industry sources say flies in close to 40% of the country's traffic. The national carrier is due to undergo a bankruptcy-court supervised restructuring.

Am I the only one thinking that the only tourist invited to countries are Chinese, even Australia can't wait to get them back before everyone else.