Thailand News Today | Thailand’s Tourism sector demands full reopening

Tourism businesses in Thailand are struggling to survive and barriers to increasing the number of foreign visitors to the kingdom must be removed immediately. That’s the view of Chamnan Srisawat from the Tourism Council of Thailand, who says the Omicron variant, coupled with Russia’s war on Ukraine, has dealt a double blow to the sector.

A TCT poll that surveyed 200 overseas travellers found that 71% agreed the process around the PCR test on arrival is cumbersome.

Chamnan says if Thailand’s tourism industry is to survive, it needs to retain 40% of its 2019 level of business this year. That’s 1.2 trillion baht in revenue, from 16 million tourists and 75 million domestic trips. He adds that in order to achieve this, the onerous Thailand Pass registration process and PCR testing on arrival need to go as soon as possible.

According to the Bangkok Post report, TCT’s tourism…