The majority of Thais are ready to welcome foreign tourists back to the country, but not without a 14-day quarantine requirement.
According to a survey in 4Q2020 by the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT), 60 per cent of locals and 50 per cent of tourism operators want Thailand to reopen borders to international tourists, starting first with China and then other low-risk countries.
In addition, 39 per cent of Thais and 50 per cent of operators surveyed said they would welcome foreigners from low-risk countries on VIP tours with no quarantine, for short stays of 7-10 days.
The TCT surveyed 785 tourism-related entrepreneurs and 1,444 Thais from November 11 to December 10, 2020, regarding their opinion on the policy of opening the country for accepting tourists.
Polling 1,020 tourism-related operators from November 11 to December 29 last year, the report also found that the tourism confidence index of tourism-related operators had dropped to 62 in 4Q2020, compared to 88 during the same period in 2019 – which represents a significant decline in performance over previous years.
An index value below 100 means that the tourism situation has worsened compared to the same period in the previous year, whereas an index higher than 100 means that the tourism situation has improved over the same period in the previous year.
Despite the addition of public holidays to boost tourism, the expected confidence index for 1Q2021 is equal to 53, a vast drop from 4Q2020 due to the impact of the current outbreak situation in Thailand.
