Thailand will ease its COVID-19 restrictions for foreign travelers beginning July 1, including scrapping its pre-registration requirement and outdoor mask mandate, amid a decline in the local virus cases.
Foreigners traveling to Thailand will no longer be required to apply for the “Thailand Pass” or to have $10,000 COVID-19 insurance, the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said on Friday.
Mask wearing will also be optional beginning next month, but CCSA advised people to wear them in crowded settings.
The government’s move to relax travel restrictions comes amid complaints that its requirement for foreigners to pre-register with multiple documents, ranging from vaccine and swab test certifications to medical insurance and hotel bookings, was hampering the tourism sector’s recovery.
Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said that he aims to increase the number of international visitors to Thailand to between 25,000 and 30,000 per day, up from the current range of 20,000 and 25,000 travelers a day.
Phiphat said that arrivals are likely to peak at 50,000 a day from October, which is considered the beginning of Thailand’s high season for tourism.
He believed that the relaxed travel restrictions would help to increase the annual number of foreign arrivals from an estimated 7.5 million to 10 million this year.
Thailand’s government has lowered the COVID-19 alert to Level 2, allowing nightlife venues to operate until 2 a.m. Pubs and bars had been allowed to reopen on June 1, with the operating hours set only until midnight.
Nightlife operators were required to adhere to public health guidelines, including carrying out temperature screening at the venues and ensuring that their staff and customers had received a booster shot.
Despite the eased restrictions, Kiattibhoom urged people to get their booster shots and continue to follow “universal prevention” measures, such as wearing masks in crowded settings, social distancing, and regular hand washing, to avoid getting infected.
