Coronavirus: Thailand to reopen bars, pubs, and karaoke clubs next month to woo back tourists
- The Thai government hopes the latest easing of restrictions will help revive the Southeast Asian country’s battered tourism sector
- Thailand will also drop a requirement for unvaccinated travellers to quarantine, but they must take a test on arrival or show a negative test before departure
Thailand will allow bars, pubs and karaoke clubs to reopen in some regions from next month, ending a more than a year-long shutdown, as the tourism-reliant nation targets more travellers to bolster an economic recovery amid an easing Covid outbreak.
Popular tourist destinations including Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Chonburi are among 31 provinces classified as green and blue zones where pubs, bars and karaoke lounges can serve alcohol to patrons until midnight from June 1, Rachada Dhnadirek, a government spokeswoman, said on Twitter on Friday after a meeting of the nation’s virus task force chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
Thailand’s nightlife is a major attraction for tourists, but most entertainment venues have been closed or faced a strict curfew since the pandemic began, with some bars forced to convert to restaurants to stay in business.
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The government hopes the latest easing of restrictions will help revive the Southeast Asian country’s battered tourism sector, a key growth engine that accounted for about 12 per cent of the economy before the pandemic. Thailand is targeting 5 to 15 million arrivals this year.
“These businesses should take a universal prevention approach … staff must have received booster doses and take antigen tests every seven days,” Taweesin Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Covid-19 task force, told a news conference.
Starting on June 1, Thailand will also drop a requirement for unvaccinated travellers to quarantine. They will either have to take an test on arrival or show a negative Covid-19 test before departure, he said.
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From January to mid-May, Thailand received 1.01 million arrivals. There were 427,000 tourists for all of last year, compared with almost 40 million in 2019, according to official data.
The gradual reopening of nightlife entertainment venues marks an end of some of the toughest pandemic-era restrictions and is seen as key to luring more foreign tourists in the June-September period, considered a low season for Thai tourism. The Southeast Asian nation has seen its omicron-fuelled Covid-19 wave ease in recent days with new daily cases averaging about 5,000 from a peak of almost 30,000 in early April.
“Improving Covid-19 infections and further easing demonstrate the government’s attempt to quickly bring back economic activities,” said Koraphat Vorachet, an analyst at Capital Nomura Securities Pcl. “What people are closely watching for is the quick recovery of overseas tourists and domestic spending” to spur the economy, he said.
Thailand expects tourist arrivals to more than triple to about 1 million a month from October as the nation rolls back most border controls. While the country has scrapped mandatory Covid testing and quarantine for vaccinated tourists, pre-arrival registration and insurance requirements are seen as deterrents with other tourism-reliant nations doing away with such restrictions.
Additional reporting by Reuters
