Thailand drops pre-arrival COVID-19 test for foreign visitors

Travellers to Thailand will no longer have to take a Covid-19 test before boarding the plane, under plans announced Friday as part of efforts to reboot the kingdom's pandemic-battered tourism sector.

Visitors will still need to take a RT-PCR test upon arrival and a self-administered rapid antigen test on the fifth day in the country, said Taweesin Visanuyothin, a spokesperson for the government’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Draconian travel curbs helped Thailand limit Covid-19 case numbers and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic, but hammered its crucial tourism industry, which accounts for about a fifth of the country's economy.

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Thailand is keen to restore its lucrative tourism sector, which took a nosedive when most arrivals from overseas dried up since April 2020.

The country is currently recording around 25,000 new cases of Covid a day as the Omicron variant spreads around the country, but officials hope this will tail off in time for them to move to a "post-pandemic" phase from July.

Seeking to bounce back from its worst economic performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Thailand has gradually eased travel restrictions over the past nine months.

But hotels, restaurants and other tourist-dependent businesses have urged the government to go further and faster to entice visitors back to the kingdom's beaches and resorts.

The tourism industry estimates that around five million foreign visitors will travel to Thailand in 2022, down from nearly 40 million in the year before the pandemic.

Neighboring Cambodia, whose tourism industry was similarly battered, announced Thursday that fully vaccinated passengers are no longer required to have a RT-PCR test before arrival. It also removed the need for a rapid antigen test upon arrival.

The health authorities are concerned about the potential for the spread of the virus next month during the Songkran festival, a raucous holiday that celebrates the Thai New Year.

They have prohibited the traditional splashing of water in the streets and other public areas, and banned the selling and consumption of alcohol at public celebrations.

A major threat from the holiday is mass travel from the cities to home villages in rural provinces. The practice was a huge problem last year, when most Thais had not yet been vaccinated.

Thailand has administered 126 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. At least 54.6 million people, more than 78% of the population, have been vaccinated with at least one jab. Fifty million people have received at least two jabs, and 22 million received booster doses.

(With inputs from agencies)