Thailand to restart quarantine-free travel from February 1

Pandemic travel curbs have hammered Thailand's tourism-dominated economy, sending visitor numbers dwindling to a trickle

Thailand will resume its quarantine-free travel scheme from February 1, officials said Thursday, after the programme was suspended due to the fast-spreading Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Pandemic travel curbs have hammered the kingdom's tourism-dominated economy, sending visitor numbers dwindling to a trickle.

Visitors will have to isolate at a hotel while waiting for their test results and will be required to download a tracking app to ensure they comply with the rules.

The programme was suspended late last month over fears about Omicron, but with deaths and hospitalisations not spiking, Taweesin said it could resume, though the authorities will keep it under review.

Under the sandbox programme launched last year as a first step towards resuming tourism, fully jabbed visitors spend seven nights in certain designated locations, such as the resort island of Phuket, before being allowed to travel on to the rest of Thailand.

The tourism ministry estimates that some five million foreign visitors will come to Thailand in 2022 -- down from nearly 40 million in the year before the pandemic.

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