Countries around the world have already started lifting the Covid 19 Travel restrictions since the symptoms became more mild among most of the new omicron infections and the vaccination rates became high enough.
These actions were mainly taken by western countries in Europe and the Americas in the last month, and now southeast Asian countries have started to follow similar steps to revive the tourism industry after nearly 2 years of border closure.
Thailand and Malaysia Vaccinated Travel Lane
Thailand and Malaysia have both agreed to implement a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) Between both countries which will take place from March 2022 onwards. Travelers from and to Thailand will no longer need to undergo a PCR test upon arrival or departure, and quarantine upon arrival will no longer be required. (Further Details to be announced by Thailand CCSA & TAT)
That’s considered as a good start for the rebound of the regional tourism sector between southeast Asian countries which is going to be a final step before full international borders reopening.
More vaccinated Travel Lanes are expected
There are Expectations to add more countries to the vaccinated travel lane project such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and other neighboring countries as well.
That will not only encourage southeast asian travelers to travel regionally, however it will encourage long haul markets’ travelers who are looking for a multi destination asia trip without the need for quarantine while moving between countries in South east Asia.
Main Markets in 2022
The tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Will be focusing this year on the middle eastern and short hall markets (Especially india) as an alternative to cover the losses from other main markets such as the Chinese market that will not be back this year and the Russian market that will be affected hardly due to the war in Ukraine.
Thailand’s Road to Endemic from March to July
The CCSA has announced recently that The country has already started the countdown to classify the Covid 19 as a seasonal flu instead of pandemic, and this countdown will start from now until July of this year.
There will be several stages that the country will pass by to reach the endemic stage in July according to the center for Covid situation administration.
First stage is from now till early April (Named as Combatting Period), The Main focus will be to Maintain and Reduce the Death rate from the Total COVID 19 infections , weakening the virus strength.
Second stage will be from Early April till the end of May, the main focus of the Government will be to Maintain the Numbers of new infections, and trying to not face a Surge nor increase in the new daily infections.
Third stage will be During the Month of June, and The expectations are that the Numbers of new infections must be increased compared to the ones in previous months.
By Early July, The Government will announce that COVID 19 is classified as a Seasonal flu, and it will turn to endemic instead of Pandemic.
