Thailand Scraps Entry Pass for Foreign Travelers, Extends Nightlife Operation Hours

Arriving passengers wait for a PCR swab test to be taken at the arrival area at Phuket International Airport as Thailand welcomes the first group of tourists fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus without quarantine in Phuket on Nov. 1, 2021. (Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images)

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.

CCSA said that visitors would only be required to show their vaccination status or COVID-19 test results upon arrival and complete a health declaration form, Thai PBS reported.

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.

Women wearing face masks walk below decorations outside a shopping mall in Bangkok on Dec. 6, 2021. (Jack Taylor/AFP)

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.

Public Health Permanent Secretary Dr. Kiattibhoom Vongrachit said there had been no reports of infection clusters since the reopening of nightlife venues.

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.