More than 57,000 passengers arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday

 Thailand - More than 57,000 international passengers arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday, confirmed by Immigration Officers.
Immigration Bureau Spokeman Major Geneneral Choengron Rimphadee confirmed yesterday (November 10th) that there were about 25 international flights arriving at the Suvarnabhumi Airport with about 57,000 passengers. Of those 49,000 were foreigners.

This is approaching the same average numbers before Covid-19 which was approximately 60,000 people a day. During this time there are up to 3,000 passengers arriving at the airport per hour. Immigration Officers can check their passports at 3,500 people in half an hour. Immigration stated that they can still manage with no passengers needing to wait outside the main Immigration area.

TPN notes, however, that many complaints have surfaced online from tourists arriving stating that they personally found the arrival process hectic and crowded, depending on the time of day of arrival.

Immigration, however, has blamed most of the issues on airlines or language and communication issues with tourists from some countries and not their own staffing or processing.

Source - Pattaya News

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Tourism recovery could take three to five years: Singapore Tourism Board chief

 

The tourism industry must be prepared for a long winter as international travel could take three to five years to return to pre-pandemic levels, even if a vaccine for the corona-virus is developed soon.

But businesses cannot go into hibernation mode if Singapore is to come roaring back as a top destination for high-value tourists when the situation begins to normalize.

This was the stark message from Singapore Tourism Board's (STB) chief executive Keith Tan to industry members at a virtual roundtable session Thursday.

Echoing the bleak outlook, Association of Singapore Attractions (ASA) chairman Kevin Cheong urged operators that are barely hanging on to cut their losses.

"If you think the light at the end of the tunnel is around the corner, this is not a corner. It is a huge turnpike," said Cheong.

Tan said the Government will do its best to aid the industry, such as by stimulating local demand. He also urged firms to develop offerings that can help differentiate Singapore as a travel destination, saying that support will be available to sustain these capabilities.

"We need to be prepared for travelers who are looking for more exclusive, smaller-scale or special experiences that are hard to find elsewhere because we believe that in the years after COVID-19, people will not be traveling so frequently," he said.

Businesses will have to be creative in coming up with new revenue streams in the interim, and some may have to reposition or pivot their business to survive, he noted.

During the two-hour session, industry leaders across sectors such as hotels, retail and attractions spoke about the challenges they face amid the tourist drought and safe distancing restrictions, as well as the need to collaborate and to improve service levels.

Sustained border closures have put the hotel industry here in a "critical financial crisis" as international tourism contributes to about 90 per cent of revenue, said Margaret Heng, executive director of the Singapore Hotel Association.

While the pandemic has hastened the adoption of contactless guest touch-points and online shopping, the personal touch will remain key for the hospitality and retail industries, panelists said.

Better service in stores is also needed if retailers are to give shoppers incentive to visit bricks-and-mortar outlets, said Singapore Retailers Association executive director Rose Tong. "If a shopper steps into the store and is not well treated and not served, then they might as well shop online," she said.

Retail staff should thus be trained in conversational and soft skills to better engage customers, Tong said.

Source - TheJakartaPost

Plan for Travel bubbles in the fridge: "For the time being no foreign tourists to Thailand"

Travel bubbles are likely to be delayed after several countries eyed for the scheme have seen a resurgence of Covid-19 cases, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT).

CAAT director-general Chula Sukmanop said even though talks about travel bubble arrangements continue with a number of countries including China, Japan and South Korea, the scheme will be put on hold due to a resurgence in infections. He said Thailand will be closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation this month.

The government has come up with a plan to launch travel bubbles with several countries with low corona-virus risk, originally starting in August.

Mr Chula said that local tourism is vital to rebuilding the country's aviation industry and noted that demand for domestic travel is picking up after airlines resume operations and business operators launch promotional campaigns to boost travel.

Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob said on Tuesday that public safety is the top priority for the government as it considers reopening the country to international travelers.

Mr Saksayam called on airlines to wait for a clear policy from the government and the CAAT when asked about reports about airlines preparing to resume international flights in September.

Earlier an epidemiologist at Chulalongkorn University urged the government to use extreme caution when considering travel bubble arrangements because the Covid-19 pandemic is still ravaging many parts of the world.

Source - Bangkok Post

#Vietnam considers resuming flights to some Asian destinations

Tokyo, Seoul, mainland China's Guangzou city, Taiwan and Laos are among destinations being considered for early reopening of international flights, the government said.

The consideration is based on the condition of places that have had no new Covid-19 cases for at least 30 days, the Government Office said in a statement Wednesday, citing a prime ministerial directive.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has directed that the flights should undertake strict anti-pandemic measures in line with the Health Ministry’s regulations.

The premier assigned the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control the task of drafting a list of safe countries and territories where there have been no new cases for at least 30 days, saying these destinations will be prioritized for the resumption of international flights. "There must be guidelines on quarantine for those entering the country via such flights."

Phuc had earlier said that it was impossible for the country to remain completely closed to international flights, but the reopening has to be done carefully and with consideration for the disease safety level in the countries or territories involved.

Vietnam's entry suspension for foreign nationals since March 22 is still in effect, as is one on international flights since March 25. Only those with diplomatic or official passports, or coming for special economic projects, are allowed to enter the country and are quarantined upon arrival. It has also granted permission for some special flights to repatriate Vietnamese citizens stranded abroad.

Domestic flights have resumed since April.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are also considering the reopening of international flights with Vietnam, foreign media reported.

Japan has banned entry by foreigners but is considering allowing business travelers from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam who test negative for Covid-19 both while leaving their home country and arriving in Japan, said Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese national newspaper.

South Korea is planning a limited resumption of international flights to certain destinations including Vietnam, which has garnered international acclaim for its effective dealing of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With a population of over 96 million, Vietnam has reported just 332 infections. Of this, 319 have recovered after treatment and no deaths recorded.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare, Chen Shih-chung, had said last month that only a few countries could meet its requirements for resuming flights based on objective data. The minister said he thinks that New Zealand and Vietnam are the most likely countries to open up in the first wave, Taiwan News reported.

Though Vietnam has yet to open its doors to international visitors, the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control had said at a meeting on May 28 that the tourism industry could pilot a plan to welcome foreign tourists to island destinations on a trial basis with strict safety measures in place.

Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, was on the list of priority island destinations.

Due to border closures and flight suspensions, Vietnam's number of foreign visitors in the first five months was 3.73 million, a 48.8 percent year-on-year decline.

The country has gone nearly two months without community transmission of the disease.

Source - VN Express

Thailand - Phuket’s hotels can now open. Someone forgot to tell the hotels.

Phuket is open. Sort of. And the hotels on the island are officially allowed to re-open but few are flinging open their doors anytime soon to welcome the hordes of tourists lining up to book a room. The holiday island is in a Catch 22 situation with the hotels waiting for the guests to return and potential visitors waiting until there are signs of life.

Although the authorities said hotels could re-open on June 1 they forgot to give hotels any advance notice so management could put all the many wheels in motion necessary to open a modern hotel.

A hotelier told TTR Weekly the first he knew of the lifting of restrictions was when he received a message on his phone saying the province had announced the island’s hotels could reopen.
“They gave no one any warning, but within 30 minutes of the text message on hotels reopening, the social security department sent out messages ending the monthly compensation payments for June.”

But opening up the hotels is just one small step to re-booting Phuket’s battered tourist industry.

What are the guidelines for quarantine, if any? Do guests require any specific documentation? Insurance? Which hotels are actually open? Who is co-ordinating the information? Do travellers get any information about these things when they make their bookings? How do travellers know the hotel’s open anyway?

And if travellers come to Phuket, then return to their province. will they be required to do 14 day quarantine, as required by some provinces?

For now, the only way you can get to Phuket is across the Sarisan Bridge, the only land link to the Thai mainland. The island’s marine piers are also open again but there are scant services running at the moment.

And the airport?

There has been no official announcement about the re-opening of Phuket International Airport, even for domestic services. The island’s provincial authorities applied to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand last week to re-open the airport but there has been no official response. Many other airports have now re-opened around Thailand to limited domestic flights but the success of the domestic flights reboot has been sketchy with schedules constantly changing as airlines battle with the ‘new normal’. Passengers are also describing the whole process as a “hassle’ with longer times needed to get into the airport, through check-in, requirements for social distancing and the completely impersonal flight experience with flight crews dressed up like ICU staff.

But there are signs of life. Maybe Thai AirAsia, Nok Air and Vietjet Air know something the rest of us don’t. All three have bookings available, at least between Phuket and Bangkok, from June 16. Fares range from 1,100 up to 1,700 in the week after June 16, one way. But if you’re rushing to buy a ticket, on or off the island, be aware that there is no official green light for a resumption of flights, as of today.

International flights into Thailand are banned up to at least the end of June with, again, no official mention of what will happen after that. Residents of which countries will be allowed to fly in? What restrictions and conditions will be imposed? And which airlines are going to be flying anyway?

The CAAT has extended the ban on international flights twice already.

The Thai government said last month that they were going to use June as the month to clear a lot of the chartered Thai citizen repatriation flights. That the only new cases of Covid-19 in Thailand over the past 2 weeks have been returning citizens, all from Middle East countries, will be a niggling concern for authorities as they figure out how, or when, to re-open international borders.

Back to Phuket…

Even if the hotels are re-opening, where will these magic travellers be coming from. The biggest feeder market, weekenders from Bangkok, will be going to Pattaya or Hua Hin. They’re unlikely to take a 12 hour drive to Phuket, no matter how cheap the hotels, or pretty the beaches. So as long as Thailand is closed to international tourists, and the airport’s sealed off from international travel, the prospects for Phuket’s hotel industry remain extremely limited.

Even if some domestic tourism provides a kick-start to the island’s tourist economy, what will they do when they’re here? All the hot spots are ‘cold’, there are few tours that are considering re-starting for now and it’s wet season anyway.

Speaking to the GM of three hotels on the island, he told The Thaiger that they’re not re-opening until October, at the earliest.

“There are plenty of difficult months ahead with our old staff mostly laid off. When we re-open, many of the staff will be new. The whole things a mess.”

Any bets on June 16 for a re-opening of Phuket Airport to domestic flights?

Source - The Thaiger

#Thailand - No date for resumption of international arrivals: PM

In an apparent effort to quell rumours and undue optimism, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is downplaying the notion that international tourists will be allowed to return to Thailand in July. The government had set a tentative deadline of 1 July for lifting all restrictions put in place under the Emergency Decree to combat the spread of Covid-19. Last week it was reported the lifting of restrictions would mean that international arrivals would resume from July 1.

But yesterday the Thai PM said Thailand still has a long way to go in its fight against the virus before international tourists can be allowed to return. He added that the issue hasn’t yet been even discussed by the Cabinet, and that only tourists from certain countries may be allowed to visit Thailand, namely those where the outbreak is deemed to be under control.

When tourists are eventually allowed back in, he said, they’ll face “a number of restrictions” which he didn’t specify. This will include so called “travel bubbles,” using bilateral agreements with individual governments to help limit any further outbreak or second wave of infections.

The idea is similar to those enacted elsewhere as countries try to safely kickstart their tourism sectors.

In May, a “travel corridor” allowed people to travel between Seoul and 10 regions in China, including Shanghai, and in Europe, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania established their own travel bubble on May 15.

Australia and New Zealand have discussed plans to resume travel between the 2 countries, potentially as early as September.

The news comes as Tourism Authority of Thailand’s governor said last week he doesn’t expect international tourists to return to Thailand until later in the year.

“It is still dependent on the outbreak situation, but I think at the earliest, we may see the return of tourists in the fourth quarter of this year.”

If and when foreign tourists can return to Thailand, there will likely be restrictions in place to determine where they can visit. The resumption of any form of tourism will also rely heavily on airlines, most of which are struggling with huge financial losses and grappling with restarting flights in a very new international travel paradigm.

The PM has said he is in no rush to open up the borders, reminding reporters that all the new infections are now coming from repatriating Thais.

“We are not going to open all at once. We are still on high alert, we just can’t let our guards down yet. We have to look at the country of origin to see if their situation has truly improved. And lastly, we have to see whether our own business operators are ready to receive tourists under the ‘new normal’.”

A ban on all international travel in and out of Thailand remains in place until at least the end of June. The CAAT have made no comment at this stage about dates for a possible resumption of flights from Thailand’s international airports. Phuket Airport remains closed to all traffic.

Source - ThaiVisa / The Thaiger

Thailand’s Extends International Flight Ban Until the End of May

Thailand’s Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has extend its International flight ban on all incoming flight until May 31st, 2020. The aviation regulator announced the extension ahead of the scheduled expiry date, April 30th.

The ban was also in support of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration’s battle to control the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in Thailand.

According to the Bangkok Post, CAAT did not explain why it extend the ban with many countries now looking to relax restrictions.

Thailand reported only nine new cases and one more death on Monday. When it was also announced the government was extending the State of Emergency Decree until May 31st.

Exemptions of the flight ban are state and military aircraft; and aircraft making an emergency landing; or a technical landing without disembarkation.

CAAT director Chula Sukmanop said the decision will affect international airlines. Even more those planning to resume commercial flights to Thailand. Philippines AirAsia, had announced the resumption of its Manila-Bangkok service from May 1.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand reports Thai AirAsia and Thai Lion Air will likely be the first to resume domestic flights, starting May 1st,2020. The routes will hinge on the decision of each province to ease its lockdown.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand had a meeting with representatives from 20 airlines on Thursday.

CAAT director Chula Sukmanop said after the meeting Thai AirAsia would resume domestic services on May 1st. Thai Lion Air said it would wait to see whether the state of emergency would be extended from April 30.

The routes each airline will resume also depends on the lockdown exit strategy of each province.

Thailand’s Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has extend its International flight ban on all incoming flight until May 31st, 2020. The aviation regulator announced the extension ahead of the scheduled expiry date, April 30th.

The ban was also in support of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration’s battle to control the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in Thailand.

According to the Bangkok Post, CAAT did not explain why it extend the ban with many countries now looking to relax restrictions.

Thailand reported only nine new cases and one more death on Monday. When it was also announced the government was extending the State of Emergency Decree until May 31st.

Exemptions of the flight ban are state and military aircraft; and aircraft making an emergency landing; or a technical landing without disembarkation.

CAAT director Chula Sukmanop said the decision will affect international airlines. Even more those planning to resume commercial flights to Thailand. Philippines AirAsia, had announced the resumption of its Manila-Bangkok service from May 1.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand reports Thai AirAsia and Thai Lion Air will likely be the first to resume domestic flights, starting May 1st,2020. The routes will hinge on the decision of each province to ease its lockdown.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand had a meeting with representatives from 20 airlines on Thursday.

CAAT director Chula Sukmanop said after the meeting Thai AirAsia would resume domestic services on May 1st. Thai Lion Air said it would wait to see whether the state of emergency would be extended from April 30.

The routes each airline will resume also depends on the lockdown exit strategy of each province.

“We have required airlines to sell tickets for 70% of the capacity of each plane model by taking into account social distancing. Airlines will have to take this measure into consideration when considering resuming services,” Mr Chula said.

Source - Chiang Rai Times