Thailand to resume quarantine free travel from February 1

Good news for travellers wishing to travel to Thailand in 2022. As per the latest reports, Thailand will be resuming a quarantine-free travel scheme for international travellers from February 1. Referring to this, officials in the know-how informed that after the programme was suspended due to rise in Omicron cases, the kingdom's tourism-dominated economy suffered a lot as the visitor numbers dropped down to a trickle.

Reports have it that fully vaccinated travellers will now be able to enter the country under the Test and Go scheme, and will have to take COVID tests on the first and fifth days after arriving. This was stated by Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman for the country's COVID-19 taskforce.As such, travellers will be required to isolate themselves at a hotel while waiting for their test results, and they will be required to download a tracking app to ensure that they comply with the rules. In a move to boost the country’s economic performance, Thailand launched the said Test and Go scheme in November as an alternative to two weeks' hotel quarantine.
The said programme was suspended late last month as the country reported rising cases of Omicron, but with hospitalisations not spiking, the spokesperson added that it could resume the program although the authorities will keep it under watch. He added that in case the situation changes or there are more infections, there will be a re-assessment for inbound travellers and adjust toward the sandbox scheme.

As per the sandbox programme, which was launched last year, fully vaccinated visitors were allowed to 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.
As per the estimates of the Tourism Ministry, around five million foreign visitors will likely visit Thailand in 2022, which is down from nearly 40 million if compared to the pre-pandemic levels.