Thailand reopens borders for tourists from over 60 nations
Bangkok/UNI/IBNS: The Thai government announced Monday that it will be opening its borders to tourists from more than 60 countries after 18 months of covid19 restrictions in place.
Vaccinated tourists from more than 60 "low-risk" countries, including the UK, China, Japan, the US and most of Europe, will be allowed to enter the country without having to undergo hotel quarantine on arrival.
Presently, the country continues to record almost 10,000 covid infections a day.
The coronavirus-induced pandemic had a scathing effect on the Thai economy, which is greatly dependent on tourism and is known for attracting about 40 million tourists a year.
However, last year the tourist arrivals were down by more than 80 percent.
Officials said the tourist numbers are expected to jump to 15 million next year, which should bring in more than $30 billion in revenue for the Southeast Asian country.
China's present border closure still pose a challenge for Thailand's tourism sector, as the Chinese accounted for the largest pool of tourists with 12 million of them arriving in 2019.
Currently, most of the countries still face travel restrictions, as only around 42 percent of the Thai population has been completely inoculated.
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