Thailand’s ‘Open Thailand Safely’ campaign pursues reopening borders

Thailand’s tourism companies have launched a campaign to reopen the country’s borders from 1 July 2021, according to media reports. The ‘Open Thailand Safely’ campaign underpins a formal request to the Royal Thai Government to respond favourably to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination programmes underway in Europe, the USA and other Thailand tourism source markets.

According to the campaign, 1 July is an appropriate date as most citizens in many source markets would have been vaccinated by then; gives Thai medical authorities to vaccinate both front line staff in hospitality settings in Thailand; gives international travellers time to make travel plans and bookings; gives time to airlines, hotels, tour operators and others to start marketing and sales and get ready for tourism operations to commence; and will take Thailand at least a year to return to the large numbers of international visitors that it had before the COVID-19 crisis.

In the coming days, the Open Thailand Safely campaign will also send the 1st July request to Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Minister of Tourism and Sports,  Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, and the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Yuthasak Supasorn.