Bangkok –
The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) called for the Thai government to scrap its ‘Thailand Pass’ registration for all arrivals by June 1st, believing it would attract 10-12 million foreigners to visit the Kingdom in total for 2022 by reducing administrative processes.
TCT vice president Vichit Prakobgosol revealed yesterday, April 26th, that it was good news that the Thai government had revoked the mandatory RT-PCR test for international tourists in May. However, what the private sectors wanted the most was the cancellation of the ‘Thailand Pass’ registration, hopefully in June, as it was the main obstruction for bringing tourists as large tour groups were deterred due to the overload of paperwork and arrangements.
Additionally, Vichit stated, the Thailand Pass was a major obstacle for “short-term” tourists, many from nearby countries like India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, or Malaysia, who often came for 1-3 days on very short notice, such as a weekend, and would not bother with administrative processes that could take up to a week for approval.
Vichit said: “The cancellation of the Thailand Pass system would help stimulate inbound tourism and attract family tourists in Asia who would regularly travel during the semester break in July to have time to prepare for planning their trip to Thailand as well.”
The vice president also forecasted the market trends of foreign visitors in 2022 for 2 scenarios. In the first scenario in which the ‘Thailand Pass’ was revoked by June, there would be 10 million tourists. If the Chinese government had allowed its people to travel abroad at the end of this year, the number of foreign tourists would increase to 12 million.
In the second scenario in which the ‘Thailand Pass’ was not revoked, there would be about 8 million foreign tourists coming to Thailand. And it could increase to 10 million if the Chinese government had allowed its people to travel abroad.
“So, we’d like to ask the government to revoke the registration system as soon as possible. If effective by June 1st, tour operators under the Destination Management Company (DMCs) would be able to arrange group tours which could significantly increase the number of foreign tourists by as much as 2 million, compared to the first and second scenarios. This would also immediately boost “short notice” visitors from India, Malaysia, etc. and boost the economy.” Vichit concluded.
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