BANGKOK: The Thai government is planning to reopen the border with Malaysia in March to boost tourist arrivals, as Malaysian tourists have been the largest group of visitors to Thailand before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tourism authorities and the Covid-19 administration agency have been ordered to prepare and outline the pandemic mitigation measures for the reopening of border checkpoints at Songkhla, Narathiwat, Yala and Satun.
“Tourists from Malaysia will enter Thailand via the quarantine-free “Test & Go: programme,” said a foreign ministry spokesman. The travellers must pass an RT-PCR test on arrival and another test on Day 5 of their visit.”
At present travellers must apply for a Thailand Pass before entering the kingdom: they need to purchase medical insurance with minimum coverage of US$50,000 and have a Covid-19 test result 72 hours before travelling.
They must also pre-book their accommodation at certified hotels and Covid-19 tests for Day 1 and Day 5.
Thailand opened its door to fully vaccinated visitors from 63 countries and territories iin November 2021, but the programme was suspended in late December with the spread of the Omicron variant.
It was resumed on Feb 1. A total of 39,277 visitors have entered Thailand via the quarantine free programme so far.
Thailand closed its border with Malaysia in March 2020. The kingdom recorded only 200,000 arrivals last year compared to nearly 40 million visitors in 2019 and 6.7 million in 2020.
Over the last 24 hours, Thailand recorded 14,900 new Covid-19 cases including 192 imported cases and 26 fatalities.
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