Why is Thailand going to open visa-free entry to Chinese tourists amid the coronavirus epidemic?

Some Thai officials in the tourism industry are voicing the idea of visa-free travel for Chinese holidaymakers.

Due to the coronavirus epidemic in China, the economies of many countries are not in the best position. This also applies to the tourism sector. Thailand In this regard, one of the affected countries, as the resorts of this state were popular among the Chinese.

Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, Minister of Tourism, said: “We are going to again propose to the Cabinet of Ministers to launch visa-free entry for Chinese tourists as part of Thailand’s tourism revival program.”

The Tourism Authority of Thailand published statistics according to which the number of international tourists arriving in Thailand from 1 to 9 February decreased by 43.4% compared to 2019. The number of travelers from the Middle Kingdom decreased by 86.6%.

“We forecast that the Chinese market is likely to fall another 90 percent by March, but we hope that as early as April, at Thailand’s Songkran Festival, we will see Chinese tourists returning to Thailand,” Phiphat said.

It is not clear what the optimism of Thai officials is based on, as the WHO has been reporting pessimistic forecasts of a coronavirus epidemic for the past week.

On Sunday, the first infected tourist was found in Egypt. Even the cleansing of Egypt from all the Chinese, which was carried out in late January, did not help: read the details in the article “How Egypt was cleansed from the Chinese in 48 hours: an eyewitness story”. Now the Egyptian authorities are worried about how this case will not affect the attractiveness of the country of the Pyramids in the eyes of tourists.

Source: tourprom