One night in Bangkok (quarantine): Thailand reopens to UK tourists
After nearly two years of all but a trickle of foreign arrivals, Thailand is reopening to mass tourism, with travellers required to spend just one night in quarantine while they await Covid test results.
Hundreds of vaccinated foreign tourists this morning arrived in the Thai capital for quarantine-free travel after the Southeast Asian nation approved visitors from more than 60 countries, including the UK, China and the United States.
Several European nations are also on the list as Thailand, one of Asia’s most popular destinations, looks to capitalise on northern hemisphere visitors aiming to escape the winter blues.
Those hopes appeared to pay off early, with German tourist Simon Raithel and a group of friends among the first to arrive.
“Right now, in Europe, it’s quite cold,” said Raithel, who planned to head to islands in the Thai south.
“We just picked this flight and it is quite surprising that we are the first flight to arrive.”
Around 42 per cent of the country’s population is fully vaccinated and Thailand is still registering around 10,000 new infections a day.