BANGKOK: When 23-year-old Norwegian Anastasia Johansen and her boyfriend were planning their first vacation in two years, they considered going to Thailand but chose nearby Vietnam instead, for its simpler entry rules on the coronavirus.
“The regulations to enter Thailand … were complicated to me and we had to pay for the hefty PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test,” Johansen said.
Thailand, one of the world’s tourism destinations before the pandemic, was among the first nations in Asia to reopen its borders to vaccinated visitors last year with limited quarantine norms, hailed at the time as a model for re-opening.
But as regional peers have eased entry requirements, Thailand has clung to a cumbersome process.
“Whichever (country) offers easy, smooth, less complicated procedures wins my heart,” said Johansen.
Tourism professionals say Thailand’s complicated entry rules are now holding back recovery in an industry that contributed 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product before the pandemic.
Forward bookings for 2022 show Thailand reaching 25 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, behind levels of 72 per cent and 65 per cent each for Singapore and the Philippines.
Many blame the Thailand Pass pre-entry approval system, which can take up to seven days, although the government recently vowed to streamline it.
“The red tape is killing us,” said Bill Barnett, the managing director of hospitality consultancy C9 Hotelworks.
“If you’re in Singapore and want to come to Thailand for the weekend, it’s not easy. Those short-term trips matter.”
American Kiran Stallone, who is visiting family in Thailand, said getting the Thailand Pass required proof of vaccination, insurance coverage of at least US$20,000 and reservations at a qualified hotel, all submitted on a Thai government website.
“The government website was hard to navigate, and I had to seek outside help,” Stallone added.
Stallone said she was told to avoid some steps known to cause submission glitches that would delay her application.
The website does not allow users to save progress or return to previous pages and rejects PDF files.
A Facebook group on the Thailand Pass has ballooned to 90,000 members, with would-be travellers asking anxious questions about changing flights, new entry rules and some venting frustration over rejected applications.
Similar forums have also emerged on sites such as TripAdvisor.
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