The shift from "Zero Corona" to "With Corona" in Thailand

Sawatdee Krap (สวัสดีครับ)! This is Akihiko Ichikawa of Netmarks Thailand.

I am in charge of making sales activities to the Japan Originated Companies here in Thailand.

As many of you may know, the Thailand government has started exempting the quarantine period for the foreign travelers from 63 countries starting November 1st, 2021 with certain conditions such as being vaccinated. The locals here are full of anticipations and fears. While the impact may not be apparent right away, I would like to show how Bangkok is doing after the start of this quarantine exemption.

The first COVID-19 infection in Thailand was reported on January 13th, 2020. The first wave of the infections lasted short after 3 months with only a small number of people being infected. There were no community spread infections for 100 days afterwards & Thailand was said to be a country having a control of the corona virus.

However, the second wave of the infections started after having an outbreak at a fish market on December 17th,2020. The number of people infected were as high as 959. By February 2021, the number decreased and the various restrictions were taken away a little by little.

The long third wave then started in March 2021 after having an outbreak in the city center of Bangkok. By August, 22,782 people in the country and 4,854 people in Bangkok got infected & it almost collapsed the medical system. It then peaked out & 8,165 people in the country and 625 in Bangkok are now being infected as of November 1st, 2021. In comparison to the 1st and the 2nd waves, this 3rd wave is 43.4 and 8.5 times more respectively. While the number of the infections is starting to decrease, we are still in midst of this third wave.

Some of the Asian countries have recently started admitting the foreign tourists again. As 20% of Thailand GDP depends on the tourism, we are experiencing a big damage on many of the tourist related businesses.

While the Thailand government is concerned about the re-spreading of the disease, a shift to loosen the immigration restrictions was made to gain more tourist demands.

On November 1st, 61 flights arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport bringing in about 3,000 people. Nationwide, there were a total of 6,613 people entering the country.
I went to the airport & got the impression that the airport is lively again although the number of people around were still low. I tried to go to the arrival gate but couldn't. I learned that everyone getting of the plain is to meet a representative of the hotel they made a reservation with at the gate and leave the premise on specially arranged vehicle to find out the test result. I understand that's the way it should be.

It is a fact that many people in the country are fearful and are opposed to having this quarantine period being taken away. However, the first impression I had after going out to the city was that "people in Thailand are now starting to go out". Along with the quarantine being exempt, other restrictions have also been taken away. Starting November 1st, Bangkok is being designated as one of the pilot tourist scheme (blue zone). While the places serving alcohol such as the bars and Karaoke places are still closed down, the nigh curfew and the restaurant open hour restrictions are now being lifted. It seems like we are back to the usual daily life. Taking away of the restrictions on the bar open hours and alcohol provisions after December 1st is also being considered.
Any cities and businesses depending on the tourists are still straggling, but the city such as Onnut which I live in looks like it's slowly going back to the original state.

I wasn't sure how much the restriction lift affected the tourist places after just 1 week, but I still went to see how they were. I visited 3 places including Wat Phra Kaew which just re-opened on November 1st, Wat Paknam Phasicharoen which many Japanese women love to visit, and Siam Paragon which is a high-end brand department store with many brand names for the foreigners. As expected, the impression I got was this: there are almost no tourists from outside the country, but many people within Thailand are starting to come. I recognized how much those places used to be filled with the tourists from overseas. It may still take some time before these places see the effect of the quarantine exemption.

How was the article?
No tourists from outside the country were around in town right after the quarantine exemption. However, many people within Bangkok started to move around & the city seems to be lively again. But I personally feel that it will still take some time before the people can start to travel freely in a true sense.
The entry to the country is pretty complex & the entry back to Japan also has many strict conditions. There is also a possibility that the infections in Thailand may increase in the near future. My personal feeling is that we still need to watch the conditions closely before deciding to enter the country.
While the quarantine exemption is a big risk, the economy cannot recover with the way it currently is. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that we must take one step at time to shift from [Zero Corona] to [With Corona] by watching the risks closely.

There will be an increase of the cloud service needs in Thailand. Netmarks Thailand has started offering AWS business. While there is a risk of shifting to the cloud, we would like to excel in being the solution provider using our experiences in shifting from [Zero Cloud] to [With Cloud].