Thailand isn’t expecting overseas tourists to return until October at the earliest, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
A spokesman for the TAT in London said: “It is still dependent on the outbreak situation, but I think at the earliest, we may see the return of tourists could be the fourth quarter of this year.
“We are not going to open all at once. We are still on high alert, we just can’t let our guards down yet. We have to look at the country of origin [of the travellers] to see if their situation has truly improved.
“And lastly, we have to see whether our own business operators are ready to receive tourists under the ‘new normal’,” he continued.
“We have studied a possibility of offering special long-stay packages in isolated and closed areas where health monitoring can be easily controlled – for example, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui.
“This will be beneficial for both tourists and local residents, since this is almost a kind of quarantine,” he added.
Thailand attracted over one million tourists from Britain and Ireland last year.
Thailand has a temporary ban on all international commercial flights into the country until June 30.
