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With the high season less than two months away, Chiang Mai is poised to reopen to international tourists in October but is taking a different approach to the Phuket sandbox, with tourists required to travel through sealed routes via package tours.
New five-star hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, first since pandemic began, to be opened by Spanish chain Melia A room at the Melia Chiang Mai, which will open in the city centre of Chiang Mai, Thailand, in the fourth quarter of this year. Photo: Handout
Like many cities in Southeast Asia that rely heavily on tourism, Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. With no international tourists having arrived for 18 months, most small tourism-related companies have simply gone out of business.
Occupancy in 40 Chiang Mai hotels surveyed by the Northern Chapter of the Thai Hotels Association has been less than 10 per cent throughout 2021, according to its president, La-iad Bungsrithong, and more than 70 per cent of people in tourism-related businesses have lost their jobs since the pandemic began.
SAMUI, 16 July 2021: The Tourism Authority of Thailand rolled out the Samui Plus programme on Thursday evening, opening the door for fully vaccinated international visitors to explore the three islands of Samui, Pha-ngan, and Tao.
The welcome carpet rolls out for both vaccinated international travellers and domestic tourists with no quarantine requirements, but some of the rules are stricter than the Phuket Sandbox that opened on 1 July.
Two Bangkok Airways flights landed on Thursday bringing in nine foreign and 60 local media from Bangkok. There are no direct international flights to Samui although Bangkok Airways has requested permission from Singapore to reinstate direct services as soon as possible. There is even speculation that Singapore Airlines may start its own direct service to Samui as early as this October.