From May 1st 2022, there is NO quarantine or PCR test required for vaccinated travellers to enter Thailand. You still need to apply for the Thailand Pass before you travel.
UPDATE May 1 2022:
It’s now even easier to travel to Ko Lanta. When you arrive in Thailand you are no longer required to take a PCR test or to enter quarantine. Once you have shown your vaccination certificates you will be able to pass through Immigration and then exit the airport without further formalities.
However, you still need to apply online in advance for the Thailand Pass at the official Thailand Pass website. You need to do this in order to enter Thailand.
The Thailand Pass Program
Here’s a quick summary of how the Thailand Pass program works
- Before you fly to Thailand, you need to be double vaccinated at least 14 days before departure. You can then apply online for the Thailand Pass. This is where you upload your vaccination proof and passport information.
- You will need travel insurance that covers you for Covid 19.
- You no longer need to show proof you’ve prebooked a hotel. (It would be wise to check Ko Lanta hotel availability and domestic flights to Ko Lanta before you travel).
- You no longer need a negative PCR test proving you don’t have Covid 19 to show when you check in for your flight.
- You also do not need to do a PCR rest when you arrive in Thailand.
- With the Thailand Pass procedures simplified from May 1st, there are numerous reports of receiving approval within 24 to 48 hours if all documents are submitted as the system requires.
- You can see more details about the Thailand Pass process on the official Tourism Authority of Thailand News website.
Is Covid Still A Problem In Thailand?
Covid is still an ongoing problem in Thailand. While around 70% of the Bangkok population have been double vaccinated, the percentage is lower elsewhere in the country. If you have been double vaccinated, your symptoms should be mild if you catch it. Just be aware that, despite Thailand reopening, Covid has not gone away. However, deaths and hospitalisations have dropped significantly since the end of 2021, even with the arrival of the Omicron variant.
Do I Have To Wear A Mask In Thailand?
Be aware that mask wearing is still mandatory outdoors and indoors in Thailand. For example, you cannot enter shopping malls, workplaces or Bangkok’s BTS and MRT public transport systems without wearing a mask. So bring a supply of masks and be prepared to wear them.
Ready To Come To Thailand? Visit The Thailand Pass website
If you want to begin the process of applying to travel to Thailand, visit the official Thailand Pass website.
Is Everything Open In Thailand?
Sort of. There’s a general sense of things waking up and, for visiting tourists, there are still plenty of hotels and places to eat. However, it’s undeniably quiet in many locations. If you want Thailand’s beaches and places of interest almost to yourself, visiting in the next 12 months is the time to come.
Much of Ko Lanta is open – there are plenty of hotels, restaurants, dive shops and so on. As low season begins from May 2022 through to October 2022, some businesses on Lanta will close up shop as they traditionally do.
The major exception about things reopening is that there are curbs on nightlife across all of Thailand: no nightclubs are currently allowed to be open, bars that don’t serve food are closed (although many bars now serve some kind of cursory food offering to get around this rule), and all of Bangkok’s red light districts (Soi Cowboy, Nana Plaza, Patpong) technically remain closed, although some go-go bars have found legal loopholes that allow them to operate after a fashion.
Are Alcohol Sales In Restaurants Still Banned In Thailand?
During much of 2021 and early 2022, the sale of alcohol in restaurants was banned everywhere in Thailand as a Covid prevention measure.
As of May 2022, alcohol is legally on sale again in restaurants across the entire country. These establishments are allowed to serve alcohol until midnight. See the Bangkok Herald for further details.
You can buy takeaway alcohol from supermarkets and 7-11 as normal everywhere in the country.
What Happens To Thailand Tourism In 2022?
It’s likely – unless there is a huge resurgence of Covid cases – that Thailand will make it even easier to enter the country in the coming months. There is speculation that the Thailand Pass scheme itself will be scrapped in June or July 2022, so allowing entry to Thailand on arrival with no prior application required.
As noted above, if you want to experience Thailand without the 40,000,000 tourists that visited before Covid in 2019, the next 12 months are when to come.
Thailand Pass Updates and Help
It’s worth checking the Bangkok Post regularly, and also keep on eye on Thailand blogger Richard Barrow’s Twitter account as he posts timely updates on the tourism situation.
(A different version of this article previously appeared on Travelhappy.info. Text used with permission).
