Americans led all visitors to Thailand after reopening

 

U.S. citizens formed the largest group of foreign nationals to touch down in Thailand during the first ten days of the Kingdom’s reopening to visitors from overseas as the government begins rolling back pandemic restrictions.

A total of 3,864 U.S. citizens arrived in Bangkok between November 1 and 10, while German citizens followed at 3,274. Americans have often been among the top ten nationalities that visit the Kingdom during normal times, but are not usually near the top slot because of the great distance and long traveling times.

But Americans were adventurous enough to take advantage of Thailand’s reopening after months of border closures that were part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Following Americans and Germans were visitors from the UK who numbered 1,376, while tourists from Japan and South Korea placed fourth and fifth on the list.

A total of 30,538 foreign visitors arrived during those first ten days. Just 15 of them tested positive for the virus and they were quarantined.

Thailand’s business community enthusiastically welcomed the reopening. The Kingdom had largely escaped the worst effects of COVID-19 and was credited with one of the world’s most effective responses until the advent of the highly contagious delta variant.

Reopening was first piloted on the island resort of Phuket using a ‘sandbox’ model, which proved successful. The model was later used in other islands and more provinces were added to the list until Thailand was fully reopened on Nov. 1, 2021.

Photo courtesy of https://thecoloursofthailand.com/