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Thailand extends COVID subsidies for domestic air travel
September 22nd 2021
Thailand’s cabinet has extended a scheme to boost domestic travel to the end of February as a coronavirus outbreak that saw almost 11,000 new cases on Tuesday continues to batter the country’s tourism industry. Read More » The domestic travel boost is part of wider COVID relief measures worth 27 billion baht (US$807 million). Benefits include a subsidy of up to 3,000 baht (US$121.40) per hotel room per night and a subsidy of up to 3,000 baht on flights. The Thai cabinet originally introduced the scheme in June 2020 to defray costs for domestic holidaymakers. Tourism accounts for more than 10% of Thailand’s economy and it was badly affected as visitors dried up amid the pandemic. Much of the Thai population still has to be inoculated. The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) reported on Monday that about 21.4% of its citizens and residents had been fully vaccinated to date. Thailand is operating a “sandbox’ scheme on the island of Phuket that allows fully vaccinated travellers to avoid quarantine providing they meet a list of conditions.
