Indonesia, Thailand gearing up for Chinese tourists’ return

With the three-year COVID-induced absence of Chinese tourists from most of the world coming to an end on Sunday, businesses in Indonesia and Thailand are more than eager to welcome their return along with the cash injection that naturally accompanies their arrival.

Indonesia’s paradisiacal resort island of Bali and its businesses are bogged down in work of preparation for the return of a once massive tourist contingent from China – one of Indonesia’s biggest sources of tourists.

They are “concerned” because it has been from China that the deadly COVID-19 virus spread to the entire world and continues to pose a large challenge for Beijing. “It is quite a harmful virus,” 41-year-old restaurant manager I Komang Gelgel told Reuters on Wednesday.

“But as for me and the management, we think that the government will do the best thing, such as screenings etc, to keep the Indonesian people safe from the virus,” he rectified.

And South-East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore have gone the extra mile to facilitate Chinese tourists’ return, not requiring them to provide a negative COVID-19 test. Meanwhile, in Australia, Britain, India, Japan and the United States, this is an indispensable requirement for Chinese arrivals.

Ida Bagus Agung Parta, the chair of Bali’s tourism board, has said the island would “increase” its defence, as workers take a second booster dose of vaccine this month.

Some 2 million Chinese tourists visited Indonesia between January-November in 2019, statistics agency data showed. This number translates to around 13 percent of total tourist arrivals for that period.

No negative COVID-19 test required

If you’re a Chinese national looking forward to your long-dreamt-of holiday in Thailand, you don’t have to, according to Thai authorities, provide a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country.

This is to help the Thai tourist economy get a much-needed financial boost entailed by the return of Chinese tourists. At least five million Chinese tourist arrivals are expected this year, about half the number recorded before the coronavirus pandemic, the government tourism body said on Tuesday.

Here too, like in Indonesia, fears of recurring coronavirus have surfaced. But these, ultimately, are silenced by economic imperatives.

“I’m also afraid of COVID-19, but I still want to work,” 55-year-old Dokchan Gobhuea told Reuters while trying to attract customers to her massage salon. “I’m scared of both COVID-19 and starving. But I still want them [Chinese travellers] to come. I want to have customers.”

More than 11 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand in 2019, nearly a third of the total.

source:
Reuters, TVP World