File photo: REUTERS
The chief of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) has put the biggest stick yet in the spokes of Prayuth Chan-ocha's 120 day reopening plan.
The Thai PM wanted the country opened by the middle of next month to foreign tourists in many areas.
His plan was criticized as ambitious in some quarters, utterly unrealistic in others.
His pronouncements came back in June as the country began to battle a massive third wave of infections caused by Covid-19. But still the PM insisted his plan was viable and that locally produced vaccine would save the day.
ATTA chief Sittiwat Chiwarattanaporn begs to differ on virtually all counts.
In a wide ranging interview with Thai business media he said that the Phuket Sandbox and associated plans were a fair start but numbers were very low.
There just wasn't the market among inbound foreigners.
He said that what the authorities failed to understand was that it was not just about Thailand's tourism readiness.
It was about all the countries tourists would come from. They all had their rules and their economic woes.
China, for instance, was just non-existent as a tourism market at the moment due to travel restrictions.
Sittiwat said he could see no positive signs in regards to the return of foreign tourists this year.
He predicted that it would be Quarter 4 next year before there would be any marked improvement in inbound tourism.
Operators would have to get used to that reality and make do with what they could with the domestic market in the meantime.
He called for greater clarity from the government about their reopening plans and a greater accent on getting at least 70% of the country vaccinated to create a so-called herd immunity.
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