Thailand News - Corona - By Ola J.

tisdag 29 mars 2022

Guidance on telling the difference between dengue fever and Covid-19 was offered by the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health on Monday. Read More: https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40013956 The Nation

The Ministry of Public Health has released guidelines for the public and event holders during the upcoming Songkran Festival. PR Thai Government

Anutin Throws Cold Water on Hopes for Songkran Splashing Reversal - Bangkok Herald

Anutin Throws Cold Water on Hopes for Songkran Splashing Reversal

29 March 2022

Khaosan Road Bangkok Thailand Renovation Revamp Facelift Complete — No water or tourists on Khao San this Songkran.

Bangkok and Pattaya businesses hoping for a last-minute reversal were high and dry Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reaffirmed no water splashing will be allowed for Songkran.

Anutin on Monday poured cold water on the hopes of Khao San Road merchants, who had argued that outdoor water fights were not a health risk, especially if they imposed ridiculous vaccine and testing restrictions on those who wanted to play.

Afraid of his own shadow, Anutin insisted water would spread Covid-19, despite little evidence to support it.

"I urge that we remain patient for another year and follow disease-control measures until Covid-19 becomes endemic, after which we will be able to enjoy Songkran as usual," Anutin said.

In addition, the health minister asserted that people who planned to travel upcountry for the Thai New Year start "self-cleanup" measures from April 1 to ensure they do not bring the virus home to their families. Among the steps are avoiding high-contact venues, monitoring symptoms, getting a booster vaccine shot and taking an antigen test before going.

Anutin warned that without strict disease-control measures, daily infections around Songkran could rise to 100,000, supposedly putting pressure on the public-health system even though, by his ministry's own admission, 95,000 of those cases likely would be asymptomatic or mild.

Lufthansa planning to increase capacity as travel demand surges. Lufthansa Group is focusing on ramping up capacity in Thailand this year with the aim of hitting 61% of the available seat kilometres reached in 2019, thanks to a positive outlook on leisure travel demand. Bangkok Post

Lufthansa planning to increase capacity as travel demand surges

Lufthansa Group is focusing on ramping up capacity in Thailand this year with the aim of hitting 61% of the available seat kilometres reached in 2019, thanks to a positive outlook on leisure travel demand.

Stefan Molnar, general manager for Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and the Mekong region for Lufthansa Group Airlines, said that this target was achievable as border reopenings had created stronger demand.

The average load factor in Thailand in March and April increased to 79%, from only 33% for the whole of 2021.

"As Songkran is coming, people start to fly again, both inbound and outbound, which leads to an optimistic outlook for this year," Mr Molnar said.

Lufthansa Group is considered to be the biggest European airline group in Thailand, with its carriers including Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings.

Mr Molnar said the group is now offering daily Lufthansa flights from Bangkok to Munich from March 28, daily flights via Austrian Airlines to Vienna, and four weekly flights to Zurich with Swiss.

Flights to Zurich will be increased to five and then six a week in June and July, respectively.

Meanwhile, Edelweiss Air's Zurich-Phuket route will resume in the upcoming winter schedule of 2022/23.

Mr Molnar said the easing of pre-arrival RT-PCR tests on April 1 was a good start, before Thailand eases further throughout this year.

Sabrina Winter, Lufthansa's head of sales for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said leisure travel and the "visiting friends and relatives" segment, especially in short-haul and transatlantic flights, were leading the recovery.

However, the corporate segment remains slow with only gradual improvements.

The group currently operates a 713-aircraft fleet, compared to 757 aircraft at the end of 2020, and it flies to 320 destinations.

Global bookings for Easter and summer are slightly above pre-pandemic levels.

Its global passenger numbers last year stood at 47 million, an increase of 29% from 2020.

Ms Winter said the group has implemented sustainable cost savings for 2020-24, with a target to save €3.5 billion.

The company has currently achieved €2.7 billion in cost savings from measures such as a cut in labour costs and operational optimisation.

🔴 #COVID19 update on Tuesday ⬇️ 21,678 new cases ⬇️ 78 deaths ⬇️ 245,154 active cases ⬆️ 1,748 serious cases. Richard Barrow

måndag 28 mars 2022

Phuket Sandbox earns over 50 billion baht since it first launched last year, Phuket Tourism Authority of Thailand reports - TPN National News

Phuket Sandbox earns over 50 billion baht since it first launched last year, Phuket Tourism Authority of Thailand reports

Monday, 28 March 2022, 16:00

Phuket-

The Director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand(TAT) announced that the "Phuket Sandbox" program has obtained more than 50 billion baht from 400,000 tourists who arrived in Phuket since it first launched in 2021.

The Director of TAT Phuket office, Nanthasiri Ronnasiri, revealed through a radio channel that since Phuket has launched the Phuket Sandbox program on the 1st of July, 2021, until present (8 months in total), it has obtained nearly 50 billion baht in revenue from 400,000 tourists visiting Phuket. She also added that there are around 70,000 overseas room reservations and the average nights the tourists spend in Phuket is twelve nights before they travel to another destination. This alone generates a direct income of 21 billion baht for Phuket.

Additionally, the Phuket TAT Director mentioned that the program still receives a continual flow of new visitors and now they want to emphasize on persuading more domestic tourists to Phuket by hosting a road show in Udon Thani where Thai people can comfortably fly to Phuket.

The Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew stated at the end that the Phuket economy is moving forward, but also admits that it is still not as good as before the pandemic.

Thailand News - Corona - By Ola J. - Palmtree