Thailand is once again welcoming visitors with the return of the Test & Go scheme which resumed on February 1. The program, which first ran between November and late December 2021, allows tourists to enter the Kingdom quarantine free assuming they follow certain guidelines.
Those include taking a RT-PCR test upon arrival and then spending one night in a certified hotel until receiving a negative result. The Test & Go program has been revamped to now require a second RT-PCR test and hotel stay on the fifth day in Thailand. That is waived should a person plan to stay in the country for less than five days.
An insurance policy with coverage no less than USD50,000 and a RT-PCR lab result indicating that COVID-19 was not detected no more than 72 hours before travelling are among the other Test & Go requirements. You can find them all on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s website.
After some early hiccups, Test & Go proved to be a positive alternative to the Sandbox schemes in Phuket and Samui and the mandatory 14-day quarantine required upon arrival in Bangkok.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 omicron variant forced the government to postpone the program on December 22 with cases having rose across the country since then. In order to restore Test & Go, the second RT-PCR test on a visitor’s fifth day in Thailand was added.
In November, air carriers began increasing service to Phuket due to an uptick in demand. Thai Airways continues to operate flights from London, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zurich and Sydney to Phuket. Two major Russian airlines also resumed Thailand-bound routes in late 2021.
Related: Tourism reopening boosts Phuket residential property market
