Thailand expects to welcome hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers a month with the kickoff of a quarantine-free visa programme that’s set to serve as a model for tourism-reliant countries balancing safe border reopenings with economic revival. 

Visitors of any nationality can now apply for quarantine-free entry into Thailand, provided they are fully vaccinated. The government expects between 200,000 and 300,000 travellers to take advantage of the so-called Test & Go programme in February alone, with the numbers expected to swell in the following months.

The wider reopening — a previous quarantine-free programme was restricted to visitors from only about 60 countries — is part of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha’s push to adopt a “living with the Covid-19 strategy” to rescue the pandemic-battered economy. About a fifth of GDP before the virus came from tourism-related activities. ..