THAILAND’S tourist industry took a modest step toward reviving its coronavirus-battered fortunes by welcoming 39 visitors who flew in from Shanghai, the first such arrivals since regular travellers were banned almost seven months ago.
The visitors, who arrived at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday, are pioneers in a “Special Tourist Visa” programme devised by Thai authorities to restore, step by step, a sector of the economy that welcomed almost 40 million foreign visitors last year and by some estimates accounts for more than 10% of the country’s GDP.