Fully vaccinated travellers from any country in the world, including South Africa, can apply for a TEST & GO Thailand Pass from February 1. This allows travel to all parts of Thailand without quarantine on arrival.
Accommodation must be booked on www.thailandsha.com (for days one and five of their stay). These can be two different hotels.
Health insurance with minimum coverage of US$50 000 (R757 400) is mandatory, as is obtaining the Thailand Pass at least 60 days prior to departure (see here) and installing the MorChana mobile app.
Once in Thailand, travellers must show proof of vaccination along with a negative PCR test result issued within 72 hours before departure. Arrivals must then take another PCR test at Phuket International Airport and await the result in their SHA++ hotel.
Once a negative test result is received, travellers are free to travel around Thailand, but must return to a SHA++ hotel on day five for a second PCR test. Again, awaiting results in the hotel is mandatory, and even infants must take a PCR test.
A second negative result must be logged on the MorChana app and shown to hotel staff in order to leave and continue travelling throughout Thailand.
Extra fee to be collected from tourists
In another update for travellers, Thailand will be collecting a THB300 (R140) fee from foreign tourists beginning in April.
Part of the fee, to be priced in with airline tickets, will be used to "take care of tourists", Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn told Reuters.
"We’ve encountered times when insurance didn’t have coverage for tourists… which became our burden to take care of them," he said, adding that funds would also be used to upgrade tourism infrastructure.
