On June 15, the government of Thailand lifted its nationwide curfew. To stimulate the tourism industry, Thailand is looking into the possibility of signing agreements with other countries where the pandemic situation is stable to form a "safe travel bubble" and conditionally open its borders to citizens of those countries.Taiwan reportedly made the cut.


After 18 days of no new domestic coronavirus cases, Thailand lifted its nationwide curfew on the 15th with schools with a student body under 120, exhibition halls and entertainment venues allowed to reopen. Thailand is now exploring a "Travel Bubble" scheme aimed at creating a "safe tourism circle" with other pandemic-stable countries to stimulate tourism. Tourists from countries in the circle will be able to enter Thailand and forego the 14 days of quarantine. Taiwan reportedly made the cut.

According to the understanding of our representative office in Thailand, Thailand has not actually excluded Taiwan from its priority list. They are simply making sure border controls and supplementary measures are in place before sending the plan in for the cabinet to review.

The ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Thailand has not excluded Taiwan and it is simply in the process of making sure supplementary border controls and measures are in place. In addition, Thailand's cabinet has not yet reviewed the plan. In Europe, a number of countries have lifted tourism restrictions and at least 14 countries including England, Spain, Greece, Iceland and Turkey are conditionally allowing ROC citizens to enter. Analysts say the willingness of Taiwanese tourists to travel overseas will stay low as long as Taiwan's border controls remain in place.

Taiwan's borders remain closed, so it wouldn't matter if the whole world opened their borders to (ROC citizens). If our borders remain closed until after October, which is what is recommended by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, it will most definitely impact our commercial and economic development.

Ringo Lee says any tourism agreement signed between Taiwan and other countries have to be mutually beneficial and treat both sides as equals. With the 14-day quarantine still required when entering Taiwan, the tourism industry is unlikely to rebound any time soon. Tokyo lifted its pandemic warning and Japan lifted its nationwide state of emergency on the 11th, paving the way for the third stage of reopening and easing entry restrictions for businesspersons and scholars from certain countries. Taiwan did not make the list.



泰國疫情趨緩，已經連續18天沒有出現本土個案，泰國政府15號正式解除全國宵禁，少於120人的學校、展覽廳及遊樂場，全部重啟，同時，為了提振觀光產業，泰國研擬與疫情平穩國家簽署協議，推出旅行安全圈，有條件開放彼此國家人民入境觀光，不用被隔離14天，而台灣防疫有功，傳出列為首波名單。

外交部發言人 歐江安表示：「根據我們駐泰國代表處，洽繫泰國當局來瞭解，知道說這個泰方，其實他並沒有排除，將台灣列在優先名單當中，只是他們要先必須確認，邊境管制的一些配套措施之後，他們才要送交到內閣會議，來進行討論。」

外交部表示，泰國沒有將台灣排除在外，但得先確認邊境管制相關配套措施，才能送內閣會議討論，除此之外，歐洲許多國家疫情平穩，至少有14國陸續放寬觀光限制，像是英國、西班牙、希臘、冰島、土耳其，都開放台灣旅客入境，但英國規定須隔離14天、冰島要求強制檢疫，土耳其則是無條件開放，看在學者眼裡，只要台灣沒有解除邊境管制的一天，難以吸引國人出國旅遊。

中華優質旅遊發展協會理事長 李奇嶽表示：「因為台灣的邊境沒有開，所以這一點不解決，全世界對台灣開放都沒有用，我們的境管，如果說，照衛福部的規劃，要到10月以後的話，那勢必我們這樣子的防疫，會不會影響到我們很多的商業經濟的發展？」

李奇嶽強調，後疫情時代，台灣跟其他國家，如果要簽署觀光協議，必須基於平等、互惠原則，而國人現在返台仍須隔離14天，短期內，旅遊寒冬將會持續下去，至於日本東京11號宣布解除東京警報，邁入第三階段開放，日本全境也解除緊急事態宣言，不過，首波入境名單，卻未見台灣的名字，日本優先考量的解禁對象，將以商務人士、學者為主。