According to the most recent guidelines released on Thursday by the union ministry of health and family welfare, travellers from Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Korea will not be permitted to board flights to India beginning on January 1 unless they have a required negative RT-PCR certificate. The new rules will be in force starting at 10 a.m. on January 1, 2023, on Sunday.
A mandatory requirement for pre-departure RT-PCR testing (to be conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey) is being introduced for passengers arriving on all international flights from these countries, said the order. According to the statement, the Air Suvidha portal run by the ministry of civil aviation will be activated so that visitors visiting India from these nations can upload or submit their negative RT-PCR test results as well as a self-declaration form. The practise of randomly testing 2% of travellers after arrival (regardless of port of departure) should continue, it was added.
Video Courtesy: The Economic Times
The new regulations will affect many Indian tourists because Thailand and Singapore are this year’s most popular international travel destinations for a sizable number of Indians. There are currently close to 200 flights every week between Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand and cities in India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
According to data recently released by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Indian tourists now account for the majority of air travel into Thailand. Although Thailand has long been a favourite vacation spot for Indians, before the outbreak India ranked fifth in terms of visitor arrivals. India is now ranked second, behind Malaysia.
Approximately 73 lakh tourists arrived in Thailand overall between 1 January and 26 October 2022, with Malaysia accounting for 12 lakh of those arrivals and India accounting for 6.6 lakh.
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