The consulate has organized three particular Thai Airways flights for travellers with the brand new visa for October 21, November four and November 18.
However tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Si-wing stated he expects comparatively few Hong Kong residents would journey on the visa, as the applying threshold was very excessive.
“It’s a formality to permit journey to Thailand once more, however realistically, [this visa] is much from our expectations of forming a journey bubble,” he stated. Over 1 million travellers from Hong Kong visited the favored Southeast Asian nation in 2018.
Candidates for the particular vacationer visas are required to supply a financial institution assertion displaying at the very least 500,000 baht (US$16,000) on deposit previously six months, in keeping with the consulate.
These wishing to use additionally must buy each outpatient and hospital insurance coverage from a Thailand-based supplier with protection of 40,000 baht and 400,000 baht, respectively. Worldwide medical insurance that gives a minimal protection of US$100,000 and consists of Covid-19 remedy can be required.
“The obstacles to journey are very excessive, as candidates for the visa must fork out a substantial sum of money simply to make the journey to Thailand,” Yiu added.
Hong Kong’s beleaguered tourism sector has urged the federal government to hurry up talks in reopening its journey border with mainland China and creating “bubbles” with different nations to assist the struggling trade.
Final month, commerce chief Edward Yau Tang-wah revealed that the federal government had approached 11 nations since mid-June to begin the formation of journey corridors, which might enable guests to skip quarantine in the event that they examined unfavorable for the coronavirus earlier than departure and once more upon arrival.
Because the Covid-19 pandemic compelled border closures and paralysed worldwide journey, solely about 23,000 arrivals from Thailand got here to Hong Kong between January and August this 12 months, a 94 per cent drop from greater than 384,000 in the identical interval final 12 months.
Earlier this month, the Thai authorities prolonged visa amnesty for foreigners who had been caught within the nation because of the pandemic till October 31, marking the fourth extension of the coverage.
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