One of Thailand’s Richest Men Says Its Time to Welcome Back Tourists

One of Thailand’s richest men is urging the government to relax lockdown measures and welcome tourists back as soon as possible. Furthermore to turn the country into a “safe haven” for wealthy visitors.

Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont who is the senior chairman of the kingdom’s largest food and agriculture conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, said the move would help revive the tourism sector.

“Thailand’s economic losses from the lockdown are estimated to be at 16 billion baht per day or almost 500 billion per month,” he told the Bangkok Post. “A longer lockdown will cost us more and more we need tourism.”

Thailand has been under lockdown since March 9th, 2020. After the government acted to stem an increase in confirmed Covid-19 coronavirus cases. The government said the coronavirus infection rate is now about 1%.

The economic impact of the lockdown is apparent as millions of workers applied for unemployment benefits. The tourism sector is also hit hard after the kingdom stopped taking in foreign visitors.

Thailand reports zero new covid-19 coronavirus cases

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) report zero new infections on Wednesday. The first time in 65 days since the lockdown began. The kingdom has recorded 3,017 cases.

“We can’t wait until a vaccine is developed and produced in sufficient quantity to roll out to the entire population,” Mr Dhanin said. “The economy won’t survive that long.” We need to tourists to come back to Thailand.

He said Thailand’s tourism sector accounts for 16-17% percent of the countries GDP. It should be revived due to improvements in the virus situation.

Mr Dhanin also proposed the government attract high-spending tourists from across the world. Above all by highlighting Thailand’s success in containing the Covid-19 Coronavirus.

“The number of infection and death cases in Thailand is very low compared with other countries. Even though our lockdown began later,” he said. “There were also a large number of Chinese tourists in the country.”

“This reflects the doctors and hospitals in Thailand are the best and we need to tell the world about it,” he said.

Mr Dhanin topped Forbes magazine’s “Thailand’s 50 Richest” this year. He is among 20 Billionaires in Thailand whom Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha asked to develop relief projects to help people affected by the outbreak.