Their flights were more expensive and took longer, their favorite restaurant was shuttered, and they had to take coronavirus tests on the first and fifth days of their trip. But the biggest hassle for Brian Lamberty and Paola Laird, retirees from London, in their long-awaited return to Phuket Island in Thailand was the paperwork.
Before their February trip, Laird spent nearly three hours uploading all the documents — vaccination records, hotel reservations, and proof of health insurance among them — needed for the Thailand Pass, an entry requirement instituted for international travelers during the pandemic. "For many people who are not computer literate, it’s going to be a problem,” Laird said.
After a long and painful hiatus, and despite rising cases of coronavirus in some Southeast Asian countries and lingering U.S. government warnings against travel to most of them, international tourism is now gradually returning to Southeast Asia. Lamberty and Laird are among the early waves of visitors since the pandemic restrictions turned the region’s tourism playgrounds into ghost towns in early 2020. More countries in recent weeks announced that they are ready to admit fully vaccinated foreign tourists, or soon will be, though still within limits.