Tourists visit the Nongnooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi Province, Thailand, on Oct. 22, 2021. To encourage people to get vaccinated and travel, Nongnooch Tropical Garden, a well-known tourist attraction in Thailand, offers free admission to tourists who have completed two doses of COVID-19 vaccination before Nov. 15, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

Hotels, street food carts and tuk-tuks are gearing up for the return of tourists to Bangkok as Thailand prepares to re-open on November 1 to fully vaccinated visitors after 18 months of travel curbs.

But the steamy metropolis, the world's most-visited city before the pandemic, will take some time to get back to its pulsating, intoxicating old self, industry experts say.

The coronavirus pandemic sent visitor numbers plummeting from 40 million in 2019 to just 73,000 in the first eight months of 2021, leaving its tourism-reliant economy registering its worst performance in over two decades.

Authorities are desperate to revive the sector, despite Thailand still recording about 10,000 COVID-19 infections a day.

The government is hopeful that a plan to phase out tough quarantine rules could lure visitors back to bars and beaches despite the prevalence of the virus. "We have estimated the tourism industry will return to normal levels around the middle of 2022," Bangkok Metropolitan Administration spokesman Pongsakorn Kwanmuang said.

The kingdom is expecting the return of at least a million visitors by March and to generate about $30 billion in revenue through 2022, authorities say.

The absence of visitors has left an unmistakable impact on Bangkok's Chinatown, with shuttered shops visible under the glare of neon lights and lines of empty tuk-tuks.

Samran, a driver for 25 years, saw his income drop by 90 percent and now earns just $3 a day. "I want to stop but I am old, no one will hire me for anything else," he said. "I haven't picked up a single tourist since April 2020."

After this restriction was relaxed, authorities imposed a 14-day hotel quarantine, discouraging not all but the most determined travelers.

"We are really waiting for the Thai government to lift the ban on alcohol, because it does not encourage tourists to return," said Daniel Kerr, general manager of the Chatrium hotel.

The five-star establishment sits on the banks of Bangkok's Chao Phraya River, and just 10 percent of its 400 rooms were occupied at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. 

AFP