Thailand's tourism hotspot Pattaya may delay its planned reopening to vaccinated travellers on Sept 1, as the city is dealing with insufficient vaccinations among locals and a spike in new infections, Xinhua reported.

Apichai Chatchalermkit, deputy governor of digitalisation research and development at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said the authorities are still committed to reopening the resort city within October, in line with the government’s plan to fully reopen the country in the near future.

A similar message was also announced on Aug 21 by Bun-anan Phatthanasin, president of Pattaya Business and Tourism Association, as he indicated that the city needs to get at least 70% of its population vaccinated against Covid-19 before reopening to inbound foreign travellers.

The vaccination rate in Chon Buri province where Pattaya is located just reached 33% of its population, a long way to go before achieving the proclaimed target of 70%.