Thailand: Quarantine on your superyacht

Thai officials have introduced a new initiative allowing tourists to spend their mandatory two-week quarantine period aboard a yacht. . In January, visitors were allowed to “quarantine” in golfing resorts, but now the government also rules that yachts are suitable quarantine areas too.

Strategic locations in Asia have recently seen Burgess, Camper & Nicholson, Fraser Yachts and Northrop & Johnson set up offices. VesselsValue also has commercial offices in Singapore and soon Shanghai, which are being increasingly used for private yachting.

Data shared with Superyacht Investor (SYI) by VesselsValue counting the number of unique vessels inside territorial waters over the past year, suggest that Thai waters have seen 35 superyachts pass through in the past year. The largest was Tranquility, which VesselsValue currently values at £101.3m ($141m).

“On the global playing field, Thailand still has a long way to go,” head of superyachts, VesselsValue, Sam Tucker told SYI. “France and the US continue to attract the largest traffic volumes of 1,238 and 1,200 [automatic identification system] AIS-equipped superyachts respectively.”

Within the South East Asia region, Thailand has a respectable number of visitors, however, it is Indonesia and Malaysia that see the highest number of vessels inside their territorial waters said Tucker. This is due to their flanking of the Malacca Straights, which is the primary eastbound entrance to the majority of south east Asia. “[So] They are likely seeing the highest number of vessels in their waters despite them not all stopping there.”