Massage parlours plead for govt help
The Charawi Association for the Conservation of Thai Massage on Wednesday handed over a letter at Government House addressed to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is also chairman of the government’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, urging the government to help spa and massage parlour entrepreneurs who have been forced to shut down their businesses to prevent the new wave of Covid-19 from spreading.
“Since the first wave in Thailand, massage businesses have employed strict measures advised by the Public Health Ministry, including limiting the number of customers, rearranging the service area to abide by the social distancing rule and providing thermal screening,” said Pitak Yotha, a representative of the association.
“However, spa and massage businesses were one of the first groups ordered to shut down and also the last to be allowed to reopen, which is not fair.”
Pitak said there are currently about 1,700 spa and massage businesses in Bangkok and 15,000 in other provinces.
“As many as 11,000 businesses have reported permanent closure due to lack of money, while about 4,000 that are still open are following the guidelines laid out by authorities,” he said.
“We would like the government to relax its shutdown measures on massage businesses, or at least come out with relief measures, such as exemption on property rent until the situation improves,” Pitak said.
“Many spa and massage businesses have limited access to the government’s soft loans provided via financial institutes, while other campaigns such as ‘We Travel Together’ or ‘Let’s Go Halves’ are not specifically tailored for customers of spa and massage businesses,” he added.
