Number of tourists stranded on Koh Samui!

[Tchooptip]

I just discovered that 5700 foreign tourists are still stranded on Koh Samui! I did not believe it was still so many,

with 3,300 foreign tourists on Koh Phangan and about 1,000 on Koh Tao. It is 10,000 on the 3 Islands, I thought it was a few hundreds maybe 2/3 thousands not more!

I am not sure I can give the link... to the Thaiger? 

Some of those people seem to have real money problems and since it is not for tomorrow that the planes will start flying again.

I wonder how the authorities will solve this problem? Because 10,000 people is a real problem to manage. 

[khunPer]

No wonder the were that long queues at the Samui Immigration Office.

 

At least some of them are not "stranded", they rather voluntary wish to stay safe here, than heading home to problems; I know of some, but of course have no idea of any total number. The "estimated" numbers of recorded remaining foreign tourists in the article don't unveil why those people have not returned home in due time – some could even be visa-runners.

 

I see a quite a number of foreigners on the beach where I live, but they have slowly decreased a little bit during the past two weeks, as well as a few more hotels are running out of guests and close. Twice I've been to Chaweng Beach to take a photo of the deserted bay – 11th and 17th April – which unfortunately was impossible, as there were too many foreigners, as well as Thais, enjoying the southern half; only the northern part was mainly deserted, but here the resorts were also all closed and protected by guards, and not much public beach entrance.

 

 

However, a number of the "stranded" folks might begin to run out of funds, but the stories we hear are few; mainly repeating about the same two Russians in Krabi, also mentioned in the Thaiger article; and a stranded British lady in Chiang Mai Airport; and some few hundred on Phuket that had accommodation problems.

Not sure, if "stranded" tourists it's a big problem or not...????

Edited April 23, 2020 by khunPer

[Tchooptip]

 As long as they have enough money it is not a problem of course, on the other hand, I used the term stranded because it was the title of this article, but not all of them are "stranded" for sure.
But I reckon I thought there were not so many tourists still on Koh Samui because I go/went sometimes to the Lamai beach it was deserted all the time, on a 2/3 kilometres beach I saw hardly a dozen of people and most beach resorts were closed.

In the meantime take care everyone.????

[mackayae]

Time for the HTMS Chakri Naruebet to make another rescue mission.

 

[Tropicalevo]

3 hours ago, khunPer said:

Not sure, if "stranded" tourists it's a big problem or not...

At any one time, I have about 20 - 30 tourists in the villas that I look after. It changes daily. Most villas have 4 bedrooms. The tourists move around for a number of reasons.

• Money running out - downsize. Even if they have foreign cash - difficult to exchange.
• They want a different location.
• Do not want to book for too long in case flights are available, but then they cannot extend as somone else has booked the villa that they are currently in.
• Most are stuck here, they cannot afford to change their airline. Others are stuck here as their home country has stopped flights.

Then as some others say - better here on Samui than lock down in their own country.

I can quite easily believe 5,000+ tourists on Samui, just by the numbers of people passing through the villas here and this is a quiet, remote part of Samui. Not on the main tourist track.

Going back to khunPer's question - the majority of tourists that I see are stranded. A small number are still here by choice.

To the comment about tourists on beaches, the majority of the guests here stay in the villas - self isolating. They have a pool and gardens, and only go out for food and shopping.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Tropicalevo