Koh Samui hotels to be proposed for alternate state quarantine

By THE NATION

 

 

Some hotels in Koh Samui will be proposed this week to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to be considered for alternative state quarantine (ASQ) in order to help the local economy.

 

Tourism Association of Koh Samui president Worasit Pongkampan added that tourists travelling to the island in the near future should pass the polymerase chain reaction test and have medical certificates from their countries. The certificate must be issued within 48 hours of the tourists departing from their countries, he added.

 

He also informed that tourists must travel via Thai Airways and must be quarantined in ASQ hotels. After 14 days of quarantine, the tourists will be allowed to travel in the island with special wristbands, which would show that they are not infected by the virus.

 

Initially, tourists allowed to visit Koh Samui will come from five pilot countries -- New Zealand, Australia, Germany, China (some cities), and Vietnam. 

The association president explained that the countries were chosen due to their low rate of infection recently.

 

The president informed that if the CCSA agreed to the idea, the association would conduct a referendum among local people in the island. Their voices will determine whether the plan should be carried out or not.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30393127

 

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Quote

He also informed that tourists must travel via Thai Airways and must be quarantined in ASQ hotels. After 14 days of quarantine, the tourists will be allowed to travel in the island with special wristbands, which would show that they are not infected by the virus.

 

Interested to find out which tourists will have a more than fourteen day holiday and will be happy to spend 100,000 baht including tests, medical certificates, insurance just to be quarantined on arrival. Not to forget that there will possibly be another fourteen days of quarantine on their arrival back home.

The only tourists who might be up for that, are the people who I know on Samui who stay for up to six months.

Short trips from those who travel from Asian countries will be out, unless they will be made exempt.

 

Perhaps they are hoping to siphon a bit of money to their friends. Anutin has already had a hotel in Buri Ram 'approved' for ASQ.

But I cannot imagine there will be many takers who will be happy under those conditions. 

It's pleasant here, but not really amazing.

 

 

37 minutes ago, Eindhoven said:

 

 

Interested to find out which tourists will have a more than fourteen day holiday and will be happy to spend 100,000 baht including tests, medical certificates, insurance just to be quarantined on arrival. Not to forget that there will possibly be another fourteen days of quarantine on their arrival back home.

The only tourists who might be up for that, are the people who I know on Samui who stay for up to six months.

Short trips from those who travel from Asian countries will be out, unless they will be made exempt.

 

Perhaps they are hoping to siphon a bit of money to their friends. Anutin has already had a hotel in Buri Ram 'approved' for ASQ.

But I cannot imagine there will be many takers who will be happy under those conditions. 

It's pleasant here, but not really amazing.

 

 

Don't forget being forced to use Thai Airways and pay their exorbitant fares.

Perhaps a new method to try and get them out of the s**t they are in. Can't see many tourists taking this up. 

Tapping into the 'snowbird' market would make a bit of sense. But they would need to expand the potential countries to also include the Skandis.

2 minutes ago, phetphet said:

Don't forget being forced to use Thai Airways and pay their exorbitant fares.

Perhaps a new method to try and get them out of the s**t they are in. Can't see many tourists taking this up. 

 

Totally ludicrous. Wealthy tourists won't pay to be locked up. 

Wealthy tourists pay for their freedom. That's why they have things like the Elite Visa. To have less hassle.

No point in paying out to have less freedom. Are they going to call it the Alcatraz experience?

 

The main people interested will be people returning home, being forced into the process.

 

Where do I sign up before the stampede starts and will the wristbands be golden ????  

I actually think this is a sensible idea, if (repeat 'IF') it is open to all nationalities, and perhaps tweaked a little bit to make it more reasonable. And yes, all the residents who have been locked out would use it to return. So what? That is a good thing in my book.

 

Samui has a huge number of 'Snowbirds' that return every year, and it makes sense to figure out a way for them to return; it would likely make the difference between a total collapse of a tourist industry and one that hangs on by the skin of its fingertips until things return to (somewhat) normal. I am not sure of numbers, but over the years I have heard that there are around 10,000 people who 'winter' on the island (anyone have a number?) and given the number of cheap-ish rental houses, I believe that; in Mae Nam alone there are many, many houses that get rented out for 3-6 months a year, every year. Finally, many of those 'Snowbirds' are friends of mine, and I have already received 15+ inquiries from them, asking about the situation on the ground, if people are coming, and if I thought they could/should come; there IS a demand. 

 

If done properly and not too stupidly, this could work and could provide enough assistance to the island that it doesn't collapse economically. Yes, a big "IF', but...

 

Full speed ahead, I say.

 

PS If the national tourism people had a brain, they'd be chasing down all the Snowbirds/Long-Stayers they could find from any/all countries and creating a way for them to return all over the country; mass tourism isn't a good idea this year and won't happen, but getting the Long-Stayers back would provide enough life support to tide the industry over until such a time that the "10 Day Millionaires" can return and blow their wads.

 

"Initially, tourists allowed to visit Koh Samui will come from five pilot countries -- New Zealand, Australia, Germany, China (some cities), and Vietnam. "... no they won't. No government is going to risk additional Covid cases just so people can take a holiday in Thailand.

They just don't get it. The problem isn't just people coming here, it's when they try to go home again.

Will they supply someone to walk in front of you ringing a bell along with the wristbands? How special do they think Thailand is?

Who cares, most people I know are tired of hearing about rona and all the bs that is associated with it.

Nice little epitaph for Koh Samui......it will pick up the reputation of becoming a leper colony.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The president informed that if the CCSA agreed to the idea, the association would conduct a referendum among local people in the island. Their voices will determine whether the plan should be carried out or not.

YES......they cried. We will ask TAT to promote the island as a leper colony.

Countless posts of regurgitated crappe which are not in the least newsworthy. On a similar note I bought a lottery ticket this week and may win, I also may not but it can depend on many things. I have conducted a survey within my family but alas, with a 1 in 140 million chance they are not very positive about my chances. Whatever happened to the good old days when we had videos of motorcyclists driving into railway crossing barriers, real events that didn't originate from travel companies in Germany with a following of 150? Come on ThaiVisa please try a little harder, surely you can do better than these constant maybes, possibles and other contless rubbish......please....

I could also do with some advice on what action to take when you seem to have a non-functioning amulet....

“...allowed to travel in the island with special wristbands, which would show that they are not infected by the virus...“

 

What! They won’t be branding them with ThaiSmile logos?

Who comes up w this stuff??? 
2 weeks in buri ram??? No way 

who in their right minds, want to first spend 14 days in quarantine ???

 

what are they smoking ?

Dreamers !  .....  more dreamers  !!  delusional to say the least.  Unless a reliable vaccine is produced and travel is back to normal without any restrictions,  there won't be tourists rushing to Koh Samui.   imo 

Signs will be up in most places stating "people with wrist bands no can enter (sic)" double pun.

What’s the point of wearing a wristband indicating negative testing? So an ex pat living in CM and comes down for a holiday isn’t going to be wearing a wristband...so people should assume at risk and discriminate against him?  

 

how about getting your priorities right and focus on road safety strategies?

way overthinking this for a non existent tourist pool....until they open up in some reasonable fashion 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, dabhand said:

Tapping into the 'snowbird' market would make a bit of sense. But they would need to expand the potential countries to also include the Skandis.

 

And allow foreigners not married to Thais to come in.

 

One wonders if the people putting this scheme forward are aware that there are no tourist visas being issued?

17 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

Wealthy tourists pay for their freedom. That's why they have things like the Elite Visa. To have less hassle.

 

Having an Elite Visa and being outside of Thailand right now doesn't buy you a pass on the mandatory quarantine upon returning here... AFAIK...  They're in the same ASQ situation as all the other incoming foreigners, as few as they may be.

 

Meanwhile in Wuhan China, the epicentre of Covid 19, they are having a ball.   https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/18/asia/wuhan-water-park-party-intl-hnk/index.html







They seem to be quite ready to go into quarantine in Koh Samui.

As long as Thailand is going to continue to require pre-flight COVID testing and then mandatory 14 days quarantine and repeat testing after arrival here for all foreigners,  I'm not sure how much difference it makes what the origin countries are....

 

But, if I had to choose, picking New Zealand over the U.S. would be a pretty easy choice!!!

 

1 hour ago, Katipo said:

"Initially, tourists allowed to visit Koh Samui will come from five pilot countries -- New Zealand, Australia, Germany, China (some cities), and Vietnam. "... no they won't. No government is going to risk additional Covid cases just so people can take a holiday in Thailand.

They just don't get it. The problem isn't just people coming here, it's when they try to go home again.

You can run but you can`t hide.... Thailand only delay the fullblown outbreak of covid-19 and its working well aslong they keep the rest of the world away from the kingdom. 

Absolutely ruin the economy of the kingdom and Thai citizen or just stop hiding? Its about time for the junta to make THE call!!

15 hours ago, Mr lamai said:

Absolutely ruin the economy of the kingdom and Thai citizen or just stop hiding? Its about time for the junta to make THE call!!

 

How about instead picking the responsible, prudent middle ground, by....

 

--continuing to require testing and mandatory quarantine for inbound international travelers, but perhaps opening up the numbers and categories allowed in by expanding the current ASQ program to help tourism dependent parts of the economy. And...

 

--continuing to have a pretty much normally functioning economy (apart from the decline in tourists) by encouraging continued safety precautions among the local population such as mask wearing, social distancing, etc...

 

It makes me laugh!  What do these people think is going on in the rest of the world?

 

''The certificate must be issued within 48 hours of the tourists departing from their countries''

 

In the UK it can take up to 5 days to get the ''all clear'' notification and ''bit of paper''!  I guess it is't  virtually ''automatic'' in many other countries also!

Simply more ill thought out nonsense. Its only purpose is to give the spokespeople , and the organisations they represent , the thin impression of relevance.

The government has set out its stool , it must now heavily support the tourist industry or let it die , anything else is simply noise.

Forgot to mention Thai Airways Bankrupt and does not fly to Koh Samui. Also his other restrictions are either impossible to comply with or of no interest. Koh Samui is 100% reliant on tourists and coconuts so best get real.

Who in there right mind thought this crazy idea up. Only an idiot of a tourist is going to come to Thailand and pay good money to be locked up like a prisoner for two weeks L????L

So they want to quarantine people in a place that had practically zero Covid and invite the Chinese as some of the first stayers ?? 
Then samui hotels are mostly expensive compared to rest of the country so are the prices going to be reduced ? 
Also Thai airways stopped flying the few flights to samui as bkk airways charged them high landing fees etc to use their airport so who is going to be paying Bkk airways these high fees again ? The government, the passengers via high flight cost or Thai airways which is going bankrupt ? ????????