Thailand still plans for international tourists to return on Oct 1

 

A deserted beach in Phuket. Image: Reuters

 

October 1 has once again been proposed as the possible date for when foreign tourists will be able to return to Thailand without first needing to spend 14 days confined to a hotel room. 

 

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Yuthasak Supasorn on Thursday said plans to allow foreign tourists to visit Phuket from October 1 were still on track, despite a lack clarity regarding the roll out of COVID-19 vaccinations in Thailand, particularly for those working in the tourism and hospitality industries.

 

The TAT is pushing for tourism workers to be included in the second round of inoculations, after the vaccine has been given to frontline healthcare workers and members of the public deemed most at risk from the virus.

 

And while the Thai government has announced plans to inoculate 1 million people by May and then 10 million people per month from June, it is not immediately clear where tourism workers stand in the vaccine rollout.

 

It also remains unclear if the proposal to allow tourists to visit Phuket will still go ahead if all of the Thai population have not been given the vaccine.

 

First revealed in August 2020, the proposal to open up Phuket to foreign tourists would essentially see the island turned into a huge travel bubble/quarantine zone.

 

Tourists would still need to quarantine on the island but would not be confined to a hotel room, as is the case currently. Travel to other parts of Thailand would be restricted until tourists have completed 14 days on the island. 

 

The news comes as business leaders from Phuket’s tourism industry lobbied the government to reverse its decision to ban local administrations from sourcing COVID-19 vaccinations themselves.

 

Phuket had planned to purchase and distribute government approved vaccines to the locals on the island prior to opening up to foreign tourists on Oct 1 and in turn kickstarting the local economy, which depends  heavily on foreign tourism.

 

Officials in Pattaya also said they had also considered similar plans.

 

However, the government said on Tuesday that local administrations and private organisations are not permitted to purchase the vaccine independently. 

 

Thailand is actually open to foreign tourists currently via the Special Tourist Visa program, Thailand Elite membership and visa exempt entry.

 

However, any foreigner who enters the country is required to quarantine for 14 days in a hotel, at their own expense. 

 

Stats seen by Thaivisa earlier this week revealed that despite being open to tourists, very few have actually visited the country amid the ongoing pandemic. 

 

In fact, around the same number of people have visited in the past six months than would normally have visited in a single day, pre COVID-19.

 

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There were already many dates proposed in 2020 - probably every single month feom september till now, and every month in this year. 
Hence i worry, that some tourists would come, but it would be in tens od thausands in rhe whole year, so insignificant

Obviously this will garner a whole lot of the usual responses about what Thailand does wrong, so let me add a few differing viewpoints:

 

At the end of the day, who is going to risk diving into the unknown when a real pandemic is going on?

(unless you REALLY have to)

 

Would i rather stay in my own country (relatively Covid free) 

OR

go somewhere i might get trapped without flights or exit. 

have to worry about getting trapped without a visa and have to stay long term in expensive accomodation..

 

Then there is always the unknown with Thailand...

If i do end up with Covid, will i be forced into a private hospital, even if i dont have symptoms?

Any number of ways this could pan out, and they all sound bad.

 

For the average traveller Its all about confidence and risk.

 

Do i stay at home, where we are looked after, no visa issues, no exclusions because of racism and nationalism..

AND able to work and even get welfare..

 

or travel to Thailand and go through countless hoops and expense,

in the end, to be treated not much better than a short term visitor, even if married or on retirement.

 

Then there is the issue of those of us (Australian) are not even allowed outward travel as tourists)

I dont really get why this endless debate keeps going.

Its all pretty much a no brainer id say.

The dream still alive! TAT-TV (Trust Value)

Best thing they can do is stop carping on about opening up as not a single person here has had a jab yet and the job won't even be completed this year, so why even contemplate opening in 2021 at all ?     All these people try to do is justify their own salary by keep opening their mouth's and spouting garbage; best to keep their gobs shut !

October 1st but what year?

7 1/2 months to go. That leaves a lot of room for flip&flopping. 

When will they understand that there will never be thousands of people willing to do a 14 day quarantine !!!

Not even willing to let vaccinated tourists coming in.

And Anutin getting richer by talking control of the whole ASQ certificates and vaccines buy and delivery system being a state monopoly.

 

Obviously the TAT expect the tourist arrivals to bring the virus into thailand and that is why they want their industry workers given a early vaccination. To hell with the people living here . Thailand was right to close borders and insist on Quarantine, even UK are following that path even though they are a bit late in doing so .  

12 minutes ago, xtof2 said:

When will they understand that there will never be thousands of people willing to do a 14 day quarantine !!!

Not even willing to let vaccinated tourists coming in.

And Anutin getting richer by talking control of the whole ASQ certificates and vaccines buy and delivery system being a state monopoly.

 

 

That's a new record even for the inattentive TV crowd. You didn't even read the very first line of the article !

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

October 1 has once again been proposed as the possible date for when foreign tourists will be able to return to Thailand without first needing to spend 14 days confined to a hotel room. 

 

24 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

7 1/2 months to go. That leaves a lot of room for flip&flopping. 

Even the daily Covid news seems to flip flop from good to bad on a daily rate.

What astounds me is how people can be seriously predicting anything from 2 years to 5 before any normal international travel happens.

 

As you say, even a lot can happen in 7 1/2 months.

Covid could possibly even be halted greatly, though unlikely, but who knows.

 

More of the same with horrible news from the Australian media,

who seem to delight in spreading news that we may be locked up here till the end of this year also.

and Aussies dont seem to be saying a xxxx thing about it.

Truly dis-heartening????

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

October 1 has once again been proposed as the possible date for when foreign tourists will be able to return to Thailand without first needing to spend 14 days confined to a hotel room. 

 

Note the important qualifying words, "proposed" and "possible".

Nothing definite, so don't get your hopes up.

If the intention is to turn phuket into a Covid bubble, then they better make sure EVERYONE on the island is vaccinated, not just those working in the tourism industry.

 

if they did that AND properly ensured that no one entered or left the bubble by land sea or air for other parts of Thailand, then, yes, it could work.

29 minutes ago, pi2005ni said:

Obviously the TAT expect the tourist arrivals to bring the virus into thailand and that is why they want their industry workers given a early vaccination. To hell with the people living here . Thailand was right to close borders and insist on Quarantine, even UK are following that path even though they are a bit late in doing so .  

A bit?

2022-2023 maybe

2 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

If the intention is to turn phuket into a Covid bubble, then they better make sure EVERYONE on the island is vaccinated, not just those working in the tourism industry.

 

if they did that AND properly ensured that no one entered or left the bubble by land sea or air for other parts of Thailand, then, yes, it could work.

 

also pregnant women, old people with chronic diseases where a vaccine could either not work or be dangerous,  newborns without immune system to detox the vaccine,  young children, where the vaccine was not meant or tested for ?

1 hour ago, internationalism said:

There were already many dates proposed in 2020 - probably every single month from september till now, and every month in this year. 
Hence i worry, that some tourists would come, but it would be in tens od thausands in rhe whole year, so insignificant

Yes, they keep changing the dates.  Anything could happen from now until October.  Rise in infections, breakdown in vaccine plans, etc.

I'll wait for the next news report (with a different date).

 

Why so many news reports dealing with the same subject?

Haven't they heard that their approved AstraZeneca vaccine is ineffective against the south African variant and who knows what other variants will pop up by October? 

37 minutes ago, xtof2 said:

When will they understand that there will never be thousands of people willing to do a 14 day quarantine !!!

Not even willing to let vaccinated tourists coming in.

And Anutin getting richer by talking control of the whole ASQ certificates and vaccines buy and delivery system being a state monopoly.

 

 Typical  thaivisa comment... Unbelievable.... 

No one will take the risk to come to Thailand. Rules change every day. So many destinations will use this opportunity to attract new tourists. 

Proposed,  possible, lack of clarity, by the time I reached the 4th paragraph and read 'not immediately clear' my eyes started glazing over. This year's Oscar award for the best comedy goes to?

58 minutes ago, realfunster said:

 

That's a new record even for the inattentive TV crowd. You didn't even read the very first line of the article !

 

 

I got that.

it’s a request from the governor in Phuket ... and the vaccine part has already  been declined by Anutin and the government want to stick to the 14 days quarantine 

40 minutes ago, Daithi85 said:

 Typical  thaivisa comment... Unbelievable.... 

It’s notThai bashing... it’’s just facts !!!

Unbellievable ! 

2 hours ago, internationalism said:

There were already many dates proposed in 2020 - probably every single month feom september till now, and every month in this year. 
Hence i worry, that some tourists would come, but it would be in tens od thausands in rhe whole year, so insignificant

 

You have to give them credit for being consistent.  By that I mean maintaining a consistent number of months until they eventually open.  I think it stays constant at about 6 months ????

Personally I think they are trying to keep the dream alive by giving the desperate people false hope. Not sure who’s leading everyone over a cliff, but I have a good idea

Can people survive that long? 

Seems to me they are putting the cart before the horse.  They first need a policy to address quarantine free admission of tourists vaccinated in their home country ... they may ultimately still require a quarantine due to insufficient evidence surrounding transmission by those vaccinated ... but at least have a policy decision.  Second, they need to ask themselves why would anyone want to visit Thailand when a very small percentage of the population has been vaccinated (and maybe still requiring a quarantine)?  The Phuket bubble idea is not going to do anything to address visitor reticence.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Tourists would still need to quarantine on the island but would not be confined to a hotel room, as is the case currently. Travel to other parts of Thailand would be restricted until tourists have completed 14 days on the island. 

That is a very lousy plan. As people would be free to roam around the island, they could of course get infected there, by new arrivals, at any time during "quarantine in paradise".

 

Just keep them in Phuket. And declare it off limits for anyone that's not on the island.

 

Same could be done for other places that have their own airports... like Samui, for instance. Or by provinces.

 

If people there agree or have ample time to move out if they don't.

October?  Incredible.  So that's when the hysterical over-reaction and paranoia will finally end, eh?  Just at the start of the next flu season in Europe and North America...

Conspiracy troll post with a most questionable source has been  removed