Phuket ready for foreign tourists on October 1st 2021

[webfact]

Picture: Ban Muang

Thai media Ban Muang reported that Phuket would be ready to reopen to foreign tourism on October 1st this year after a meeting attended by three local dignitaries under the banner "Phuket and Covid-19 2021".

In attendance were Phichet Panapong the deputy governor, Thanisak Pheungdech, head of the Chamber of Commerce and the Phuket tourism association chief Phoomkit Raktaengan. 

Ban Muang said that Phuket had suffered few cases of Covid in the pandemic but the effect on tourism had been devastating.

So far 68,000 doses of vaccine have been allocated with the first lot of 4,000 being given to 2,000 medical personnel since March 1st. 

Further allocations of 16,000 and 48,000 doses will go to frontline staff associated with tourism such as customs, immigration, airport workers and leaders of delegations. 

In 2019 14.5 million tourists came to Phuket that was up 135,000 on the previous year.

Of these 26.9% were Thai and the rest foreigners. They all spent 471 billion baht.

The main visiting groups came from China, Russia, Australia, Germany and the UK.

In 2020 only 6.7 million tourists came and 91% of those arrived in the pre-lockdown period from January to March. They spent 108 billion baht down 75% on the previous year.

The media said that in 2019 there were 1,945 establishments including hotels, resorts and guest houses offering 100,000 rooms to tourists.

The 12 ports handled 2,357 boats in and out and 7,856,147 people used the ports. 

Ban Muang used the opportunity of this story to outline these figures but gave no further evidence of what the bigwigs at the meeting were doing to ensure that October 1st was the opening date of tourism to the island apart from the vaccine delivery stats mentioned above. 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-03-16

 

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[colinneil]

So Phuket will be ready for foreign tourists on 1st of october, but the question remains, will the foreign tourists be ready to go there.

[KarenBravo]

Quarantine of any length = No tourists.

[bloodyholly]

Now that there’s a date to work to maybe now is the time to get the outstanding infrastructure works/repairs completed, including sorting out the catastrophe that is Beach Road in Patong.

Then theres the preparation for the reopening of the hospitality industry plus of course theres the huge problem of trying to get enough staff back to Phuket and provide the necessary retraining that will obviously be required.

Other wise it appears to be ‘all systems go’ for a bumper 4th quarter for 2021

[KarenBravo]

51 minutes ago, bloodyholly said:

Now that there’s a date to work to maybe now is the time to get the outstanding infrastructure works/repairs completed, including sorting out the catastrophe that is Beach Road in Patong.

Then theres the preparation for the reopening of the hospitality industry plus of course theres the huge problem of trying to get enough staff back to Phuket and provide the necessary retraining that will obviously be required.

Other wise it appears to be ‘all systems go’ for a bumper 4th quarter for 2021

Hope you're right, but I think you're wrong.

[Surelynot]

If the vast majority of the Thai population plus expats are not vaccinated by October and incoming tourists are not all vaccinated............ in what way are they "going to be ready"..........

[ukrules]

No chance.

[owl sees all]

Just in time for the northern hemisphere flu season.

[madmitch]

Thaivisa needs a new forum heading featuring only stories about the reopening of the country to tourists. I hate to think how many different articles we've seen with conflicting information from different departments!

[connda]

4 hours ago, owl sees all said:

Just in time for the northern hemisphere flu season.

It seems the season flu has been eradicated by Covid.  At least there is an up side.

[DrDave]

Nice try, but the Deputy Governor, the head of the Chamber of Commerce and the Phuket Tourism Association don't make the rules. It's all just hot air until the proper authorities in Bangkok make a declaration.