Thailand pressing ahead with plan to open Phuket up to foreign tourists on July 1st despite Covid surge

[anchadian]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/world/asia/thailand-covid-19.html

Phuket Was Poised for Tourism Comeback. A Covid Surge Dashed Those Hopes.

 

By Hannah Beech

Photographs by Adam Dean

• April 25, 2021

PHUKET, Thailand — Around the corner from the teeth-whitening clinic and the tattoo parlor with offerings in Russian, Hebrew and Chinese, near the outdoor eatery with indifferent fried rice meant to fuel sunburned tourists or tired go-go dancers, the Hooters sign has lost its H.

 

The sign, in that unmistakable orange cartoon font, now simply reads, “ooters.”

 

Like so much at Patong Beach, the sleazy epicenter of sybaritic Thailand, Hooters is “temporarily closed.” Other establishments around the beach, on Phuket Island, are more firmly shuttered, their metal grills and padlocks rusted or their contents ripped out, down to the fixtures, leaving only the carcasses of a tourism industry ravaged by the coronavirus epidemic.

[Aarin]

No vaccine program in place... NOT enough beds to cope in hospital and they are worrying about the Tourists.. You need to get your own people vaccinated first and safe. 

[hotchilli]

13 minutes ago, Forza2002 said:

Govt should rename Phuket to Fantasy Island. Given all their pie in the sky predictions it would be a very appropriate name...

 

[malibukid]

51 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

End the quarantine now. No program requiring even a week of quarantine will succeed. A vaccination letter, a covid free letter, and a test upon arrival. Boom. Done. Enjoy your vacation, we are eternally grateful that you chose to come back, and spend money here. We need you. And we acknowledge that Thailand needs you 20X more than you need Thailand. We humbly accept your patronage. You will be treated like guests of honor. 

 

No program requiring quarantine will succeed in getting more than 10 or 20 thousand tourists. Period. That will not do the people of Phuket any good.

 

Get done courage Prayuth. You are supposed to be this big officer. Come on. 

 

Thai government is keeping us hostage by not allowing us expats to return to our home countries for vaccination by imposing a quarantine upon return, while the EU is allowing fully vaccinated tourist in

[connda]

Thailand pressing ahead with plan to open Phuket up to foreign tourists on July 1st despite Covid surge

That has all the foresight as pressing ahead with a plan to open the entire country of Thailand up to sick Thais from Covid hot-spots on Songkran despite a Covid surge in Red Zones.

"Oh, oh, oh - why we have so many cases now.   I have plan!  We lock Thailand down, close all entertainment, make people wear mask while swimming and make smelly, dirty farang pay 20,000 if no wear mask when swim in ocean or eating.  No drinking and no fun though - now illegal.
Come Farang Come.  Phuket and Thailand welcome your money."

You'll simply get different variants fools.  Covid vaccines neither stop the virus from infecting people or stop the virus from being spread.  Better to pave the tourist areas over and build factories so cheap labor from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos can find jobs.

[Abik]

I canceled my visa and trip to Thailand.  I am vaccinated and planned to rent a car as I have done many times and travel with my wife.  There is no reason to travel in a semi-closed country and under depression and restrictions.  I wish Thailand to get out of this situation.  This will only happen if the Thai government starts massively vaccinating its residents with the RNA method and not the Chinese or European vaccine.

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, Spellforce said:

With the new thai Aztrazeneca factory in may, that's doable to vaccine 70% of Phuket.

500,000 people X 70% = 350,000 people

That is a bit optimistic. The factory is supposed to be ready in May but it has always been said that it would be into June before the first production had been distributed and ready for administration.

[mrfill]

54 minutes ago, superal said:

Thailand has imported a large amount of the Sinovac . If you Google Chile vaccinates all its population with the Sinovac , you will find that the Sinovac has proved almost worthless as there is now a massive surge of covid 19 in the Chile population . Stats say 1st Sinovac gives 3% protection , so what's the point of using an ineffective vaccine ? cheap to buy and false credibility on injection rate .  Sinovac usage ,was it fully tested/ trialed ? 

Bit more to it than that.

Chile opened up before starting vaccination. Vaccines arrived and, once jabbed, people immediately returned to the old ways without allowing 2 weeks for the vaccine to become effective (this applies to all the vaccines). And the rest is history...

 

A recent (20th April) study from the BMJ refers .. https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1023

 

 

[terryofcrete]

4 hours ago, madmen said:

Who in their right mind is going to add yet another non refundable air fare to their credit card? 

Well anyone who would buy a non refundable flight in these times would NOT be in their right mind and would be most welcome in Phuket to which anyone in their right mind would not travel anyway so I guess Phuket will get what it rightly deserves ... like minded not in their right mind tourists ! ... eh ..if you get what I’m at.... 

[Magenta408]

It's a bit like Canadian politics, no one seems to be talking to each other, issuing press releases and blurbs and tidbits here and there without really thinking things through. In any event, it is time to open otherwise the economy will suffer greatly. It's about now that one could say, 'do or die'. Plenty of big money ready to gobble up the properties. 

[DrMJA]

 

"It was not reported where he hoped these foreigners would come from or what they would be allowed to do after arriving in Phuket".  

 

Muppet in Charge!

[terryofcrete]

2 hours ago, Spellforce said:

No planes are flying from most of the countries, definitely none from Australia. 

From Ireland you can travel to Phuket without transit thru BKK , which is not allowed , but , for the time being , we can’t come home via the middle east ( qatar or UAE) without quarantine in Dublin although only transiting through the airports in Doha,Dubai or Abu Dhabi....I expect  that to change though . 

[joecoolfrog]

This was clearly a nonsense statement , by July Phuket is more likely to be thoroughly locked down than open to tourism , especially of the international variety.

The minister knows he is spouting rubbish but he just wants to offer the natives a lifeline , much cheaper than offering them financial assistance !!

Edited April 26, 2021 by joecoolfrog

[PEE TEE]

6 hours ago, WineOh said:

or in other words, not a single tourist from any country has expressed any interest whatsoever in goin to Phuket for a holiday.

 

the golden goose is dead and buried, am I the only one that can see it? ????

No your not the only one 

[raccos21]

I think it will be July 1st 2023 if lucky.

[zzzzz]

1 hour ago, madmitch said:

Even in normal times, the number of Europeans (Chinese are a different matter) arriving in Phuket between July and September is very low.

 

Unless they are looking at the Chinese market then they won't be losing much business if they do have to change the date, despite the apparent belief that opening the island will be opening the floodgates!

FYI:
july is as busy (under normal times) as Jan/ feb and is considered high season.

I see them extending the Mandatory test on arrival to phuket even if ur vaccinated for everyone>

if they just eliminate  the 500 baht charge, everyone will be ok with it.
 

[joecoolfrog]

11 minutes ago, terryofcrete said:

From Ireland you can travel to Phuket without transit thru BKK , which is not allowed , but , for the time being , we can’t come home via the middle east ( qatar or UAE) without quarantine in Dublin although only transiting through the airports in Doha,Dubai or Abu Dhabi....I expect  that to change though . 

For sure things will change , but not in July , perhaps Nov/Dec if the Thai government gets its act together 

[sambum]

3 hours ago, Dialemco said:

Best wait for entire Thai population to be vaccinated. Learn from premature opening for Songkran and consequential surge in infections. 

Learn? A kindergarten child could have foreseen what would happen by allowing everybody to return to their homes from "Red Zones" for Sonkran. Unfortunately, there are no kindergarten children in Government! Kindergarten children realise that they are there to learn - Government ministers aren't in Government to learn!

Edited April 26, 2021 by sambum

[RayongBudgie]

Did not state where tourists would come from. Cloud Cuckoo Land me thinks.

[joecoolfrog]

15 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

FYI:
july is as busy (under normal times) as Jan/ feb and is considered high season.

I see them extending the Mandatory test on arrival to phuket even if ur vaccinated for everyone>

if they just eliminate  the 500 baht charge, everyone will be ok with it.
 

July in Phuket is nowhere near as busy as Jan and is most certainly NOT high season.

Hence , in normal years , hotel prices on the island are hugely discounted from June - September.

[Mywayboy]

This guy is eating to many Magic Mushrooms from the Forest. 

[Burma Bill]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

 

Thai domestic tourism would be promoted in June and then foreigners from July 1st.

 

[madmitch]

30 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

FYI:
july is as busy (under normal times) as Jan/ feb and is considered high season.

I see them extending the Mandatory test on arrival to phuket even if ur vaccinated for everyone>

if they just eliminate  the 500 baht charge, everyone will be ok with it.
 

Sorry, you must know better than someone that has been involved in a tourism based business in Phuket for 16 years. No, forget that; you don't!

 

With a few exceptions the only tourists are Chinese, many hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and other small businesses aren't even open, and as @joecoolfrogpointed out, hotel prices are heavily discounted.

 

 

[Gandtee]

7 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

Wow... they are suckers for abuse aren't they?

In a hole and still digging.????

[digger70]

Must be brain dead to make stupid statement  like this.

[Pib]

Nothing wrong with the minister having expectations....

 

[Sheryl]

2 hours ago, superal said:

Thailand has imported a large amount of the Sinovac . If you Google Chile vaccinates all its population with the Sinovac , you will find that the Sinovac has proved almost worthless as there is now a massive surge of covid 19 in the Chile population . Stats say 1st Sinovac gives 3% protection , so what's the point of using an ineffective vaccine ? cheap to buy and false credibility on injection rate .  Sinovac usage ,was it fully tested/ trialed ? 

 

Chile has not vaccinated all its population.

 

Less than 1/3 fully vaccinated and it exceeded 1/4 only a week ago.

 

Well known that protection from Sinovac does not set in until at least 14 days after 2nd dose. At which point it is about 50% effective. Which is lower than other vaccines, for sure. But not correct to state totally ineffective. Its effectiveness is much higher in preventing serious disease/death.

 

Sinovac went through Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials before used anywhere. The Chinese began using it prior to completion of Stage 3 trails.  Stage 3 trials have now been completed and it is these which give us the 50% efficacy rate.

[Grusa]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

No the golden goose is not dead, it's just severely constipated. Unfortunately the vaccine laxative wont arrive for months due to mismanagement. 

I think maybe you need a lesson in avian anatomy and physiology...........

[James HB]

7 hours ago, WineOh said:

or in other words, not a single tourist from any country has expressed any interest whatsoever in goin to Phuket for a holiday.

 

the golden goose is dead and buried, am I the only one that can see it? ????

No. So do I!

[KhaoYai]

4 hours ago, jaiyen said:

Thai Airways won't be flying for years, if ever again !

Thai Airways are flying at the moment. I don't know their full schedule but they certainly fly to the UK and back at least once per week.