Thailand sticking with plan to welcome vaccinated tourists in July

[skytrooper70]

So, anyone who owns a Phuket home will have to pay a hotel for 14 days (at an excessive rate) accommodation, instead of heading straight home. Then, I imagine someone could pay for the hotel, register at the hotel upon arrival, then, head straight to their own home. After all, there's no quarantine or will the hotels do a nightly bed check????.

[ThailandRyan]

42 minutes ago, Karma80 said:

All this does is steal the ASQ business from Bangkok hotels and diverts it to Phuket under the guise of SHA+ hotels where you can quarantine in a hotel, but be free to roam the island. The Phuket hotels were going bankrupt the next couple of months and this is just a band aid to get them through. Fair enough, but right now there is no short haul tourism, it's all long haul and I think you may need your head examined to come here for a two week vacation right now. 

 

 

Free to roam the Island, but return to your scheduled SHA Barracks every night or, risk arrest because you decided to hang with a friend and enjoy dinner and a beer? What are the true parameters.  Looks like you can now transit through BKK instead of flying directly to Phuket, as how else would the US folks arrive as there is no direct flight to Phuket anymore from the US.

[wensiensheng]

3 hours ago, RoyJames said:

Its not too bad.,no quarantine and you can go where you want after 14 days,I can think of worse places to spend 14 days than Patong lol,I wonder what the cost of the hotels will be,this could be the catch,otherwise I would consider going if I could get time off work.

Bars are closed in Patong. It’s like a set from a zombie movie there atm. I suppose it might spring to life if the rules change by July, although it seems that’s unlikely given the comments in the op article.

[chaihot]

Just now, ThailandRyan said:

Looks like you can now transit through BKK instead of flying directly to Phuket, as how else would the US folks arrive as there is no direct flight to Phuket anymore from the US.

 

Although I agree, that it is great that we can transit through BKK, there are now flights directly to Phuket.  Star Alliance is flying from Germany; so it is US to Germany then Phuket.  There are others ... 

"Doha, Dubai, Singapore, Taipei, Istanbul, and Hong Kong. Thai Airways International says it will offer scheduled flights from Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Paris and London."

[ThailandRyan]

5 minutes ago, skytrooper70 said:

So, anyone who owns a Phuket home will have to pay a hotel for 14 days (at an excessive rate) accommodation, instead of heading straight home. Then, I imagine someone could pay for the hotel, register at the hotel upon arrival, then, head straight to their own home. After all, there's no quarantine or will the hotels do a nightly bed check????.

Room Service: Here to Tuck you in Sir.  Sir where are you, hello?  15 minutes later,  Immigration police open up!  5 minutes later tracking you by phone app. Located at your own home in Rawai sipping a nice cold beer while visiting with your wife.  Arrested and the Next stop IDC for breaking the Sandbox rules and not staying in your Approved room.  No sharing and no friends......TTFN

[mrfill]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

Last time I looked they were arresting foreigners for having a couple of friends over in the afternoon and it made international news.

 

This is not a good look.

 

Will people be able to go to a restaurant and have a glass of wine or a beer with their meal and then go to a bar for the rest of the evening?

 

If things don't return to normal then nobody will come, nobody at all, especially if they're expected to quarantine on return.

 

It will fail.

 

Never mind having a glass of wine or beer, will there be a restaurant or bar there that's open?

[NorthernRyland]

You're stuck on the island for 14 days!!! They had said 7 days before right?  The cost of that will be about 20k baht also (I saw rooms for 1600/night). 

[LivingNThailand]

21 minutes ago, dsj said:

However, if you can prove that you are an expat living on the island for more than 14 days then you can do so. (go to another island outside the province) 

But can we drive across the bridge and have lunch at Natai Beach?  Or do the Phuket expats have to 14 day quarantine when we return from lunch?

[Isaan sailor]

Excellent plan—-but they forgot one item.

get that damned Baht down.  With all the troubles here, you’d think the currency would reflect the downbeat economy.

[ChipButty]

9 minutes ago, mrfill said:

 

Never mind having a glass of wine or beer, will there be a restaurant or bar there that's open?

Plenty of restaurants open just no alcohol 

[ThailandRyan]

6 minutes ago, chaihot said:

 

Although I agree, that it is great that we can transit through BKK, there are now flights directly to Phuket.  Star Alliance is flying from Germany; so it is US to Germany then Phuket.  There are others ... 

"Doha, Dubai, Singapore, Taipei, Istanbul, and Hong Kong. Thai Airways International says it will offer scheduled flights from Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Paris and London."

Thats not a direct flight from the US as I was talking about, that is a transit flight with multiple flights, and why would someone in LA want to fly backwards and add transit hubs in New York/Chicago to Europe and then to Phuket. That would be a 36 plus hour flight instead of the usual 19 hour flight you can get to BKK from LAX/SFO.  At one time there used to be a 13 hour non-stop direct flight to BKK with a in-transit switch to Phuket via Thai Airways, however that was canceled some years ago as it became unfeasible.  Now to do it you must change planes at least 3 times to get to Phuket.

[jacko45k]

21 minutes ago, Dazinoz said:

Earlier in the week I read it was only 7 days in Phuket. All other requirements plus a covid test at day 5 and if negative you could travel after 7 days, now 14.

A proposal that didn't get past the next surge in infections.

[LivingNThailand]

21 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

notice also the double standard on vaccinations. To be “vaccinated” tourists must have two jabs, for locals, one jab makes you “vaccinated”.

I have neighbors that have the 1 "jab" and they think they are safe.  Probably won't go back for the 2nd one.  Sad really.

[madmitch]

A few people have spoken about expensive rates at the SHA hotels. Try looking at Booking.com where acceptable hotels are available for under 1000 baht per night. That's an absolute bargain.

 

Hotels are being realistic, realising thet there aren't going to be too many people taking advantage of this scheme.

 

The problem is that other businesses are also aware that the number of travellers will be very low and won't be opening, so you're paying for a hotel in a virtual ghost town with low season weather and beaches.

[farangroby]

4 hours ago, Willy333 said:

Tourists like to get drunk

People in holiday like to socialize, and it is difficult do it with a bottle of water on the table

[ThailandRyan]

3 minutes ago, madmitch said:

Hotels are being realistic, realising thet there aren't going to be too many people taking advantage of this scheme.

But if your flying in on an international flight fully vaccinated you can only stay at the SHA hotels, not any others, nor can you go to your home......so it really does not matter what the other hotels are hoping for they will not get any of these folks until after the 14th day.

[NorthernRyland]

3 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

A proposal that didn't get past the next surge in infections.

Well these people flip-flop every week so maybe by July 1st they will have decided to bring it back down to 7 days. You really can not trust these people.

 

My brother just got a ticket back to the US from BKK because he THOUGHT he could get back into Thailand via a 7 day stay in Phuket but now he's screwed. They could cancel the whole program next week due to some variant for all we know.

[fusion58]

6 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Excellent plan—-but they forgot one item.

get that damned Baht down.  With all the troubles here, you’d think the currency would reflect the downbeat economy.

 

Also, they could use that budget surplus they’ve been bragging about to shore up their own economy instead of relying so heavily on infusions of foreign ducats.

 

However, I realize that would require leaders who actually give a <deleted> about their country and its people.

[LivingNThailand]

8 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Plenty of restaurants open just no alcohol 

Not in Kata, Karon, or Patong.  Where the tourists USUALLY stay

[ronaldo0]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Stay in hotels certified by Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA+) for 14 nights, after which travel to other parts of Thailand will be allowed

So why is it only certified hotels ? Sounds like jobs for the boys and you scratch my back deals . Surely if their amazing sandpit idea is so good then all businesses should be able to open and if the people arriving have been vaccinated and are free to roam Phuket then why do they have to stay in certain hotels !! 

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

My brother just got a ticket back to the US from BKK because he THOUGHT he could get back into Thailand via a 7 day stay in Phuket but now he's screwed. They could cancel the whole program next week due to some variant for all we know.

It is happening in many places. The desperate UK tourists all flew off to Portugal recently, as it was declared 'green' and now it is being declared Amber as of Tuesday, making quarantine requirements for those returning. UK is getting ahead of itself in the desperation  to open things up... problems are the rest of Europe has yet to catch up, and even internally UK is  subject to new strains and vaccine shy people. 

[SteveB2]

4 hours ago, Soikhaonoiken said:

Do you really think Tourists are going to come to Thailand, when the 3rd wave is still not under control,, if so the government is very deluded... ????

 

Currently, Thailand sees about 30 people die per day with COVID-19.

 

The vast majority are those with other comorbiditys, in particular those who are morbidly obese, have sugar diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and the very old..

 

That works out at about 7 x 30 = 210 people per week - this is up at the highest COVID death rate there has been so far in Thailand.

 

Meanwhile, Thailand's annual death rate (all causes) is about 400,000 per year, or about 7,900 people per week.

 

https://pophealthmetrics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1478-7954-8-14

 

The COVID death rate thus currently represents just over 2 % of the weekly death rate due to all causes.

 

It would be 'mental illness' to focus exclusively only on deaths due to COVID when there are so many other equally tragic causes of death in Thailand. The suicide rate during thre last 12 months has quietly rocketted to approx 10,000 deaths(many caused by the financial stress due to COVID economic hardship)

 

The government will not be able to consistently control COVID-19 and all its strains to the point of zero deaths - the best it can do is to adopt a pragmatic approach that balances minimal deaths and hospitalisation(due to COVID) while allowing life to get back to normal again - accepting a balanced risk of death due to all causes.

 

 

 

 

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, SteveB2 said:

Currently, Thailand sees about 30 people die per day with COVID-19.

That is all very well but I still see 30 deaths per day of Covid as a deterrent for tourists coming from countries with fewer. They are not thinking about how many committed suicide or were morbidly obese. 

[ThailandRyan]

8 minutes ago, ronaldo0 said:

So why is it only certified hotels ? Sounds like jobs for the boys and you scratch my back deals . Surely if their amazing sandpit idea is so good then all businesses should be able to open and if the people arriving have been vaccinated and are free to roam Phuket then why do they have to stay in certain hotels !! 

I agree with your view on this.  However, it is being done not only to infuse money to certain folks but also as they claim for safety.

[starky]

16 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

But if your flying in on an international flight fully vaccinated you can only stay at the SHA hotels, not any others, nor can you go to your home......so it really does not matter what the other hotels are hoping for they will not get any of these folks until after the 14th day.

To be fair it doesn't say you can't go home but you will be forced onto paying for the SHA hotel.

[Sticky Rice Balls]

43 minutes ago, dsj said:

I know a lot of you may know about the local taxi mafia and even the two tier pricing that spoils some holidays. I specifically asked the Governor of TAT about this. He said they will be taking this opportunity to clean up the situation to make sure that tourists are safe and that their holiday isn’t spoiled by scammers. He is also very much in agreement with me that the two price policy is bad for tourism. We have talked before on this. He said that when he saw the mayor this week and he was telling him they were building a toilet block on the beach, the governor told him he mustn’t charge the tourists more. It must be the same price for everyone.

As if this is a new problem and been too busy to tackle this countrywide problem...BS..

 

Feels like the typical thai cash grab--they started way back thinking Chinese investors or hiso would flock there..nope

So you fly across the world and step foot on a Island for 2 weeks...no way off....suddenly the brochure doesnt look like the same room as usual,

the menus as always now have tape on them with the new prices of 200 baht fried rice----so the Gov will pay me back any costs that are "above local prices"?

 

Thais I assume are cash strapped and hungry for those walking ATMs I can just imagine the taxi guys as soon as you walk out of the airport gate..HEYHEYYOUHEYYOU!

 

I would feel like a fish in a barrel as the vultures start to circle-----but ive lived there long enough to know Id prob be eating out of 7-11 if I was foolish enough to stay 14 days....I considered the 7 but not thats off the table-----just so I could suck it up and get back up north--the islands are nothing but jaded greedy thais anyway

[wensiensheng]

4 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I agree with your view on this.  However, it is being done not only to infuse money to certain folks but also as they claim for safety.

Still trying to get my head around why an sha hotel is safe, whilst the one next door that is non sha, isn’t.

 

unless ultimately the plan is to suddenly declare that sha hotels can serve alcohol for instance. That way tourists can get drunk but the whole island isn’t opened up. Although maybe residents would flock to the sha hotels so that they can rub shoulders with fully vaccinated tourists over a beer or two.

 

I end up going round in circles trying to see logic in this sandbox thing.

[ThailandRyan]

3 minutes ago, starky said:

To be fair it doesn't say you can't go home but you will be forced onto paying for the SHA hotel.

Guess you just loan it to your Mia Noi or Short Time girl...lol.  Waiting on the full parameters to be released.  I have friends in the US who want to get back and train for a month doing Muay Thai, they are not sure if they can or not, as they normally stay on site in a package deal.

[metisdead]

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[Jiggo]

3 hours ago, mike1967 said:

They would have to pay me!!????????????

Think that will be TATs last resort, I still would not be interested though...