Does anyone know how can one be approved to go to Phuket in July? Can one with vaccine cert. just jump on the plane and be checked out at the Phuket airport or does one needs to be approved before jumping on the plane?

You can’t be approved for the SandBox stay in Phuket yet.

 

The Sandbox model has not yet received official approval.

They haven't even released high risk countries yet and your Russian 

 

Apparently they will make an announcement next week if it goes ahead. 

There will never be just jumping on a plane again under this moronic government farangs on the rack and jumping though as many high hoops as possible will be the way forward I think????  

The sandbox trial should get final approval tomorrow and subsequently appear in the Royal Gazette. I would not book anything until it is in the Gazette.

 

As for entry, it is essentially the same as for the rest of Thailand but with the ASQ hotel booking replaced with a SHA+ hotel booking. COE and previous insurance still required.

 

May be Ubonjoe or another moderator can edit the above if necessary as it is just my understanding.

Wow this is as good as a government announcement. Considering who owns them 

1 hour ago, Rhacsyn said:

The sandbox trial should get final approval tomorrow and subsequently appear in the Royal Gazette. I would not book anything until it is in the Gazette.

 

As for entry, it is essentially the same as for the rest of Thailand but with the ASQ hotel booking replaced with a SHA+ hotel booking. COE and previous insurance still required.

 

May be Ubonjoe or another moderator can edit the above if necessary as it is just my understanding.

Should add negative Covid pcr test 72 hours prior to flight departure

It is not "as good as a government announcement" until Thai Embassies and consulates get guidelines,  so they can issue the COE. 

4 hours ago, madmen said:

Wow this is as good as a government announcement. Considering who owns them 

 

I doubt they even expect to fly those flights.  This is probably just part of their plan to generate revenue with out actually doing anything.

 

Thai airlines continues to cancel hundreds of flights every month.  And they don't give refunds even if they are the ones that cancel your flight--just a voucher for another flight someday if they ever actually start flying the route again.

Anyone who has been holding off on returning to Thailand, due to the hassle and expense of the quarantine system, should probably hold off just a little longer.

The sandbox was originally intended to be an attractive reduction of the previous quarantine rules: Not limited to your hotel room, and required to stay at special hotel for just 7 nights rather than 14. It still required a lot of paperwork, expensive tests, and completely unnecessary Covid insurance, but it was significantly more attractive that the previous requirements.

Then, at the last minute, Prayut met with the Island's biggest hotel owners and, magically, the mandatory stay was increased from 7 nights to 14.

Quite apart from being a worse deal for potential tourists, the last-minute nature of this change raises serious questions about how much you can trust that the terms won't be changed again. In particular, a few unrelated outbreaks in other parts of Thailand might persuade the government to order that tourists cannot leave Phuket after all.

The sandbox experiment will not attract the expected number of tourists but will serve the main purpose of reassuring the Thai public that fully-vaccinated Western tourists can be safely reintroduced.

My hunch is that, during July and August, vaccination rates in UK and EU will heads towards 60%, massively pushing down infection levels. The EU DCC (Digital Covid Certificate) will allow the popular European tourism destinations to spring back to life, with no quarantine, tests, or special insurance. International agreements, particulary between the US and EU, will allow fully-vaccinated tourists to travel freely between many countries, possibly including some of Thailand's South East Asian tourism competitors.

This will raise fundamental questions for the Thai government: Do they allow competing tourism destinations to leave Thailand in the dust, or do they stop ****ing around and accept that fully-vaccinated tourists pose no actual risk.

I think they will. There is a good chance that, for fully-vaccinated visitors, they will hastily revert to the pre-pandemic rules. I would wait for that.