Sandbox: 50% of foreigners cancel plans to visit Phuket

[gerritkaew]

i'm happy to hear it now and not in July when we fly there..

Now we not going there.   and i'm not going to stay somewhere else for 2 weeks (hotel )...

We just wait,, it chages every day here.....

[Goldpanner]

42 minutes ago, martin81 said:

I do not believe their numbers. How can they know how many have booked or have cancelled. I myself have already booked and cancelled twice in Agoda for Phuket hotel bookings. And I am sure airlines do not give them daily booking numbers for flights to Phuket.

 

They probably just invent their booking numbers. I do not think all Phuket hotels sends them daily booking numbers.

Flight cancellation can easily be tracked via a decent Amadeus lookup

[Kalasin Jo]

Meanwhile in Europe it's sunny, the skies are blue,  and hot now, after a long cheerless winter. Bars, restaurants and venues are open again at last. Why go to Thailand?

[newnative]

   So, those 20 Americans coming in July are now 10.  Tourism will not open up until there is no quarantine and no mandatory, lengthy stays in one area. 

[GrandPapillon]

14 minutes ago, Kalasin Jo said:

Meanwhile in Europe it's sunny, the skies are blue,  and hot now, after a long cheerless winter. Bars, restaurants and venues are open again at last. Why go to Thailand?

indeed, plenty of nice places to go in Europe, Greece, Spain, Italy etc...

 

Thailand is not going to get any tourists before October, if they do it right that is ????

[Bedfont]

What a bleedin' cock-up.

 

This government couldn't organize a <deleted> up in a brewery.

[NeoDinosaw]

1 hour ago, Scott Tracy said:

I take it that when they say the British Navy, they mean the Royal Navy. Shore leave for 14 days in Phuket? Is this what I continue to pay taxes for?

I pay taxes too.  It's up to the sailors where they take their leave. If they have been working very hard sailing around the Indian Ocean or the East Sea of Vietnam they will be due some shore leave too. I do not think that they will complain if the Captain dumps them at Phuket for a while.  Assuming the R&R facilities are all functioning.  I remember during the Vietnam war a US carrier came to Pattaya to allow the sailors to have some R& R.  Photos were circulating of hundreds of ladies lined up along the beach  bending-over to  expose their  back-sides which bore an invitation for the sailors to come and "**** me" .   As soon as all those American military left Thailand at the end of 1973,  prostitution ceased in Thailand !

[andy3000]

It will grow to 80-90% cancellations.The decision- makers could simply do a survey in the key target countries- Russia, the UK, Germany, Israel etc - and save everyone this letdown. People will NOT come if restricted to 2 weeks in Phuket.Tourists similarly will stay away if you force them into 7 days of quarantine in hotels in Pattaya at ripoff rates, come October. It ain't gonna work!!

You are destroying the prospects of reviving the Thai tourism industry, and huge numbers of locals will not get their livelihoods back.

[McGregor21]

5 hours ago, khunPer said:

The article says "...29,700 foreigners have now cancelled plans to visit Phuket."

 

Yes I saw that, any idea what the figure is for total bookings made?.

 

So the " over 50% "..which is political spin for the media...can actually be quantified. 

[khunPer]

2 minutes ago, McGregor21 said:

Yes I saw that, any idea what the figure is for total bookings made?.

It says "...29,700 foreigners have now cancelled plans to visit Phuket", so total must be 59.400, I presume...????

[the green light]

7 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Still time for the other 50% to cancel, 

 

As of today, the Embassy has not received any official guidelines regarding the Phuket Sand Box due to an ongoing situation in Thailand. Thus, the regulation at this time would be quarantine for 14 days.
If you plan to travel to Phuket in July, please check back on the Embassy’s website regularly.

 

https://thaiembdc.org/visas/ 

From the Thai embassy website, the requirement to travel to Thailand is still the same

14days quarantine -cost to be Bht50,000

purchase insurance - cost =Bht20,000

submit the COE document.

For Phuket, you wont be in the room for 14 days.

 

No bars and few restaurant opened.. how can it be considered a vacation. in Phuket.?

Unfortunately, Until the quarantine is removed, things will not go back to normal.

[kynikoi]

Sorry, just came here to laugh at the cheerleaders....

[MoversandShakers]

There were no plans.

Keep kidding yourself and after a while you start believing it.

[kynikoi]

12 minutes ago, the green light said:

From the Thai embassy website, the requirement to travel to Thailand is still the same

14days quarantine -cost to be Bht50,000

purchase insurance - cost =Bht20,000

submit the COE document.

For Phuket, you wont be in the room for 14 days.

 

No bars and few restaurant opened.. how can it be considered a vacation. in Phuket.?

Unfortunately, Until the quarantine is removed, things will not go back to normal.

 

Weeks ago I stated exactly this. They're always going to be too many hurdles - one the embassies and the other the airports. The ticketing agents are only going to have some requirement about visiting Thailand. They won't have any detailed information that allows Phuket to circumvent the national policy. That's just way too advanced for Thailand to navigate.

 

Further, I would expect that the national government is really sabotaging this. They are being forced into allowing this and it is obviously so begrudgingly.

Edited June 14, 2021 by kynikoi

[MrJ2U]

"29,700 foreigners have now cancelled plans to visit Phuket."

 

Good thing.  Theres not that many hotels open to accommodate that many people.

[ricardofel]

It never ends!!!! You know what I mean?

[Tony125]

3 hours ago, retsdon said:

Whereabouts were these tourists supposed to be coming from? 

There was a poll in USA  that showed  that after being loocked down for a year  people are looking to travel.  Many who worked from home were not affected economically especially with the extra stimulus checks.  But after being fully vaccinated they are not going anywhere to be put in a quaranteen.  There is no waiting for  any shot you want ,can go into any major pharmacies and get shot . You don't have to be a citizen ,some shots are given at airports to tourists passing thru. They also not going anywhere with all bars, clubs, entertainment and many restaurants closed or only take out.

[thailand49]

Sandbox more like Quicksand!  Stop all the nonsense ideas or dreams and just open up completely you got vaccinated " Come on in " no C.O.E. no insurance, no quarantine. ????

[ChipButty]

Back in my day if No Ship then it's Hardship

[albegood]

I am surprised there hasn't been an uprising?

 

[Bundooman]

Quote: 'The island is pinning its hopes that the Sandbox project will 'resuricate' the local economy, which is so heavily dependent on tourism and which has been left decimated due to the pandemic'. 

 

Any ideas? do you think they meant 'Resurrect' or 'resuscitate' or is Thailand about to become the hub of new 'English'?

I have to admit, I don't know this word, 'resuricate' - do you?

 

 

[ChipButty]

1 minute ago, albegood said:

I am surprised there hasn't been an uprising?

 

Start one if you want

[DigitalCryminal]

So many countries open and with clubs and bars. In EU, USA, Africa. Only 1 PCR required to enter and u free to go around.

 

Afrika not even vaxxed lol They don't want it.

 

Friend now went from Tanzania to Kenya then Malawi. No masks clubs open, party going on, no one dies. Wake up

 

Why would anyone come Phuket?

Edited June 14, 2021 by DigitalCryminal

[nattaya09]

Has Anutin been told that he hasn't done enough to protect foreign tourists from infection by Thais

[Cadan]

What a surprise. OMG. What else to suspect 

[Bluedan]

I drove through Patong today, its still a ghost town but now some of the massage girls (and LB) are back 

and I have heard that their numbers are swelling on tinder ????

[ChrisKC]

11 minutes ago, Bluedan said:

I drove through Patong today, its still a ghost town but now some of the massage girls (and LB) are back 

and I have heard that their numbers are swelling on tinder ????

 

11 minutes ago, Bluedan said:

I drove through Patong today, its still a ghost town but now some of the massage girls (and LB) are back 

and I have heard that their numbers are swelling on tinder ????

Not to mention 50% tourists less 'swelling' chances also!

[BestB]

Just read headline again, so 50% have already cancelled and another 50% have not heard of the changes yet, but will be cancelling shortly????

[Taboo2]

Of course I would spend a ton of money to come to an island and be locked in the secure housing unit.

[sirineou]

14 years of coming to Thailand and I have never been to Phuket .I have been to Krabi a couple of times but never to Phuket.

If you cant go on excursions to near by places like Pi Pi island, and if the bars are closed, What's there to do in Phuket for 14 days?  I can see 7 days. but 14 ? 

I can see why people are canceling.