Thai tourism set for sluggish reboot as Phuket stutters on 'sandbox'

[brucegoniners]

So what you're telling me is that people refuse to travel when they don't know the rules and are afraid all the rules will be changed again tomorrow?

 

I just can't imagine!

[Cake Monster]

5 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

 

Without that market, Phuket would be lovely.  Mass tourism is ruining this great country.

just need to change " Ruining " to Ruined.

[zzzzz]

5 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

 

Without that market, Phuket would be lovely.  Mass tourism is ruining this great country.

well than , come to phuket an experience the island , ????
its wonderful without the Chinese, Russians, & Aussies  
Plus an added bonus

no traffic


 

[zzzzz]

sorry internet problems

 

[zzzzz]

dup


 

[zzzzz]

dup

 

[outsider]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand's planned reopening of the resort island Phuket next month to vaccinated visitors, bypassing quarantine requirements...

@Reuters - The whole sandpit malarkey IS a quarantine in itself! It's just done on an island, instead of in a hotel room. Fourteen days on the island (vs in a hotel room) before you can go elsewhere, various rounds of tests, GPS-enabled trackers (not to mention the potential for yet another major leak of personal data afterwards) and god knows what other hoops and barriers the government of the day will put in place between now and tomorrow. Essentially, they've just turned Phuket into a large quarantine centre, that is all. Then there is the mandatory quarantine back in the visitors' home countries to think about...

 

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

... removal of the costly, two-week quarantine requirements that deterred tourists for more than a year offers some hope.

Taking everything into consideration, having your quarantine on an island is way costlier than in a hotel room!

 

 

[natway09]

Crazy, Thai Airways ha just got a reprieve from the courts & start direct long haul flights 

with loadings in single %, ......The Government (who is no longer a majority shareholder)

has directed this ? Lamb to the slaughter again

[commie]

Turkey, Egypt, Cuba, Maldives Seychelles are all open and many of them are way cheaper than a trip to land of scams with all these crazy restrictions. Who the hell Thais think they are, center of the Universe?

[dallen52]

Phuket is off and running..

Hardly...

 

 

[terryofcrete]

12 hours ago, smedly said:

20% - how may hotels ................................10 ?

 

 

if I went to the trouble of getting vaccinated in my home country I would demand a little respect from a country that has totally made a mess of their so called vaccine rollout - you want to test me track me ##### me over and charge me for it ...............no thanks 

 

Think again 

 

stupid people 

Nailed it for me ! Don't attempt to tell me to jump though these hoops if I am fully vaccinated. Stick your Sandbox Where the sun don't shine. 

[sead]

18 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Bookings is not the same as people arriving 

I guess it's 20% ASQ bookings. So 140 hotels calculated lol. 

[ThailandRyan]

53 minutes ago, outsider said:

@Reuters - The whole sandpit malarkey IS a quarantine in itself! It's just done on an island, instead of in a hotel room. Fourteen days on the island (vs in a hotel room) before you can go elsewhere, various rounds of tests, GPS-enabled trackers (not to mention the potential for yet another major leak of personal data afterwards) and god knows what other hoops and barriers the government of the day will put in place between now and tomorrow. Essentially, they've just turned Phuket into a large quarantine centre, that is all. Then there is the mandatory quarantine back in the visitors' home countries to think about...

 

Taking everything into consideration, having your quarantine on an island is way costlier than in a hotel room!

 

 

This I concur with.

[Uroller]

Faulty Towers comes to mind when I read the garbage from the “leaders” in government???????????? Won’t be going to the land of idiot politicians any time soon????????

[superal]

7 hours ago, Dene16 said:

 

It has generally been excepted around the world that the virus is here to stay , in some form or another,

 thus we need to learn to  manage the situation rather than eradicate the virus.

Thailand needs to revive its tourism industry, the fact that Phuket is its tourist hub is immaterial as the more people that arrive the more people will naturally traverse to Phuket. 

Apparently they are worried about the delta variant (already well established in Thailand) amongst others entering the country.  Variants have not always entered the country from abroad but have just mutated sooner in other countries than others.

If all tourists are in inoculated and tested negative before entry they are a thousand times more at risk from the local population than Thailand is from them.

Under the above conditions there is absolutely no need for Quarantine and until Thailand realises this Tourism is never going to fully return.

 

Agree that those with double jabs should be able to global travel , however their country of departure has to quash quarantine on return and not all of the current vaccines offer a defence against the Delta virus e.g.sinovac . Also pcr certs are being forged , so the alternative may be a new saliva test that is being developed and gives results in a couple of minutes .

[robsamui]

8 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

Anything that keeps those rude, dirty, selfish Chinese away from Phuket is fine by me.

Racist? Maybe.

From long observation? Definitely.

Depressing to say, but totally agreed. The only time I've ever seen anyone use a bucket and mop on a  restaurant table was after such a family had finished. What couldn't be chewed and swallowed was simply spat onto the table or the floor.

[KarenBravo]

Buffet in Thailand:-

 

 

 

[superal]

6 minutes ago, robsamui said:

Depressing to say, but totally agreed. The only time I've ever seen anyone use a bucket and mop on a  restaurant table was after a Chinese family had finished.

A floor mop to clean the tables ? one can only imagine what hygiene care there is in the kitchen .

[robsamui]

4 minutes ago, superal said:

A floor mop to clean the tables ? one can only imagine what hygiene care there is in the kitchen .

Actually it was very clean in the kitchen - the floor mop wasn't needed there; you've completely missed the point! It was needed out where the animals were, much the same situation as in a zoo!

 

[Kalasin Jo]

Sluggish????? Moribund.

[KarenBravo]

22 minutes ago, superal said:

A floor mop to clean the tables ? one can only imagine what hygiene care there is in the kitchen .

 

Huh? Are you suggesting not using mops on kitchen floors? Thought mopping floors in kitchens was an aid to good hygiene.........

[Chill27]

9 hours ago, jesimps said:

Guarantee that 20% are farang long-stay visa holders returning to their homes and families via Phuket. It's a better option than a quarantine hotel in Bangkok.

Unless something changes, Thai Nationals, Diplomats and Expats, are excluded from using the scheme. It's only for Foreign Tourist's.

I'm on a retirement visa, my girlfriend Thai and we are trying to return from the UK. We were hoping to use the Sandbox, but are not allowed to, unless something changes at the meeting next week.

[the green light]

what do you expect?  Many farangs said "I told you so"

 

the Phuket sandbox has still a 14 days forced quarantine on the island. vs being quarantine in a room in Bangkok.

 

Phuket hotels are not cheap. It ads a lot of money. for the regular tourist to be forced to spend a lot of cash in one place.

 

the Phuket sandbox works well for people who are returning to their home in Phuket. They are living in Thailand ,Of course at an additional cost of roughly

Baht 50k

 

For the normal tourist, there is no value added to visit Thailand for the way it is structured.

 

[the green light]

23 hours ago, billd766 said:

<snip quote "

For its part, Phuket has been racing to vaccinate 70% of its residents - a requirement for reopening - with 60% having received a first dose so far, a rate far higher than capital Bangkok, epicentre of Thailand's worst outbreak yet. Phuket has recorded single digit cases most days since May, when it introduced negative test requirements for domestic arrivals. Bangkok, in contrast, recorded hundreds of new cases each day last month." snip>

 

Of Course Phuket has inoculated more people than Bangkok and of course Bangkok, in contrast, recorded hundreds of new cases each day last month.

 

All you need to do is to look at the size of the populations and the area that both Phuket and Bangkok cover.

one dosage of vaccines is not enough to get full protection. Without the 2nd dosage at 4 month apart, there is possibility that the virus will flair up for those of one dosage vaccination.

Looking at  Seychelles islands, they were fully vaccinated with SInovac. Recently the virus has flared up..  It will be safer when the 2nd dosage is implemented.

 

 

 

[superal]

2 hours ago, KarenBravo said:

 

Huh? Are you suggesting not using mops on kitchen floors? Thought mopping floors in kitchens was an aid to good hygiene.........

Mops are for floors only ( including kitchen floors ), not tables . My lady has a 50 seater restaurant and the tables and chairs are cleaned with hand applied sanitizer after each change of diner and the floors mopped daily . The photo shows a floor mop and no sanitizer and behind the lady a broken floor tile . The entire kitchen ( 20 x 5 meters ) is cleaned at the end of each working day . 

[the green light]

Due to this pandemic , I think that Hotel association and TAT services need to understand that the tourism game has changed. It is not about Chinese, Indian ,of Europeans or how many  and when. Those days are over and can't be recovered.

 

They need to come up with a good plan to lure tourism back with no hassle, and understand that there are competitive countries. They are beautiful beaches all over the world. So Why is Thailand so special and what attracts tourism to Thailand? is It the only jewel that the whole world need to see?

 

If the country safety is important and If the government does not have faith that the fully vaccinated tourism are safe and can enter the country with no quarantine, then international arrivals should be all stopped for now.

 

To open the country and make it difficult for the tourists, it is  sending not a positive image about visiting the country, considering that these tourists will have more hassle returning to their own country  with their own quarantine.

 

i really do not know how this plan will help Phuket gets on its feet.

 

 

 

 

 

[the green light]

I like this statement 

"if the Sandbox scheme goes smoothly, authorities plan to replicate it "

 

Reading all the feedback on this scheme, It will not go smoothly . It may benefit some people ( foreign or Thai) who are returning to their properties on the island and it will attract few of the hundred of them . It may make  a dent to the tally chart of arrivals to declare the success of the sandbox. 

 

But  the tourism masses will not be motivated to come to Thailand on holidays now.  The main reason the forced quarantine on both end.. Tourists have a limited time and money when they go on vacation. 

 

 

[the green light]

16 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

 

So "expected 20% occupancy". How many hotels will actually be open to receive foreign guests on this scheme? I suggest it is not 20% occupancy of total hotel rooms on the island of Phuket. "lies damn lies and statistics" is a comment that springs to mind.

 

 

wrong word ?bypassing quarantine"

you have same quarantine ajust like bangkok outside your room.. forced to buy a 15 days at a 5-star hotel and you can't leave the island , you are tracked, tested  just like bangkok

 

so what is so great? i don't know

[the green light]

Just now, the green light said:

wrong word ?bypassing quarantine"

you have same quarantine just like Bangkok outside your room.. forced to buy a 15 days at a 5-star hotel and you can't leave the island , you are tracked, tested  just like Bangkok

 

so what is so great? i don't know

 

[the green light]

11 hours ago, jesimps said:

Guarantee that 20% are farang long-stay visa holders returning to their homes and families via Phuket. It's a better option than a quarantine hotel in Bangkok.

 

Great ....The plan works well for the returnees planning to stay long time in Thailand.

they will be few of them.

 

The idea of this plan is for the tourism masses to come to Thailand.. that will not happened