Reopening of Phuket and Surat Thani to foreign tourists confirmed for July

[khunpeer]

3 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

Just wonder what kind of excuse they will have at the end of July. Surat Thani? Who ever goes there?

Suratthani is the province, same as Phuket! in Surat is also Samui, Phangan and Tao! I guess Samui is the 'target'!

[Boedog]

13 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

Wow. I have just picked a random hotel from the "Phuket Sandbox Hotels" link above:

The Vijitt Resort Hotel - from 63,000 baht for 14 nights = 4,500 baht per night.

On Agoda and I can book the same place for 14 nights for 23,253 baht (including taxes and service fees).

Not a great deal is it?

39,747baht  gets put into a brown envelope for taxes

[bolt]

2 hours ago, saminoz said:

"Incoming tourists will be required to present their Certification of Entry (CoE) to Thailand, register themselves through www.entrythailand.go.th, and install the “Thailand Plus” and other local apps (in the case of Phuket the “Mor Chana” app) upon arrival, so that their locations can be tracked.""

On top of this, pay almost 3 times the market rate for the privilege!

Sounds like a Thai donkey politician's idea of a dream holiday (for faraangs, not themselves!).

What a bunch of f*cking morons.

can you explain "On top of this, pay almost 3 times the market rate for the privilege!"

3 times for what ????? COE or downloading free Apps???????

[Eloquent pilgrim]

I have just read the article, and the original article, and I cannot see any mention of Covid medical insurance. Does anyone know if such insurance is still compulsory on arrival in Thailand, as I believe it was previously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Nanaplaza666]

13 minutes ago, Boedog said:

39,747baht  gets put into a brown envelope for taxes

That 39,747baht is for the hotel people can book for $1 wich the government said they would pay the rest of the price from . It's all thought out already . The people owning the $1 hotels are probably the same as the overpriced once so this way they think they can get back their loss . The only thing they forgot is that probably no tourist will come.

[Nanaplaza666]

5 minutes ago, bolt said:

can you explain "On top of this, pay almost 3 times the market rate for the privilege!"

3 times for what ????? COE or downloading free Apps???????

That 39,747baht is for the hotel people can book for $1 wich the government said they would pay the rest of the price from . It's all thought out already . The people owning the $1 hotels are probably the same as the overpriced once so this way they think they can get back their loss . The only thing they forgot is that probably no tourist will come

[Seeall]

10 hours ago, jethro69 said:

I didn't look into it, but did not expect anything else.

 

3 x the price.....   lol

[bolt]

5 minutes ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

That 39,747baht is for the hotel people can book for $1 wich the government said they would pay the rest of the price from . It's all thought out already . The people owning the $1 hotels are probably the same as the overpriced once so this way they think they can get back their loss . The only thing they forgot is that probably no tourist will come

your complaining about a 3rd party website, <deleted> 

here are prices from AGODA (other 3rd party websites are availible)

[IamNoone88]

I see very little activity to re-open the deserted and abandoned shops in Patong and even Junceylon remains closed after they moved every shop operator out a few months ago. To me, this is the biggest indicator of lack of faith, when the major shopping mall decides to close doors with no published date to be fully operational again. This is a global problem and not a Phuket problem. Until every-one is safe, simply put no-one (at risk) is safe - globally.

[Jonathan Swift]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Wonder if I can better odds on the second coming of Jesus that this crazy hoop filled 'holiday' being taken up by 146,000 foreign tourists ?  

 

(It's OK, I can bet , I stuck in uk !)

Jesus will have to quarantine 14 days and pay 3500 baht for a Covid test

[ricardofel]

Thank God I left 8 years ago!!!!! The incompetence of the ministers is beyond......anything I can imagine??????? It never ends and changes daily/weekly. Reality does not exist for the Thai government.

[Jonathan Swift]

3 hours ago, Crusader said:

If and when places do re-open, it would be great if the businesses just accept what has gone and do the right thing. Unfortunately, it is likely that many will be adding a few extra baht to prices to try and make up for losses.  I am sure those who keep the prices right will do better for themselves (no one enjoys getting ripped off - regardless of the situation which brought the inflated prices about). 

Raising prices to offset losses is simply against the laws of economics. The law is that of supply and demand. If you raise prices when demand is falling you will soon have much less or nothing. What you are describing is a myth, very likely a misinterpretation of the facts. The last thing you said is the truth of the matter - the ones with the most attractive prices will do better than their competitors, and those who can't or won't compete will disappear.

[madmen]

4 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

Just wonder what kind of excuse they will have at the end of July. Surat Thani? Who ever goes there?

That's the town where the ferry launches into Samui its also the airport. Could be wrong 

[the green light]

just did not understand this excitement.

 

tit is fun to enjoy people paying a lot of money for nothing.  why the hurry to come right away. There are no girls at the bar yet.

 

 

 

 

 

[Percy P]

1 hour ago, LUCKYDOG123 said:

just took a look at some of the hotels .... 100% deposit ???? sure i will just donate the whole amount now so when they change it again , lol . i guess will skip those if i do decide to book in the future .

I wouldn't pay 100% deposit in a hotel  . You won't get your deposit back of you decide the hotel isn't up to standard to what you've paid . I pay delay. 

[thaibeachlovers]

20 minutes ago, Jonathan Swift said:

Raising prices to offset losses is simply against the laws of economics. The law is that of supply and demand. If you raise prices when demand is falling you will soon have much less or nothing. What you are describing is a myth, very likely a misinterpretation of the facts. The last thing you said is the truth of the matter - the ones with the most attractive prices will do better than their competitors, and those who can't or won't compete will disappear.

You are using logic. Logic does not figure much when considering prices in LOS, in my experience.

[thaibeachlovers]

16 minutes ago, the green light said:

just did not understand this excitement.

 

tit is fun to enjoy people paying a lot of money for nothing.  why the hurry to come right away. There are no girls at the bar yet.

 

 

 

 

 

I lived in Chiang Mai for a year and rarely visited the bars ( there were girls there then ). I certainly never took one out of the bar.

 

However, back when I was a tourist if there were no bar girls I would not have gone to LOS. I cancelled my trip to the Philippines when the mayor closed the Makati bars.

 

Soooo, it would depend on whether I was a tourist or an expat as to whether bar girls made a difference.

[BRUFC]

4 hours ago, Moonfire said:

Daily cases of Covid increasing. 

 

Doctors are going on the record against opening and continued lockdown.

 

The India killer Delta variant Covid has been found in Thailand:

The variant, first identified in India, is the most contagious yet and, among those not yet vaccinated, may trigger serious illness in more people than other variants do, say scientists tracking the spread of infection.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40002327

The fast-spreading Delta variant will become the dominant strain of Covid-19 in Thailand within four months, a leading virologist warned on Tuesday.

 

Thailand is about to open up.

 

The perfect storm! 

 

 

 

 

UK Govt stats appear to disagree with what the 'scientists tracking the spread of the infection' say MAY happen.
 

 

[Ganesh108]

5 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

Just wonder what kind of excuse they will have at the end of July. Surat Thani? Who ever goes there?

I'm sure they mean Surat Thani province, which includes Ko Samui.

[dkg224]

Not that any tourists are gonna come. But their is a glaring shortsight on the Surat Thani route.

The “tourists” will only be allowed to visit places that are SHA+ certified. So another wonderful idea with your tracking tag to make sure you only visit approved establishments. 
 

The bigger problem is to get the SHA+ you need to register with pictures of your sanitation cleaning station for guests, temperature check, employees all wearing masks and all staff 100% vaccinated. 
well majority of places open here are Owned by foreigners and almost all working staff are Burmese.  They have only just started vaccinated some Thais here, no foreigners or Burmese workers have been vaccinated nor does it look anytime soon. 
So next week the “tourists” would have about 1-2 choices to stay and a few street stall Thai food places to eat at.  

[WingFat]

I almost want to give a "Zieg Heil" salute to the totalitarian "Phuket Sandbox" creators. Control freak nonsense at its best.

[Aajan]

So, nomatter how they spin it, it is still 14 days quarantine but just on a wider scale (an island) and the cherry on the top is no bars or clubs open, oil sticks on the beaches and if you are really lucky you will be tested positive for covid ????????

[NoBrains]

No word about the procedure when you vacinated.   I have a vacination pasport, I got pfizer shots.

[janvranckx]

6 hours ago, Moonfire said:

Daily cases of Covid increasing. 

 

Doctors are going on the record against opening and continued lockdown.

 

The India killer Delta variant Covid has been found in Thailand:

The variant, first identified in India, is the most contagious yet and, among those not yet vaccinated, may trigger serious illness in more people than other variants do, say scientists tracking the spread of infection.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40002327

The fast-spreading Delta variant will become the dominant strain of Covid-19 in Thailand within four months, a leading virologist warned on Tuesday.

 

Thailand is about to open up.

 

The perfect storm! 

 

 

 

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective-against-hospitalisation-from-delta-variant

 

[fleccer]

Let's relax we are only at delta, then will be: epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, end so on .. up to omega. They still have the whole Greek alphabet with which to indulge themselves

[Gulfsailor]

33 minutes ago, dkg224 said:

Not that any tourists are gonna come. But their is a glaring shortsight on the Surat Thani route.

The “tourists” will only be allowed to visit places that are SHA+ certified. So another wonderful idea with your tracking tag to make sure you only visit approved establishments. 
 

The bigger problem is to get the SHA+ you need to register with pictures of your sanitation cleaning station for guests, temperature check, employees all wearing masks and all staff 100% vaccinated. 
well majority of places open here are Owned by foreigners and almost all working staff are Burmese.  They have only just started vaccinated some Thais here, no foreigners or Burmese workers have been vaccinated nor does it look anytime soon. 
So next week the “tourists” would have about 1-2 choices to stay and a few street stall Thai food places to eat at.  

That’s not completely true. Yes, there certainly are foreigners and migrant workers still waiting to be vaccinated on Samui, but any (slightly tourism related) business had the opportunity to have its staff vaccinated in April already, including foreigners and migrant workers. When I had my first jab done early April there were approx 200 western foreigners/expats and at least 300 migrant workers. Even before then, companies that are a member of TAKS had the chance to have their foreign staff vaccinated alongside the Thai local population.  

[bstafford214]

Simply stupid. This government needs more people vaccinated, including us foreigners.

 

The saga will continue even longer and they seem to not care!

[bstafford214]

2 hours ago, Boedog said:

39,747baht  gets put into a brown envelope for taxes

5555,  they are hoping you will not find out!

[stevenl]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

IMO no tourist calls the place Surathani province. They all refer to Samui, Phangan or Tao. The town is what people refer to when they say Surat Thani. I've passed through the town many times and that's as close as I wanted to get to it.

How nice and totally irrelevant. The rules apply to the province.

[stevenl]

4 minutes ago, bstafford214 said:

Simply stupid. This government needs more people vaccinated, including us foreigners.

 

The saga will continue even longer and they seem to not care!

And many are already vaccinated and getting vaccinated. Remember this is for Phuket we're talking.