Samui reopening: Few foreign tourists expected but domestic tourists increase

[webfact]

Picture: Channel 7

 

Thai media Channel 7 reported from the Koh Samui airport yesterday saying that more Thai domestic tourists and Thailand based expats were visiting the holiday island ahead of the reopening to foreign tourists on Thursday 15th, called Samui Plus Model.

 

More that is compared to recent months.

 

This follows on from the initial opening of the country to foreign tourists via the Phuket Sandbox that has seen 4,568 arrive in the first 12 days on that island according to other reports on ASEAN Now. 

 

Channel 7 said that not many foreigners were expected in Samui but that the Samui Plus Model was going ahead as planned. 

 

Yesterday incoming visitors to the island were screened and checked if they had come from deep red zones in which case they would have to undergo 14 day quarantine. 

 

Exceptions are people who have had a negative PCR (RT-PCR) within 72 hours, two doses of Sinovac, one of Astra Zeneca and have the required paperwork. 

 

The media called it "Samui Lockdown" ahead of Thursday's reopening in their headline tag. 

 

Koh Phangan and Koh Tao are also joining the reopening plan with large numbers of residents and foreign expats on all three islands now vaccinated against Covid-19. 

 

-- © Copyright ASEAN NOW 2021-07-13

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[huberthammer]

Pls keep the domestic tourists away. They screwed us up badly after the Sonkran holiday invasion and we don't need another round of restrictions now that things have somewhat normalised on the little island...  It is not that the situation in the red zones has gotten better since April.

 

 

[phetphet]

8 minutes ago, huberthammer said:

Pls keep the domestic tourists away. They screwed us up badly after the Sonkran holiday invasion and we don't need another round of restrictions now that things have somewhat normalised on the little island...  It is not that the situation in the red zones has gotten better since April.

 

 

Visitors from red zones and deep red zones. What could possibly go wrong?

[HampiK]

1 hour ago, huberthammer said:

Pls keep the domestic tourists away. They screwed us up badly after the Sonkran holiday invasion and we don't need another round of restrictions now that things have somewhat normalised on the little island...  It is not that the situation in the red zones has gotten better since April.

Mean you not want any tourist anymore in the near future!

Maybe they should check better, that everybody who want to enter is fully vaccinated, but also waited the 14 days after second shot (even AZ take 2-4 months for second shot).

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, huberthammer said:

Pls keep the domestic tourists away. They screwed us up badly after the Sonkran holiday invasion and we don't need another round of restrictions now that things have somewhat normalised on the little island...  It is not that the situation in the red zones has gotten better since April.

 

 

Sorry HH but they have been coming to Samui for a while.

July has seen a larger influx due to the school holidays (July/August).

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Exceptions are people who have had a negative PCR (RT-PCR) within 72 hours, two doses of Sinovac, one of Astra Zeneca and have the required paperwork. 

What could possibly go wrong?

[edogthong]

2 hours ago, HampiK said:

Mean you not want any tourist anymore in the near future!

Yes, that's absolutely fine! No tourists in the near future. I hope they never come back in big numbers. Life is so much more peaceful on the islands now and you get the beaches to yourself. What's not to to love?

[phetphet]

2 hours ago, HampiK said:

Mean you not want any tourist anymore in the near future!

Maybe they should check better, that everybody who want to enter is fully vaccinated, but also waited the 14 days after second shot (even AZ take 2-4 months for second shot).

But even being fully vaccinated doesn't stop you acquiring the virus and passing it on.

At least if they stopped arrivals from red and deep red zones it would vastly lessen the risk. It was already shown a few weeks ago by the infected German couple that it can still get past the current checks.

[Robs5ct]

It's understandable. BKK is in lockdown. People find their way.

On Samui all restaurants are open. You can have glas of wine with your dinner.

Bars, clubs and massage parlours are open - with 1.5 cm distance or less - lol.

What a contrast to the rest of Thailand. 

But we know where this leads to. Sooner or later.  

Kind of self destruction. Amazing TH

[MrJ2U]

Good luck.

 

I envy anyone getting the chance.  Koh Samui is absolutely beautiful!

 

We were there a few months ago and really enjoyed ourselves.

 

You need transportation to enjoy the whole island.

[Caldera]

Domestic tourists, and here I was, thinking that interprovincial travel is "discouraged" at this point...

[BookShe]

23 hours ago, Robs5ct said:

It's understandable. BKK is in lockdown. People find their way.

On Samui all restaurants are open. You can have glas of wine with your dinner.

Bars, clubs and massage parlours are open - with 1.5 cm distance or less - lol.

What a contrast to the rest of Thailand. 

But we know where this leads to. Sooner or later.  

Kind of self destruction. Amazing TH

Everything you write here is kinda true, and yet only a handful of cases here every now and then, and none of them were serious. How is this possible? I have no idea. You might say the lack of testing. Sure they don't test enough to find cases, but the hospitals are empty. You can hide case numbers, but you can't hide people dying on ventilators. I thought that songkran travel will be a flare-up in cases as the island was kinda full. There were 20 flights from Bangkok during sonkran. The result? Less than 10 cases. Back then PCR test was not mandatory to enter the island. In fact, you can still enter the island without PCR test by ferry. I seriously have not the slightest clue how Samui can preventing the infections, since they aren't doing anything special here other than mask mandate and temperature checks.

[huberthammer]

On 7/13/2021 at 5:45 PM, Robs5ct said:

It's understandable. BKK is in lockdown. People find their way.

On Samui all restaurants are open. You can have glas of wine with your dinner.

Bars, clubs and massage parlours are open - with 1.5 cm distance or less - lol.

What a contrast to the rest of Thailand. 

But we know where this leads to. Sooner or later.  

Kind of self destruction. Amazing TH

Bars are open on half the island, it seems the Men in Brown on the other side of the island are playing hard ball and bars in that half are not open.  Strictly speaking as per Surathani rules they should not be open (which is ridiculous)