File photo: Sigal Baram, 54, a tourist from Israel, enjoys in a swimming pool as Phuket reopens to overseas tourists, allowing foreigners fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to visit the resort island without quarantine, in Phuket, Thailand July, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

 

PM's office secretary Thanakorn Wangbunkhongchana in his capacity as spokesman for the Center for Economic Situation Management for Covid-19 said yesterday that it was so far so good for the Phuket Sandbox.

 

The much heralded reopening to foreign tourists scheme has now nearly been going a month after it began with a red carpet to the first arrivals on July 1st.

 

In that time there has been nearly 10,000 tourists, said Thanakorn. 

 

Top of the list has been Americans followed by British, Israelis, Germans and French tourists. 

 

Their average stay has been 11 nights and the average spend per trip is 70,000 baht. They have been spending about 5,500 baht each per day on accommodation, swabs, food and drink and transport.

 

In total they have contributed 534.31 million baht to the economy.

 

"Tourists have been impressed by the courtesy of Phuket folk," said Thanakorn. 

 

"Many plan to go to Chiang Mai and Bangkok next". 

 

(The Thai media made no attempt to question him on this as travel to such places at the moment is highly problematic, notes ASEAN NOW).

 

He said that many of the tourists would be making repeat visits with their families. They were most impressed by the arrangements at the airport and transport from there.

 

He stressed that the sandbox was just a test for high season later in the year but it was so far so good with both the opening and safety objectives of the government fulfilled.

 

From August 1st he expects the plan to be expanded to "island hopping" with Krabi islands Phi Phi and Koh Hong coming onboard along with the Railey beach area. 

 

With areas of Phangnga also being able to be visited the plan is to have tourists stay on Phuket for 7 days then go elsewhere in the area for another 7 - the 7+7 sealed route model.

 

Samui and other islands in Surat Thani are also onboard now. 

 

Meanwhile for the wider picture of how much tourism money will be generated this year, Thanakorn resorted to quoting Tourism Authority of Thailand figures.

 

He said that by the end of the year they expect tourism to have brought in 850 BILLION baht.

 

This would be 300 billion from foreign tourists and 550 billion from domestic Thai tourists, he noted. 

 

Of course the Thai tourism authorities expect high season to be an entirely different matter when compared to the sandbox, notes ASEAN NOW. 

 

Nonetheless if the half a billion generated so far were to be extrapolated it would mean 3 billion in spending by the end of December not 850 billion. 

 

Consequently the TAT can probably expect a few raised eyebrows from Thai watchers especially those online who have ridiculed their figures and projections in the past few months. 

 

Especially with the pandemic raging in many parts of Thailand at the moment. 

 

You may find a full directory of the SHA Plus+ Phuket Sandbox hotels here

 

 

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I,m saying BS to this.....

what a whole pile of nonsense 

 

at least 50% are not tourists 

 

how many foreigners have left Thailand since the start of May 

 

how many living here are now spending a fraction of what they would normally because of lockdown and closures 

 

offset these claimed figures with the above and Thailand is in foreign negative equity and will continue to decline for months 

 

This is the result of poor management of vaccine procurement and deployment setting Thailand back at least 12 months from the rest of the developed world 

 

To sum up - it is not a prety picture with the virus spreading far and wide across the country

 

To try and paint Phucket as some sort of success amongst a severely deteriorating situation across the whole country - is shameful and delusional

But the doomers here said it was failing, nobody was coming, it was turning into the zombie apocalypse.  Island of Dr. Moreau etc.  How could this be?  Is it possible the doomers are talking our of their spincters?

Where do they get these figures, do they follow each one of them around and calculate what they purchased/spent.

 

8 minutes ago, petermik said:

I,m saying BS to this.....

Well that settles it.  You doomers are never wrong.  ????

2 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Where do they get these figures, do they follow each one of them around and calculate what they purchase/spent.

 

Where do you get yours? If you had any.

4 minutes ago, smedly said:

how many living here are now spending a fraction of what they would normally because of lockdown and closures 

Um, not wanting to go against the trend, but my spending is up, if you exclude domestic travel to nice hotels as the wife refuses to travel with the kids during this pandemic, yep, that's a bummer for me as prices are so so so low, I mean would you stay at a 5 star like the Hilton for 2,000 baht a night with breakfast included.........YES YES YES ! ! !

 

So to compensate, we are enjoying finer foods and finer red wines because who knows how we are going to come of this pandemic under this regimes incompetence.

 

4 minutes ago, shdmn said:

Where do you get yours? If you had any.

Go and get your coffee, learn to be nice and then go and play in the traffic.

I have a mate currently in the sandbox. He does not live full time in Thailand but does have a wife and property here so he is definitely not a standard 'tourist' I would guess he would be typical of many there at the moment.

The TAT calculator strikes again. None of the figures add up, even the basic ones.

 

On another point, a friend was playing beach volleyball with a group of younger Swedes yesterday: Sandbox tourist who've been here for ten days. They'd intended staying much longer but have already changed their flights to go home earlier as there's nothing to do away from the beach: no bars, no clubs, few restaurants.

 

 

As long as they are spending .who cares?we're they from  The gloomers must wake up in bad mood and increases as day goes on I said it b4 they should hv site for themselves ..a dig a bigger hole for themselves 

Well glad to read the good news over 10000 tourists in Phuket 

Spending their money with more Tourists to come keeping the local economy  ticking over restaurants hotels ect 

I am sure the rest of the Country is pleased for the people of Phuket 

Getting on with their lives and now working for a living 

 

"Their average stay has been 11 nights and the average spend per trip is 70,000 baht. They have been spending about 5,500 baht each per day on accommodation, swabs, food and drink and transport." 

 

These numbers show how expensive Phuket must be. There are for sure cheaper holiday destinations.

58 minutes ago, webfact said:

Their average stay has been 11 nights

I thought you had to spend 14 nights on the Island before being allowed out?

17 minutes ago, Greenwich Boy said:

I have a mate currently in the sandbox. He does not live full time in Thailand but does have a wife and property here so he is definitely not a standard 'tourist' I would guess he would be typical of many there at the moment.

If you filter out the returning Thais, and you filter out the foreigners who have spent time in Thailand in the past and have wives/girlfriends/own a house/condo or a car or have stuff in storage, and you filter out the people who were invited because they are business people/tourism people/journalists. I really wonder how many are left that are bona fide tourists who have just come for a relaxing 2-3 week holiday chilling under the coconut trees with a bottle of Singha and a tom yum gung?

This gets more ridiculous by the day... really..... Brits are coming from the UK even though Thailand currently on amber list (soon to be red)!!?? And quote "that many of the tourists would be making repeat visits with their families." Why do they persist with this BS rhetoric. And talk about opening islands to allow island hopping.... all this BS whilst in the backgorund covid is raging.

 

This govt is causing untold damage to Thailand's reputation. Not only do they deceive Thai's with this rubbish but they are purposely deceiving the rest of the world by trying to entice tourists by tricking them into believing Thailand is safe. When the rest of the world catches on - there will be no-one coming for quite some time.

is today  a public holiday in thailand? and tomorrow too? and after tomorrow?

1 hour ago, webfact said:

swabs,

That's what must be padding the bill....the Covid swabs three times a day....

49 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Um, not wanting to go against the trend, but my spending is up, if you exclude domestic travel to nice hotels as the wife refuses to travel with the kids during this pandemic, yep, that's a bummer for me as prices are so so so low, I mean would you stay at a 5 star like the Hilton for 2,000 baht a night with breakfast included.........YES YES YES ! ! !

 

So to compensate, we are enjoying finer foods and finer red wines because who knows how we are going to come of this pandemic under this regimes incompetence.

 

It took me some time but I taught my Wife to feed herself!!????

33 minutes ago, madmitch said:

They'd intended staying much longer but have already changed their flights to go home earlier as there's nothing to do away from the beach: no bars, no clubs, few restaurants.

I was thinking exactly that.  What is it all of these supposed "tourists" are doing?  The majority probably are not tourist but returning expats, so they are just marking time until they can travel back to their Thai residences.
But like the Swedish gals, what younger tourist wants to come to a place where there are no clubs, bars, limited restaurants. limited entertainment, your encouraged not to gather and converse, and you are under constant monitoring by the morality police. It I wanted a vacation like that I'd find myself a nice beach in a strict Islamic country.  It couldn't be much worse, and actually may be better.
My guess that for younger tourists this has got to be about the most boring place on Earth right now.  Personally I'd be more interested in a vacation to Sweden.

Now Phuket becomes the biggest ASQ facility in the world.  Heck, even the Thai Olympic team and inbound from Tokyo. The spin of short term "tourism" is just rubbish.

 

Meanwhile..domestic cases in Phuket are on the rise. More activity, more contagions and a population vaccinated largely with Sinovac.

 

Too big to fail, but where does it end up?

22 minutes ago, grain said:

If you filter out the returning Thais, and you filter out the foreigners who have spent time in Thailand in the past and have wives/girlfriends/own a house/condo or a car or have stuff in storage, and you filter out the people who were invited because they are business people/tourism people/journalists. I really wonder how many are left that are bona fide tourists who have just come for a relaxing 2-3 week holiday chilling under the coconut trees with a bottle of Singha and a tom yum gung?

The couple of families from Israel that they keep posting picture of in the news who must be non-drinkers as "chilling under the coconut trees with a bottle of Singha" will get you arrested, paraded in front of Thai TV, and deported unless you perform a multitude of high-wai, grovel, and admit that you're lower than dirt on a Thai's shoe and you profusely apologize for consuming a beer as to do so will create a regional pandemic as you personally destroy Thailand's image and health services, and what you really want to do is go back to building sand castles and maybe visits some temples and give the monks tambun. 

And exactly what made this possible? Oh yeah - VACCINATIONS!

34 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

"Their average stay has been 11 nights and the average spend per trip is 70,000 baht. They have been spending about 5,500 baht each per day on accommodation, swabs, food and drink and transport." 

 

These numbers show how expensive Phuket must be. There are for sure cheaper holiday destinations.

5,500 baht a day all in ,in  English that would be 120 GBP ,I would say it would be difficult to finding  any cheaper, that is for one person , for a couple it  would not be a lot more .

Unless it is a flea pit, and you eat one bowl of rice a day .

Normaly  when you go on holiday you go to enjoy your self ,not the above. 

21 minutes ago, connda said:

I was thinking exactly that.  What is it all of these supposed "tourists" are doing?  The majority probably are not tourist but returning expats, so they are just marking time until they can travel back to their Thai residences.
But like the Swedish gals, what younger tourist wants to come to a place where there are no clubs, bars, limited restaurants. limited entertainment, your encouraged not to gather and converse, and you are under constant monitoring by the morality police. It I wanted a vacation like that I'd find myself a nice beach in a strict Islamic country.  It couldn't be much worse, and actually may be better.
My guess that for younger tourists this has got to be about the most boring place on Earth right now.  Personally I'd be more interested in a vacation to Sweden.

You can try Kish Island off the coast of Iran Persian Gulf. Its quite nice looking. BTW males and females cannot sit together on the beach..along with many other rules to enhance your visit. No alcohol but I managed to get a bottle of scotch from a driver. He was extremely nervous about the whole idea ...   wonder why?

 

Well only another 39,990,000 "tourists" into Thailand required to hit the 2019 levels

 

Top performance indeed.....????

2 hours ago, webfact said:

They have been spending about 5,500 baht each per day on accommodation, swabs, food and drink and transport

They can buy food and drink (Thai or otherwise) at home. As far as the rest of this goes it doesn't sound like a fun holiday that I personally would want to take, but to each their own...

1 hour ago, fangless said:

I thought you had to spend 14 nights on the Island before being allowed out?

"Their average stay has been 11 nights".         They can move to other areas of Thailand after 14 days (well, at least they could until recent restrictions) But there is no minimum stay. They do not have to book a 14 day "sandbox' minimum.

1 hour ago, fangless said:

I thought you had to spend 14 nights on the Island before being allowed out?

No. You have to spend 14 days on the island before being allowed in country onward travel, but you're allowed out any time.