The ’Seabox’ plan was well received at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (Sept 3). Photo: Seafarer Divers

 

PHUKET: The move to have Phuket boats be allowed to provide sealed tours to Seabox tourists, seafarers and divers has gained momentum after being well received at an official meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall on Friday (Sept 3).

 

At the meeting, Kevin Lidureau of Seafarer Divers Phuket along with several other representatives from Phuket’s marine tour industry presented the detailed plan, called ‘Phuket Boating Andaman Seabox’, which aims to have local dive and other marine tour operators conduct sealed tour holidays for tourists coming to Phuket.

 

The plan, if approved, would allow tourists to land on Phuket and be safely escorted directly from the airport to an ALQ hotel for one night, where they will undergo an RT-PCR test, then board the boat to enjoy the first week of their holiday.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/plan-for-phuket-sealed-yacht-dive-tours-well-received-81291.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2021-09-05

 

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A nice idea, but I feel that this would restrict guests to land on the same day in order to board the boat the following day.

Then which boats are going to stay at sea for a whole week? Even in the pre-covid peak season years we had trouble finding enough guests to book week-long liveaboard trips, which usually go south and north, using lots of fuel.

4D/4N and 5D/5N are the regular-length trips, so a week is not so popular. Not forgetting the fact that they'd need to plan it all so that people come from all around the world to land in Phuket on the same day.

More meetings between people who are not in the same planet as the "non?" tourists. Yes agree wonderful slogans and unworkable plans - then congratulate each other on a job well done. 

 

How about some real plans like putting the litterbox on hold until the covid cases on the "sealed" island is back in the 10s. Soooo many "reported" covid cases - looks more like a red zone to me.

And leave to catch the fish with return in a year

Many potential tourists may be more interested in the "muffbox" project when Bangla road fully opens again ....

1 hour ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

‘Phuket Boating Andaman Seabox’

Just trips off the tongue. 

 

On to another winner.

I don’t really understand why tourists have to be “sealed” at all. They are such a minor part of the Phuket population and have been double jabbed, most with a quality vaccine.

 

If the Covid cases in Phuket aren’t coming from tourists, why restrict them? Added to which, 70% of the whole island is supposedly double jabbed, so why isn’t the island moving toward normal living whilst monitoring symptomatic hospitalizations and deaths, rather than being fixated on case rates?

 

the concept of vaccinating a large percentage of populations is that it enables normal living to restart and significantly reduces the numbers of severe cases. So why aren’t the Phuket authorities moving in this direction? After all, normal living with shops, bars, restaurants etc open as normal, is exactly what tourists want.

 

the authorities just seem to have themselves trapped within one paradigm and can’t think their way out of it. It has to be sealed this and boxed that, when in actual fact, they could just restart the whole island as normal because they claim to have done the hard work on vaccinations.

3 hours ago, 2long said:

A nice idea, but I feel that this would restrict guests to land on the same day in order to board the boat the following day.

Then which boats are going to stay at sea for a whole week? Even in the pre-covid peak season years we had trouble finding enough guests to book week-long liveaboard trips, which usually go south and north, using lots of fuel.

4D/4N and 5D/5N are the regular-length trips, so a week is not so popular. Not forgetting the fact that they'd need to plan it all so that people come from all around the world to land in Phuket on the same day.

It's a French brain flatulence...

Sandbox , seabox , mailbox , damn those fools are desperate . Vaccine vaccine vaccine and open up the Thaibox in it's whole . Anybody seen the Dutch F1 grandprix weekend knows that it's working, vaccine vaccine vaccine and open up .

Enough hot air to fill an air balloon !

Sorry for the offtopic but I think many divers will read this thread. Could anyone point me to any official document regarding fishing restrictions around Phuket?

 

I was told that "any fishing is prohibited within 1km from any island or underwater pinnacle", then "this rule was lowered to 500m from any island or underwater pinnacle", still I see lots of fishing boats standing right on the dive spots and fish traps being dropped in 30-50 meters distance from Racha Yai.

Are those rules real or just a rumor among divers? Could I report those fishing boats anywhere? Are they allowed because they are Thai nationals?

Laws were never made for Thais. Just suggestions except when the authorities need money. 

being well received by businesses doesnt matter

 

what matters is how it is received by tourists/divers

 

they always seem to forget that to get more people wanting to come here,their plans need to be designed based on what is good for the tourist/customers, not the businesses/economy