Samui Plus Model: 711 foreign visitors spend 47 million baht in first two months

[webfact]

Picture: Siam Rath

 

The governor of Surat Thani Wichawut Jinto gave the latest figures for the reopening of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao known as the Samui Plus Model, as reported by Siam Rath.

 

From July 15th to September 15th there had been 711 visitors and they had spent an estimated 47 million baht.

 

Of these 55 had made onward trips to the island of Koh Phangan and 31 to Koh Tao. 

 

They had stayed a total of 8,966 nights. 

 

Top three nationalities were French in first then Germans and British. 

 

In addition 479 tourists had arrived from the Phuket Sandbox and 145 as part of the Phuket 7+7 Extension plan.

 

This made a total of 1,335 visitors to the Surat Thani island.

 

There had been 133 flights to Samui either from abroad via Suvarnabhumi or from Phuket.

 

Advance bookings are 769 people booking 10,269 room nights under the Samui Plus Model and 476 people booking 3,033 night under the Phuket extension.

 

This makes totals of 1,272 people expected to arrive spending 13,302 nights of accommodation in total.

 

No timeframe was given for these future eventualities. 

 

Wichawut said this had all stimulated the economy, created employment and brought in income. 

 

ASEAN NOW notes that the authorities in the south always said that the Samui reopening was a testing of the waters and large numbers were not expected. 

 

Even so the numbers reported represent a small trickle when compared to pre-pandemic tourism numbers for the popular holiday islands in Surat Thani. 

 

Locals in the tourism industry will be hoping for improved numbers when the high season begins towards the end of the year and other areas of the country are expected to reopen. 

 

Samui Plus hotels to suit all budgets

 

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2021-09-18

 

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

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

[sammieuk1]

Coincidentally all spent at 7/11 ????

[tonray]

Well that pretty much covers the Taxi Mafia fares....what will they do for food ?

[mahtin]

Wichawut said this had all stimulated the economy, created employment and brought in income. 

Not, not, negligible.

[smedly]

out of these insignificant numbers how many have been abused  arrested and fined by cops 

 

and at what point are they going to realise that foreign tourists will not be coming to Thailand until they drop all the stupid restrictions and actually open up for business including bars and nightlife instead of dark streets and curfews

 

They need to look at Green status in the UK and understand what "open" actually means

[grandpa]

That's a staggering 66,104 baht per person!

[Scrotobike]

Sandbox model total failure:

 

[khunPer]

Fits the stats, 47 million baht divided with 8,966 equals 5,242 baht per day, and divided by number of "tourists" their average spending equals 66,104 baht.

 

Most of that money apparently ends with the SHA+ hotels, probably very small effect on local business...????

[Ombra]

3 hours ago, grandpa said:

That's a staggering 66,104 baht per person!

But they totaled nearly 9,000 nights, which is only about 5,000 baht per day/night per person, so they are not exactly flinging money around.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

From July 15th to September 15th there had been 711 visitors and they had spent an estimated 47 million baht.

Shame it didn't get into the locals pockets, mostly the Sha + hotels reaped all the benefits.

[RichardColeman]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

In addition 479 tourists had arrived from the Phuket Sandbox and 145 as part of the Phuket 7+7 Extension plan.

This total numbers bravado is nonsense, counting numbers arriving in Phuket and then counting them in another place later ? What next start counting how many night expats stay in Pattaya to show how busy it is ? 

[ronster]

Mostly went into selected hotels owned by those who are special I’m sure . Not to mention the very high price of a week in samui under the sandbox vs a week in Phuket . Some of the prices I seen in samui were laughable !

Having driven round the island a few times over last week or so I reckon there are maybe 1-2 street shops open out of every 10 . Most of these being Thai food places , laundries or small shops that sell everything . 
 

[ronster]

2 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

This total numbers bravado is nonsense, counting numbers arriving in Phuket and then counting them in another place later ? What next start counting how many night expats stay in Pattaya to show how busy it is ? 

Same as they were counting people transiting from one international flight to another in Bkk before . Got to keep them numbers up ! ????????

[dlclark97]

For once, the numbers presented seem feasible.  711 tourists staying 12.6 hotel nights spending 66.1+ thousand thb does not sound unreasonable only a little over 5000 thb per day.  Unless of course there were children included in arriving families.  Doubt many children spend that much which would make the per adult tourist quite a bit higher and questionable but not impossible.

[Khun Yogi]

6 hours ago, grandpa said:

That's a staggering 66,104 baht per person!

Yeap. And do you believe that when nothing is open ???????

 

[Cake Monster]

3 hours ago, khunPer said:

Fits the stats, 47 million baht divided with 8,966 equals 5,242 baht per day, and divided by number of "tourists" their average spending equals 66,104 baht.

 

Most of that money apparently ends with the SHA+ hotels, probably very small effect on local business...????

1,101 Baht per person per Day spending.

Hotel cost at about 900 per Day ( maybe )

Very little spent in Community. In fact very little spent on anything at all.

47,000,000 Divide by 711 Tourists = 66,104

Divide by 60 Days ( 2 Months ) = 1,101 Per Tourist per Day.

 

[Mickmouse1]

7 hours ago, grandpa said:

That's a staggering 66,104 baht per person!

Yes,Approx £120/day..

????????

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, Cake Monster said:

1,101 Baht per person per Day spending.

Hotel cost at about 900 per Day ( maybe )

Very little spent in Community. In fact very little spent on anything at all.

47,000,000 Divide by 711 Tourists = 66,104

Divide by 60 Days ( 2 Months ) = 1,101 Per Tourist per Day.

Not really, the 711 tourists stayed in total for 8,966 nights, i.e. 12-13 nights/days each in average, so 47 millions divided with 8,966 is correct for average spending per day, or rather night.

 

You cannot stay SHA+ on Samui for 1100 baht average per day including hotel, and food, and extra spending, cheapest available accommodation is around 1,000 baht a night, most costs more...????

 

Samui SHA+ accommodation list is HERE.

[khunPer]

2 hours ago, Khun Yogi said:

Yeap. And do you believe that when nothing is open ???????

It's easy to find a SHA+ hotel for 50,000 baht or more for 7 nights, around 100,000 baht for 2 people for 2 nights is also possible, and even 99,900 baht for one person...????

[gearbox]

15 hours ago, smedly said:

out of these insignificant numbers how many have been abused  arrested and fined by cops 

 

and at what point are they going to realise that foreign tourists will not be coming to Thailand until they drop all the stupid restrictions and actually open up for business including bars and nightlife instead of dark streets and curfews

 

They need to look at Green status in the UK and understand what "open" actually means

UK is hardly a model for opening. In continental Europe there are pretty much no countries forcing people in massively overpriced quarantine for 10 days.

[gearbox]

12 hours ago, khunPer said:

Fits the stats, 47 million baht divided with 8,966 equals 5,242 baht per day, and divided by number of "tourists" their average spending equals 66,104 baht.

 

Most of that money apparently ends with the SHA+ hotels, probably very small effect on local business...????

Don't forget the expensive PCR tests...with quoted numbers of 15k baht for all the tests that's a quarter of all the spending.

[smedly]

1 hour ago, gearbox said:

UK is hardly a model for opening. In continental Europe there are pretty much no countries forcing people in massively overpriced quarantine for 10 days.

and if you come from a green or amber country neither is the UK

 

It is Thailand that is inviting tourists and then treating them all as Red, the UK isn't inviting or desperate for anyone - they just have a system

 

 

 

 

 

[paul1804]

On 9/18/2021 at 8:57 AM, mahtin said:

Wichawut said this had all stimulated the economy, created employment and brought in income. 

Not, not, negligible.

It is a start in the right direction but needs to be 10 times that to have any real positive effect on those businesses that have been able to stay in business & the local economy. Those of us that have been able to keep our doors open at a substantial financial loss and severe unemployment have some catching up to do. But the provincial administration has contributed to our demise in a number of ways through thoughtless policies, greed, rules and bans.

I have asked this question many times, what does an alcohol ban in legitimate restaurants have to do with covid? I see no obvious or sensible connection between the 2. It is ok for all the retail outlets to sell alcohol in quantities as large as they wish yet a restaurant cannot serve a beer or glass of wine to a guest who is dining in. Samui plus was supposed to be operating under a different set of rules to Surat Thani mainland yet we get lumped into the same thoughtless process because the authorities are either to lazy or lack the foresight to see that this is further contributing to the demise of the local economy and the business houses!!! Many Thai owned businesses that serve food and alcohol are not happy with this yet they remain silent like sheep and listen to the sheep like intelligence of those in places of law enforcement, the same very people they voted for!!!! 

[PoorSucker]

On 9/18/2021 at 9:31 AM, grandpa said:

That's a staggering 66,104 baht per person!

Cheapest hotel in the Samui + is  30.000 baht for a week. 

This is why I went to Phuket the first week for 650 baht/night.