Thailand bets on the Phuket sandbox program to save tourism

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Phuket, Thailand (AFP) – Somsak Petlaw covered the outboard motor on his traditional wooden long-tail boat with a tarp, wrapping up another day at Patong Beach in Phuket where not a single tourist needed his services to take them to nearby islands.

Since Thailand’s pandemic restrictions on travel were imposed in early 2020, tourism has fallen off a cliff, nowhere more being felt than on the resort island off the country’s southern coast, where nearly 95% of the economy is linked to industry.

So, despite the spike in coronavirus numbers elsewhere in the country, the government is pressing ahead with a program known as the “Phuket Sandbox” to reopen the island to fully vaccinated visitors. It hopes to revive tourism – a sector that accounted for 20% of the country’s economy before the pandemic.

Instead of being quarantined at the hotel required elsewhere in Thailand, tourists in Phuket will be able to tour the entire island, but not travel to other parts of the country for 14 days. Skeptics question whether people are willing to accept multiple restrictions including frequent virus testing and mandatory tracing apps, but officials are hopeful that the allure of the island’s famous beaches – and the idea of ​​a beach holiday after long lockdowns – will suffice.

For islanders like Somsak, there’s plenty of riding on returning tourists.

Once he could count on making over $100 a day and getting them on his boat, but this month he only made $40 from one client and had to do odd jobs, pawn family possessions and hunt food to set dinner. On the table for his wife and two young children.

“If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just have to try to survive,” Somsak said.

The first two months of 2020, before travel restrictions were imposed, were among the best in Phuket ever, and the island saw more than 3 million visitors in the first five months of the year, including more than 2 million foreigners. In the first five months of 2021, there were less than half a million visitors, all but about 5,000 domestic travelers.

Under the sandbox scheme, visitors to Phuket will be subject to most of the same controls as those in the rest of the country, but instead of being quarantined in a carefully monitored hotel room for 14 days, they will be confined to Thailand’s largest island, where they can relax on white beaches Water skiing off the coast, and evening dining at restaurants.

“For people who have stayed in their apartments for 16 months, the idea of ​​traveling to Thailand where there is a beach and you are a regular guest, yes, you are quarantined here but that is more than 500 square kilometers of quarantine,” said Anthony Lark, president of the Phuket Hotel Association. And we have national parks and golf courses, and you can snorkel – it’s really not a quarantine.”

There is already some international interest, with the first flight arriving from Qatar, followed by one from Israel and then Singapore.

However, some hotels and other businesses have decided to wait to see if tourists show up before they reopen, and there are skepticism in Thailand about that.

asked the Bangkok Post in this week’s editorial, “Welcome to your prison vacation?” Whether tourists will be interested in going through all hoops for the holiday, especially after the government announced that it will impose additional restrictions if more than 90 new virus cases are reported per week in Phuket.

Lark said he expects many travelers to take a wait-and-see approach and that his expectations are “lukewarm.”

He said, “The gates don’t open.”

To visit, adult foreign visitors must provide proof of two vaccinations, a negative COVID-19 test at least 72 hours before departure, and proof of an insurance policy covering treatment for the virus with at least $100,000, among other things. Once on the island, visitors are required to follow mask and distance regulations, take three COVID-19 tests at their own expense — about $300 in total — and show negative results.

They also have to come from countries that are not considered to be above “low” or “medium” risk – a list that currently includes most of Europe, the US and Canada – and travel directly to Phuket, although plans are in the works to allow carefully controlled transfers through the airport. Bangkok.

After 14 days, visitors are free to travel to Thailand without other restrictions.

In preparation, about 70% of the island’s 450,000 residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and the hospitality industry reports that all frontline workers in restaurants, hotels and elsewhere have been fully vaccinated.

Bars and clubs remain closed, but visitors will be able to go to restaurants and enjoy the shows – once business starts again.

At Phuket Simon Cabaret, a 600-seat venue that has been closed for more than a year, some crew returned this week to begin checking lighting and other systems, while workers arranged dresses worn by transgender dancers, and sewed new sparkles. Colorful feathers.

“We are entering this fight wanting to win,” said owner Borthip Roerin defiantly, adding that the cabaret would not open immediately and that dancers might start with smaller shows in hotels and restaurants until more tourists started arriving.

The Phuket sandbox is widely part of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s plan announced earlier this month to fully reopen Thailand within 120 days.

Polls show that about 75% of Thais find it too ambitious, and in recent days coronavirus numbers have surged in Bangkok and elsewhere, confirming fears just as Phuket will open again.

Other Thai destinations are keeping a close eye on Phuket, with their own plans to open later in the year or sooner, but with some degree of initial quarantine of hotel rooms. Regionally, popular tourist destinations like Bali are also keeping an eye on the sandbox as they consider when they can welcome outside visitors.

Nationally, the hotel industry had hoped the sandbox would provide a springboard to other destinations in Thailand when early discussions included a mandatory shorter stay, but now 14 days later, the industry is acknowledging that there will likely be little vacation time to continue operating.

At the same time, there is concern that Thai residents returning home will head through Phuket to take advantage of more lax rules, adding to the pressure on hotels in Bangkok, which have relied on a two-week mandatory quarantine for much of their income during the hotel’s association. Thai, The epidemic.

It said about half of Thailand’s 16,000 hotels remain closed, with average occupancy rates of just 6% in May.

“We’re in survival mode, hanging by a thread — literally,” she said earlier this month.

Although there are limitations and it may take time to work out the kinks in reopening, the plus side is that Phuket hasn’t seen visitors for decades, thanks to so few people over the past year, Lark said.

“I’ve even seen sea otters on the beach and didn’t even know there were sea otters here. I’ve seen groups of dolphins, we’ve noticed a growing diversity of bird species, and the reefs don’t have boats atop them—the island has never been better off.” “And the room rates are around half of 2019 and you never have to make a reservation to get a seat in the restaurant. It’s a great time to come.”

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Rising reports from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Shalida Ekvitayavknokul in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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