Phuket reports 7,347 “sandbox” hotel bookings for July

[Thaiger]

There have been 7,347 hotel bookings made for the southern island of Phuket as its “sandbox” re-opening continues. In the first 4 days of the scheme, the island has welcomed 1,416 international arrivals, most of whom are foreign nationals. Below is the breakdown: Day 1: 479 (303 foreign nationals, 176 Thais) Day 2: 544 (467 foreign nationals, 77 Thais) Day 3: 389 (319 foreign nationals, 70 Thais) Day 4: 481 (327 foreign nationals, 154 Thais) A Thai PBS World report says the 7,347 sandbox hotel bookings account for a total of 90,861 room nights. There are 2,787 bookings in the […]

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[Malc-Thai]

"The vast majority of arriving passengers have tested negative for Covid-19, while 129 are waiting for their results. Between July 1 and 4,"

so if you arrived on the 1st and not had your results yet that makes 6 days locked in your room until you get your results? 

[EdwardV]

7,347 hotel bookings - Clearly it’ a total that covers all bookings to date. However without the actual timeframe it’s hard to calculate any real meaning. 

[Nocklaus]

So how many of the foreigners are tourists and how many are expats?

[HolyCowCm]

56 minutes ago, Malc-Thai said:

so if you arrived on the 1st and not had your results yet that makes 6 days locked in your room until you get your results? 

Better than nothing and if negative then welcome to Thailand and the beach. I have many friends in the US who are considering it, but they don't like the fact that there are no bars open. Most are shooting for the Oct opening. 

[Malc-Thai]

41 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

Better than nothing and if negative then welcome to Thailand and the beach. I have many friends in the US who are considering it, but they don't like the fact that there are no bars open. Most are shooting for the Oct opening. 

Yes agree, but it's nearly 10% of who have arrived ! Just a tad high if you're coming for a short holiday something else to think about

[Heiko]

Phuket Sandbox improvements:

- How can people plan a trip if they don't know how long it takes to get approved? Tell the consulates to speed up processing the certificate of entries and guarantee 24 hours processing time.

- Having people pay upfront 8,500 Baht for covid testing and and another 3,000+ Thai Baht for covid  insurance before you get the COE is also not very popular. Approve first, pay afterwards.

- After you get pre-approved for the COE you have a window of 15 days to book an airline ticket and fly to Phuket. Considering that it takes another few days for the final approval of the COE as well as weekends were nobody works,  your window shrinks to less than 10 days. Only wealthy or independent self emplyed people can travel like this. Most people that hold a job have to plan in advance with their employers.

[HolyCowCm]

36 minutes ago, Malc-Thai said:

Yes agree, but it's nearly 10% of who have arrived ! Just a tad high if you're coming for a short holiday something else to think about

Yeah, but if it is 6 days in lock in and you have good food and alcohol and a good view with open windows then not that bad. short holiday is 2 weeks? I wonder if anyone was willing to take that chance with that short amount of time. But if negative that still lets you have 7 days of freedom. 1rst day is travel coming, and last day is packing and leaving. 7 days is still enough to have some fun.

[triplebogey]

2 hours ago, EdwardV said:

7,347 hotel bookings - Clearly it’ a total that covers all bookings to date. However without the actual timeframe it’s hard to calculate any real meaning. 

yes you are correct numbers with no real meaning. statistics the opiate of PR people

[vlad]

1 hour ago, HolyCowCm said:

Yeah, but if it is 6 days in lock in and you have good food and alcohol and a good view with open windows then not that bad. short holiday is 2 weeks? I wonder if anyone was willing to take that chance with that short amount of time. But if negative that still lets you have 7 days of freedom. 1rst day is travel coming, and last day is packing and leaving. 7 days is still enough to have some fun.

Not worth flying for over 13 hours for 7 days of fun.

[Smithydog]

Really hope it works, however not very confident! Need it to work for the people of Phuket. International Tourism is their pathway to recovery.

[HolyCowCm]

45 minutes ago, vlad said:

Not worth flying for over 13 hours for 7 days of fun.

13 hours is nothing when coming from the USA. I could do that standing on my head.

[TobyAndrews]

One person infected and the whole flight has to be tested.

So anyone found infected, they lose their hotel, possibly with no refund, and off they go to quarantine, which costs plenty more. No beach. No restaurants. No sight seeing. No vacation.

Will the tests be corrupted? Really there is no telling. There are no second tests. A perfect opportunity for the Thais to make money on the quarantine.

However what might save the ferangs is that if they are forced into quarantine, the internet scream will go up to such an extent, that it will kill this new Thai tourist sandbox stone dead.

Edited July 6, 2021 by TobyAndrews
mistake

[Objectivance]

Welcome back people who live here and were overseas.

[Soidog]

3 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

Yeah, but if it is 6 days in lock in and you have good food and alcohol and a good view with open windows then not that bad. short holiday is 2 weeks? I wonder if anyone was willing to take that chance with that short amount of time. But if negative that still lets you have 7 days of freedom. 1rst day is travel coming, and last day is packing and leaving. 7 days is still enough to have some fun.

I agree 7 days is enough to have some fun, even 1 day is. However, why would you pay for 14 days fun only to get 7? Especially when there are plenty of alternatives in the world where you can pay for 14 and get 14 days of fun. And it also depends what you call fun? If diving and swimming and sunbathing is your fun then great. If travelling to other islands and going to bars and clubs is your thing, then that’s not happening

[HolyCowCm]

13 minutes ago, Soidog said:

I agree 7 days is enough to have some fun, even 1 day is. However, why would you pay for 14 days fun only to get 7? Especially when there are plenty of alternatives in the world where you can pay for 14 and get 14 days of fun. And it also depends what you call fun? If diving and swimming and sunbathing is your fun then great. If travelling to other islands and going to bars and clubs is your thing, then that’s not happening

I don't know, if with your girlfriend or wife it might be ok, or if single and there is a hotline for a companion, that might be ok as well. Phuket is a pretty big island to go about and do things. An if no bars, maybe there is the bar that gives you peanuts and the you know who look the other way. If no bars then a one that really doubles as one and restaurant is fine as well. Thailand does have great people and a nice feeling.

Edited July 6, 2021 by HolyCowCm

[TobyAndrews]

2 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

13 hours is nothing when coming from the USA. I could do that standing on my head.

You might be given a discounted flight if you could because you would not take up a seat.

[TobyAndrews]

19 minutes ago, TobyAndrews said:

You might be given a discounted flight if you could because you would not take up a seat.

They would park you in the corner out of the way, however you might missout on the free drinks.

[Stonker]

6 hours ago, TobyAndrews said:

One person infected and the whole flight has to be tested.

No, the whole flight is tested anyway.

In Cambodia, on the other hand, if one person on a flight is infected then the whole flight is quarantined.

6 hours ago, TobyAndrews said:

So anyone found infected, they lose their hotel, possibly with no refund,

Not correct, the hotel charges are refunded in full - it's spelt out in the regs, reported here.

 

6 hours ago, TobyAndrews said:

and off they go to quarantine, which costs plenty more.

Not correct, the quarantine is covered by the mandatory Covid insurance, which is why they have to have only approved policies.

 

6 hours ago, TobyAndrews said:

Will the tests be corrupted? Really there is no telling. There are no second tests. A perfect opportunity for the Thais to make money on the quarantine

Not correct. They can have as many tests as they or the insurance want, either conducted by the hotel, the hospitals or independently.

 

It can't be "a perfect opportunity for the Thais to make money on the quarantine"  since the hotel has to refund the 14 day booking and the insurance pays for the hospital.  

 

The only possible scams are by a hospital on the insurance companies, which are unlikely to go on for long without the insurance companies noticing.

[TobyAndrews]

In Cambodia there is not a sandbox offered, so the comparision does not apply.

A link that the hotel has to refund in full? Reported here in the regs? Reported where?

By the way, the ferang mug will have to pay the quarantine bill and claim it back later - good luck with that.

You state the whole flight is tested. They are on arrival, and later when they find one person, supposed infected according to them, the whole flight has to be testedc again. Nice income for the Thais right?

A Thai scamming racket . . .

 

[vlad]

8 hours ago, TobyAndrews said:

One person infected and the whole flight has to be tested.

So anyone found infected, they lose their hotel, possibly with no refund, and off they go to quarantine, which costs plenty more. No beach. No restaurants. No sight seeing. No vacation.

Will the tests be corrupted? Really there is no telling. There are no second tests. A perfect opportunity for the Thais to make money on the quarantine.

However what might save the ferangs is that if they are forced into quarantine, the internet scream will go up to such an extent, that it will kill this new Thai tourist sandbox stone dead.

As long as you complain back in your country on social media, do it in Phuket you will arrested for Defamation complain about your Hotel, well off to the Mokey House you go Toby.

 

[JamesE]

11 hours ago, Heiko said:

- After you get pre-approved for the COE you have a window of 15 days to book an airline ticket and fly to Phuket.

This is one of the misunderstandings that fell out of the switch to the automated COE system a few months ago. While this is exactly what it says, what it means (this being Thailand and all) is that you have up to 15 days to provide the paperwork proving your booking. It's completely okay to book months in advance, you just have to have a hard and fast reservation submitted within 15 days of starting your application. The actual flight can, as well, be outside of the submission window. (And hope that the airline doesn't cancel the flight as happened 3x to me in 2020...)

[TobyAndrews]

1 minute ago, vlad said:

As long as you complain back in your country on social media, do it in Phuket you will arrested for Defamation complain about your Hotel, well off to the Mokey House you go Toby.

True enough vlad.

[Motobrox]

We've got a booking, but there's a slim chance we'll go. The wearing ogf masks unnecessarily is VERY off putting.  So booking figures mean nothing. 

[ozz1]

Unfortunatly bookings dont mean bums on seats but goodluck