What is so important about the Sandbox?

[BookShe]

8 minutes ago, Guevara said:

But you have to admit, Bill Barnett would make an excellent political spin doctor.

I don't think this country needs any more spin doctors. They have plenty already. :)

[Martin]

Thai authorities seem to be in denial of so much. I wonder if they have done any analysis or research into why tourists aren't coming? At this point, for foreign tourists, it is probably not the fear of catching covid and getting severely ill or dying as to travel you need to be fully vaccinated which reduces the risk of severe illness. 

No, i think it more likely the absolutely ridiculous rules Thailand imposes on arrivals, the extensive paperwork needed, and the massively increased overall cost is what is preventing many from coming. Get rid of COE, pre payment of accomodation, pre booking of multiple tests, heavy duty insurance, tracking  whilst in Thailand and there might be an uptick in arrivals. 

Somehow i doubt this administration will do that as they seem to enjoy controlling people. So be it, just don't expect a tourism industry. 

[Stardust]

First : many remember the anti foreigner behaviour in Phuket before the Sandbox

Second: many could follow their incompetence

Third: they never listen, never wanna learn something and never asked what the tourists want.

And these guys should be now the hub for the worlds new tourism or tourism industry?

Wow is it called ignorance?

[Soidog]

12 hours ago, BookShe said:

 

"Phuket has the potential to lead the global tourism recovery, as the historic Phuket Sandbox initiative sets the standard for other destinations to follow, he said. "

Agreed. What total and utter garbage. How on Earth is this world leading? The U.K. is now open to EU and US fully vaccinated people without any quarantine or restrictions. Basically it’s open for business. How did they do this? By buying vaccines and getting them rolled out. That’s how you do it and everything else is a waste of time. Setting standards

[Soidog]

11 hours ago, Artemis080 said:

The premise is Phuket is vaccinated and safe, but really it's not.

Not safe for foreigners you mean? The main risk is from unvaccinated Thais either in the island or delivering goods to the island. What you should be doing is locking the island down and getting case numbers down. Essentially that’s what the government is doing, but at the same time pretending it’s open to lure money. It’s a total farce 

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, Stardust said:

First : many remember the anti foreigner behaviour in Phuket before the Sandbox

Second: many could follow their incompetence

Third: they never listen, never wanna learn something and never asked what the tourists want.

And these guys should be now the hub for the worlds new tourism or tourism industry?

Wow is it called ignorance?

Always amazes me why people behave like this. Europeans (especially English) are often called arrogant by Thais. Well at least we have something to be arrogant about. The Thai arrogance of never asking or learning from others is even worse. They fail in just about everything and yet have the arrogance to believe they are best to decide what tourists want. Wow! Now that is arrogant.  

[BookShe]

7 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Agreed. What total and utter garbage. How on Earth is this world leading? The U.K. is now open to EU and US fully vaccinated people without any quarantine or restrictions. Basically it’s open for business. How did they do this? By buying vaccines and getting them rolled out. That’s how you do it and everything else is a waste of time. Setting standards

Yepp. It's a face-saving money-making opportunity for a selected few. The only thing it proves is quite the opposite, because if this model would be an example or so-called standard for future tourism then tourism would cease to exists. It's mostly harmless so they can keep doing it as long as they want, just stop the lies and promotion of this nonsense as an industry-leading global solution.

[Tim]

Let's hope this pandemic will teach them a lesson... but I doubt it. Personally I don't feel sorry for them after they have been too corky and bragging too much about how they handled covid and so disrespectful with us farang.

In my country we have a say that would translate to this: the shit bin has turned over on the pig.

[PhayakPeter]

Bill the dreamer, get a grip and read your own statement, 13000 visitors, not 13000 tourists. 

[PapayaBokBok]

15 hours ago, Artemis080 said:

It just seems it's all smoke, mirrors and marketing

Thailand in a nutshell, stay there long enough and the sandbox is no surprise.....Thailand is an "Illusion"..

[Khunhan]

I totally disagree with you, Mr. Barnett. Everything for Phuket and the rest of the country can go down the drain purely egoistic mindset!

[Thommo]

The sandbox in my opinion is just shifting income from ASQ system to the sandbox

I'm an example of this,I will fly back to Australia in September, retun to Thailand via the sandbox in November, provided it is still functioning, otherwise its another ASQ in bkk.

Sandbox and special tourist visa will show to have similar benifit to Thailand but the turd polishes will try sell it differently

[bushav8r]

Sandbox is very important.  It represents the first steps that have been taken to re-open Thailand to tourism.  Many countries are not brave enough to do this.  It can be used as a model for the rest of the world.  Not many countries have an idyllic island paradise to offer as a "quarantine".  I will likely stay in an ASQ hotel when I return to Bangkok later this year.  There are still uncertainties about the sandbox.  It is a fantastic option if you want stay for a few weeks.  I want to stay longer.

[Chaimai]

16 minutes ago, bushav8r said:

Sandbox is very important.  It represents the first steps that have been taken to re-open Thailand to tourism.  Many countries are not brave enough to do this.  It can be used as a model for the rest of the world.  Not many countries have an idyllic island paradise to offer as a "quarantine".  I will likely stay in an ASQ hotel when I return to Bangkok later this year.  There are still uncertainties about the sandbox.  It is a fantastic option if you want stay for a few weeks.  I want to stay longer.

 

+1

 

The Sandbox seems a good option for long-stayers.

 

I liked the story of the German lady (Stefanie Korényi) - she handled herself superbly when unfortunately being caught up in a close contact situation with someone who tested positive. She just accepted that she would be in Phuket 2 weeks longer than planned en route to Chiang Mai where she intended to teach.

[bushav8r]

46 minutes ago, Chaimai said:

+1

The Sandbox seems a good option for long-stayers.

I liked the story of the German lady (Stefanie Korényi) - she handled herself superbly when unfortunately being caught up in a close contact situation with someone who tested positive. She just accepted that she would be in Phuket 2 weeks longer than planned en route to Chiang Mai where she intended to teach.

I liked her story too.  She presented herself quite well.

[remo940]

 "potential to lead the global tourism recovery"  What a joke

[9S_]

Is tourism a real driver in economic growth for Thailand? I work in manufacturing and we only received vaccines for 25% of our workforce. 
 

Not to brag but our company posted nearly 300 Million in Baht profit last quarter. That’s just one factory. Multiply that with all the factories in this estate which is considerably smaller than Phuket and we’re practically a cash cow for the Thai economy. And yet we were never a priority in the vaccination rollout until they realized the dangers. 
 

We’re still working, we’re still manufacturing, we’re still providing employment…but for how long. As soon as the virus hits our factory well shut down. 

[bushav8r]

8 minutes ago, remo940 said:

 "potential to lead the global tourism recovery"  What a joke

It's a start.  I hope it can lead to bigger and better things.  

[bushav8r]

2 minutes ago, 9S_ said:

Is tourism a real driver in economic growth for Thailand? I work in manufacturing and we only received vaccines for 25% of our workforce. 
 

Not to brag but our company posted nearly 300 Million in Baht profit last quarter. That’s just one factory. Multiply that with all the factories in this estate which is considerably smaller than Phuket and we’re practically a cash cow for the Thai economy. And yet we were never a priority in the vaccination rollout until they realized the dangers. 
 

We’re still working, we’re still manufacturing, we’re still providing employment…but for how long. As soon as the virus hits our factory well shut down. 

Depending on what you read in  the news and are lead to believe, tourism accounts for as much as 20% of GDP.  Numbers vary from 10 to 25 percent.  There is a lot of underground economy that may or may not be taken into account.

[TiT]

Bill Barnett is still the worst part of The Thaiger, I don't understand why Tim values his opinion as an 'industry expert' so much... he's clearly pro-China with unicorns and rainbows shooting out of his ass on the daily.

[BookShe]

5 hours ago, bushav8r said:

Sandbox is very important.  It represents the first steps that have been taken to re-open Thailand to tourism.  Many countries are not brave enough to do this.  It can be used as a model for the rest of the world.  Not many countries have an idyllic island paradise to offer as a "quarantine".  I will likely stay in an ASQ hotel when I return to Bangkok later this year.  There are still uncertainties about the sandbox.  It is a fantastic option if you want stay for a few weeks.  I want to stay longer.

Sandbox is not a solution (for tourism) and not a first step either (first step requires the second step and the third). You either reopen or you don't. Everything else is just a desperate search for miracle. I'm not against the sandbox, just make sure we call it what it is. It is not an industry-leading global solution like this guy from Singapore would like to see it.

 "Phuket has the potential to lead the global tourism recovery, as the historic Phuket Sandbox initiative sets the standard for other destinations to follow"

If this model would be an example or so-called standard for future tourism then tourism would cease to exists. 

 

[Artemis080]

The sandbox has now warped into something it was not intended. Pure tourism was envisioned, but now it's just returnees and long stay hopefuls as delta hits the whole country. That's ok, but call it what it is. Market it. How many Australians stuck overseas can at least stay for the rest of the year? 

The Thai government have missed the opportunity to lean into the desire for remote workers to be based somewhere right now. Other countries didn't delay such as Dubai. How many more baht would they generate and not really be too bothered about girly bars closed and the state of the island.

Instead, we beat the drum of tourism and put layers of restrictions to make it hard and unpleasant. A shame. Could have been much more.

 

[HappyExpat]

On 8/4/2021 at 12:13 AM, Soidog said:

Agreed. What total and utter garbage. How on Earth is this world leading? The U.K. is now open to EU and US fully vaccinated people without any quarantine or restrictions. Basically it’s open for business. How did they do this? By buying vaccines and getting them rolled out. That’s how you do it and everything else is a waste of time. Setting standards

My son works as a casino dealer near Seattle and business is BOOMING all over the area. Yeah, they got right on that vaccination thing right away and are currently just under 60% citizens vaccinated.

[HappyExpat]

On 8/4/2021 at 7:46 AM, bushav8r said:

Sandbox is very important.  It represents the first steps that have been taken to re-open Thailand to tourism.  Many countries are not brave enough to do this.  It can be used as a model for the rest of the world.  Not many countries have an idyllic island paradise to offer as a "quarantine".  I will likely stay in an ASQ hotel when I return to Bangkok later this year.  There are still uncertainties about the sandbox.  It is a fantastic option if you want stay for a few weeks.  I want to stay longer.

It was a great concept but mismanaged. If the focus had been getting most people vaccinated then only allowing vaccinated folks in, we'd all be applauding their success. Now? Not so much. As I just wrote, Seattle has reached just under 60% vaccination of its people and the US is hinting about letting in only vaccinated people period. THAT'S how the Sandbox SHOULD have been handled.

[HappyExpat]

On 8/4/2021 at 9:32 AM, TiT said:

<snip>

rainbows shooting out of his ass on the daily.

I just realized we can post the word "ass" without getting the frustrating <deleted>. LOVING it here!