News Forum - Phuket domestic travel rules need streamlining, officials discuss

[Thaiger]

Officials in Phuket met yesterday to consider ideas about how to ease travel restrictions for domestic travellers in hopes of enabling domestic tourism to grow. With current harsh restrictions, mostly people with an imminent need to travel in and out of Phuket can jump through the hoops to access the island. Many business owners say they have seen little benefit from the international Phuket Sandbox plan and need travel restrictions eased (as well as nightlife reopened) The meeting took place at the Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday and was called specifically to look at the problem of how to allow domestic […]

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[MrStretch]

I can't see a great deal of difference between their "new proposal" and their "old rules" for domestic travelers.

You still need to be vaccinated.

You still need a negative PCR test.

You still need to install the Big Brother app on your phone.

Too much bullshit to visit an island that has almost nothing open.

You want to move your economy? Simple.

Fully vaccinated? Come on in and take your chances.

[Bob20]

8 minutes ago, MrStretch said:

I can't see a great deal of difference between their "new proposal" and their "old rules" for domestic travelers.

You still need to be vaccinated.

You still need a negative PCR test.

You still need to install the Big Brother app on your phone.

Too much bullshit to visit an island that has almost nothing open.

You want to move your economy? Simple.

Fully vaccinated? Come on in and take your chances.

Problem there is that you let someone else take your chances too...

Can I make a comparison with WW2? Why didn't everyone go out and resume normal life in 1942? Right, because the danger hadn't gone and the war wasn't finished.

Guess what, Covid isn't under control yet either.

A problem isn't resolved when we're fed-up or if a certain amount of time has passed.

A problem is resolved when there is a remedy. And we're still working on that with the vaccines. We can surely last that bit of time longer to get more people safe first.

Just my opinion.

[MrStretch]

53 minutes ago, Bob20 said:

Problem there is that you let someone else take your chances too...

Agreed.  I'm not saying that is what they should do, but their "goal" is to get their tourist-based economy started.  My point is that it can't be with the same draconian rules.

If they want safety, then they should stop talking about "opening".

If they want "opening" in order to achieve their economic goals, they need to drop the hoops and hassle and just take anyone that is fully vaccinated.

[Bob20]

Just now, MrStretch said:

Agreed.  I'm not saying that is what they should do, but their "goal" is to get their tourist-based economy started.  My point is that it can't be with the same draconian rules.

If they want safety, then they should stop talking about "opening".

If they want "opening" in order to achieve their economic goals, they need to drop the hoops and hassle and just take anyone that is fully vaccinated.

Ah thought you'd gone off the deep end

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

Phuket domestic travel rules need streamlining, officials discuss

 ….. no kidding Sherlock!

[EdwardV]

Thailand still has rules that are easier for domestic travelers than international. Yet the danger is greater from those coming domestically than internationally. Regardless even when there were no requirements, domestic travel was negligible. This is still playing at the margins. Until Thailand makes it as easy to travel as other major markets and opens entertainment people are not going to come in large numbers. It’s just too easy and more attractive somewhere else. 

[BIGGLES]

Where on earth, do they think domestic tourists are A) coming from, and B) after no earnings for  18 months, getting the money to spend on a holiday?

 

[Cathat]

2 hours ago, BIGGLES said:

Where on earth, do they think domestic tourists are A) coming from, and B) after no earnings for  18 months, getting the money to spend on a holiday?

My thoughts also and added to that most of the thais I have ever talked to do not consider phuket to be a very good place to visit anyway.

Why fly to phuket when you can jump in the car and go to hua hin for the weekend.

[Soidog]

58 minutes ago, Cathat said:

My thoughts also and added to that most of the thais I have ever talked to do not consider phuket to be a very good place to visit anyway.

Why fly to phuket when you can jump in the car and go to hua hin for the weekend.

Well that’s assuming most Thais live in and around Bangkok. What if you live in CM or Udon Thani or Khon Kaen. You can’t fly to Hua Hin but you can fly to Phuket. What I can’t understand is why the vaccination and test rules aren’t exactly the same for international and local arrivals in to the sandbox. Exactly the same. 

[Marc26]

4 hours ago, BIGGLES said:

Where on earth, do they think domestic tourists are A) coming from, and B) after no earnings for  18 months, getting the money to spend on a holiday?

The Thais who travel domestically to places like Phuket for holiday would he made up of mostly upper middle class to upper class Thais

And most of them haven't been unemployed 

Most Thais working for corporations have been working from home 

 

Let's put it this way, the Thais I know who could afford to fly to Phuket and take a holiday before Covid haven't lost their jobs, for the most part 

And a lot of the Thais I know whose jobs are slow or have lost their jobs(not many actually) couldn't afford to go to Phuket before covid 

[AussieBob]

12 hours ago, MrStretch said:

I can't see a great deal of difference between their "new proposal" and their "old rules" for domestic travelers.

You still need to be vaccinated.

You still need a negative PCR test.

You still need to install the Big Brother app on your phone.

Too much bullshit to visit an island that has almost nothing open.

You want to move your economy? Simple.

Fully vaccinated? Come on in and take your chances.

Agree - only that I would add a PCR test done in your home country done a maximum of 5 days before boarding the flight.  But as we all know, the Thai bureaucracy is big and powerful, and they don't like their 'rules' being removed/changed.