Every international visitor to enter must bring a lot of documents such as a negative test, international insurance, vaccination history...
Hardy Wutke, a tourist from Berlin (Germany), said that the reason most tourists give up or delay coming to Phuket is because of complicated paperwork, and strict rules to prevent disease. "A vacation lasting two to three weeks is too time consuming," he said.
A person in Phuket can wait all day in vain just to sell goods to a customer. Photo: DPA
Everything becomes clear when looking at the international airport scene in Phuket. Visitors are greeted by staff in protective suits, covered from head to toe. Each person entering the country carries a stack of documents, and these documents are subjected to rigorous checks. These are the negative PCR test papers, vaccination certificates, hotel booking notices, international health insurance and many other additional documents. If all of these documents are valid, they will be sent to do one more test at the airport. Visitors to the island must take three mandatory Covid-19 tests if staying within 2 weeks. Anyone who tests positive will have to be taken for treatment and this is their own expense.
In addition, guests will be regularly measured temperature by hotel staff every morning. They are also required to install a schedule tracking application to make it easier for the government to manage and trace infections.
At temples, bottles of antiseptic water are placed right next to Buddha statues. They also have to fill out a medical declaration just to rent a beach chair. And after a lot of complicated disease prevention procedures above, they were able to admire a quiet Phuket, with no traces of parties or people coming to sunbathe in Patong.
Besides, many tourists expressed frustration because the government's epidemic prevention regulations are constantly changing. This stems from the fact that including Phuket as well as the rest of Thailand, the number of infections in the community is increasing. This is something the government does not want, because before that they rushed to vaccinate 70% of the people on the island for herd immunity.
Initially, visitors were promised to be able to visit other parts of Thailand after a mandatory 14-day stay in Phuket. But this hope was dashed due to the epidemic situation that broke out across the country. Domestic flights to the island are also suspended at least until mid-August. Phuket is largely locked down for domestic tourists, and the capital Bangkok is now worried about fighting the epidemic, rather than starting tourism.
Not only tourists, those who rely on tourism on the island are equally tired. Clear Phuket sky at sunset. A man hastily set up plastic chairs spread out on Patong beach. He hopes some passing tourists might want to sit down with a glass of cold water and enjoy the sunset view of the sea. But no one came.
Pip, the owner of a massage parlor on Patong's famous Bangla Road, says the "sandbox" program has been going on for more than a month, but she has barely had any guests. She said the daily customers are very few, but nonetheless having a few is better than none. Santos runs a nearby tailor where fabrics are stacked to the ceiling, but there are no customers. His business is down 90%.
However, Wutke still thinks the idea of the "sandbox" is great, it's just that things don't go well. Santos is less optimistic. He believes that he will face difficulties for at least 1-2 more years, before Phuket returns to be as crowded as "the good old days".
Phuket officially opened to welcome guests from July 1 with the "sandbox" model. This model also helps the island become one of the few destinations that accepts visitors from more than 70 countries and territories to enter without quarantine with the condition of two vaccinations. With this advantage, the government expects to welcome at least 100,000 international visitors from July to September. But the actual number is much less. After six weeks, the number of visitors here is only about 17,000 people.
