MALAYSIAN and Indonesian tourists are not allowed to visit Thailand under its Phuket tourism sandbox scheme, said the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
The Phuket sandbox scheme allows fully vaccinated foreign tourists to visit the island without quarantine and they can also visit some other provinces in Thailand after spending at least seven days in the resort island.
TAT’s Kuala Lumpur office director Nongyao Jirundorn said Malaysian tourists are not allowed to take leisure trips overseas and the country has been excluded from the Phuket sandbox approval list, reports the Bangkok Post.
Prior to the pandemic, Malaysia was the second largest market for Thai tourism with 4.2 million tourists generating 107 billion baht, and Thailand was the most popular outbound destination.
Some 60 per cent came by land, with the most popular destination being Songkhla, where the Sadao border checkpoint is located, followed by Bangkok, Krabi, Phuket and Chiang Mai.
She said although Malaysians were interested in the sandbox programme, the Malaysian government was promoting domestic trips, with more than 80 per cent of its population being fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, TAT’s Jakarta office director Sophon Tantayotai said Indonesian tourists can take overseas trips and travel sentiment on social media remains positive.
However, Indonesian tourists have to undergo a 14-day quarantine because Indonesia is listed as a high-risk country following a surge in Covid-19 cases since July, which peaked at 60,000 cases per day.
Indonesian authorities report roughly 20 per cent of its population or 46 million people, are fully vaccinated.
The pandemic situation has improved since mid-August as daily infections have dropped to between 3,000 and 5,000.
He said Indonesian travellers also face an eight-day quarantine when returning, which is another obstacle for visitors who on average spent only five to seven days in Thailand before the pandemic.
“The Phuket sandbox alone might not attract huge demand as tourists would like to combine Bangkok in their plans. Reopening the capital will help revive volume from the Indonesian market,” Sophon said.
However, foreigners are not allowed to visit Indonesia for leisure and international flights remain grounded.
He said if international flights can restart and travel restrictions are lifted, the Indonesian market will rebound strongly by next February, as there were 20,280 seats available per month on flights to Thailand pre-Covid-19.
In 2019, there were 709,613 travellers from Indonesia to Thailand generating 18.2 billion baht.
The Post also reports that Phuket has revamped its health surveillance measures to attract more domestic tourists and ease the workload on healthcare workers screening incoming visitors by road.
Provincial governor Narong Woonciew said more than 30,000 people have travelled to Phuket through the sandbox tourism programme that was launched in July.
As the high tourism season from November to February is approaching, many domestic tourists are expected to arrive.
This has prompted changes to public health measures imposed at the Chatchai road checkpoint, where much land traffic to and from Phuket passes.
Up to 800 people pass through the checkpoint daily, creating a heavy workload for medical and health workers.
Narong said visitors are now able to test for Covid-19 at accredited medical outlets in their provinces and submit the results to officials once they reach the Chatchai checkpoint instead of having an on-the-spot swab test there.
The province also intends to complete vaccinating 200,000 people with booster doses by the end of this month.
The governor said the reason Phuket’s active cases have not gone down is because the province’s communicable disease control office has been on a mass-testing campaign targeting up to 3,000 people a day, with around six per cent found to be Covid-19 positive.
He said there are now enough beds for symptomatic patients and assured visitors they will get adequate care if they fall sick while holidaying in the province.
Source: New Straits Times
