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Thai government approves tourism opening plan for Phuket

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The Thai government has officially given the green light to the plan to reopen the tourist island of Phuket to foreign tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 from July 1. However, visitors to Phuket will have to stay on the island for at least 14 days before they can leave for other provinces.

Phuket province is rushing to vaccinate against Covid-19 to prepare to open tourism on July 1. (Photo: Phuket News) The Thai government has officially given the green light to the plan to reopen the tourist island of Phuket to foreign tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 from July 1. However, visitors to Phuket will have to stay on the island for at least 14 days before they can leave for other provinces. Under the chairmanship of Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the meeting of the Center for Handling the Thai Economic Situation (Cesa) on June 4 reviewed and officially approved the reopening plan. Phuket tourism is submitted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of Thailand. Accordingly, from July 1, Phuket will become the first province in Thailand to welcome back foreign tourists and exempt those who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. According to Thailand’s Minister of Sports and Tourism Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, this tourism opening program called “Phuket Tourism Sandbox” will be seen as a model for the opening up of Thailand’s entire tourism industry. However, in the approved plan, foreign tourists coming to Phuket will have to stay on the island for 14 days, a week longer than previously planned, before they can continue their journey to other destinations. in Thailand. Mr. Phiphat said officials attending the meeting also agreed to reopen to tourism for Bangkok, Cha-am district of Phetchaburi province, Hua Hin district of Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Pattaya city of Chon Buri province. , Chiang Mai and Buri Ram provinces from October 1. However, at this meeting, CESA has not approved the plan to reopen Krabi and Koh Samui to international visitors from July because the agency wants to evaluate the results of the reopening of Phuket within the next two months. According to Mr. Phiphat, the main reason why these 10 provinces were selected to participate in the pilot tourism opening program in the fourth quarter of this year is because these provinces bring a huge source of income from tourism. In 2019, the total tourism income of these provinces reached 1.5 trillion baht (equivalent to 48 billion USD). There are already a number of Israeli tourists scheduled to arrive in Phuket on July 7, while visitors from the US will fly to the tourist island two days later. Mr. Phiphat also expressed confidence that at least 70% of Phuket residents and 100% of local tourism staff will be fully vaccinated before the time the island opens. As of June 2, about 60% of the 466,587 residents of Phuket have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, of which 98,795 have been fully vaccinated.

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