Phuket, Thailand’s tourist island, plans to receive travelers from October this year without these new visitors going through a 14-day quarantine at a hotel.
Bloomberg says the country’s main island, known for its luxurious resorts and idyllic waters, has a strategy to buy enough vaccine doses to vaccinate 70% of its nearly 400,000 residents by 1 September, thus localizing The population has reached herd immunity.
According to a Bloomberg report, the program will be funded by several business groups, including the Phuket Chamber of Commerce and Phuket Tourism Association.
“We can’t wait any longer. If we have to wait, we won’t survive,” Bhumikitti Ruktengam, president of the tourism association, told Bloomberg. “If we miss this winter season, we have to wait another year.”
The scheme called “Phuket First of October” is yet to be approved by the government. According to Bloomberg, Phuket is considering purchasing Chinese synovac biotech vaccine supplements, which the researchers found to be 50.4% effective.
Thailand re-opened to foreign travelers in October with a new special tourist visa program, allowing visitors to stay in the country for nine months. However, the vacancies were barely filled.
In 2020, the country, which generated more than $ 64 billion in 2018 from tourism, benefited much less than the previous one, totaling $ 28 billion.
