First non-quarantine tourists take advantage of their Phuket "sandbox"

Fresh foreign tourists arriving on the Thai island of Phuket were allowed to move freely without quarantine on Friday, the first in more than a year.

The first tourists who took part in the Phuket Sandbox (Phuket sandbox) programme seemed thrilled on Friday for their first day of vacation on Thailand's largest island.

Phuket Sandbox is a pilot project that marks the beginning of the process of reopening Thailand without quarantine. The aim is to accept travellers from abroad who have been previously vaccinated without imposing on them the health conditions that have been in force for the rest of the country since last year. However, the wearing of facial masks in most public places remains mandatory, as well as a number of other health rules.

In Phuket, this weekend, families could be seen swimming in hotel pools and other tourists walking along postcard beaches after receiving their Covid-19 test results as planned within 24 hours of their arrival.

"this is the perfect place to relax and make a little emptiness in our minds, in our heads, after a long period of time," said Sigal Baram, lying by the pool, arriving the day before Israel with her husband and friends. The group was among the first to arrive in the country.

But while five-star hotels and restaurants are looking forward to being able to welcome tourists again, street vendors do not expect to benefit from the operation, at least in its early days, as tourists mainly visit large hotels.

"there is no way for street vendors to collect money from tourists from abroad, but rather to go to hotels and restaurants," says Yupin Papor, a masseuse who lost her job during the pandemic and became a food saleswoman on the beach.

Thailand lost just over €40 billion in tourism revenues last year, with foreign arrivals falling by 83%.

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Phuket has been particularly affected by job losses and business closures.

"I see the shops closed. It's a big difference for me from before," said Omar Alraeesi from the United Arab Emirates, who comes to Phuket every year.

10 million people were travelling to Phuket each year prior to the pandemic, and the government and the tourism sector hope that this first step towards reopening the country will help save the troubled economy.?

The government expects about 100,000 foreign tourists to visit Phuket in the third quarter and generate 8.9 billion baht (234 million euros) in revenues. The initial estimate was 129,000 visitors.

If the Phuket Sandbox is going well, the authorities plan to replicate the programme in other popular destinations such as Krabi, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha has set a target for Thailand to open quarantine free to vaccinated travellers from mid-October, believing it is time to learn how to live with the Covid-19.?

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) estimated at the end of June that the economy is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels around the first quarter of 2023.

The central bank had reduced its 2021 growth forecast a few days earlier to 1.8% from 3.0% previously, estimating that the number of foreign tourists this year would not exceed 700,000 visitors. For 2022, BOT expects growth of 3.9% and 10 million foreign visitors.