More than 14,000 foreign tourists took advantage of the Phuket Sandbox, launched on July 1, during the first month. Participants must stay at approved hotels on the island for 14 days, during which they take 3 PCR tests for Covid-19. After 14 days with negative results, they can travel freely throughout the country.
According to the Tourism Board of Thailand, most of the "sandbox guests" (1,802) came from the United States. Phuket also welcomed 1,558 visitors from the UK, 1,455 Israelis, 847 people from Germany and 839 from France.
The Thai government is preparing to open the country to tourists in mid-October: as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said, it is necessary to give people the opportunity to earn money as soon as possible. To do this, they must first be vaccinated - the head of the Cabinet of Ministers calls for everything to be done so that by the beginning of the high tourist season most Thais receive at least one dose of the vaccine. The island of Phuket became a field for an experiment in receiving tourists.
In August, according to government plans, the Phuket Sandbox program will be scaled up to other islands. The opening of the resorts of Krabi and Phang Nga for fully vaccinated foreign tourists should take place very soon.
