Post-Pandemic Travel – Family Activities in Phuket
Phuket is an attractive destination for tourists with its own romantic beaches. Every year many tourists come to Phuket to visit the beautiful scenery, delicious food and special festivals. Tourists swam in hotel pools, strolled the postcard-perfect beaches of Phuket and received COVID-19 test results within 24 hours of arrival.
While travellers from other parts of Thailand are subject to strict 14-day hotel quarantines and “sandbox” plans, visitors were allowed to wander the entire island, the country’s largest, lounging on white beaches, jet skiing and dining in restaurants, clubs and bars that remained closed in the evenings. After 14 days, visitors could travel anywhere in Thailand without further restrictions.
Visitors from other popular destinations such as Phuket and Koh Samui will find empty beaches and discounted accommodation. For lack of tourists, many shops, restaurants and hotels along the southern beaches of Patong, Kata and Karon have closed in southern Phuket.
Foreign tourists travelling to Phuket after July 1 must fulfil several requirements. Only visitors from countries that are no longer on the list of high, low or medium risk countries, including most countries in Europe, the Middle East, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, will be admitted if they fly to the island under the plan, which allows for a controlled transfer from Bangkok airport. If you come from another country, the quarantine exemption does not apply to you, but you can waive the 14-day quarantine when you arrive in Phuket’s capital.
If you are planning to take your children on holiday to Phuket, you will be glad to know that children under 6 years of age are exempt from quarantine. If your child is between 6 and 18 years old and has not been vaccinated, he must undergo a rapid test on arrival at the airport, but that is it.
The Thai Tourism Authority announced that Phuket on 1 July will be the first destination in Thailand to re-open to vaccinated foreign visitors without quarantine. Travellers are quarantined for 14 days in a state-approved quarantine facility or an alternative state quarantine facility (ASQ). The 14-day mandatory quarantine of the Phuket Sandbox Initiative may be lifted for vaccinated travellers, but that does not mean you can travel to Thailand.
Thailand plans to focus its post-pandemic strategy on attracting upscale tourists to holiday islands such as Phuket, Samui, Phangan and Phi Phi where they will be re-housed in luxury properties for a minimum period before moving on to a new site. You can stay in safe and private family villas in Phuket and enjoy all the fun family activities on offer, such as boat tours, various national parks (with waterfalls, wildlife, etc), and so much more.
Following a surge in coronavirus cases in Thailand, the government has pushed a program known as Phuket Sandbox to open the resort island off the southern coast of the country, where almost 95% of the economy is linked to industry, and to vaccinate visitors. Hotel quarantine was mandatory across the country, but tourists in Phuket were allowed to roam the island but not travel to other parts of the country for a fortnight. The government hoped the program would revive the tourism sector, which accounted for 20% of Thailand’s economy before the pandemic.
