Phuket reservations slow down for August

Reservation bookings in the Phuket/Phuket Sandbox are slowing down for August amidst speeding up Covid cases on the island.

Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, an official from the Tourism Authority of Thailand says hotel reservations for August has gone down by 5% over the last couple of days.

As of Thursday, a person shy of 13,000 people had visited Phuket. 30 travellers tested positive for Covid.

The Sandbox scheme has slowly gained steam since the grand reopening on the first of this month. Hotels that had been certified by the SHA plus scheme report 298,858 bookings for “room nights” in the third quarter. Of that number, 192,403 room nights had been booked for July, 98,735 rooms nights were for August, and 7,720 room nights were for September.

Siripakorn says the average stay per person is 11 nights.

Kongsak Khoopongsakorn, President of the Thai Hotels Association’s Southern Chapter, says tourists had expressed concerns about the Covid situation, so hotel proprietors have been trying to alleviate those anxieties by telling them about the prevention measures already in place.

Reportedly, there have not been any early checkouts from Phuket Sandbox visitors.

Kongsak says even more hotels intend to reopen in the final quarter. He claims this will shoot the occupancy rate up to 20%. The President went on to say that the tourism prospects for Phuket can fluctuate depending on the domestic market, which can be tricky to predict regarding the recovery period due to the latest outbreak.

The provincial order on Thursday imposed even stricter restrictions lasting from August 3 to August 16 which relates to all vehicles getting into Phuket, with the exception of essential travel.

Phuket provincial governor Narong Wunsiew says officials don’t want to shut the island down so soon after reopening it. He finished his remarks with a patriotic flourish, saying because they don’t want to reshut down, they have to increase preventive measures and cut back on some activities to save Phuket, the Sandbox, and the country.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post