A State Of Flux For Phuket Hotels

The first week of the New Year has brought a new sense of high anxiety for Phuket hoteliers.

Despite the island having no reported current Covid-19 cases, the government issued a new set of recommended guidelines yesterday.

For clarity, there is no mandatory quarantine in Phuket for travelers from Bangkok and the airport is operating normally with domestic flights.

That said, the governor has recommended that travelers from ‘red zone’ areas undergo a swab test if there is a suspicion of symptoms and recommends a 14-day optional quarantine.

Post New Year air demand has been reduced considerably back of the proliferation of red-zone issues throughout Thailand and hotel cancellations have been widespread, hence flight reductions are a reaction to this.

While schools on the island have ordered closed from the 7th through the 20th of January, there is no work from home order for businesses at present.

The provincial government is set to launch a digital contact tracing app shortly that will reportedly be implemented on a broad basis. And the expectation is that more protocols will be forthcoming.

Meantime there is no lockdown but for hoteliers, the remainder of January and likely Q1 is expected to be highly volatile.

The vaccine remains a game changer but looks to be Q2 until traction is expected on that front.

Two of the best online resources for tracking Thailand’s Covid-19 tourism issues are:

Dept of Disease Control

Tourism Authority of Thailand Newsroom