‘Not fair’: Backlash against Thai tourism businesses seeking early vaccines

* Phuket tourism businesses push for early vaccines

* Online petition faces social media backlash

* Thailand tourism numbers plunged 83% last year

PHUKET, Thailand, March 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A year after Thailand closed its borders to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Phuket’s famous Walking Street, lined with colourful shophouses, is empty, its white sand beaches deserted.

But a proposal by local businesses to vaccinate a majority of the island’s adult population of about 300,000 before Oct. 1, in time for the main tourist season so that inoculated foreign visitors may holiday without quarantine, could change that.

The Thai government, which kicked off vaccinations on Feb. 28 and sent some doses to tourism-reliant provinces including Phuket, has not agreed to the “Phuket First October” plan.

Human rights groups and others…