OPINION by Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com
Being on the ground in Phuket over the past sixteen months of the pandemic I have experienced the up’s and downs of pandemic tourism firsthand. Over the past month with the Sandbox program coming into place, we have seen over 13,000 travellers arrive at the Phuket International Airport.
“What is so important about the Phuket Sandbox” goes deeper than its perception of as tourism play and the reality of who the travellers are. In the past weeks I have seen the joy of families reunited, partners joined again, residents returning and businesspeople again restarting commerce.
The Sandbox is not just about Phuket, but it’s about Thailand and providing a safe environment for international travel. It’s not about shelving domestic tourism and only looking at foreign guests, but has embraced returning Thais and allow people, whose…
