Thai tourist island of Phuket gets Covid jabs first in race to offer quarantine-free holidays | Coronavirus | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/05/thailand-tourism-phuket-covid-jabs-quarantine-holidays
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InThailand, it’s the all-important tourism sector that has jumped to the head of the Covid-19 vaccination line, with the country’s most popular resort island embarking on a mass inoculation programme two months ahead of the rest of Thailand.The island of Phuket aims to deliver shots to at least 460,000 people – the majority of its population – as it gears up for 1 July, when vaccinated overseas visitors will no longer be required to quarantine. Phuket also has its own international airport, which means tourists should be able to visit the island without posing any coronavirus risk to the rest of Thailand’s population.“If we can build immunity for 70-80% of the population on the island, we can receive foreign tourists who have been vaccinated without the need for quarantine,” Phuket’s Vice Governor Piyapong Choowong told Reuters.
While medical workers, members of the cabinet and elderly people were the first to be vaccinated, Thailand’s decision to prioritise Phuket over other parts of the country underscores the central role of tourism to the economy.
Spending by foreign tourists accounted for 11-12% of GDP pre-pandemic and the sector has been devastated by the virus with 1.45m jobs lost since last year.Just 6.7 million foreign tourists visited Thailand in 2020, spending $11bn. That compares with nearly 40 million in 2019, when they spent $61bn. The government wants to see at least 100,000 tourists come to Phuket in the third quarter. It also hopes that as vaccinations worldwide progress it will see a spike in demand in the fourth quarter and that nationwide 6.5 million visitors will have spent 350bn baht ($11bn) by the end of the year.
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