On a follow up to JackTheBat;s post.  I saw this on CNA about the Phuket opening.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/ ... et-vaccine-14497980

Thailand to waive COVID-19 quarantine for vaccinated tourists who visit Phuket

BANGKOK: Thailand on Friday (Mar 26) announced plans for an experimental quarantine-free model in ultra-popular beach destination Phuket, as the kingdom attempts to resuscitate its pandemic-battered economy.

Thailand has imposed massive restrictions visitor arrivals in order to stem the spread of COVID-19, but discouraging tourism has led to its economy recording the worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The impact has reverberated across the country's services sectors - bruising entertainment, retail, hotels and restaurants.

Thailand's tourism tsar announced Friday that Phuket - renowned for its sandy beaches and sapphire waters - will be used as a test.

Tourists who have been vaccinated will be allowed to travel there without mandatory hotel quarantine.

Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said the "Phuket sandbox model" would begin some time from July onwards.

Foreign visitors will be required to have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, a certificate signifying negative test results, and to download a mobile tracking application.

Yuthasak also confirmed that six tourism-reliant cities will have slashed quarantine times for vaccinated travellers beginning next month - including beach resorts Krabi, Ko Samui and Pattaya.

Arrivals will undergo a seven-day quarantine period and will be permitted in areas around their hotels - a marked difference for current visitors who are required to stay confined to their rooms for two weeks.

The plans still require final approval by the government.

About 40 million tourists were expected to arrive in 2020, but only 6.7 million managed to enter the kingdom, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

Thailand's tough approach has kept the coronavirus largely in check - the kingdom has registered about 28,500 cases in a population of 70 million.

@ anabikumi: Sorry I spelled your handle wrong! Thanks for this and other contributions. CNA is a good source for ASEAN news, although they can't shed any light on Cambodia's COVID outbreak this month. I'll post the Khmer Times story if anybody's interested, but there's no corroboration--it's all unnamed sources from one local news outlet. It's quite a story though, and you can bet Thai authorities are keeping a close eye on this one.

The latest Bangkok Post article is here:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/busi ... to-rekindle-tourism

According to that: "Minister of Tourism and Sport Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn on Friday said the Centre for Economic Situation Administration (CESA), chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, approved a three-stage roadmap to reopen six major tourism provinces -- Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Surat Thani (Koh Samui), Chon Buri (Pattaya) and Chiang Mai -- to vaccinated foreign visitors."

The idea seems to be that if you can prove you've been vaccinated to the satisfaction of Thai Immigration, you can enjoy a 7-day quarantine instead of 14 days...the latter is really 15 or so but no idea about the 7-day. Further: "From July to September, vaccinated tourists can visit Phuket without having to undergo quarantine under the so-called "Phuket Tourism Sandbox" programme, which is touted as a model for the reopening of the kingdom's tourism industry, Mr Phiphat said.

He said that between October and December, Phuket's sandbox model will be applied to five other tourism provinces. A full reopening of the country is expected to take place in January, Mr Phiphat said."

That's a roadmap and is roughly in line with real-world expectations, although this plan also assumes a level of vaccination among the residents of said provinces/cities. People who know more about these matters say that nothing is actualized until it's published in the Royal Gazette, which seems to be the final arbiter.

Stay tuned!

JtB