THAI seat bookings from Europe a boost
Thai Airways on Saturday revealed that around 1,300 seats have been booked in advance for visiting Phuket in July under the sandbox scheme.
The airline said that until September there will be flights once a week, flying directly from five European cities to Phuket. The flights are from Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Paris every Friday, and from London and Zurich every Saturday.
This was a way to draw foreign tourists back to Thailand, in a bid to boost the economy hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis.
The Phuket Sandbox opened on July 1. Under the scheme, tourists who can verify they have been inoculated against Covid-19 and test negative can fly into Phuket and move around freely in the province without having to quarantine.
After spending 14 days in Phuket and if they still test negative, the tourists can then travel to other parts of Thailand.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand on Tuesday, a total of 13,000 rooms in Phuket hotels and resorts had been booked by foreign tourists.