Thailand Proposes $1 Per Night Deal to Entice Tourists Back to Phuket
After keeping its borders tightly closed to leisure travelers for more than a year amid COVID-19, Thailand Proposes $1 Per Night.Thailand now faces an urgent need to attract foreign tourism, which represented a fifth of its economy in pre-pandemic times.
The popular tourist island of Phuket is set to receive international visitors who are fully vaccinated without quarantine starting July 1, three months earlier than the rest of the country.
In March, Bloomberg reported that the Thai government had put in place a plan to ensure that at least 70 percent of Phuket residents would be vaccinated by the time the destination reopens.
To attract returning tourists, the Thai Tourism Board (TCT) has proposed a new 'One Night, One Dollar' campaign, in which participating hoteliers offer room rates of US $ 1 per night for foreign guests to accommodations that usually range from 1,000 baht (US $ 32). To 3000 baht (96 USD) per night.
TCT President Chamnan Srisawat said he expects that with a total of 70,000 rooms available on the island, nearly one million room nights will be offered for reservations at a dollar each, generating about $ 40 billion in July to support hotels and other tourism services.Thailand Proposes $1 Per Night Deal
Srisawat told TTG Asia that the cost differences would be subsidized by the Thai government if the plan was approved. TCT has also discussed the idea with major online travel agents and wholesalers to prepare for the reopening of Phuket. They are ready to help. ”The plan has been submitted to both the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and will be submitted by the Cabinet for consideration in June.
If the "One Night, One Dollar" show yields positive results in Phuket, tourism actors from the government and the private sector may seek to implement the same strategy in other popular tourist areas such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Koh Samui.Thailand Proposes $1 Per Night
However, the current wave of COVID-19 infections could (influence) the final decision. But we have been suffering from the epidemic for 15 months. "Only mass tourism will save us," Srisawat said.
Meteorologists say Phuket will likely receive around 500,000 visitors by the end of 2021, which is far fewer than the 6.7 million visitors in 2020, most of them in the first quarter of the year. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, in 2019, Thailand hosted nearly 40 million international tourists, whose presence generated 190 billion baht ($ 60 billion) in revenue.
