"Do you think Phuket will really open to foreign tourists on July 1?"
In a recent poll conducted on Linkedin.com, we posed the above question.
From the poll, we received 365 respondents who voted either yes or no. The respondents were made up of hospitality leaders, General Managers, Hotel owners and people with a vested interest in seeing Phuket open. The poll ran for 3 days.
With much hype about the potential of the reopening of tourism-related businesses, I was interested to hear what the experts thought. The government had their say. They seem confident but they are not the ones on the front lines who see the reality of the business.
The results were very evenly split with the "No" camp just edging it by 1%.
Yes 49% No 51%
You can view the poll here
Some comments from the poll:
Clive Nagington - Crisis Operations Manager at Rembrandt Hotel & Suites Bangkok
"I am quite positive about a return to some international tourism Q3 & Q4, without quarantine. It will be very much drip-feed. But a welcome start nonetheless"
Ciaran McNeill - Resort General Manager - TUI BLUE Khao Lak and X10 Khaolak Resort
"I’m feeling positive we will see some form of arrivals from July onwards but I think Q4 is more realistic in terms of Increased numbers. I think also flight availability will need to be looked at along with how Europe handles this pandemic crisis. Right now vaccine rollout is very slow with the exception of the UK but they have a travel ban. A lot of wheels need to be turned to see some increased arrivals. But truthfully resorts will need to pivot and continue to focus on domestic tourism combined with whatever international tourism comes its way"
Gian Andrea Rossi - Ale iacta est
"Yes, it will open... We will have for sure few cases of covid19 around... Let's hope that we will not lockdown again"
