Thailand Offers ‘Golf Quarantine’ to Lure Back Luxury Tourists
‘We want to build a good image, a brand that we are a golf paradise.’
by Teirra Kamolvattanavith
January 22, 2021, 5:52am

Things are looking up for golfers itching to hit the links in Thailand, where visitors can now play during quarantine as part of plans to kickstart a tourism-reliant economy running on fumes.

Approved in December, “Golf Quarantine” aims to attract high-end travelers to the kingdom as it faces a new wave of COVID-19 infections while also building confidence that the country can safely welcome tourists over the long run.

“We want to build a good image, a brand that we are a golf paradise,” Thapanee Kiatpaibool, the deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), told VICE World News. “When people see it, they will make Thailand the number one golf destination after the COVID situation normalizes.”

In 2019, Thailand saw about 40 million foreign visitors, who helped bring in more than $60 billion in tourism revenue. About 800,000 of them were international golfers, said Mark Siegl, the managing director of GolfAsian, one of the region’s leading tour operators for the sport.

While that only makes up a percentage of total visitors, Siegl said foreign golfers spend about three times as much as non-golfing tourists.

“They’re more luxury and that type of tourist that has a lot lower environmental impact. They’re not going to the sensitive environmental places like national parks and islands that are very sensitive to a large number of people,” Siegl said.

So far six resorts in the country, whose pristine courses have hosted international tournaments and nurtured the talents of several top Thai pros, have been approved to take part in the unique idea.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vg8e/ ... y-tourists

Alex wrote: ↑Sun Jan 24, 2021 7:07 pm Golfers, just another pipe dream... I'm sure a few hundred will come!

Personally and unrelated to Covid, I've always thought Thailand is a pretty horrible place for golf. Most of the time it's too hot, or too wet, or both. Then there's night golf in the company of mosquitoes. Currently the air is outright toxic in most parts of Thailand with the exception of the South. In the last 15 years, I spent about 14 years combined in Thailand and maybe 3 months combined in Ireland, but played more golf in Ireland. Not by coincidence!

You may have gone to the wrong clubs

This is pretty interesting

More people should be taking advantage of this Thai quarantine program. If you have the time and money and can stand 15 days of quarantine, you then get released to enjoy the Thai beaches to yourself without the tourists. You'll make back a lot of hotel quarantine money because hotels are 50%-80% off.

Luxury quarantine available in Phuket:
Rich foreign tourists to arrive Sunday, will debut villa quarantine
published : 17 Feb 2021 at 14:57
Seventy rich foreign tourists travelling in a "bubble" will enter Thailand on Sunday and go into villa quarantine at an upscale resort complex in Phuket, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said they would be the first tourists to make use of villa quarantine.

They will be staying at Sri Panwa Hotel in Phuket, which advertises itself as a 5 star hotel and resort with private beach.

"Although the government approved measures for villa quarantine long ago....their arrival will be the debut of villa quarantine," Dr Taweesilp said.

The hotel management had provided details of its villa quarantine measures for the 70 visitors.

According to Dr Taweesilp, they are rich nationals of Brazil, Canada, France, Denmark, Ukraine and the United States.

They have been travelling together in a "bubble", on a chartered aircraft, and have been repeatedly tested for Covid-19 in the countries they visited. They will arrive from Indonesia.

A Sri Panwa representative presented the personal profiles of the tourists to a sub-committee of CCSA on Wednesday morning.

For the first five days of their 14-day quarantine the visitors will stay in their rooms. After that, they can leave their rooms and make use of the facilities within the grounds of the hotel, Dr Taweesilp said.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... quarantine

You have to remember Thailand doesn't really want us dirty farangs in their country. Just the clean (rich) Chinese...

Thailand isn't perfect, but it still beats the fuck out of California.

The TAT from the first group of Quarantine golfers arrived in Thailand today and stayed at Athitaya Golf Course

Forty one South Koreans were seen off at Incheon International Airport yesterday evening by the Seoul TAT station representative Jiranee Phoonnayom.
They are the first group to come from the country for so-called "Golf Quarantine" in Thailand.

They will be staying at the Artitaya Country Club in Nakhon Nayok for 14 days then will play at Artitaya in Chiang Mai.
Jiranee gave them all complimentary Spa Vouchers and told Siam Rath that this would bring in 13.1 million baht over two months.

The Koreans were paying 5,571 baht per person per day plus 69,000 baht on top for the quarantine.

The TAT in Seoul had conducted a golf webinar to promote golf quarantine and had worked with a leading golf travel agent in South Korea.
The group were met by Artitaya chairman Su-hei Lee then boarded Korean Air KE 653 due to arrive in Bangkok at 11.20 last night.

https://siamrath.co.th/n/221161