Phuket aims to attract 10,000 tourists per day, contributing 35 billion baht to the local economy by December, while the island is listed among the top destinations for local travellers during the upcoming long weekend.
Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, president of the Phuket Tourist Association, said the island cannot sustain itself with only 1% of the average daily arrivals enjoyed prior to the pandemic, as the island saw just 50,000 travellers arriving during the first four months of its sandbox.
As of Oct 17, the number of tourists stood at 49,651 with an average length of stay of 10.48 nights.
After the country rolls out the new reopening scheme without quarantine and area restrictions from November, Phuket in December should see 300,000 tourists with a length of stay of eight days and an average spending of around 6,800 baht per day, generating 16.32 billion baht directly for the tourism industry and creating an economic impact of around 35 billion baht.
"10,000 tourists per day will boost employment by 30%. But we have to accept that we might detect more positive cases from tourists of around 30 cases per day. If this is the case, the provincial public health system can still handle the situation," Mr Bhummikitti said.
Tourists are waiting for more details on the Thailand Pass, which is set to simplify the current certificate of entry.
Mr Bhummikitti said Russian tour operators are concerned that they might not be able to operate charter flights to Phuket if there is still a policy of putting into quarantine passengers who flew on the same flight as Covid-19 patients.
In terms of domestic tourism, hotel bookings as part of the government subsidy programme are gathering pace.
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Yuthasak Supasorn said this programme's average bookings were 50,000 room nights per day.
During Oct 20-26, when Thailand has a long holiday, reservations have surged to 63,819 room nights.
Chon Buri is the most popular destination, accounting for 10,482 rooms or 21% of the total, followed by Prachuap Khiri Khan (7,068), Phetchaburi (4,414), Phuket (3,953), Bangkok (3,770) and Chiang Mai (3,735).
"If the current booking trend continues, all 2 million room nights will be completely redeemed by December," Mr Yuthasak said.
As of Oct 19, overall bookings in this programme have already generated 1.57 billion baht, of which 210.5 million baht came from Chon Buri, followed by Prachuap Khiri Khan (190.8 million baht), Bangkok (136.5 million baht), Phuket (135.7 million baht) and Krabi (109.5 million baht).
There are 688,697 Thais and 2,536 hotels that are participating in this stimulus scheme.