The majority of souvenir shops, restaurants and massage shops in the Khao Lak area of Phangnga province have seen no signs of recovery despite the country having reopened to foreign tourists for over three weeks.

The beach-resort city is still quiet with only a small number of visitors, mostly from Germany.

Jennifer Voracet, a 32-year-old German tourist, and three of her friends are visiting Khao Lak.

After spending two weeks in Khao Lak, she and her friends were at the Andaman Hub Medical Centre in Takua Pa district having an RT-PCR test before taking a flight back home.

She said the process of having Covid-19 tests in Thailand is not complicated, with the first time being at the airport with the result coming back very quickly and the last one at the local hospital.

The Andaman Medical Centre has been offering RT-PCR tests for tourists who need to test negative before taking flights back home. The centre can carry out 60 tests a day, at 2,400 baht each, with the result coming within 24 hours.

According to the Phangnga Tourism Association, revenue from tourists is around 54 billion baht a year normally, but during the Covid-19 outbreak, it plunged to 30 million baht.

The majority of tourists arriving now were from Europe and Russia, the association added.