All eyes on ‘Phuket sandbox’

Staying hopeful: Coffee vendors waiting for customers along Patong beach, days before the ‘Phuket Sandbox’ plan begins. — AFP

Somsak Betlao covered the outboard motor on his traditional wooden longtail boat with a tarp, wrapping up another day on Phuket’s Patong beach where not a single tourist needed his services shuttling them to nearby islands.

Since Thailand’s pandemic restrictions on travel were imposed in early 2020, tourism has fallen off a cliff, and nowhere has it been felt more than the resort island off the country’s southern coast, where nearly 95% of the economy is related to the industry.