The poll ran online for two weeks and drew more than 1,700 respondents, of whom 33% were Thai nationals, 14% were local expatriate residents and 53% were foreign visitors to Phuket.
In response to ongoing travel bans, self-quarantine requirements and oblique reporting of COVID cases in Phuket, The Phuket News asked readers the simple question: “Even if Phuket had one or more confirmed cases of people infected with the coronavirus, if those people were quickly identified and moved to isolation, should this affect tourists’ in their decision to come to Phuket?”
A total of 23% of all respondent voted, “Yes, tourists should cancel their trips to anywhere for now to help stop the virus from spreading,” and a further 16% of all respondents voted, “Yes, tourists should cancel their trips to Phuket and elsewhere in Thailand, as there is little confidence in measures taken to contain the spread of the virus.”
However, 52% of all respondents voted, “No, the virus is already spreading everywhere. It should not affect their decision at all as long reasonable precautions are taken.”
The remaining 9% voted, “It depends on whether the people contracted the virus while in Phuket.”
In a breakdown by demographic, 23.06% of all Thai nationals who took part in the poll, 25.21% of all local expatriate residents who took part in the poll and 21.91% of all foreign visitors to Phuket who voted in the poll responded, “Yes, tourists should cancel their trips to anywhere for now to help stop the virus from spreading.”
Similarly, it was the local expatriate residents who held the least faith in local officials in taking reasonable precautions to prevent the disease from spreading in Phuket, with one quarter (25.21%) of all expats on the island voting, “Yes, tourists should cancel their trips to Phuket and elsewhere in Thailand, as there is little confidence in measures taken to contain the spread of the virus.”
Only 15.15% of all Thai nationals who voted in the poll believed likewise, and only 14.18% of all foreign visitors to Phuket who voted in the poll believing the same.
An overwhelming majority of all respondents in each demographic voted that people should be able to come to Phuket, as long as precautions were taken.
A total 52.15% of all Thai nationals who voted in the poll responded, “No, the virus is already spreading everywhere. It should not affect their decision at all as long reasonable precautions are taken.”
A further 47.11% of all local expatriate residents who voted in the poll voted the same.
The most telling statistic was that 53.06% of all foreign visitors to Phuket who voted in the poll agreed: “It should not affect their decision at all as long reasonable precautions are taken.”
For the full poll results, click here.
If your preferred response was not available in the poll, fell free to post it in the comments section below.