Unlike with previous opening-up announcements, I think Prayut's prestige is on the line with this one. The government strategy has, in a few months, moved 180 degrees from zero tolerance of Covid (and an unhurried attitude towards vaccinating the population) to learning to live with Covid (and an impressively ramped-up vaccination campaign). Prayut now appears determined/desperate to get the tourist economy moving again, and I think it would look quite bad for him were this new plan to be stalled.

However the devil will be in the detail. For example, if there will be a PCR test on arrival, where will visitors be expected to stay while the results are awaited? I wonder if the arrival test might be changed to a lateral flow test to resolve this potential difficulty?

As Thailand has now been removed from the UK red list, and the Phuket sandbox scheme now only requires one to 'sandbox' for 7 days, I've just booked flights into Phuket in early November and back from Bangkok a couple of weeks later. If the worst comes to the worst, I'll spend a week in Phuket (praying that alcohol will again be allowed in restaurants) before heading up north. If the country really does open up, I'll spend just a few days enjoying the sea air, before moving on.