COVID-19 has really shaken things up for the MICE industry, but as the virus begins to recede, Phuket meeting hotels will begin to reopen, allowing conferences and events to take place once again. In fact, with Thailand as one of the first places to begin reopening having contained the virus exceptionally quickly, a Phuket hotel would be an excellent choice of venue. However, there are still safety measures that you should consider to make your event as safe as possible and keep attendees calm and confident.

Thermal scanning

One of the quickest and easiest ways to determine if someone is suffering from an illness that could be COVID is to check if they have a fever. While infrared thermometers are certainly the cheapest option, they are somewhat impractical because they slow entry and exit to the Phuket meeting hotel to a crawl, forcing everyone to wait in line for their turn to have their forehead checked. An infrared camera or thermal scanning system will achieve the same results with people simply walking past the lens, making things much quicker.

Social distancing

Perhaps one of the most popular new terms to enter common usage in 2020, social distancing is a fairly reliable means of reducing infection rates. For events, that means keeping chairs and tables spaced at least 2 metres from each other. It is, of course, more difficult to keep large crowds separated, so the post-presentation spaces will need careful management, but you can at least keep everyone evenly spaced during the talks. This will naturally require that you hire a slightly larger Phuket conference venue than you would normally need, but this is the new normal, after all.

Food and beverages

Catering is, of course, an essential element of any event, but the typical choice of a buffet may now be an impractical one. Instead, you may need to choose seated dining (with places well spaced, of course). You could even ask your Phuket meeting hotel to prepare little packed lunches for each guest.

Hygiene and sanitation

The advantage of choosing a Phuket meeting hotel over other conference venues is that hotels are already required to maintain an extremely high level of cleanliness. That level has naturally been taken up a notch or two thanks to COVID, but the point remains that you can be generally confident that the venue will be as clean and hygienic as it can be. Hotels are now generally providing hand sanitiser stations around their properties, too, taking care of one of the most basic requirements of any event in the post-COVID world.