Phuket

aussie dollar · #1 10-01-2005, 08:09

HOPE IT OPENS ON THE 18TH IS A REALLY GOOD NIGHT OUT

Phuket Fantasy shuts its doors

Phuket _ Phuket Fantasy amusement park has been temporarily closed because of a sharp drop in the number of visitors following the tsunami disaster.

Pin Kewkacha, chairman of Phuket Fantasy Plc, said his amusement park has suffered a loss of 150-200 million baht due to the lack of visitors. So he decided to close it from Jan 8-18.

The park was usually visited by 3,000-6,000 tourists a day.

The number has dropped to about 15 a day. Tour companies had cancelled their reservations until the end of next month.

Mr Pin said Phuket usually hosted about one million tourists, 25% Thais and 75% foreigners, from January to March, but the number of visitors had virtually dropped to zero. The problem was now critical for the 500,000 people who work in tourism-related businesses in the six tsunami-hit provinces, he said

stevem · #2 10-01-2005, 12:28

Its funny how they were making big noises about how they were still opened immediately after the event.

LivinLOS · #3 10-01-2005, 14:13

Is it any different from anything / anywhere else ??

They wanted to advertise they were open and uneffected initially in the hope of keepig some customers.. In the face of facts they have to give up and control costs.

This kind of hard decision seems to be effecting many places.. Lets just hope that Feb brings enough arrivals to keep peoples heads above water (awful unintended pun)..

aussie dollar · #4 10-01-2005, 14:23

think it would be quite a large employer of thai's too.
lets hope your right and feb brings plenty of tourists !

andy50 · #5 10-01-2005, 20:15

i cant see tourists suddenly appearing in feb, -call me a pessimist if u want to---only 15 visitors to the park in one day!!!its much worse thak i imagined-

LivinLOS · #6 10-01-2005, 22:04

Me also.. Trying to be upbeat as obviously some BM's own bars and businesses here..

Just been with a hotel manager of a Sansabai hotel.. they are thinking of cancelling bookings and closing soon.. Already lost some of thier staff to keep costs down.. Normally full now only have a few guests.

I also just heard that Terry had the BBC in Amigos tonight / today./. Doing a piece on how desperately needed visitors to the place are..