Crisis-hit Phuket tourism operators round on govt

[Nicke]

PHUKET, June 2 (TNA) - The tourism industry in Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket today opened fire on the government, warning that its 'image-making' attempts to paper over the post-tsunami Andaman tourism crisis were plunging the region further into a period of low visitor numbers, with hotel occupancy down to a mere 10 percent.

Speaking in advance of a tourism workshop on 11 June, Mr. Chan Wongsatyanon, president of the upper southern-region branch of the Thai Tourism Service Association, described the crisis into which the Phuket tourism sector was entering.

"The tsunami on 26 December, the Indonesian earthquake on 28 March and the explosions at Hat Yai Airport have had a huge impact on Phuket tourism", he said.

"The hotel occupancy rate during April and May averaged 15-20 percent, and in June we forecast an occupancy rate of below 10 percent".

He also pointed to the fact that most airlines flying to the island had ceased operating there, with only Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines and Silk Air still offering direct Phuket flights. Even these airlines were now thinking of reducing the number of flights, as they were facing heavy losses on the route.

On 11 June, the Thai Tourism Service Association is joining with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and a number of airlines for a brainstorming session aimed at searching for ways out of the crisis.

Mr. Chan offered scant praise for government attempts to revive the region's tourism sector, saying that while the government had provided a certain level of assistance and support, there was little public participation, and all the restoration work was at government orders.

Target groups of tourists were still receiving little information on the area's revival, as the amount of news about the area's restoration was minimal in comparison with the news of the damage, he said, adding that tourists were switching to other destinations such as Vietnam and the Philippines as a result. If these tourist groups were impressed by the alternative destinations, pulling them back to Thailand would be difficult.

"The activities over the past 4-5 months have taken the form of short-term image-making, and have largely been activities aimed at domestic tourists", Mr. Chan said, adding that the province had also received little financial support for restoration work.

"The most important issue is how we can restore tourist confidence".
(TNA)

[river]

Interesting article I still think Thai Airways can come to the party here with disounted flights and maybe someone needs to do a documentary to reassure tourists that there is no danger and it's business as usual.

Currently there are no promo flights to LOS from down here but this could change in the next couple of months have to wait and see I guess.

[r3aps]

Originally Posted by river

Interesting article I still think Thai Airways can come to the party here with disounted flights and maybe someone needs to do a documentary to reassure tourists that there is no danger and it's business as usual.

Currently there are no promo flights to LOS from down here but this could change in the next couple of months have to wait and see I guess.

lets not forget the locals themselves shooting themselves in the foot with serious over pricing.
i love patong but after my last trip in which i did patong,pattaya,bkk,chang mai and khon kaen you realsie that it is so expensive compared to anywhere else in thailand.even bkk i thought was cheaper.also if its the sex tourist then pattaya is at least half if not less the price for everything than in patong.
as i said i love patong and will be back in august and i hope it gets back on its feet,but as well as more media attention everyone needs to address the pricing policy there.
steve

[Nicke]

Not much we business owners can do, the problem is the landlords who charge huge amounts of money for land and leases of land or business locations.

Phuket is expensive to be in Thailand, but still cheap with European measures.

I have been to Singapore and Malaysia and the prices is double or triple, so I still think Phuket is competive. But I also hope prices will be more normal, due to the tsunami lot of people can not make break even and I hope that make the prices go down for restaurants/bars/shops locations. The only winners is the landlords who make huge money of the current situation.

[Rex7777]

If I could somehow get away from work, I'd be there tomorrow. As I've said in another post, I think may people think that Phuket was somehow "wiped out" by the tsunami. They just don't realize that it's still 99 per-cent there.

Rex

[river]

Originally Posted by r3aps

lets not forget the locals themselves shooting themselves in the foot with serious over pricing.
i love patong but after my last trip in which i did patong,pattaya,bkk,chang mai and khon kaen you realsie that it is so expensive compared to anywhere else in thailand.even bkk i thought was cheaper.also if its the sex tourist then pattaya is at least half if not less the price for everything than in patong.
as i said i love patong and will be back in august and i hope it gets back on its feet,but as well as more media attention everyone needs to address the pricing policy there.
steve

Yes I agree with you there has to be an effort all round I think it will be tough season for many business owners.

[Finnie]

Hey.

I am a bit worried about going to Phuket now, if no tourist and prices are rising !

My wife and i have planned to stay 16 days at Patong Beach, but now im not sure thats the right thing to do.

Can anyone recomment that we go to Patong Beach and why, or should we go elsewhere.

We have been looking forward to go to visit Phuket.

Eat and Finn

[Nicke]

You dont need to worry. The prices is not rising, same as for the last years but Pattaya has always been slightly cheaper.

We have tourists, or as one customer told me yesterday, he love it now. Not too crowded and he prefered now compared to November when he was here last time.

The problem for business owners is that we did not have the high season we used to have, when we normally make money to cover for the slow season.

Come and enjoy.

[Finnie]

Thanks Nicke, we will go as planned, and i think we´ll enjoy or stay.

[geespot]

For me the biggest problem is that there seems to be little discounting of airfares

Its not that important that airfares are discounted from Bangkok to Phuket, its pretty cheap anyway BUT for example you still have to pay say London-Bangkok return, this can be around 45-50,000 baht. These routes are still pretty busy so airlines dont see the need to discount

The problem is there are few direct farangland flights into Phuket and only a handful of charter airlines

The major cost of anyones' holiday is the price of the international flight, this is the area where the discounting needs to happen in order to stimulate tourist demand

On another note, the landlords in patong are the only people making money, in the short term they are not affected by low tourist no's, they still get their rent every month and are still demanding stupid prices for new lease contracts. This is another area that needs serious consideration average price for a beer bar contract in a good soi is 1.5-2 million baht and anything from 20-30,000 baht per month. You know things are crazy when a landlord can charge 2 million baht for a new bar near the beach, where most of the hotels are still closed

If I was a landlord I would discount rent now, with a built in agreement to pay back the discount in high season or over a longer period, thus allowing struggling businesses to continue to work through what is a very quiet period indeed

But of course this Thailand where nothing really makes sense

G