Phuket Opinion: The Phuket Vegetarian Festival, a battle for spiritual authenticity

By The Phuket News

 

A young boy joins devotees carrying an image of a Chinese god during a street procession held for the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. Photo: IMAGE Asia / file

 

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana announcing that the Vegetarian Festival this year is expected to bring a B2 billion boost to the local economy would normally be perceived as good news. Yet doubts hover when it is understood that – even if that figure is not inflated – just five years ago the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) gave a predicted estimated tourism revenue for the festival period of B3bn.

 

However, Governor Phakaphong did give one figure that lent a lot of credence to the B2bn expectation: that the pre-festival occupancy rate for hotels in Phuket Town and other key areas associated with the festival stood at 65%. That is not a figure hoteliers would want to shout about, not even in the “low season”.

 

The reasons given for the current slump in tourism are many and oft-reported: a global economic slowdown, the strong baht value hitting tourists on exchange rates, the US-China trade war, the list goes on. Yet the Vegetarian Festival itself has suffered a slump in popularity of its own in recent years.

Read more at https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-opinion-the-phuket-vegetarian-festival-a-battle-for-spiritual-authenticity-73144.php#6vxrc8jarXVAZxtt.99

 

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2019-10-07

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4 hours ago, webfact said:

Yet the Vegetarian Festival itself has suffered a slump in popularity of its own in recent years.

Maybe due to vegetarians all being stuck to buses, trains and roads with super-glue 

Vegetarian my ................... Wife had me eat that stuff all week; dripping in god-knows what oil, super sweet and I can go on. Nothing veg at all with most of the stuff on the menus.