Tourism downturn: Bridge between Koh Samui and mainland could bring in more tourists

 

Picture: thebangkokinsight

 

During the recent visit of tourism and sports minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn to Koh Samui a plan to connect the holiday island by bridge to the mainland was mooted. 

 

This is the idea of hotelier and designer Wirat Pongchababnapha who thinks it will stimulate tourism. His design incorporates a to and from lane for bicycles, he said.

 

A graphic on "thebangkokinsight" showed an 18 kilometer structure costing an estimated 30 billion baht. It would go from near the current ferry terminal (Donsak) in Ao Thong Nian, Khanom, Nakhon Sri Thammarat to the southern tip of Koh Samui at Phuaka. 

 

The media printed no comments from the minister or even stated if the proposal had been seriously discussed. 

 

They said that the tourism situation on Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao was dire. A bridge to the main island might help with visits to the other islands. 

 

At present there are just two ferries operating in the day and a nighttime speedboat. Flights are expensive they said. 

 

Data from 2018 showed there were 2,651,500 visits to Samui that made up 43% of all visitors to Surat Thani.

 

The tourists spent 64 billion baht or 63% of the provincial Surat Thani total. 

 

Thais were 40% of the visitors, foreigners 60%. 

 

Another proponent of the bridge idea is the director of the hospital on the island Dr Khamrop Decharatanawichai who said that it would help carry the sick when they needed to be transferred to the mainland. 

 

Between 2017 and 2019 around 350 patients a year had to be transferred using the daytime ferry. Others were transferred at night by speedboat but high waves often presented problems for this. 

 

The journey could be 5 - 6 hours and a bridge would help as every minute counts with the sick, he said. 

 

Source: thebangkokinsight

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-12-11

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I'm thinking a tunnel, like the chunnel.

Please don't use the same contractor that did the Chalong bypass tunnel, that thing is falling apart already !! 

Mind you, I'd feel safer than on a Raja ferry ????????

why not just concrete over everything and double the number of 7/11's

I'm certainly not a contractor but I am aware of the cost of mega projects around the world.

30 billion baht (almost a billion US dollars) sounds a bit on the low side to me.

 

But OMG, what a skimming opportunity this would present. The mouths of the hogs must be salivating.

The hair brain ideas these people come up with remind me of that 80's band...………….. Simple Minds

This pop up every five years, here's an idea picture better than the one in the article. 

Clean air, nice parks, good sidewalks in shade, safe transport, real prices....would also bring loads of tourists to BKK.

2 minutes ago, Thian said:

Clean air, nice parks, good sidewalks in shade, safe transport, real prices....would also bring loads of tourists to BKK.

 

What about Samui, as that is the subject of the article ??

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Tourism downturn: Bridge between Koh Samui and mainland could bring in more tourists

so could a spaceport to Mars.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Between 2017 and 2019 around 350 patients a year had to be transferred using the daytime ferry. Others were transferred at night by speedboat but high waves often presented problems for this. 

 

19 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

What about Samui, as that is the subject of the article ??

It's about bringing in more tourists, do you think anybody cares for Samui? If so, then why did they build it totally full with resorts/hotels and not even make Chaweng nice? Do you really think the tourists like to smell the open drains there? Yes Indians maybe but they can fly there directly.

Wow. Quite an ambitious project that would be. Anything to deflect, take responsibility, and avoid talking about the real issues. Tourism on Samui, Phangan and Dark Tao are suffering for a dozen major reasons. Many are the same reasons why tourism (the important kind of tourism, Western tourism, and tourists from China and India with deep pockets) is way down nationwide, have to do with the incessant ranting of fools like Little Oud, The Big Joke, Prayuth, and others, who possess a profound degree of ignorance, and arrogance, hatred of foreigners, and are cursed with extreme racism. In addition truly deplorable policies of focusing all of their energy on attracting lower and lower middle class tourists from only India and China, an unwillingness to address the many problems plaguing the nation, such as traffic safety, public safety, erratic immigration policy, police harassment, the air and other environmental issues that ARE NOT being addressed, and more. When you add in the inane luxury taxes, the inane taxes on fine wine, the lack of english skills, and the relatively poor service at higher end hotels and restaurants, and you can see why wealthy tourists are shunning Thailand, as if the nation had a contagious plague. They are willing to travel and pay first world prices for hotels and food and wine, if the service is comparably good. That it is not. 

 

Samui and the southern islands have another set of issues, that are all their own making. Samui in particular feels like a 20 year old dishrag, that has never been properly cleaned. It is overbuilt, like Phuket, and the Ring Road is a horrific blight. Once you get onto the beaches, or up into the hills it is a stunning island. But, the rest of the island suffers from a tremendous lack of pride, on the part of the locals, the vast majority of whom are not from Samui, as most of the natives left long ago with their land fortunes. Plus you have local police there, who are perhaps the most corrupt, and least helpful and competent, of any within the nation of Thailand. Dark Tao has a serial killer. Killing is his hobby. And he comes from a family that is above the law. Any and all laws. So local Burmese end up getting framed for his killings. Plus, the island is way overpriced, and the diving is horrendously poor. So, why on earth would anyone go there? Phangan is the only decent area in the Southern Islands, and it is relatively under developed. Which is a nice thing for those who want peace and quiet, once you get away from Had Rin, and the full moon party kids. 

4 minutes ago, Thian said:

It's about bringing in more tourists, do you think anybody cares for Samui?

Read the first paragraph in the opening post and you might understand what this thread is about.

27 minutes ago, lom said:

Read the first paragraph in the opening post and you might understand what this thread is about.

Yup, did that...first words i read were: Tourism downturn

2 hours ago, webfact said:

an 18 kilometer structure costing an estimated 30 billion baht.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

A bridge to the main island might help with visits to the other islands

 

So someone wants to spend estimated 30,000,000,000 THB because that "might help".

 

They could give me 1% of that and I might help them setting their thinking straight. A bargain!

Like the Kra Canal fantasy from years back this boondoggle is never getting anywhere. SM007 posting above has a good assessment of the situation.

Maybe the government should use their new Chinese submarines to augment the ferry service, as they sure aren't needed for anything else. ????

1st of April in December. Clowns !

They can't even build a simple tunnel or surfacing a road and are dreaming of this kind of bridge.

A Bridge to Samui has been talked of for the last 25 years, almost as long as the Chaing Mai Rapid Transit System and a Railway Line all the way to Chiang Rai.  Rest assured none of them will ever be built....just talked about, as it is what they are best at !

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Wow. Quite an ambitious project that would be. Anything to deflect, take responsibility, and avoid talking about the real issues. Tourism on Samui, Phangan and Dark Tao are suffering for a dozen major reasons. Many are the same reasons why tourism (the important kind of tourism, Western tourism, and tourists from China and India with deep pockets) is way down nationwide, have to do with the incessant ranting of fools like Little Oud, The Big Joke, Prayuth, and others, who possess a profound degree of ignorance, and arrogance, hatred of foreigners, and are cursed with extreme racism. In addition truly deplorable policies of focusing all of their energy on attracting lower and lower middle class tourists from only India and China, an unwillingness to address the many problems plaguing the nation, such as traffic safety, public safety, erratic immigration policy, police harassment, the air and other environmental issues that ARE NOT being addressed, and more. When you add in the inane luxury taxes, the inane taxes on fine wine, the lack of english skills, and the relatively poor service at higher end hotels and restaurants, and you can see why wealthy tourists are shunning Thailand, as if the nation had a contagious plague. They are willing to travel and pay first world prices for hotels and food and wine, if the service is comparably good. That it is not. 

 

Samui and the southern islands have another set of issues, that are all their own making. Samui in particular feels like a 20 year old dishrag, that has never been properly cleaned. It is overbuilt, like Phuket, and the Ring Road is a horrific blight. Once you get onto the beaches, or up into the hills it is a stunning island. But, the rest of the island suffers from a tremendous lack of pride, on the part of the locals, the vast majority of whom are not from Samui, as most of the natives left long ago with their land fortunes. Plus you have local police there, who are perhaps the most corrupt, and least helpful and competent, of any within the nation of Thailand. Dark Tao has a serial killer. Killing is his hobby. And he comes from a family that is above the law. Any and all laws. So local Burmese end up getting framed for his killings. Plus, the island is way overpriced, and the diving is horrendously poor. So, why on earth would anyone go there? Phangan is the only decent area in the Southern Islands, and it is relatively under developed. Which is a nice thing for those who want peace and quiet, once you get away from Had Rin, and the full moon party kids. 

I would never patronize Koh Tao

14 minutes ago, Ireland32 said:

I would never patronize Koh Tao

You’re safe so long as you don’t have an attractive young farang female with you; and, if you’re on your own, you mind your own business.

 Last time I've heard of it was some years ago. Interesting for me was, that one of the reasons for building a bridge was that Samui would lose a certain status as an "island" which would allow to raise much higher buildings (like Phuket).

This could be the ultimate deathblow to a once wonderful island.

 

"Tourism downturn"

Yesterday I sat at Songserm Ferry pier on Koh Phangan. (Today is Full Moon Party and, as usual, many people are expected to arrive). About 10 minutes before the ferry from Koh Tao was due, came the motorbike taxis (7-10) and 5 Songteaws waiting for customers. Off the boat came 2 ....no joke... two tourists.

The taxi drivers had to laugh out of disbelief. But it was more of a hysterical and desperate kind of laughter.

Many Thai and foreign buisiness owners here started (around June/July) to switch off aircons in shops and had to fire staff in order to survive. I'm sure there will be more of a "downturn" in the near future.....because of many reasons

 

Yes - a bridge.  Beats tackling the hard issues.

 

Keep checking the beaches for the bottle that has a genie in it

I love low season, it's the tourists that spoil Koh Samui ????????????????????

Businesses need to adapt to market conditions, just like Tesco are about too.????????????????????????????????????????????

30 Billion Baht, or 1 Billion dollars.

 

I'm in.

 

I have been racking may brains all day and I honestly can't think of anything better to spend that on.

6 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Wow. Quite an ambitious project that would be. Anything to deflect, take responsibility, and avoid talking about the real issues. Tourism on Samui, Phangan and Dark Tao are suffering for a dozen major reasons. Many are the same reasons why tourism (the important kind of tourism, Western tourism, and tourists from China and India with deep pockets) is way down nationwide, have to do with the incessant ranting of fools like Little Oud, The Big Joke, Prayuth, and others, who possess a profound degree of ignorance, and arrogance, hatred of foreigners, and are cursed with extreme racism. In addition truly deplorable policies of focusing all of their energy on attracting lower and lower middle class tourists from only India and China, an unwillingness to address the many problems plaguing the nation, such as traffic safety, public safety, erratic immigration policy, police harassment, the air and other environmental issues that ARE NOT being addressed, and more. When you add in the inane luxury taxes, the inane taxes on fine wine, the lack of english skills, and the relatively poor service at higher end hotels and restaurants, and you can see why wealthy tourists are shunning Thailand, as if the nation had a contagious plague. They are willing to travel and pay first world prices for hotels and food and wine, if the service is comparably good. That it is not. 

 

Samui and the southern islands have another set of issues, that are all their own making. Samui in particular feels like a 20 year old dishrag, that has never been properly cleaned. It is overbuilt, like Phuket, and the Ring Road is a horrific blight. Once you get onto the beaches, or up into the hills it is a stunning island. But, the rest of the island suffers from a tremendous lack of pride, on the part of the locals, the vast majority of whom are not from Samui, as most of the natives left long ago with their land fortunes. Plus you have local police there, who are perhaps the most corrupt, and least helpful and competent, of any within the nation of Thailand. Dark Tao has a serial killer. Killing is his hobby. And he comes from a family that is above the law. Any and all laws. So local Burmese end up getting framed for his killings. Plus, the island is way overpriced, and the diving is horrendously poor. So, why on earth would anyone go there? Phangan is the only decent area in the Southern Islands, and it is relatively under developed. Which is a nice thing for those who want peace and quiet, once you get away from Had Rin, and the full moon party kids. 

Is Samui's Airport still owned by Bangkok Airways and still charging inflated prices??

That doesn't help either!!

37 minutes ago, DPKANKAN said:

Is Samui's Airport still owned by Bangkok Airways and still charging inflated prices??

That doesn't help either!!

Sure is. Last report that the route was responsible for 47% of Bangkok Airways total profit

Samui don't need more tourists before the infrastructure can cope with it – i.e. garbage collection and incineration, fresh water supply, electric power supply, and traffic problems – it's hard enough to cope with those already coming.