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

[Tidybeard]

Makes me laugh !!!!

 

They have been repairing the ring road for more than 2 years now and they still haven't started the actual tarmac phase. Oh and then there is the 8 years plus they still haven't repaired the Incinerator... I am guessing these issues would help tourism more than a bridge. 

 

For many, the idea of travelling to a remote island is the reason they go there - make a bridge from the mainland and most would stay away.

 

 

[natway09]

PLEASE. They are still contemplating a tunnel from Phuket to Patong. now 30 years on ?????

[mrfill]

"His design incorporates a to and from lane for bicycles, he said. "

 

Very helpful for the hoardes of Indian and Chinese tourists who just happen to have a bike and fancy riding 18km with all their luggage strapped on their backs. A truly untapped market.

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

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.

It's going to take a lot more than a bridge to fix the tourism woes.

[Grandpa Cool]

40 years ago Samui was a magical,beautiful, isolated tropical paradise. Short term greed has killed the magic and now the plan is to take away even it's status as an island! The lunatics are running the asylum!

[amykat]

12 hours ago, Ginger Tea said:

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.

I think that is not the reason he won’t go there ...this is a question of integrity.

[Ron jeremy]

13 hours ago, pikao said:

 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

 

I spoke with a business woman while on the ferry last winter, from phanghan , she had 3 restaurants, down to 1 at the moment. 

Huge downturn.she said Thailand is not a place to do business anymore.

[30la]

On 12/11/2019 at 8:10 AM, webfact said:

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

Another stupid idea that costs only a lot of money, who should pay them?

[30la]

On 12/11/2019 at 8:10 AM, webfact said:

 

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

Where do you get your numbers from?
According to these numbers there would be more than 7.264 people a day ... it really seems to me that all arrivals are counted twice!

[evadgib]

On 12/11/2019 at 8:35 AM, neeray said:

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.

Given they've been pratting about with the ring road for a dozen or more years & it's nowhere near finished yet how long will this bridge take?

[spidermike007]

20 hours ago, DPKANKAN said:

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

That doesn't help either!!

Granting BA the monopoly on Samui (do not even mention the Thai flights, that were arranged with an agreement to always charge MORE than BA) was one of the single worst decisions any administration has ever made. And allowing them to continue running this monopoly, and getting away with skinning tourists alive with their pricing to Samui, is a felonious crime. Shame on the government for this.

[Stocky]

On 12/11/2019 at 9:07 AM, PoorSucker said:

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

Why not stick a high speed rail link down the middle whilst they're about it!

 

 

Pie in the sky ~ a million and one things better to do with 30 billion - starting with proper planning, and the provision of adequate basic infrastructure.

 

[GalaxyMan]

I don't see it generating enough extra tourism to pay for itself, much less help Samui. Just what we need, more cars on the road. Getting rid of Bangkok Air's usurious monopoly would be a far better step in the right direction to stimulating tourism, as would allowing other airlines to fly directly to Samui from outside of Thailand, like Phuket, which really benefits from such a policy.

[SteveK]

If they want more tourists, relax the immigration regulations and get the baht under control, don't spend billions on a bridge to nowhere.

[CGW]

18 hours ago, Grandpa Cool said:

40 years ago Samui was a magical,beautiful, isolated tropical paradise. Short term greed has killed the magic and now the plan is to take away even it's status as an island! The lunatics are running the asylum!

Yep, I had the pleasure of staying in Samui 1989-1991 it was near to paradise! But the Bangkok air monopoly and the arrival of McD signalled the beginning of the downfall, - shame 

[evadgib]

6 hours ago, CGW said:

Yep, I had the pleasure of staying in Samui 1989-1991 it was near to paradise! But the Bangkok air monopoly and the arrival of McD signalled the beginning of the downfall, - shame 

McRipoff arrived a good decade later than that.

[DPKANKAN]

19 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Granting BA the monopoly on Samui (do not even mention the Thai flights, that were arranged with an agreement to always charge MORE than BA) was one of the single worst decisions any administration has ever made. And allowing them to continue running this monopoly, and getting away with skinning tourists alive with their pricing to Samui, is a felonious crime. Shame on the government for this.

Well as T.I.T. I am sure some gaggle of hiso's is coining in tte envelopes over it!! ????????????????

[RichardColeman]

Less road deaths by boat !

[Swimfan]

22 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Granting BA the monopoly on Samui (do not even mention the Thai flights, that were arranged with an agreement to always charge MORE than BA) was one of the single worst decisions any administration has ever made. And allowing them to continue running this monopoly, and getting away with skinning tourists alive with their pricing to Samui, is a felonious crime. Shame on the government for this.

Its now coming back to bite them. Considering the tourist dollars coming in to the island over the last couple of decades the amount spent on infrastructure is appalling  

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 2:10 PM, webfact said:

His design incorporates a to and from lane for bicycles, he said.

He needs the men in white coats to take him away, as clearly not well. 18km bike ride in that heat carrying a heavy bag or backpack, right .

[Tropicalevo]

22 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Granting BA the monopoly on Samui (do not even mention the Thai flights, that were arranged with an agreement to always charge MORE than BA) was one of the single worst decisions any administration has ever made. And allowing them to continue running this monopoly, and getting away with skinning tourists alive with their pricing to Samui, is a felonious crime. Shame on the government for this.

I am not sure that anyone granted Bandit Airways a monopoly.

They own the airport. It is a private enterprise and as such does not fall under the control of the government.

Yes there are lots of laws, safety requirements etc etc that the government impose on any airport, but I was under the impression that Bandit Airways can do whatever they like commercially.

As you rightly mention Thai Airways flew here as do at least 4 other airlines, but forcing Bandit Airways to allow the miserable two flights a day only came about after pressure from the Thaksin government who wanted to hold a cabinet meeting here. BA said that TA would never land at their airport and so HM the King, when he was the crown prince, decided to practice take off and landing at Samui in a Thai Airways plane. He was practising for his commercial pilot's licence.

Oops. I mentioned the Thai Airways flights. Sorry.

All other airlines pay higher landing fees. The airport can charge whatever it likes.

It is wrong to blame the government - back then, The government was anti Bandit Airways.

[thaibeachlovers]

22 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Granting BA the monopoly on Samui (do not even mention the Thai flights, that were arranged with an agreement to always charge MORE than BA) was one of the single worst decisions any administration has ever made. And allowing them to continue running this monopoly, and getting away with skinning tourists alive with their pricing to Samui, is a felonious crime. Shame on the government for this.

No one is forcing anyone to fly there, and IMO they are committing a crime by flying, when they could be going by surface. Have they not heard Miss Thunberg's rant?

Seriously, I wish they'd never allowed an airport to be built with a flight path over Chaweng, as it's a disgrace to allow a beautiful beach to be contaminated by low flying planes.

[Tropicalevo]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

He needs the men in white coats to take him away, as clearly not well. 18km bike ride in that heat carrying a heavy bag or backpack, right .

The island already has a bicycle lane. It is that white thing painted next to the kerbs, on the ring road (but fading quickly). It varies from .5 meters wide to two meters wide. It is approx. 53 kilometers long.

The problem is that people park on it. Pretty useless as a bicycle/motorbike lane.

A great idea that died through lack of forward thinking.

[Tropicalevo]

21 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

I don't see it generating enough extra tourism to pay for itself, much less help Samui. Just what we need, more cars on the road. Getting rid of Bangkok Air's usurious monopoly would be a far better step in the right direction to stimulating tourism, as would allowing other airlines to fly directly to Samui from outside of Thailand, like Phuket, which really benefits from such a policy.

As Samui airport is a private airport, the government restricts the number of flights per day. They have already allowed an increase on the original restriction. It is unlikely that the government would allow another increase.

Anyway, I for one would not want more flights. The 06.00 'wake up' flight is early enough and the 21.40 'go to bed' flight still allows for some peace and quiet. ????

At least five different airlines fly into Samui at the moment.

The short runway is another thing that limits airlines. Government airports (Phuket/Chiang Mai etc) have longer runways.

[ChipButty]

They would need hell of an increase in Tourist to pay for that bridge

[VocalNeal]

22 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Granting BA the monopoly on Samui (do not even mention the Thai flights, that were arranged with an agreement to always charge MORE than BA) was one of the single worst decisions any administration has ever made. And allowing them to continue running this monopoly, and getting away with skinning tourists alive with their pricing to Samui, is a felonious crime. Shame on the government for this.

Who built the airport? 

[GalaxyMan]

1 hour ago, VocalNeal said:

Who built the airport? 

Bangkok Air. They bought half of the land that it is on from a family, the other half the family still holds, collecting rent on it.

[VocalNeal]

^ sorry if my rhetorical question was not obvious.

[spidermike007]

6 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

I am not sure that anyone granted Bandit Airways a monopoly.

They own the airport. It is a private enterprise and as such does not fall under the control of the government.

Yes there are lots of laws, safety requirements etc etc that the government impose on any airport, but I was under the impression that Bandit Airways can do whatever they like commercially.

As you rightly mention Thai Airways flew here as do at least 4 other airlines, but forcing Bandit Airways to allow the miserable two flights a day only came about after pressure from the Thaksin government who wanted to hold a cabinet meeting here. BA said that TA would never land at their airport and so HM the King, when he was the crown prince, decided to practice take off and landing at Samui in a Thai Airways plane. He was practising for his commercial pilot's licence.

Oops. I mentioned the Thai Airways flights. Sorry.

All other airlines pay higher landing fees. The airport can charge whatever it likes.

It is wrong to blame the government - back then, The government was anti Bandit Airways.

If I was informed properly, the government owns the land the Samui airport was built on. So, while the airline owns built and owns the airport, the government maintains the right to determine if a monopoly is in the best interests of the people. But, since that has never been a concern for any Thai administration (except for a few policies of the Thaksin administration) the people suffer under the yoke of this horrific monopoly. 

[GalaxyMan]

18 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

If I was informed properly, the government owns the land the Samui airport was built on.

I believe that you are misinformed. There is a 16-rai piece of land that is owned by the government at the end of the runway near the road to Ban Rak. There is controversy about that piece, as it is protected for water runoff reasons and is registered as state property land from the Treasury Department. The rest of the land, 250 rai, was/is owned by a family who sold half of it to BA and kept the rest, which they rent to BA. BA has a renewable 30-year lease on that portion. My wife knows this family very well and is good friends with the matriarch.

 

As an aside, the following airlines are allowed to operate flights to/from Samui Airport:

Bangkok Airways: Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, Chengdu, Chongqing, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong, Krabi, Kuala Lumpur–International, Pattaya–U-Tapao, Phuket, Singapore
Berjaya Air: Charter: Kuala Lumpur-Subang
Chengdu Airlines: Chengdu
Lucky Air: Kunming
SilkAir: Singapore
Tibet Airlines: Xi'an