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

[metisdead]

A post containing a derogatory reference to Koh Samui has been removed:

 

11) You will not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

[sunnyboy2018]

"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."

This is hardly surprising. The counter cultural values which underpined Koh Pangan and Koh Tao have been destroyed by the obsessive law & order junta directive against the full moon parties and the people that attended them. This combined with corrupt police using the medieval drug laws to extort travellers has frightenes people away. The solitary unspoilt beauty of these island has been destroyed by the plethora of resorts and hotels especially on Samui. Koh Pangan and Koh Tao was a profitable niche market, unique to Thailand, alas, destroyed by the orthodoxy of the Junta trying to clean it up. We can see how Pattaya, another unique niche market was destroyed in an attempt to make it conform to mediocrity,  same with the Kao San Road, same with Lower Sukhumvit. The military mindset is totally unsuitable to governance and has been the kiss of death for once thriving tourist areas.

[Sydebolle]

I would invite tenders for both, the bridge to Samui and the monorail in Pattaya; you might be in for an additional discount. 

Are these people completely mad? The bridge will not bring a single quality tourist more which would justify just a feasibility study; let alone an actual bridge .....

[hydraides]

Absolutely ridiculos, why is this even news? 

 

That sort of length of bridge is built to serve a proper purpose (Like connect two countries) , or vastly reduce travel time between two points like an estuary

 

Millions of new tourists aren't going to specifically visit Thailand/Koh samui because they've now built a bridge (Which would only reduce travel time by an hour

 

+ Taking the ferry is across the water is a nice trip. Not too long and can be nice around sunset.

 

Doesn't make any sense....

[sunnyboy2018]

On 12/11/2019 at 2:34 AM, 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. 

Great observation!

[sunnyboy2018]

4 hours ago, hydraides said:

Absolutely ridiculos, why is this even news? 

 

That sort of length of bridge is built to serve a proper purpose (Like connect two countries) , or vastly reduce travel time between two points like an estuary

 

Millions of new tourists aren't going to specifically visit Thailand/Koh samui because they've now built a bridge (Which would only reduce travel time by an hour

 

+ Taking the ferry is across the water is a nice trip. Not too long and can be nice around sunset.

 

Doesn't make any sense....

You have never driven between Saudi and Bahrain. The causeway led to a MASSIVE increase in traffic and trade.

[racket]

Well, what if this bridge backfires and all of a sudden people start leaving Koh Samui? Bangkok Airways business model is somewhat designed, with their hefty prices, to isolate tourists from leaving Samui. With that bridge, it would be an easy gateway off the island to either Phuket, or URT for a cheap flight back to Bangkok, Chiang Mai or Pattaya. The only benefit I would see with a bridge is perhaps somewhat lower prices because logistically if will be more efficient to transport goods in/out the island. In the end, someone needs to pay for that bridge and all I can imagine they would do is add a toll station.

[GalaxyMan]

Saw an article this morning that said that hotel occupancy for January is 35% as opposed to 80% normally. An additional 1,000 hotel rooms are coming on-line shortly. Sounds good to me. ????

[MarkyM3]

Used to visit Samui at least a couple of times per year from early 2000s until recently. Just priced up return BKK-USM flights for various dates in February....approx 11,500 baht in nearly all cases. Cannot be helping tourist numbers, surely?

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by MarkyM3

[huberthammer]

Driving around today it occurred to me that the last thing Samui needs is more cars...  During the slow low season things were okay but with the increase of Arrivals over the last few days the usual traffic carnage seems to have properly started. Mixture of clueless tourists slowing everybody down and residents (for good order both Farangs and Thais) being impatient by the slow movement make it the usual chaos we get in high season.

 

Just imagine what a new bridge would do to the road infrastructure...

[justinnsamui]

Is the incinerator fixed yet?

[soalbundy]

Samui was great 25 years ago, now it's an overbuilt dump.

[Tropicalevo]

I heard the other day that the ferries from Donsak are running 24/7 if needed, in order to bring all of the tourists across in a timely manner!!

It was on Facebook so it must be true. ????

[thasoss]

On 12/14/2019 at 9:03 PM, Sydebolle said:

I would invite tenders for both, the bridge to Samui and the monorail in Pattaya; you might be in for an additional discount. 

Are these people completely mad? The bridge will not bring a single quality tourist more which would justify just a feasibility study; let alone an actual bridge .....

yes they are mad...18 klm of madness.Samui's roads cant handle the local traffic.

[thasoss]

On 12/15/2019 at 1:47 AM, sunnyboy2018 said:

Great observation!

yes and spot on............the truth is  thais are lazy to do or fix anything,they have no appreciation for cleanliness,and their pride is misdirected into xenophobia(blame the education system for this)

[thasoss]

On 12/11/2019 at 7:34 PM, 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!

they certainly are.Samui has been spoilt with poor management,over development,and water quality in some areas is pretty poor,such a shame that thais in general just dont care about the environment they live in,

[thasoss]

On 12/12/2019 at 11:48 AM, 30la said:

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!

forget the numbers,for westerners, thailand is yesterday's playground,chinese and indians are the big re placers,problem is re the chinese everything is bought and paid for back in china,thais and thailand see very little of the money plus villa's and airbnb are taking a toll on general hotel occupancy leading to lay off's for thai staff....everything is changing too fast for the authorities.

[huberthammer]

1 hour ago, thasoss said:

 re the chinese everything is bought and paid for back in china,thais and thailand see very little of the money 

I see many Chinese in restaurants ordering twice the food a farang family would order and they do spend good money in shops as well. I know there were a lot of tour groups in the early days of Chinese Tourists but this is simply not correct anymore. They are a lot of individual travellers and they do spend good money in Thailand. I wonder how many small restaurants in Samui would have closed down without them over the last 3 years. Hate them or like them,  they are an important part of keeping people employed in the tourism sector. If you look at the world from a barstool this might be not obvious as they don't spend any money there.

 

 

[Sydebolle]

On 12/24/2019 at 8:44 AM, thasoss said:

yes they are mad...18 klm of madness.Samui's roads cant handle the local traffic.

The nice thing about all those loony ideas is, that they are not turned into reality. Some slightly over-budget feasibility studies for tens of millions of Baht later the whole thing will fizzle away into thin air ???? 

[Number 6]

Meanwhile, the air is highly polluted, there is no drinking water and the schools are a disaster.

 

All this to what?

 

Is not Samui adequately served by planes and passenger ferries? I for one hate the place. I don't care what they do or build.

[GalaxyMan]

12 hours ago, Number 6 said:

Meanwhile, the air is highly polluted, there is no drinking water and the schools are a disaster.

 

All this to what?

 

Is not Samui adequately served by planes and passenger ferries? I for one hate the place. I don't care what they do or build.

Samui is a lot of things, but the air is NOT 'highly polluted'. If you want to learn what air pollution is, take a trip to Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Samui is a small island with a near constant prevailing breeze. Might be a bit of traffic pollution during rush hours in high season, but that is pretty much restricted to the area around the ring road, and neighbors burning their trash, but that's about it.

[Number 6]

23 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

Samui is a lot of things, but the air is NOT 'highly polluted'. If you want to learn what air pollution is, take a trip to Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Samui is a small island with a near constant prevailing breeze. Might be a bit of traffic pollution during rush hours in high season, but that is pretty much restricted to the area around the ring road, and neighbors burning their trash, but that's about it.

There are other things to spend money on that would far more benefit the country than a stupid bridge to nowhere - literally.

[Momofarang]

On 12/11/2019 at 8:10 AM, 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. 

 

They could easily cover that with a part time helicopter. Another great example of Thai (non) thinking

[tinca tinca]

so they think that ALL the people in the world....will come to use a BRIDGE ???

Increase tourism MY **SE !!!!