Tourists flooding the pier at Koh Samui: Two day build-up of travellers to Phangan/Tao for Xmas/New Year

[webfact]

Daily News Thai Caption: Silver lining

 

Daily News reported from the Lom Phraya offices at Nathon pier on Koh Samui where there was a large build-up of tourists wanting to go to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao.

 

The authorities had called for all vessels to stay in port from December 17-18 creating a backlog of travellers.

 

Extra services were put on that impressed the tourists.

 

Local tourism promotion chief Ratchaporn Poonsawat said that many Samui hotels were already fully booked for Christmas and New Year. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

He said that Bangkok Airways - the airline that services the island - were fully booked from Christmas Day to the end of the year.

 

He advised travellers without reservations to fly to Surat Thani airport then travel overland and sea from there.

 

He also said that discussions were underway to increase the number of car ferry sailings to Samui per day. 

 

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[thaibeachlovers]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

Local tourism promotion chief Ratchaporn Poonsawat said that many Samui hotels were already fully booked for Christmas and New Year. 

While I was a fan of looking for an hotel/ resort to stay at when I arrived at the islands, I never tried at this time of year when full hotels could be expected.

As for having to wait 2 days to catch a ferry, unless one had a confirmed hotel booking, would that not warn tourists that elsewhere might be a better option. It's not like there are not hundreds of other places to go.

[Robin]

Please, let's hope that nobody puts more passengers on a ferry and then tere are not enough life jackets if it sinks in rough weather.  One accident at sea is enough, but will anybody learn?  Especially when there is more money to be made by putting extra passengers onboard.

 

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It's not like there are not hundreds of other places to go.

–but there is only on Koh Samui...

[hotchilli]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Local tourism promotion chief Ratchaporn Poonsawat said that many Samui hotels were already fully booked for Christmas and New Year. 

Just waiting for the "how many trillions" they will be spending to hit the news.

[thaibeachlovers]

20 hours ago, Robin said:

Please, let's hope that nobody puts more passengers on a ferry and then tere are not enough life jackets if it sinks in rough weather.  One accident at sea is enough, but will anybody learn?  Especially when there is more money to be made by putting extra passengers onboard.

 

After a ferry sank many years ago ferries suddenly acquired loads of life jackets.

Perhaps it's changed, but on the car ferries it used to be obvious that the life rafts were not capable of being used.

I always had a personal inflatable flotation device of my own that I used when traveling by ferry in LOS.