Patong, Kamala Beaches Revamp Still 8 Months Away

[george]

Patong, Kamala revamp still 8 months away

PHUKET CITY: -- The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) says that the number of tourists is on the rise since it launched a promotion for tsunami-affected areas.

The only place that has not benefited, the TAT says, is Khao Lak, which it believes needs more time to recover before it can be promoted.

The TAT’s plans to continue bolstering the recovery of tsunami-affected areas include bringing media and tour operators from abroad to Phuket, “supporting” 189 charter flights to Phuket, assisting the arrangement of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) in tsunami-affected areas and persuading Thai tourists to come to Phuket.

At a meeting with Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura, TAT Deputy Governor Santi Earjongprasit said, “We have tried hard to entice tourists back to the tsunami-affected areas. There is no need to worry with regard to European tourists; the numbers have been and will continue rising over time. We expect even more of them to come during this high season.

“We also tried to promote the [affected] areas by inviting media and tour operators from China, Korea and Japan to take good pictures here.”

Meanwhile, the reconstruction of Phuket’s landscape, budgeted at 194.7 million baht for Patong and 96.7 baht for Kamala, will not be complete in time for the coming high season. It is now expected to be finished by the end of March 2006.

The initial intention was to complete reconstruction by the end of August next year, but, K. Santi said, “We could do it earlier, by hiring different contractors for each separate job in the project, such as the ‘hardscape’ [for example, road surfaces and sidewalks] and the ‘softscape’ [trees].”

He explained that the long delay in getting the project started was related to the government’s lengthy budget approval process. Although the TAT was supposed to receive budget approval in March, it did not receive it until July.

“We need to adapt our efforts to make the plan go faster, in order to finish the project in March,” he added.

Many people are concerned that construction is due to start in the high season, he noted.

“At first, we planned to start in November, but a lot of activities are held within this period, including tsunami commemoration ceremonies. We could expand the time frame for starting on the hard construction, by building the smaller things first.

“Construction, whether in high or low season, is likely to affect business. However, when the reconstructed landscape is complete, people will take pleasure and pride in its beauty.”

--Phuket Gazette 2005-08-11

[khall64au]

The fact that funding (of a mere) less than 300 million baht for "beautification" of two of the most popular commercial beach areas on Phuket will not be spent until after the high season while the TAT is busily bringing:

media and tour operators from abroad to Phuket, “supporting” 189 charter flights to Phuket, assisting the arrangement of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) in tsunami-affected areas and persuading Thai tourists to come to Phuket

is astounding. Its typically putting the cart before the horse. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and how many tens of thousands of visitors will go home flabbergasted that a year after the tsunami nothing has been done to restore the facilities?

TIT

Edited August 11, 2005 by khall64au

[Patong Bob]

Patong Beach is the cleanest it has been for years, and the water is clean now, too. Kamala is still a mess. The hard work put in in Patong by the small businesses is a credit to them.

[khall64au]

Patong Beach is the cleanest it has been for years, and the water is clean now, too.  Kamala is still a mess.  The hard work put in in Patong by the small businesses is a credit to them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are so right Bob... if it was not for the local business owners, Patong would still look like a dump. So, yes it is no different to how looked before the tsunami... BUT the local authorities promised it was the best opportunity to revamp the landscape and... that was what my post was referring to.

With such a tiny budget, do we stop laughing now?

[gregor200]

Patong looks really good already. The beach road is fully packed, on some side alleys there were still construction works, when I was down end of June. The bars in the south end of Patong beach have still to be rebuilt. This is the only place, where you can take still tsunami like pictures.

On Kata Beach, the Klong leading to Club Med has still to be cleaned. It is now barred by sand from the open sea and contains brack water.