Phuket Tourism 2011: 'It Was What It Was'

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Phuket Tourism 2011: 'It was what it was'

Phuket Gazette

A tourist uses his iPad to record a video of a ladyboy dancing at the entrance to Soi Crocodile, on Patong’s Soi Bangla. Photo: Chaiyot Yongchaicharoen

SPECIAL YEAR-END REVIEW

A look back at the roller-coaster ride that Phuket’s tourism industry took from start to finish in 2011.

PHUKET: -- The past year was marked by an ever faster and more furious flow of information on the crest of a digital technology wave.

Tuk-tuk drivers beating tourists, bus crashes, landslides on the only road over Patong Hill, and the island’s original bridge to the mainland being reclaimed by pedestrians all featured heavily in the news.

Here in Phuket, of course, all events – local, national and global – are inevitably viewed through the narrow prism of local “tourism development”.

With each passing event that either helped or hindered tourism to Phuket, the more experienced local business folk on the island repeated their mantra: “It is what it is.”

Despite the tragedy in Japan early in the year and more recently the unprecedented flooding in the lower central plains, Phuket’s tourism figures for 2011 were strong.

Arrivals at Phuket Airport were up year-on-year in October and November, during the height of the floods. This was attributed to an increase in direct flights to Phuket from abroad as well as from Bangkokians trying to flee floodwaters.

Arrivals and departures at Phuket Airport were set to top eight million for the first time, with long queues at Customs and Immigration as a result.

The Phuket Commercial Affairs Office revealed that the number of tourists arriving in Phuket during the first 10 months 2011 increased year-on-year, while financial statistics showed foreign up by more than 60 per cent.

Despite the locally unpopular Pheu Thai Party winning the general election in May, plans to boost the island’s tourism infrastructure continued apace led largely by private investment.

In Phuket, perhaps the best indication is the number of new hotels, guesthouses and other tourism-related businesses that sprang up along Phang Muang Sai Kor Road behind Jungceylon in Patong.

Jet-skis, for better or worse, remain popular with tourists.

Chief among developments in 2011 was the ongoing plan to expand passenger throughput capacity at Phuket Airport to accommodate up to 12.5 million travelers by 2014. By year’s end there was also more talk of expanding the runway to allow the largest airliners.

More flights than ever flew between Phuket and the capital and other destinations in Asia, most notably China, but some regional domestic services were cut, including the Phuket - Haad Yai service by Phuket-based Happy Air.

Several new bus services were launched this year, including a “VIP” service to Chiang Mai as well as other long-haul services to points in Isarn.

On the maritime front, work is almost complete on the new Chalong Bay Marina. The 44-slip facility raises to about 1,000 the number of yachts that can be served at the island’s five marinas, but this is still not enough to meet demand and the Marine Department is seeking funding to sink 300 more moorings in Chalong Bay and at Ao Por in 2012, and set up a GPS tracking system for all yachts in Phuket waters in 2013.

The end of the year also saw the opening of the new Krabi Boat Lagoon Marina. Phuket hosted yet another successful King’s Cup Regatta and Superyacht Rendezvous in December, much to the delight of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Not all arriving by boat were welcome, of course. In February, 70 stateless Rohingya refugees landed in Rawai. They were detained for a time, then presumably deported.

Whether by air or by sea, once here, tourists without their own vehicles are still left to Phuket’s world-famous public transport “system”. While tuk-tuks continued to reign supreme on the west coast, both in terms of fares and assaults on drunks, the real story of 2011 was a series of blockades by black-plate taxis of cruise ships and even US military aboard ships arriving at the Deep Sea Port.

Negotiations between cruise ship tour companies and the taxis ended with a tenable truce after the taxi drivers were guaranteed access to a certain percentage of the passengers, yet another concession to the self-entitled transport syndicates.

The Tourist Police Volunteers opened an office in Chalong.

While a new route was added to the award-winning Po Thong pink bus network in and around Phuket Town, there have been no takers in the private sector in 2011 who dare to take on available government concessions to operate hop-on, hop off bus services linking the airport with Kamala, Patong and Rawai: another battlefield victory for the taxi cartel.

Plans to free the streets of Phuket Town of lumbering inter-provincial buses remain on hold, held up by a single strand of red tape. Phuket Bus Terminal 2 on Thepkrassatri Road turned two years of age earlier this month, but has yet to serve a single passenger due to local opposition led by Rassada Mayor Suratin Lianudom.

Mayor Surathin, who happens to live right across the street, opposes breaking the median strip in front of the station to allow buses to head north. It remains to be seen how much of an issue this will turn out to be in Mr Surathin’s bid to retain the chair in the upcoming election.

Given the state of public transport on the island, it comes as no surprise that the number of vehicles on Phuket’s roads continues to grow, with an inevitable rise in the number of road accidents. By mid-December, 61 motorbike riders and passengers had died in Phuket in 2011, with 28 more permanently disabled.

These figures came despite various road safety campaigns during 2011. In addition to the never-ending mao, mai khap (don’t drink and drive) campaign, these included a “driving, don’t talk on the phone” offensive and a short-lived push to stop salaeng (motorbikes with sidecars) from carrying passengers. Readers can judge for themselves how effective these have been.

On a more positive note, 2011 was the year when police did make a highly-publicized effort to enforce a long-ignored law requiring all motorbike riders, passengers included, to don helmets. The result is that Phuket has the highest rate of helmet use in the country, at least according to the Public Health Ministry.

However, it remains unclear whether this positive result is from an initiative launched a year earlier by Phuket City Police, or just a common-sense reaction based on the above-mentioned road-accident statistics, because fatality rates in Phuket are among the highest in the country.

In terms of safety, no stretch of road in Phuket was more in the spotlight this year than Phra Barami Road, more commonly known as Patong Hill road or “Mount Mayhem”. After several dangerous sinkholes formed in recent years, one almost swallowing a car carrying the Patong Mayor, one might have thought the situation couldn’t get worse – It did.

Just weeks after the completion of resurfacing work following the installation of the 9-million-baht Patong City sign, bright new lines appeared and the treacherous thoroughfare was looking pretty good.

But appearances can be deceiving. Shortly thereafter two sections of the road slumped or washed away completely, leaving a dangerous situation that will persist well into 2012 . The difficult work to shore up the road is now on hold, with the needed funding to come from emergency central government to repair flood-damaged areas.

Austrian Ambassador Johannes Peterlik warned Phuket's top officials of a Europe-wide travel advisory telling tourists not to use tuk-tuks.

There were far too many road accidents in 2011 to list comprehensively here, but some of the most tragic also occurred on the hairpin stretch of Patong Hill road at the base of the hill on the Patong side. The first, in March, claimed the life of one man and left about 40 more injured. Unlike most previous crashes, the victims this time were almost all Patong residents, who were just a few hundred meters from home after completing a week-long journey to the funeral of a revered monk in faraway Udon Thani.

The sole driver on the epic journey, who was among the injured, later disappeared and has not been heard from since.

The accidents once again raised calls in some quarters for the construction of the Patong Tunnel, but while backers insist the project will become reality there is still a long way to go due to local opposition in Ban Mon and, just as importantly, no clear indication on where the project funding would come from.

Other notable bus crashes included two in October: the first was a bus carrying Chinese tourists that overturned on the Chalong - Kata Hill road, killing one and sending 29 to hospital with injuries. Just four days later, a bus carrying 37 newly-arrived Russian tourists from the airport crashed on Patong Hill, injuring many.

Just like wildebeest readying to cross a crocodile-infested river in sub-Saharan Africa, foreign tourists can be a jittery lot. It can take quite a bit to get them to take the plunge. Fortunately, there was no shortage of new attractions and events for tourists in 2011.

The end of the year saw the opening of the Siam Neramit, on the bypass road in Rassada, with a spectacular stage show glorifying Thai arts and culture. Further down the street, the September opening of the Aphrodite cabaret show opposite Tesco-Lotus will give the Simon Cabaret show in Patong a good run for its money.

Not to be out-lipsynched, the owners of Simon Cabaret have invested 100mn baht to build the Simon Star Show near Phuket Rajabhat University in Rassada. The venue is scheduled to open in January.

Phuket Fun Fly captured the imagination and enthusiasm of tourists.

Another addition, again just in time for high season, was the opening of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization’s (OrBorJor’s) Musical Fountain at Saphan Hin, which was featured at the first-ever Phuket World Musiq Festival to celebrate the 7th Cycle Birthday of HM The King.

At the north end of the island, the conversion of the old Sarasin Bridge into a pedestrian walkway was an immediate hit after its opening when its replacement span, the new Srisoonthorn Bridge, opened to traffic for the first time mid-year.

However, the biggest addition – literally – to the Phuket tourism constellation in 2011 was the 45-meter-high Big Buddha image in the Nakkerd Hills of Karon, which was officially opened in 2011 after years of construction.

Late in the year the image was voted the number-one “must see” attraction in aGazette online readers poll of five popular attractions, perhaps proving after all that bigger really is better.

Another tourism mega-project that received much attention was the international convention and exhibition center planned at Tah Chat Chai. Funding for the 2.6-billion-baht project was approved by the Democrat-led government that fell in May.

Land acquired, project design set and the public hearing process virtually complete, the project stalled when its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was rejected by the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning late in the year on economic and environmental grounds.

Many suspected a political fix, especially given the fact that the project was championed by Phuket’s two Democrat Party MPs. Popular opinion was that the Pheu Thai Party government, reeling from the effects of the flooding, would let the project suffocate in red tape until the July 2012 deadline to sign a contract with a contractor had expired. However, good news came in early December when the Cabinet threw the project a lifeline in the form of a two-year extension on the contract signing. The move assures that Phuket’s dream, that dates back two decades, of having such a facility, will continue throughout 2012… and beyond.

Phuket MPs Anchalee and Raywat kept their seats.

Other tourist destinations scheduled to open in 2012 include the 5.4mn-baht Urak Lawoi Sea Gypsy Culture Center on Koh Sireh, construction of which is now well underway.

Extreme sports also expanded, with the eyeball-popping Phuket Sling Shot opening at JJ Plaza in Patong. The attraction, which claims to be “The Fastest Ride in Thailand”, also boasts the “Only Bumper Cars in Phuket”, which might sound incredulous to daily commuters along any of the island’s major arteries.

JJ Plaza itself was a story in 2011. A huge fire ravaged more than 200 stalls there in August, but by year’s end it was back in business with a greater diversity of shops, including just what Patong needs: more beer bars.

Not all tourism-related businesses had a good year in 2011, however. The Crocodile and Tiger World in Phuket Town quietly closed its doors after two decades, raising the question of what happened to its 10,000 crocodiles and other wildlife.

One might keep an eye open for the sale of crocodile handbags and shoes at any of the many new retail outlets that opened in 2011, including the new Tesco Thalang Mall, the Big C Market in Rassada or the explosion of new mini-marts led by the rapid expansion of Super Cheap mini-marts that sprang up all over the island over the past 12 months.

Among the tourism non-starters in 2011 was a plan to build a 900mn-baht aquarium, resort and retail facility in Rawai. A dolphin show was planned as the feature attraction, but negative public opinion about the idea of holding dolphins in captivity is thought to have caused some of the investors to pull out. The developers were at last report considering other options.

Given all these developments, it is not surprising that tourism industry analyst Bhuritt Maswongsa half-seriously commented toward the year's end that “Phuket needs to ‘shut down’ for up to three years to solve all its problems.”

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...ticle11885.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-01-03