Senators 'Worried' About Phuket Beating, Cheating, Intimidating Tourists

[harleyclarkey]

Senators "worried"

Not as worried as we have been for many, many years now. We have had years of these unregulated and unpoliced fraud, rip offs and scams.

I just fail to understand the mentality of people like these who can't or won't see and won't accept what is really going on. The issues won't change and life will go on as usual as soon as they flky back to Bangkok. However if there ever will be change my guess is that it will come through Bangkok.

[jambodave]

Notice that they talk about solving the problems just because it affect the tourism industry, that is their source of income, not because it is wrong in itself to beat up tourists!

Thailand the land of shit!

So why not leave?

So why not fix it?

even jim couldn"t fix it

[rfukata]

besides the local senators, honorary foreign consuls have strongly voiced their concerns of Phuket. Actually I thought that

after the foreign consuls spoke up their respective concerns to these (local officials) - there would be some kind of improvement or objectives in place.? Nothing.

[alanferdi]

They have been having meetings and forming committees for as long as I can remember and so far have solved nothing. It's easy guys, stop the corruption and a lot of the problems will fade away.

The committee did note, however, that many organizations were already at work finding their own solutions to the issues being faced.

Stop the corruption? These guys are meeting to count their illicit money!

Give them time. A lot of people have lost face. The problem is finding someone with a face to see it all and recognise the corrupt links. Phuket closes it Thuggery. The agencies have just opened up in Pattaya. Ski Jet rip offs, false pictures the lot. Why isnt there a police post and a proper office to regulate these things? In the end the foreigner pays.... "crime never pays"

[alanferdi]

Notice that they talk about solving the problems just because it affect the tourism industry, that is their source of income, not because it is wrong in itself to beat up tourists!

Thailand the land of shit!

So why not leave?

So why not fix it?

even jim couldn"t fix it

Tit for tat .... butter for fat, you kill my dog I´ll kill your cat. This will never end. Why not accept the fact that there is uncontrolled or totally uncontrolled situations in the land and come up with a solution! The easiest response from most locals..."you go home" and they put more money to bring more foreigners to get ripped off.... and then " you go home" or get beaten, insulted and robbed and go home - Amazing Thailand. Does not work that way. There is a international body of standards, laws, rights, systems.....they are not present here. Why not educate people to put a service culture behind the smile. Smiling and insulting do not go together.

Edited March 3, 2012 by alanferdi

[jerrysteve]

Whats the old saying, If it sounds to good to be true, don't believe it" The conversation goes like this :"Hey kids, how was your

trip to Thailand"? "It was just like being home in downtown Detroit." "We got mugged, swindled, beaten, taken advantage of, but in Thailand, they all smile at you when they are doing these naughty things." "I think thats why they call it the Land Of Smiles."

[blackthorn2005]

A meeting to achieve nothing more than postpone the issues to the next meeting. I am glad these people are taking this seriously.

[MAJIC]

Worried about the Beaten Cheated,Scammed Tourists ? or Worldwide bad Publicity on Tourism Revenue? if it's the former,it doesn't take years to clean up the problems!

Edited March 3, 2012 by MAJIC

[BookMan]

Phuket certainly needs a clean up in certain areas. But has the scams and crime affected the overall tourist numbers? There seems to be a steady stream of replacement tourists coming from all over the world.

[IAMHERE]

.... By the way, what's the definition of World Class anyway????????

Start by realizing that Thailand is 'the World' to most Thais. So certainly, everything Thai has pretty much got to be World Class.

[HOOD Robin]

The first thing they need to do is get rid of the GREED factor there. Then they might be able to do something.

Who is supposed to do that ??? NOBODY is capable....

[belg]

as tuk tuk and jetski maffia are "working" together with police, problem will remain

[connda]

Ha ha ha ha ha! (I don't know what else to say). Is it April 1st?

[MarkCyr]

Viewers will be surprised to read this, but I now prefer to go to Pattaya for beach holiday than Phuket? Why??????? Various reasons but the main one is that the "locals" in Phuket are rude and always ripping off the tourists. They locals who are "south Thais" are different than the Thais from Isaan or the North. In Pattaya, the locals (who are from the North and Isaan) are more friendly and patient. True, the beaches are not as clean to swim in but they're nice to look at from your 4 -5 star hotel. It is cheaper and you don't have to fly to get there. Good bye Phuket. You were awesome back in the 80's but no more. You (Phuket) have ruined your charm by becoming greedy and over runned by the thugs and mafia with the tuk tuks and shops.

I agree 200%. My ex pat friends in BKK laugh at me when I tell them to come and hang down in Pattaya...then they fly over to Phuket and end up complaining non stop about the rip offs. As for beaches, yes, Phuket is better, but you have to take a trek from Patong to get to the good ones...ditto with Pattaya. If you head up to Na Jomtien, or a bit farther and zip over to Koh Samed, you have some very nice beaches, indeed. I'd take Pattaya over Phuket 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

[alanferdi]

The first thing they need to do is get rid of the GREED factor there. Then they might be able to do something.

Who is supposed to do that ??? NOBODY is capable....

Uff....Greed is International!!! its definition as broad as the heavens. Lets put a finger on this. Teach the law in School, Have the ministries, forces and Govt uphold it. Do away with all the small "links" to control sectors. Thai law is not partial and every being whether, Thai, Chinese, Russian, English, German or whoever they maybe have the same standing in the law. At the moment it is not!

[alanferdi]

Viewers will be surprised to read this, but I now prefer to go to Pattaya for beach holiday than Phuket? Why??????? Various reasons but the main one is that the "locals" in Phuket are rude and always ripping off the tourists. They locals who are "south Thais" are different than the Thais from Isaan or the North. In Pattaya, the locals (who are from the North and Isaan) are more friendly and patient. True, the beaches are not as clean to swim in but they're nice to look at from your 4 -5 star hotel. It is cheaper and you don't have to fly to get there. Good bye Phuket. You were awesome back in the 80's but no more. You (Phuket) have ruined your charm by becoming greedy and over runned by the thugs and mafia with the tuk tuks and shops.

I agree 200%. My ex pat friends in BKK laugh at me when I tell them to come and hang down in Pattaya...then they fly over to Phuket and end up complaining non stop about the rip offs. As for beaches, yes, Phuket is better, but you have to take a trek from Patong to get to the good ones...ditto with Pattaya. If you head up to Na Jomtien, or a bit farther and zip over to Koh Samed, you have some very nice beaches, indeed. I'd take Pattaya over Phuket 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

Phuket.... rip offs

Pattaya has some nice beaches that are not tainted by all this stuff you hear from the south!

[sirchai]

I spoke to my travel agent in Sydney the other day and she told me that she has had some cancellations to Phuket. However they changed their booking to Pattaya where, I must admit there seems to be less trouble than Phuket. Although there are some of the same scams going on.

I spoke to my Thai wife a minute ago and she told me that they had some cancellations at a hotel in Sisaket.I must admit other hotels might have a much better reputation.

[sirchai]

Viewers will be surprised to read this, but I now prefer to go to Pattaya for beach holiday than Phuket? Why??????? Various reasons but the main one is that the "locals" in Phuket are rude and always ripping off the tourists. They locals who are "south Thais" are different than the Thais from Isaan or the North. In Pattaya, the locals (who are from the North and Isaan) are more friendly and patient. True, the beaches are not as clean to swim in but they're nice to look at from your 4 -5 star hotel. It is cheaper and you don't have to fly to get there. Good bye Phuket. You were awesome back in the 80's but no more. You (Phuket) have ruined your charm by becoming greedy and over runned by the thugs and mafia with the tuk tuks and shops.

I agree 200%. My ex pat friends in BKK laugh at me when I tell them to come and hang down in Pattaya...then they fly over to Phuket and end up complaining non stop about the rip offs. As for beaches, yes, Phuket is better, but you have to take a trek from Patong to get to the good ones...ditto with Pattaya. If you head up to Na Jomtien, or a bit farther and zip over to Koh Samed, you have some very nice beaches, indeed. I'd take Pattaya over Phuket 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

I agree 999%.Never on a Sunday. Koh Samed was good around 10 years ago.But never on a Sunday..

Edited March 3, 2012 by sirchai

[Chupup]

What a joke these people are, even bigger joke is they get extremly good money for all the meetings they attend, why not keep the ball rolling, meeting after meeting , they are just as bad if not worse than the scamers they are "worried " about, as is usual nothing will get done the tourist will still get Fked over and these guys will draw their pay and their short holidays all paid for by some one else

[moe666]

This thread is a bit like the Thai Senate, people show up and yak, yak, yak. Phukett is a beachside town I donot care where you go they are all crap worlwide

[gaucho]

The first thing they need to do is get rid of the GREED factor there. Then they might be able to do something.

spot on .....the quick rip off whilst profitable for the individual results in a ten fold loss of income for the country as a whole ... .similar things got really out of hand in brazil about 20 years ago ...the police were told by the tourism minister clean things up ...they did in their peculiar style ........people now r cancelling their trips to thailand because of events in phuket ...i personally know a family of four who cancelled took the 500 dollars loss and rebooked to another destination

[hushai1]

Notice that they talk about solving the problems just because it affect the tourism industry, that is their source of income, not because it is wrong in itself to beat up tourists!

Thailand the land of shit!

So why not leave?

I lived in Thailand 2 years. I left the Land of Shit 4 years ago.

Edited March 4, 2012 by hushai1

[Markaew]

I spoke to my travel agent in Sydney the other day and she told me that she has had some cancellations to Phuket. However they changed their booking to Pattaya where, I must admit there seems to be less trouble than Phuket. Although there are some of the same scams going on.

Pattaya is becoming "Little Russia". It's building all new problems.

[fiddlehead]

I guess it's time to show the senators this video then:

[pagallim]

Getting back to the actual Senate committee itself, the chairperson (Tunyaratt Achariyachai) is actually the wife of the owner of the Kata Group (various resorts in both Kata and Karon plus elsewhere). Couple that with the other Phuket Senator being the recently retired Governor of Phuket, and figure out why a meeting to discuss Phuket's problems was necessary at all.

Nobody knows the problems that Phuket faces better than these two people, and their inactions during their previous and current roles doesn't engender much confidence in future problem resolving.

[jerrysteve]

beatings, shootings, intimidation, extortion, robbery, unsolved murders...The Medium is the Message comrades. Not to much different than the western countries...but far more blatant.

[Felt 35]

What do they have this meetings for?

[moonbarman]

The committee did note, however, that many organizations were already at work finding their own solutions to the issues being faced.

Because of this, the committee, which included Phuket's other senator and former governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop, decided that it would follow up on the progress made at a later date.

So now after how many years the Senators admit there is a problem. Their solution is to follow up on the progress, or more likely the lack of progress at a later date...

In other words they'll do naff all until the mafia allows them to, bravo you bunch of wimps.

[oldsailor35]

They have been having meetings and forming committees for as long as I can remember and so far have solved nothing. It's easy guys, stop the corruption and a lot of the problems will fade away.

The committee did note, however, that many organizations were already at work finding their own solutions to the issues being faced.

Stop the corruption? These guys are meeting to count their illicit money!

Give them time. A lot of people have lost face. The problem is finding someone with a face to see it all and recognise the corrupt links. Phuket closes it Thuggery. The agencies have just opened up in Pattaya. Ski Jet rip offs, false pictures the lot. Why isnt there a police post and a proper office to regulate these things? In the end the foreigner pays.... "crime never pays"

"A police post and proper office "...........But there is, to handle the cash and control any upset tourist !

Theft and corruption really is crime. And it certainly pays in Phuket !

[oldsailor35]

Just as long as the Phuket airport gets bigger and bigger and those cut price airlines fly in on a daily basis from places like Australia chock a block with short time package deal holiday makers, nothing will change. never, never !