what do you think about future of phuket re. recent world events?

[Felt 35]

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Due to internet interference, I tried editing my post above and was unable to, and because I spent time trying to fight the internet disruption (due to my local WiFi connection) that put so much of what I had written into a shortened version of what I'd like to add to the post, I'm going to repost--I see that I cannot even delete what I had written above, but I feel determined. I also want to add that I used to live in Miami, in the area called South Beach. I witnessed what was a more quiet but tourist-based economy become an international party scene investment community, which has proven to be a bonanza for some investors, but for the people who used to enjoy peaceful quiet mornings on the beach and a more unique and interesting scene, it turned into a corporate venture that has made that area lose it's former charm. I see the tell-tale signs here in Phuket, so from the many recent developments I read of, I see emerging the same sort of pattern. The world is turning into a global corporate enterprise, or I see it's tentacles reaching here. So, I repost with a few additional flourishes to my two paragraphs above:

Phuket is going to become a much more expensive place to live for both ex-pats living here as well as the local Thai population. As emphasis shifts from attracting a volatile and unstable short-term tourist market to high-end corporate and Real Estate investment and development, focus will concentrate on long-term investment strategies with the aim of bringing in these corporate entities to settle and operate in Phuket. Accordingly, property prices will exponentially soar (this might take a few more years to go into effect). The demographic might shift, as the local Thai population who cannot keep up with inflated prices move out, and more well-off ex-pats and other more affluent nationals will move in with their operations based out, or partially out of, Phuket.

I further predict that the fantastic, relatively new string of luxury hotels lining the beach cliff areas of Phuket will host conferences by some of these corporate concerns. There might be international expos, or other global marketing conferences. There may be a shift to attracting high tech operations into Phuket to form a new Asian high-tech sector. Much more of the newly built beach-front property that lines the Andaman Coast from Nai Harn to Surin will acquire a high-end retail and business office look and feel. This has already begun many years ago, but I believe the shift from tourism to corporate and high-end Real Estate will hold precedence. I think this transition from a middle-value tourist market to high-end corporate investment has been a coveted goal for a while now in the inner circles of those who plan such transitions in the Phuket economy. It seems apparent when I observe how local poorer entrepreneurs who had run family businesses along the beaches are now deemed an eye-sore, as they lose their former livelihoods so the beaches can become pristine and devoid of unsightly shacks and umbrellas. This will make reclining on the beach after a days' work at the new corporate structures for the upcoming long-term corporate investors more attractive. The now disenfranchised or slowly deteriorating local economy which has enjoyed operating on beaches will be superceded by the much more lucrative corporate structure. I can see many changes in the political and local government offices such as the police, as some offices are being shifted to specialized units or other merging into a larger more centralized structural form. This will make for a more efficient corporate structure, albeit I think labor laws will somehow be pushed to the outer rim of concern as centralization for profit will be the prime focus. All will be partially run or controlled in other partnerships by a more tight corporate group widely dispersed within the ASEAN community.

I agree in most of your thoughts, but your prediction are a lo.........ng time into the future and low oil prices and sanctions against Russia are decades behind us by that time.

[geisha]

Me313, I would agree to your first paragraph,but not with the second. To accommodate high end tourists and international congress events, Phuket would have to change radically.they would first have to clean the island up, re design the drainage systems that stink to high heaven, the roads and pavements that are dangerous, the power lines above ground that must make Phuket one of the ugliest tourist venues around, and also find the qualified staff to work here. Speaking of staff, one would have to re educate all the students so that they could speak at least some understandable English, and also teach them manners and how to behave in public, and towards the public. Walk into any shopping mall, bank, restaurant, hotel reception , office, and see what the staff are doing. Using their smart phones, looking into mirrors, picking their faces and noses, and even sleeping ! Last but not least, the rampant corruption that exists on Phuket. I rather doubt that any high class visitors to the island appreciate all this, right? I have friends who used to go to Surin to lovely 5 star hotels. They all said the same things I've mentioned here ! They also said it was such a shame that the shops sold so much imported rubbish, and they wondered who on earth buys it. Having a look at what's on offer, I have to say it's true, stall after stall of awful things, it's quite shaming. So, to climb higher up,the tourist ladder Phuket, you'll have to get your show together fast !

,

[Xircal]

Just look at the number of businesses for sale in this Google link. Doesn't look good for the forthcoming season with half of Tiger on Bangla Rd empty. That's a prime location and they seem to be having a problem attracting lessees it at the moment.

[xylophone]

Due to internet interference, I tried editing my post above and was unable to, and because I spent time trying to fight the internet disruption (due to my local WiFi connection) that put so much of what I had written into a shortened version of what I'd like to add to the post, I'm going to repost--I see that I cannot even delete what I had written above, but I feel determined. I also want to add that I used to live in Miami, in the area called South Beach. I witnessed what was a more quiet but tourist-based economy become an international party scene investment community, which has proven to be a bonanza for some investors, but for the people who used to enjoy peaceful quiet mornings on the beach and a more unique and interesting scene, it turned into a corporate venture that has made that area lose it's former charm. I see the tell-tale signs here in Phuket, so from the many recent developments I read of, I see emerging the same sort of pattern. The world is turning into a global corporate enterprise, or I see it's tentacles reaching here. So, I repost with a few additional flourishes to my two paragraphs above:

Phuket is going to become a much more expensive place to live for both ex-pats living here as well as the local Thai population. As emphasis shifts from attracting a volatile and unstable short-term tourist market to high-end corporate and Real Estate investment and development, focus will concentrate on long-term investment strategies with the aim of bringing in these corporate entities to settle and operate in Phuket. Accordingly, property prices will exponentially soar (this might take a few more years to go into effect). The demographic might shift, as the local Thai population who cannot keep up with inflated prices move out, and more well-off ex-pats and other more affluent nationals will move in with their operations based out, or partially out of, Phuket.

I further predict that the fantastic, relatively new string of luxury hotels lining the beach cliff areas of Phuket will host conferences by some of these corporate concerns. There might be international expos, or other global marketing conferences. There may be a shift to attracting high tech operations into Phuket to form a new Asian high-tech sector. Much more of the newly built beach-front property that lines the Andaman Coast from Nai Harn to Surin will acquire a high-end retail and business office look and feel. This has already begun many years ago, but I believe the shift from tourism to corporate and high-end Real Estate will hold precedence. I think this transition from a middle-value tourist market to high-end corporate investment has been a coveted goal for a while now in the inner circles of those who plan such transitions in the Phuket economy. It seems apparent when I observe how local poorer entrepreneurs who had run family businesses along the beaches are now deemed an eye-sore, as they lose their former livelihoods so the beaches can become pristine and devoid of unsightly shacks and umbrellas. This will make reclining on the beach after a days' work at the new corporate structures for the upcoming long-term corporate investors more attractive. The now disenfranchised or slowly deteriorating local economy which has enjoyed operating on beaches will be superceded by the much more lucrative corporate structure. I can see many changes in the political and local government offices such as the police, as some offices are being shifted to specialized units or other merging into a larger more centralized structural form. This will make for a more efficient corporate structure, albeit I think labor laws will somehow be pushed to the outer rim of concern as centralization for profit will be the prime focus. All will be partially run or controlled in other partnerships by a more tight corporate group widely dispersed within the ASEAN community.

Some interesting thoughts however I just cannot see that materialising for a number of reasons.

Why would many of these so-called corporates want to come to a place which has not been built with that in mind. They would be moving to an island which has terrible Internet connections, poor roads and only one road out of the place and an altogether sad infrastructure in total.

This place has been built with a couple of things in mind, getting any sort of tourists here to spend money and how much officials and mafia related folk can steal whilst doing it.

Hence the reason you have hundreds of small guesthouses, small hotels and very small businesses catering to the lower end, shoebox apartments, potholed roads, drains that don't work and also smell badly, water shortages and frequent power outages, not to mention a non-existent "customer service" mentality. And I don't know how many quality tourists and corporate folk would like the idea of going to the toilet and having to put their used toilet paper in a separate receptacle close by, often full of other folks waste – –!!

To be able to change this to a "corporate hub" would have taken much work and planning some years ago, however this place has gone too far down the wrong end of the spectrum to be able to be pulled back.To do so would mean basically blowing the island up and starting again. It is not easy to change a cesspit into a swimming pool when the basic infrastructure is not there, and I would suggest (although I don't know to be honest) that the infrastructure that you speak of in Miami was a damn sight better than it is here, therefore allowing a change to happen.

Sure there will be some corporate leisure activity in some of the high end hotels in places out of the main centres as there are some beautiful spots around when one doesn't have to venture into the Third World standard places like Patong, or any of the other towns on the island.

If you bring the endemic corruption back into the equation, and the "Thainess" that is often mentioned on here, then the whole idea becomes somewhat fractured. On the point of the "Thainess", one example really stands out, whereby the airport authorities decide to set up a separate lane as a VIP Lane or similar and charge an extra hundred baht for going through it and then denying that it ever happens when you have actually seen it.

This is the mentality that prevails here (and often throughout Thailand) and will never be overcome and this one example is indicative of the mindset which will prevent this place ever becoming what you consider it could be in your post.

[cloudhopper]

Lower global energy prices are the result of demand destruction. The economy of Phuket will behave the same way.

Edited December 25, 2014 by cloudhopper

[KarenBravo]

Please explain what "demand destruction" is.

The lower prices is due to increased supply (fracking and shale in US and Canada) with no corresponding increase in demand.