DESPITE the troubles assailing the tourism industry, this year's boat show looks great.

It probably tastes good too, although we did not have time to drop by at Mom Tri's new Regatta restaurant.

The new eatery, appropriately dockside, is freshly daubed and looking suitably nautical at the Royal Phuket Marina, along with the sixth annual boat show (officially the less inviting Phuket International Marine Expo).

Pimex, if you must, runs until December 7 and is well worth a visit, even just to tantalisingly explore the glistening and expensive superyachts and powerboats, plus the outboards that these days seem to have grown to the size of jet engines.

In and around the water, the organisers say, there are more than 90 boats on display. The RPM, packed to the gunnals, as sailors grunt when they want to sound silly, looked simply spiffing.

Royal Phuket Marina, jammed with costly boats, must also have looked particularly good to RPM chairman Gulu Lalvani.

The grey-headed tycoon-entrepreneur first joined a table for talks at Regatta, then later moved to the water's edge to take in the view with a companion.

Inside the exhibition hall, displaying its showcasing ability for the first time at RPM, the space has been decked out to look most inviting.

Critics had made the point that the low roof restricts its capacity a little as an exhibition hall and conference centre.

And the critics are right: big boats or large displays of other kinds just couldn't fit inside. But for this year, it seemed perfectly adequate, if a trifle cramped.

Next year?

Along with the 88 companies of all kinds involved in this year's show, we look forward to the time when Mr Lalvani and his colleagues spend the figure promoted earlier this year, one billion baht, on a real conference centre for Phuket.

We can't wait to see that big boat show. Meanwhile, do get along to this one if you can.

Just after finishing this article, we came across a promotional blurb online for the event and the venue.

Most of what is said is close to accurate, but the handout concludes with this spectacular paragraph:

''Despite the troubles in Bangkok over the past few weeks, a spokesperson for RPM said Phuket had been largely unaffected and high season hotel bookings and visitors to the Island are expected to be high.''

Phuket has been largely unaffected? Bookings and visitors to the island are expected to be high?

They must be on some other planet, the one where everything that happens to the other Phuket is the reverse of what's happening on the real one.





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