THE SENATE Committee on Tourism met with Phuket's leading officials and tourism industry representatives today and projected an illuminating view of the island's future.

Phuket Member of Parliament Rewat Areerob told the gathering that diplomats from China, Australia, Korea and Japan had complained lately about jet-ski rip-offs, the high price of tuk-tuks, ladyboy cheats, and lack of public transport.

He said that the 330,000 registered Phuket citizens paid taxes that had to support an infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of Thais from other provinces, hundreds of thousands of tourists, and at least 100,000 legal and illegal Burmese workers.

Because of the lack of proper funding, disposing of garbage at a rate of 600 tonnes a day was just one of Phuket's difficulties.

The chairman of the committee, Torpong Chaisan, said the screening of the television series 'Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand' was one of the reasons the committee had come to visit Phuket.

They would like to close down YouTube screenings of the series on the internet, which has a worldwide audience, but YouTube management had told them there ''had to be a victim who suffered'' for the footage to be removed.

The committee spent some time discussing Winai ''JJ'' Naiman, whose case of alleged extortion, arising from the series has yet to come to court.

The vice president of Patong Jet-Ski Association, Singtong Jalernsub, told the meeting that Khun Winai's father was from the Netherlands, and his mother was a Thai from Udonthani.

Khun Winai was born on Phuket. ''JJ takes care of jet-skis for many other people as well because he has good English skills,'' Khun Sintong said.

Committee vice chairman Thitima Chaisang asked whether ''JJ'' was the best person to represent Phuket jet-ski owners in dealing with tourists.

''Why don't other people know how to speak English so they can all talk to the tourists?

''Why aren't people taught how to behave properly with people from other countries who come here?

''Why hasn't the local tessaban taught people the skills they need to be good tourism ambassadors?

''Please don't tell me that JJ is still fulfilling this role as the main contact for tourists on Patong beach.''

Khun Sintong said that JJ was only called in when other jet-ski renters discovered they couldn't properly communicate with tourists.

The committee laughed at this response.

When asked whether he thought the scene depicted in the reality television show 'Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand' was genuine or playacting, Khun Sintong said he thought it was genuine.

''JJ would like to be famous,'' he said.

Permission for making the controversial series came from Bangkok, not Phuket, Deputy Patong Mayor Chairat Sukhban told the committee.

''Why try to find a victim now?'' he said ''The damage has been done. Thousands of people around the world have seen the series.''

Committee chairman Khun Torpong said much of their time was taken up with reading reports in Bangkok when clearly, they needed to see the real situation, as depicted on 'Big Trouble' and YouTube on Phuket and other destinations in Thailand.

''We have to skip the paperwork,'' he said.

Phuket was the first stop for the committee because of its importance to Thailand. The income from Phuket tourism amounted to 94 billion baht a year.

''With good management and a decent image, the income could be 150 billion baht a year,'' he said.

Khun Torpong said that having seen the show, he could not say who was right and who was wrong in the case involving JJ, but the image of Thailand was clearly going to suffer.

It came at the worst possible time, when political uncertainty also complicated Thailand's future. Phuket, the pulse of tourism, had to be kept beating in a healthy fashion, he said.

It was at least good to see that the Governor of Phuket had reacted to end the jet-ski problem, he said.