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Beach bans make Phuket a laughing stock around the world

Future of Phuket Beaches Relies on Tourists Being Free to Sit on Chairs, Where They Like

Saturday, October 31, 2015
PHUKET: Officials moved behind closed doors and excluded the media from yesterday's important meeting on the future of Phuket's beaches.

Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat chaired the gathering which is believed to have included Phuket mayors, police and the Land Titles office.

Phuketwan believes legal complications have been discovered which call for quite substantial changes in law before the ''10 percent zone'' concept can be introduced at Phuket's west coast tourist beaches.

Officials who attended the closed-door meeting were reluctant to reveal what took place yesterday.

Sixteen months of indecision and compromise have cost Phuket dearly. Western tourists - the ones who love beaches and once came to stay on the island for weeks and weeks - are cancelling.

The clearance of massive numbers of sunbeds and umbrellas and illegal foreshore restaurants and beach clubs should have been a big plus for the back to nature ''New Phuket'' in June last year.

Instead, the illegal vendors have been listened to while the tourists - the people who should count most because their money sustains Phuket - have been ignored, with the exception of the extensive research carried out by Prince of Songkhla University.

As Phuketwan and the university researchers have pointed out, Phuket's beaches should be managed by an independent body - not by the local councils that allowed the illegal commerce to grow in the first place.

The Mayor of Patong has said that there are no poor vendors on her beach, yet the ''10 percent zone'' is a compromise designed for the sole reason of giving a future to ''poor'' vendors.

Tourists are barred from bringing their own chairs, umbrellas and other equipment, unless they wish to be confined to the ''10 percent zones.''

Most people, with the exception of Phuket's administrators, can see that this silly concept is not enforceable.

There isn't a policeman or a local official who want to pull a beach chair from under an elderly tourist.

Yet that's what is going to have to happen if this foolish idea proceeds to endorsement by Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada.

The concept of regimentation on the beaches of Phuket is a peculiar demand that ignores what takes place at the world's best beaches, where sunlovers are allowed to plant umbrellas and chairs wherever they wish.

The fact that Phuket is still enmeshed in ideas that cannot possibly work 16 months after the military cleared all commerce from the west coast beaches should tell officials that they are on the wrong track.

The spirit of the clearance was to ban all commerce from the public beaches. If there are still ''poor'' vendors, help them find new jobs, off the beaches.

Let the tourists bring umbrellas and chairs and sit where they wish.

Otherwise, when police or council officers are forced to take chairs from under the bums of elderly tourists on Phuket's beaches, this foolish plan will be splashed on the front pages of newspapers around the world.

Comments

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i highly doubt it will be front page news anywhere other than phuket.. unless they shoot a tourist..

Posted by another steve on October 31, 2015 12:17

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'Otherwise, when police or council officers are forced to take chairs from under the bums of elderly tourists on Phuket's beaches, this foolish plan will be splashed on the front pages of newspapers around the world.'

Same as the Great Beermat Robbery.

Posted by Anonymous on October 31, 2015 12:20

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Can i ask something ??

Am i the only one bored of all this CRAP....

Posted by robert on October 31, 2015 12:48

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None of this rhetoric about bringing beaches back to nature makes sense while parasailing and jet skis rule the beach space. And to tell the public where they can put their beach equipment on public beaches doesn't make sense either. It's either public space or it's not.

Posted by Itsamystery on October 31, 2015 12:50

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Fully agree with the article. Straight to the point. Silly indeed.

I don't think it takes a shooting to hit front pages though. If a tourist is arrested for using a beach chair in the "wrong" place, that will do it.

Last year a picture of armed soldiers chasing tourists off their chairs was already widely circulated.

Above all this world-class demonstration of incomprehension will send one message loud and clear to the tourists:

You are not Welcome !

(only your money is)

I recommend the local authorities set up a big collection box at the airport with a sign reading

" Leave all your valuables here and get out ! "

Problem solved. No need to deal with the pesky tourists who have the audacity to try to enjoy and, God help them, even relax on their holiday.

Posted by Herbert on October 31, 2015 13:00

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Speaking of environment, then this palaver about chairs or not is absolutely ridiculous, compared to what is going on around Titrang- and Paradise beach right now.

Private property signs, noise and concrete constructions everywhere at the few natural beaches left around Patong Bay.

Posted by Sherlock on October 31, 2015 14:34

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I would like to see the situation on Phuket's beaches publicised world wide to cause maximum embarrassment to the Phuket officials who are responsible in the hope that the pressure would make them see sense and introduce tourist friendly beaches

Posted by Paul on October 31, 2015 14:49

Editor Comment:

B y not putting the tourists first, the authorities are costing the tourism industry a fortune.

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if jet skiis are allowed then corruption thrives.the new govenor is a carbon copy of the previous govenors.and the chair issue is just plain ridiculous as are the people that make the laws.we shake ours heads in wonderment!

Posted by Anonymous on October 31, 2015 15:33

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And then we wait for the next sign that in there languages says "No elderly tourists". We are an older, just under 70, Scandinavium couple being 1 to 3 months in Phuket the last 9 years. Talong away the sunbeds was bad enough for us. But if you can not take your own Chair to the beach close to the water (my wife has problems walking) and stay there the day, we will not come this winter. We think It is sad because we have loves being in Karon in winters. Hope there will be a reasonable solution.

Posted by ToKi on October 31, 2015 15:50

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Back to the nature? Back to the sixties! Nowadays the tourists are no hippies as in the sixties but people who want sunbeds and umbrellas.

Posted by Lucy on October 31, 2015 16:37

Editor Comment:

Let's hope commonsense prevails and authorities allow them to bring what they need.

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another steve you are very wrong. It can be the front page news around the word just as well as australian tourists bashed by nightclud gaurds a few weeks ago and was also on Australian TV news.

Posted by Phuket119 on October 31, 2015 17:09

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This really is a classic Thai tug-of-war. The financial interests of Thais vs the wellbeing and preference of the foreigners.

If the authorities do what the Goose that lays the golden egg, they are seen as favouring foreigners over Thais and that's just something which does not happen in Thailand.

After all, if locals can't rip off foreigners, what's the point in allowing them in in the first place.

Whoever will drive off the jet-ski, parasail and whatever else vendors and actually do what tourists want, need and deserve will be committing political suicide.

One of the first things I learned when I moved to Thailand was that common sense is not that common at all.

Posted by Herbert on October 31, 2015 17:39

Editor Comment:

The wellbeing of foreigners equals the financial interests of Thais, Herbert. It's a pretty simple economic equation.

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Ed, it may be plain and simple to you and me but try selling that idea to the local authorities.

I rest my case.

Posted by Herbert on October 31, 2015 18:04

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"The wellbeing of foreigners equals the financial interests of Thais,"

Erh, actually under current market conditions in a global tourism market, and in regional tourism market around Thailand, it is not:

Globally Demand for tourism, incl. int'l tourism ir rpaidly growing,as well-being of people grows and more and more can afford it.
On regional level, that growth is even more dramatic - giving ever that number of well-off PRC citizens that is added to the int'l tourists pool is huge, and so it will continue for a foreseeable future.
Even more, in 10-20 years, India will join China for the same reason, and with comparable figures.

But on Supply side, it is not growing that fast, and in terms of country- destinations, esp. for a regional tourism, supply hardly can ever grow.

In France - the most visited country in the world, 80%(!) is regional tourism form other european countries.
In the US, the 2nd most visited country, at least 60% of arrivals are regional - from Canada and Mexico.
This is just to illustrate first for those people who wonder about ever growing number of Chinese visitors in Thailand - that they, apparently, have no slightest understanding about tourism markets - composition regional/long-haul, and related trends that can be expected in Thailand , giving that Chinese economy is still growing and will continue to grow.

Then, on prevalence "of visitors from one country"- in the US, 35% of tourists are from a single country - Canada, so nothing very bad has happened so far. Would Canada population be larger, certainly, their share in the US inbound tourism would be larger.

Thailand can accomodate many more tourists:
Austria takes 3X of its population - 24M arrivals
Greece roughly 2.5X ration - 25M 9 and it is with just 6 months of high season)
France by factor 1.3X - 83M.

Currently Thailand approach 30M arrivals benchmark, and its population is , say, 70M - taking as an example the Greece, where tourism sector in general works well, it means that Thailand could accommodate 170M arrivals vs. current 30M - a pleanty of space to grow.

Giving a tendency that Demand highly outstrips Supply, and in particular in Thailand - thanks for booming regional tourism sector because of China,
then level of service usually deteriorate and/or prices goes up - it is quite apparent consequnce.

Moreover, it is a global trend in tourism - service mostly goes down, and with prices even growing, as tourists'crowds only grow.

CONCLUSION: with continuing trends of ever growing demand at global and in particular regional level, service level in Thailand tourism market will probably continue to deteriorate in a short term as there is no incentive to fix it up or improve.In the middle term this can be combined with rising prices. And it will continue to become even more crowded place.

Posted by Sue on October 31, 2015 19:09

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To summarize your astute words Sue:

It's the perfect storm for continued year-on year increases in Thai tourists - so why change a darned thing?

Posted by farang888 on November 1, 2015 03:39

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Let chairs and umbrellas be free all over the whole beach - not only in a 10% zone. Everyone with chairs and umbrellas are not to be pressed together there, it will be all to compressed for anyone - very, very bad! Let us get free and clean beaches like in other countries all over the world.

Posted by V??C on November 1, 2015 19:01


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