Phuket Governor Maitree intrusud decided to head to Patong on Monday night to head off a rally by Patong businesspeople tomorrow to express their desire to have the midnight to 4am curfew lifted. Whether there's much he can do without a nod from the coup commander remains to be seen.


PHUKET: Patong nightlife business leaders will be meeting Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud tomorrow to seek the lifting of the midnight curfew which they say is strangling their low-season flow of tourists and income.

''Phuket has no serious crime and it's hundreds of kilometres from Bangkok, where all the problems have been,'' said the President of the Entertainment Association of Patong, Weerawit Kuresombut. He claimed the earlier 10pm curfew was ''worse than a tsunami.''

''People don't understand that there are direct flights to Phuket and it is quite different to Bangkok,'' he said. ''This applies especially to first-time travellers, who are being scared off for no good reason.''

There are conflicting reports about the level of damage being done to tourism in Thailand since the coup began on May 22.

According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), there were 5000 cancellations the next day, May 23.

A total of 62 nations have issued travel alerts and 19 of those are categorised as ''do not travel'' warnings. The problem for Phuket is that the midnight to 4am curfew is imposed for all of Thailand - just as the travel alerts are mostly imposed for all of Thailand.

Although flights to Thailand are said to have remained at steady numbers, it's likely that the numbers of passengers on some flights have fallen. May and June, though, are generally regarded as the low point of Phuket's tourist year anyway.

The effect is likely to be felt much more severely in Bangkok, where hotels and tourism generally is already suffering from six months of street protests that only ended with the military's intervention.

''Some people have panicked because of the way the military takeover has been portrayed,'' Khun Weerawit said. ''If you haven't been to Phuket before, it's hard to understand that it's very different to Bangkok.''

In a letter to Patong businesspeople, Khun Weerawit has asked for five staff from each pub, bar, nightclub or restaurant to turn out tomorrow when the association's leaders meet with Governor Maitree at Phuket Provincial Hall in Phuket City.

However, the suggestion may be in contravention of an edict from the National Council for Peace and Order banning gatherings of five people or more.

All complaints to the coup command have to be directed through the provincial governors, who are under orders to inform the junta about all developments.

The midnight curfew is unlikely to be continued much longer in Phuket and other tourist areas because coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha has already said he wants to resurrect tourism as soon as possible.

Patong bar owners sometimes stay open after 2am and have always claimed it's difficult to make a profit because tourists are used to dining late and staying out late.