PHUKET: International passengers arriving and departing on Phuket increased by 36.58 percent in May when compared to the same month last year, according to the latest Airports of Thailand statistics.

While the rise seems enormous, it's worth recalling that Thailand was suffering from a burst of street violence in Bangkok last May that claimed 90 lives and prompted travel alerts that affected the flow of tourists to Thailand.

With domestic tourism showing a 26.09 percent rebound, the total of 558,498 arrivals and departures for Phuket in May pushed the island closer towards what should be a record year for tourism.

While the numbers are large, onlookers wonder about the quality of visitors - ''quality'' being an alternative way of saying big-spenders who don't souvenir chunks of coral reefs. Travellers from some parts of Europe are falling while numbers from Asia and Russia are rising.

The other issues are whether competition from other destinations is so intense that room rates are being excessively discounted, and whether the number of rooms is growing too fast and outpacing tourism growth.

The low-season dip meant that the May figure was well down on April's total of 679,760, with the sharpening taper even more evident in June in closed restaurants and resorts around Phuket and in Phang Nga and Krabi, the other destinations serviced by Phuket International Airport.

Flights in May were similarly up, by 24.49 percent over the same month last year.

With the total arrivals and departures by Phuket through the first five months of 2011 now at 3,722,072, a record year above eight million passengers seems possible for Phuket airport.

Because the number of arrivals and departures includes business trips and resident travellers, calculations of real tourist numbers on Phuket based on the AoT figures remains imprecise.