PHUKET: Resorts on Phuket must put more effort into preventing tourists from drowning, a Phuketwan reporter will tell a World Health Organisation seminar in Bangkok next week.
''A few top resorts on Phuket warn their guests about dangers on Phuket's beaches,'' Phuketwan editor Alan Morison said today, ''but only a few. Yet the island is promoted as a year-round swimming destination.
''As Phuket's lifeguards keep saying, the help of the whole island community is needed to save lives - and that includes all of Phuket's reluctant resorts.''
The World Health Organisation invited Phuketwan to join a global media workshop on drowning next week in advance of the release of the first WHO report dedicated exclusively to drowning.
The 'Global Report on Drowning' will be released in Geneva on November 18.
Next week's workshop, in Bangkok, aims to provide a briefing on the main messages of the report and to promote a shift in media coverage towards more analytical coverage of drowning which emphasises its preventability.
Phuketwan hopes to be able to provide some statistics on the number of drownings on Phuket's beaches and on day-trips, if we can obtain some from local island authorities.
There's also the issue of why the drownings of so many tourists occur needlessly, without adequate prevention. Elsewhere on Phuket and in Thailand, canals and ponds also claim far too many victims.
Whatever lessons are available to glean from international experience, Phuketwan will be seeking to pass them on to the island's resorts and residents next week.
''One of the most difficult assignments that reporters undertake is to intrude into the grief of family and friends after a needless drowning,'' Morison said.
''It really should be obligatory for every Phuket resort manager to join these kinds of assignments to learn how much better it is to commit to prevention than to say, 'That was one of our guests but a drowning at the beach has got nothing to do with us.'''
Phuketwan will be joining the WHO seminar in Bangkok and reporting back on what lessons can be better applied on Phuket and at other holiday destinations in Thailand.
''A few top resorts on Phuket warn their guests about dangers on Phuket's beaches,'' Phuketwan editor Alan Morison said today, ''but only a few. Yet the island is promoted as a year-round swimming destination.
''As Phuket's lifeguards keep saying, the help of the whole island community is needed to save lives - and that includes all of Phuket's reluctant resorts.''
The World Health Organisation invited Phuketwan to join a global media workshop on drowning next week in advance of the release of the first WHO report dedicated exclusively to drowning.
The 'Global Report on Drowning' will be released in Geneva on November 18.
Next week's workshop, in Bangkok, aims to provide a briefing on the main messages of the report and to promote a shift in media coverage towards more analytical coverage of drowning which emphasises its preventability.
Phuketwan hopes to be able to provide some statistics on the number of drownings on Phuket's beaches and on day-trips, if we can obtain some from local island authorities.
There's also the issue of why the drownings of so many tourists occur needlessly, without adequate prevention. Elsewhere on Phuket and in Thailand, canals and ponds also claim far too many victims.
Whatever lessons are available to glean from international experience, Phuketwan will be seeking to pass them on to the island's resorts and residents next week.
''One of the most difficult assignments that reporters undertake is to intrude into the grief of family and friends after a needless drowning,'' Morison said.
''It really should be obligatory for every Phuket resort manager to join these kinds of assignments to learn how much better it is to commit to prevention than to say, 'That was one of our guests but a drowning at the beach has got nothing to do with us.'''
Phuketwan will be joining the WHO seminar in Bangkok and reporting back on what lessons can be better applied on Phuket and at other holiday destinations in Thailand.
Obscure? Not obscure at all! Just the typical thai way of thinking/handling!
( do not bring a 'bad' message).
The warning sign should just turn 180 degrees so that passengers leaving the arrival hall can read it. Which arriving passenger is looking back over his shoulder when he arrives in the hectic mafia transport sector outside the arrival hall?
Posted by Kurt on October 8, 2014 12:24