THAI Airways has trimmed flights between Phuket and Bangkok as concern mounts about the effect of unrest in the capital on Thailand's tourism industry.

Thai Airways flights from Bangkok to Phuket have been reduced from nine flights a day to eight flights a day; Flights from Phuket to Bangkok have been reduced from 10 to nine.

The 10am flight from Bangkok and the 12.05pm flight from Phuket are the ones that have been trimmed.

Thai Airways usually adjusts flights to suit demand, with the high season now clearly over. Recent large fare rises, though, may also be a factor.

Discerning whether the the violence on the streets is impacting upon passenger arrivals on Phuket is more difficult.

In the first 18 days of May, the number of flights landing on and leaving the island varied between 125 and 102, which is within the normal range.

Daily passenger numbers of arrivals and departures were as high as 18,000 at the beginning of May, but the total for yesterday, May 18, had slumped to 10,455 from 103 flights.

Forward bookings for Phuket in June are reported to be down to 15 percent on average.

The government has promised a large amount will be spent on reviving tourism once the political crisis is resolved, but this is little consolation to Phuket and the Andaman region, where tourists have been relaxing at resorts as normal.

National travel alerts have failed to accurately describe the danger to citizens, and ignored entirely the dramatic difference between Bangkok and Phuket.

The question should be asked: if individuals can sue for being misled and endangered by their governments, what's to stop businesses suing for being damaged by false or incomplete information?

The absurd conclusion from the mixture of alarms and alerts was that some citizens of some countries were somehow safer than citizens from other countries.

The failure of the current system is obvious, and contemptuous of international concerns for safety. Phuketwan advocates a thorough, updating and universal system of warnings that applies to people from all countries.