PHUKET: The expansion of jet-skis across more Phuket beaches is likely now that they are openly operating on the sands of Patong in defiance of the military's clearance of private business from all of the holiday island's public beaches.
Jet-ski touts now spread out along the beach and onto surrounding roads in Patong and encourage tourists to take a ride.
This is the formula to keep scores of jet-skis operating at Patong beach this high season - and success of the tout-led business plan will mean it spreading to other beaches.
Yet only months ago in Patong, jet-skis were being obliged to stick to the water and not carry out their business on shore, or face arrest.
The recent turnaround in the approach to jet-skis is even more astonishing when it is considered that just 13 years ago, following a series of deaths, Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura ordered that all jet-skis be phased off Phuket within seven years.
These days, jet-skis park with impunity on the beach or even under the shoreline trees, a place that was once prized by visitors for the shade.
The touts are everywhere.
Even during quiet low-season days, the effectiveness of sending people out to tout produces customers for jet-skis in the same way it works after dark for Patong's lewd sex shows and time-share operators.
Patong's Mayor, Chalermlak Kebsub, said yesterday that the beach vendors, umbrella hirers and masseuses had all agreed to register as co-ops and that the jet-skis, as an obvious beach business, should do the same.
''Enforcement still remains a problem,'' she said. ''When we go there [to the beach] everything is right. When we leave, it all comes back.''
The low-season arrangements on the beach have seen the buoys demarking the areas for jet-skis removed, allowing jet-skis to be ridden parallel to the beach to the danger of swimmers.
Even with the buoys back in the water for the coming high season, the risks of having jet-ski zones interspersed with swimming zones are obvious.
But this arrangement gives the jet-ski touts the ideal opportunity to find customers close to where jet-skis can be hired.
Back in December, 2002 Governor Udomsak said: ''All jet-ski licenses will expire within seven years and we won't issue any new ones.''
He told a local newspaper that the jet-ski operators will have to change their occupation within seven years.
The governors who followed him would have to make sure the policy is followed through: ''If it's possible, we will allow only people who have jet-ski driving licenses to drive a jet-ski or take a passenger with them.''
Early next month, Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada takes over and his view on jet-skis could define the future of beach tourism on Phuket for years to come.
With most businesses on the beaches under control and sunbeds banished, there is still logic in banning jet-skis, as the neighboring provinces of Krabi and Phang Nga have already done.
The sly takeover of Patong, once Phuket's most popular swimming beach, is an indication that the jet-ski business won't stop until other Phuket beaches are also run by jet-ski operators.
Jet-ski touts now spread out along the beach and onto surrounding roads in Patong and encourage tourists to take a ride.
This is the formula to keep scores of jet-skis operating at Patong beach this high season - and success of the tout-led business plan will mean it spreading to other beaches.
Yet only months ago in Patong, jet-skis were being obliged to stick to the water and not carry out their business on shore, or face arrest.
The recent turnaround in the approach to jet-skis is even more astonishing when it is considered that just 13 years ago, following a series of deaths, Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura ordered that all jet-skis be phased off Phuket within seven years.
These days, jet-skis park with impunity on the beach or even under the shoreline trees, a place that was once prized by visitors for the shade.
The touts are everywhere.
Even during quiet low-season days, the effectiveness of sending people out to tout produces customers for jet-skis in the same way it works after dark for Patong's lewd sex shows and time-share operators.
Patong's Mayor, Chalermlak Kebsub, said yesterday that the beach vendors, umbrella hirers and masseuses had all agreed to register as co-ops and that the jet-skis, as an obvious beach business, should do the same.
''Enforcement still remains a problem,'' she said. ''When we go there [to the beach] everything is right. When we leave, it all comes back.''
The low-season arrangements on the beach have seen the buoys demarking the areas for jet-skis removed, allowing jet-skis to be ridden parallel to the beach to the danger of swimmers.
Even with the buoys back in the water for the coming high season, the risks of having jet-ski zones interspersed with swimming zones are obvious.
But this arrangement gives the jet-ski touts the ideal opportunity to find customers close to where jet-skis can be hired.
Back in December, 2002 Governor Udomsak said: ''All jet-ski licenses will expire within seven years and we won't issue any new ones.''
He told a local newspaper that the jet-ski operators will have to change their occupation within seven years.
The governors who followed him would have to make sure the policy is followed through: ''If it's possible, we will allow only people who have jet-ski driving licenses to drive a jet-ski or take a passenger with them.''
Early next month, Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada takes over and his view on jet-skis could define the future of beach tourism on Phuket for years to come.
With most businesses on the beaches under control and sunbeds banished, there is still logic in banning jet-skis, as the neighboring provinces of Krabi and Phang Nga have already done.
The sly takeover of Patong, once Phuket's most popular swimming beach, is an indication that the jet-ski business won't stop until other Phuket beaches are also run by jet-ski operators.
Just reminds me never to go to Patong again. Khao lak, Ao Nang, Khanom, Srichon and just about everywhere else is a better option now.
Posted by Arun Muruga on September 14, 2015 11:55