PHUKET: Vendors are back on Phuket's beaches in large numbers, a survey by Phuketwan found today at Patong, Kamala and Surin.
A chair salesman, doing brisk business at Kamala, was proving that it will take that big e-word - enforcement - to maintain the peace and order.
That's what was supposed to be imposed when the Army and local authorities cleared the beaches of commercial activities about six months ago.
The new zoning at Patong, separating the swimmers from the jet-skis, seems destined to fail.
Why? because nobody has told the swimmers that Patong beach is no longer a swimmers' beach, but a jet-ski priority beach.
Many of the swimmers were treating the beach as if it was a place for people to swim, walking into the sea to enjoy themselves - in the jet-ski zones.
There was nobody on the beach to tell them they were putting their lives at risk. There was no enforcement of any kind to be seen.
The large stretches of Patong beach now devoted to jet-skis mean that the machines have won and that swimmers simply get in the way of business at Phuket's best-known beach.
Elsewhere, commerce in Thailand's public spaces is also winning out.
The Surin beach car park is packed again with food vendors' stalls. The Surin beach clubs continue to claim large areas of public space for the use of their customers.
At Kamala, vendors are moving back onto both sides of the shorefront path.
Patong, though, is the beach with the biggest problems.
If the mayor imposes a zoning system that is supposed to keep the tourists separated and safe from the jet-skis yet provides no enforcement, it is only a matter of time before a tourist is injured or killed.
The jet-skis and parasails should be banned because they are dangerous. Years ago, Phuket opted to get rid of them.
Yet they are now taking over more of the beach at Patong than ever. Why? In Phang Nga and Krabi, the lives of tourists are not put at risk by jet-skis - because there are none.
The machines are banned in those two provinces.
Phuket's future will remain in jeopardy as long as the authorities opt to make easy compromises that are not enforced and that are designed to please local business interests, not safeguard tourists' lives.
A chair salesman, doing brisk business at Kamala, was proving that it will take that big e-word - enforcement - to maintain the peace and order.
That's what was supposed to be imposed when the Army and local authorities cleared the beaches of commercial activities about six months ago.
The new zoning at Patong, separating the swimmers from the jet-skis, seems destined to fail.
Why? because nobody has told the swimmers that Patong beach is no longer a swimmers' beach, but a jet-ski priority beach.
Many of the swimmers were treating the beach as if it was a place for people to swim, walking into the sea to enjoy themselves - in the jet-ski zones.
There was nobody on the beach to tell them they were putting their lives at risk. There was no enforcement of any kind to be seen.
The large stretches of Patong beach now devoted to jet-skis mean that the machines have won and that swimmers simply get in the way of business at Phuket's best-known beach.
Elsewhere, commerce in Thailand's public spaces is also winning out.
The Surin beach car park is packed again with food vendors' stalls. The Surin beach clubs continue to claim large areas of public space for the use of their customers.
At Kamala, vendors are moving back onto both sides of the shorefront path.
Patong, though, is the beach with the biggest problems.
If the mayor imposes a zoning system that is supposed to keep the tourists separated and safe from the jet-skis yet provides no enforcement, it is only a matter of time before a tourist is injured or killed.
The jet-skis and parasails should be banned because they are dangerous. Years ago, Phuket opted to get rid of them.
Yet they are now taking over more of the beach at Patong than ever. Why? In Phang Nga and Krabi, the lives of tourists are not put at risk by jet-skis - because there are none.
The machines are banned in those two provinces.
Phuket's future will remain in jeopardy as long as the authorities opt to make easy compromises that are not enforced and that are designed to please local business interests, not safeguard tourists' lives.
I'm becoming more and more frustrated here in Phuket and especially after reading this article I feel defeated. I've put so much hope in the recent positive changes by the army and genuinely thought that local authorities would adhere. Stupidity prevails over and over again. They never learn and will never learn. In years 'ahum' from now Phuket will be solely filled with tour group tourists, 'all inclusive' resorts and trash 'long termer's' who don't give a damn. Swimming among plastic bags in heavily polluted water in a commercialised beach setting while inhaling the fumes of jetski's. No thank you.
Posted by Richard on November 30, 2014 21:57