PHUKET: The quest to resurrect Phuket and restore a sense of order had a significant beginning yesterday with the birth of a campaign to make Phuket an ''International Island City'' by 2015.

First on the agenda set by the Governor's advisors on tourism is the Battle of the Billboards, which also takes in ugly, inappropriate signs, bad spelling and those travelling caravans of trucks that promote all kinds of products and activities and fill Phuket's air with noise pollution.

It's Phuketwan's understanding that members of the advisory panel are on a mission: to get Phuket back on track. Resolving every issue, even the ones that seem simple, will pose obstacles.

But at least the call for urgent action is more widely understood. Phuket's leading residents recognise that tourism prosperity will be short-lived and end in disaster unless dramatic changes are imposed rapidly.

The meeting at Provincial Hall was told that signage and billboards gave visitors a bad impression about Phuket. As well as the chaos and the clutter they caused, some signs blocked traffic lights and had the potential to cause accidents, awnings on shophouses added to the bad impression, and a lack of coordination and consistency meant that even the signs that were supposed to help people find their way often failed to be effective.

Even Phuket's MPs were guilty with their 'Thank You' billboards after being re-elected in June.

Official signs should be standardised and planned, the meeting heard, so that tourists could find their way and know what type of sign to spot.

One problem with the current campaign against roadside billboards is that some of those who place the billboards put them back as soon as they are taken down, and a gap in the law even allows people to sue.

The concept of improving the way Phuket appears to first-time visitors should also extend to cables and power lines, the meeting heard. Putting power underground for 700 metres in Thalang Road, Phuket Town, cost 18 million baht while the Phase II extension of 900 metres reduced costs to 15 million baht.

If the costs kept coming down, more could be done - and Phuket's tourist heart of Soi Bangla in Patong was the 300-metre strip where power lines most needed to go underground, said verteran hotelier Methee Tanmanatragul.

He said that if the Patong municipality could not raise the money, private businesses in and around Soi Bangla would probably be keen to imporve the look of the famous walking street by implementing an underground cables project.

Marketing Phuket is seen as another aspect in need of a lift. Consultant Tribanyad Jariyalerpong said that a movie should be made that accurately told the history of Phuket, with culture at the forefront.

The sea gypsies, the heroines, the Vegetarian Festival and the creation of Wat Chalong and Phuket Town all needed to be told accurately, he said. At present much of the history of Phuket was being ''lost in translation.''

Khun Methee said that if such a film could be produced, it could be screened in several languages by all Phuket resorts with internal television broadcast channels.

The Governor's advisory panel on tourism is dues to meet every month. It's anticipated there will be some issues that are raised there as well as at the three-monthly meetings of Phuket's honorary consuls with the Governor.