Tourism Minister Needs to Talk Tough About Phuket's Big Problems
By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian Wednesday, June 24, 2015
PHUKET: The Minister for Tourism and Sport, Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, will chair an important meeting tomorrow aimed at defining Phuket's key issues and setting a strategy for a positive future.
Phuket Provincial Hall's meeting room is expected to be packed - but it's unlikely tourists or expats will be there to express their views.
In essence, Phuket's biggest problem at present is the lack of effective communication between the people who spend their money here and the people who take it.
The breakdown in communications means self-satisfied officials get to do as they please, whether their decisions are right or wrong.
The views of tourists and expats? They are simply ignored or avoided. And that is a recipe for disaster for Phuket.
Shamefully, the governor's regular three-monthly meetings with the island's honorary consuls have been discontinued.
And the acceptance on the part of officials that the gatherings aren't necessary says so much about the lack of a proper strategy being put in place for Phuket's future.
The customers' needs and opinions? They are simply ignored.
A room full of Phuket officials patting each other on the back and finding nothing to complain about because all the cracks have been papered over spells catastrophe for Phuket.
And those meetings occur more often these days. No wonder the concept of a sustainable Phuket is crumbling.
Governor Nisit Jansomwong, who has held one honorary consuls' forum since October, is overseas and won't be at tomorrow's meeting.
Someone else will doubtless be delegated to say how wonderful things are and how pleased the island's entire business community is with how things are going.
It will just be yet another fabrication.
Fortunately, the Minister has proved to be a smart woman. We are sure that she will have been listening to the people who provide Phuket with all its tourism industry revenue.
These people who invest their own time and money are the ones who need to be listened to - not self-interested and blinkered administrators who believe every problem can be solved by compromise.
Now, not all administrators are blinkered and self-interested.
But those that aren't also seldom get to hear what Phuket's paying customers have to say because of the lack of a regular forum.
We hope the minister mentions excessive taxi and tuk-tuk fares, the jet-ski takeover of Patong and other beaches, the lack of proper enforcement on vital environmental issues . . .
And the need for administrators to listen to the people who pay all the island's bills.
Perhaps she'd even care to chair the next Phuket honorary consuls' meeting.
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Comments
Comments have been disabled for this article.
How is the governor overseas? I read recently that civil servants etc were banned or not allowed to travel out of Thailand by the ruling military government. Amazing Thailand....
Posted by
Ziggy
on
June 24, 2015 22:02
Editor Comment:
Not on official business.
My wife and I have been going to Phuket for several years now.
We had the discomfort of no sun beds and shade on the beach on our last visit. We will no longer travel to Phuket whilst these rules are in place.
Posted by
Anonymous
on
June 25, 2015 06:44
The Minister in all honor, but she has always been so strange ideas. And what is there to be better if only the people they are responsible the status of Phuket, the Minister advised. There is again something to laugh or cry?
Posted by
steve
on
June 25, 2015 07:43
For 8 month i try too send a mail or make call too the government office 80% from the staff not speak english after 2 houres and 6 people from office too office and asking for call back nothing happen , nobody interesting too change something , everything what furlongs say is complain so no answer put away and !! yes the university will give advice 20 year old students go too the beach , and this will be the future from phuket ! when you interview people in the high saison okay not now , but the decision has too make now for the new saison please not wait before it is too late
Posted by
DONALDO
on
June 25, 2015 08:07
B2.4 billion for Phuket's gravy train ('light rail transit system'). 200,000 fatalities a year. A job well done.
Tourist free beaches. Zero Baht tours. Midnight closing, open prostitution, corrupt payments.
All the qualifications money can buy.
The imminent back-slapping is well deserved.
Posted by
gee
on
June 25, 2015 08:36
The views of expats are indeed ignored or avoided. Is it wrong of me to say that i gave up after 2 decades fighting for a bit of change? Never has there been anyone of the so called officials that answered my requests, to make some sort of change for the better. I understand that Ed might call me a doomsayer, but the reality is that i am not alone here. There are a lot of expats that would like to see things different. People that have been to other countries in Asia.People that realize that Thailand never make a serious step in the right direction. Window dressing, yes.Lots of talks, yes. Action for the better, no. They talk about an important meeting to address Phuket's key issues, and they don't even have the power to enforce the helmet law.
Posted by
Carl
on
June 25, 2015 09:28
Although we have often disagreed on our analyses of the problems here (sometimes even unpleasantly), this is right on the money.
Posted by
Ken Freed
on
June 25, 2015 09:29
Editor Comment:
Thank you. Did you say something unpleasant to me, Ken? Surely not.
I understand the stick and carrot approach but to characterize the minister as smart must then be based on facts other than those extracted from her public statements.
Though I could easily compile a Top 10 worst public statements list, her most brilliant one was the idea of electronic tracking bracelets for tourists.
I don't know about you but in my books that is not a terribly smart thing to propose.
Posted by
Herbert
on
June 25, 2015 09:53
Editor Comment:
It was a silly idea from early in her tenure and those kinds of foolish responses even come from commenters from time to time, Herbert. Word-of-mouth is that she's extremely competent and the number of visits she has made is an indication of her interest in Phuket. You may have forgotten the Tourism Minister a few years ago who was surprised so much had changed in the 10 years since his previous visit. Try some positive thinking, Herbert. Please. Most people do not believe everything they read in the newspapers.
@ Ed
As I said, I understand the stick and carrot approach but have equally no interest in participating.
I subscribe neither to positive nor negative thinking. I prefer facts and realism.
Feel free to quote some of her statements you consider smart, constructive or even just good.
Posted by
Herbert
on
June 25, 2015 10:46
Editor Comment:
We'd prefer to make our own judgements, not rely on second-hand information.
@ Ed
What you just said equally means readers should simply ignore what they read on PW since it's all second-hand information too.
Now that was a silly thing to say Alan, was it not ?
Posted by
Herbert
on
June 25, 2015 11:09
Editor Comment:
No. We don't give any credibility to second-hand information or to the comments of anonymous readers. I thought you knew that, Herbert.
@ Ed
This is getting really silly now. You just keep digging yourself a deeper hole.
If that's your take on second-hand information, why do you publish second-hand information from other news sources on a daily basis ?
There must be around 15 quotes every day on PW taken from various news outlets.
Surely there must be some second-hand information that you DO consider credible.
Just like a direct quote of a person who admits having made that statement on ANY news outlet.
The minister in question has made several statements she fully admits to, which have been published by many different news outlets.
I see no reason why these should be dismissed as non-credible and certainly not on the basis you suggest of discrediting everything "second-hand".
My opinion of the minister is based on such statements and I fully stand by it.
Your report suddenly characterizes a person with a public image of not necessarily being a person of high intelligence as smart. Did you honestly not expect it to raise some eyebrows ?
To me it looks like a bit of sucking up to her in the hope she'd be more receptive to your ideas and suggestions.
Suggestions I certainly agree are all worthy but the way you did it was just so transparent and obvious that I could not refrain from pointing it out.
For me that is one of the major differences between objective reporting and one with an agenda.
Nobody is infallible Ed. Even you sometimes make silly statements. The litmus test of character is in the ability to admit it.
Posted by
Herbert
on
June 25, 2015 12:18
Editor Comment:
We credit the news to the sources, Herbert, and leave judgements to readers. You, on the other hand, forget the source credits and present the information as your own, thus accepting the information as true. Sad to say your judgement is, like your opinion, a very long way from perfect. The silliness is all yours.
I read today this yet another chinese tourist has been hospitalised in Patong today after falling from a jet ski
And I agree 100% with the article - nothing will be done
Posted by
Discover Thainess
on
June 25, 2015 13:27
This just crossed my mind. Thais love their country and that is a very good thing compared to for example Swedish so called "global politicians" that do not love their country and feel guilty to every poverty and war in the world. (And of course the EU politicians want to play god and pick out the chosen people to help).
That goes for the hole standard of the EU politicians actually who are consider the world a place with no borders and everybody is welcome to take a slice of the welfare cake out of every European country.
So in the light of that Thais are in their rights to do whatever they want with their own country. I do not think Thai politicians are stupid (the Swedish for example definitely are) so I think Thai politicians know what they are doing in the tourism business.
I think Thais are transforming tourists places like Phuket, that before suited rich tourists (non Asia) into a new style tourist hub for tourists from development countries (first the Asian ones where the biggest developing markets In the world are) where the tourists still are consider quite poor compared to European and other western world standards, but there are billions of them and they get richer.
The needs from the "new" tourists difference a lot from the old ones and to collect the same amount of money (and more since before) Phuket has to transform into a environment that suits the newcomers in mass for a start. It has really started and, of course, it do not suit the Westerners who have different needs for environment an nature and they will leave and the more and more rich tourists from Asian development countries take over.
At the end of the day Thais are the winners economically in this tourist mass industry that Phuket has become.
And money talks....
Posted by
A Joe
on
June 25, 2015 15:06
Ed, why don't you CC this excellent article to the Minister/
Posted by
Graham
on
June 25, 2015 16:44
Editor Comment:
I don't have her email.
For all the expats who are surprised and offended that the Thais who run Phuket don't listen to their expat guests: Thai officials are not here to serve the needs and wants of expat guests. So please don't be surprised when they don't do as you want.
Posted by
geoff
on
June 25, 2015 17:31
Editor Comment: I don't have her email.
International Public Relations Division
Tourism Authority of Thailand
1600 New Petchaburi Road, Makkasan, Ratchathevi
Bangkok 10400
Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2250 5500 ext. 4545-48
Fax: +66 (0) 2253 7419
Email: prdiv3@tat.or.th
Website: www.TATnews.org
Facebook: TAT Newsroom
Twitter: TAT Newsroom
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kobkarn.wattanavrangkul
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kobkarnofficial
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
June 25, 2015 17:42
Editor Comment:
Fell free to pass it on, WB. The more readers who pass it on, the better.
Editor Comment: Fell free to pass it on, WB. The more readers who pass it on, the better.
I did it a few minutes ago.
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
June 25, 2015 18:09
@ A Joe
That's a nice theory but I'm afraid the reality is far less gracious.
It's just pure greed and with very little in ways of checks and balances in Thailand for the high and mighty, unlike in, say, Sweden, they can indeed do and get away with pretty much anything and everything.
How you consider that to be better though is, at least for me, incredibly difficult to decipher.
Perhaps you are one of those who enjoy bending and breaking the rules with impunity. If so, then I understand fully why you feel you fit in so much better here in Thailand than in Sweden.
@ Geoff
You are absolutely correct. They do not serve any expats or non-Thais, but they should.
Their duty is to provide the services to the whole population of Phuket, regardless of nationality. For them to cherry-pick their target group and ignore (rough estimate here) about 20% of the total population is not only wrong but also unsustainable.
FYI I am not a guest of anyone here. I pay for my own house, car, food, petrol and income tax (a lot more than your average Thai) etc and hold a proper, legal visa so I am definitely not a guest.
If you live and work legally in my country, nobody would ever even think of calling you "just a guest".
It is beyond me how so many expats seem to fully accept they are nothing more than disposable guests, somehow in debt of gratitude towards the authorities.
There are laws, rules and regulations that every country has the sovereign right to stipulate in regard to immigration. If you comply with all of those, you have a legal right to be here and are not the guest of anyone.
Posted by
Herbert
on
June 25, 2015 18:31
@ Geoff. Sure, you are right about expats. But the enforcement of laws can change and environment priority can be changed to suit tourists that bring in money for the moment. If the tourist clientele change I think Thais on Phuket adept quickly and those changes or priorities will be in convenience for the new tourists with money that arrive.
And those changes and priorities maybe not fit all kind of tourists as we now see.
I think Phuket already made its choice and looking at new costumers in mass numbers with a new style of tourism behavior that need to be nursed. (Milk the cow)
Posted by
A Joe
on
June 25, 2015 18:39
All they want is the money. They think the gravy train will run forever. They are irritated by expats who can see through their actions and who make their views known. They see tourists as a necessary evil who must be tolerated but not appreciated. All they want is a quiet life taking the money
Posted by
Paul
on
June 26, 2015 05:36
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How is the governor overseas? I read recently that civil servants etc were banned or not allowed to travel out of Thailand by the ruling military government. Amazing Thailand....
Posted by Ziggy on June 24, 2015 22:02
Editor Comment:
Not on official business.