SOME OF Phuket's leading citizens are overseas right now, selling the island's virtues to the travel trade world.
There is no doubt that Phuket is a beautiful place, with spectacular vistas. Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually see the island and all its beauty?
Instead, we are all being forced against our will to look at billboards. Hundreds, perhaps by now thousands of them.
They seem to be multiplying every day, especially along Phuket's prettiest roadsides.
Some of the most respected brands on the island have now joined in and become visual polluters.
There was a time when the billboards of Phuket were mostly about making a big impression, in relative isolation.
Advertisers seemed to compete for the largest signs, as if those passing by actually cared.
The road from the airport has always been the worst possible introduction to Phuket, jam-packed with ugly wall-to-wall signage.
Then there's the turn at the tee-junction on the main road, where the really anxious advertisers plead for attention, fearing they might miss out.
Patong Hill has always been difficult enough to negotiate without being distracted by screaming signs.
These days, the problem is growing much, much worse. In some places, it is out of control. Every day, more signs appear.
Billboard advertisers now choose to promote themselves in much smaller sizes, one after another, the second sign followed by a third, then a fourth, along the roadsides.
They mutiply and multiply and multiply . . . over and over again. It's alarming.
And it's destroying Phuket's image as an eye-catching island. Right now, it's an eye-sore.
The dramatic beauty of the drive along the coast between Patong and Surin has been entirely spoilt by signboards.
How many tourists come to Phuket, expecting to find a spectacular tropical haven?
What they actually see along the roadsides is crass commercialism and competitive greed.
How many would bother to come back for a second dose of this visual pollution?
It's hardly any wonder that Phuket rates lower and lower in the important surveys that determine the world's most beautiful islands.
If there was any obligation to put truth in advertising, then the TAT would be forced to say: ''Come to Phuket to see the billboards.''
Phuket's travel industry leaders should come back to the island with the solution to at least one problem: this one.
Genuine signposts are being obscured. So is Phuket's beauty, and along with it, the island's future.
Money-back Holiday
A TRIBUNAL in Australia has awarded partial damages to four travellers who complained that their trip to a ''luxury'' destination in Switzerland in 2005 failed to live up to expectations.
Travel writer Clive Dorman tells Sydney Morning Herald readers that the landmark consumer case has sharpened the definition of hotel room standards and confirmed that consumers have redress for overzealous advertising.
Australians now visit Phuket in record numbers, so the case is worth noting by island resorts.
The tribunal reported that the Swiss resort had been represented on its website as "the height of luxury."
Yet according to evidence, the holidaymakers' "summit view room" was "very small, dingy and equipped with single beds rather than the queen- or king-size beds one would expect".
"It had one chair, no in-room facilities, no bathtub or bath robes, no full-length mirror, no iron or laundry service, no facility for making outside calls from the room," the tribunal wrote.
The party of four ate Christmas dinner off their laps because of a shortage of space in the resort's dining room.
"It wasn't that the room was defective," a tourism law specialist told Dorman. "It just was not of the right standard.''
Plastic not fantastic
FROM APRIL, the big Marks and Spencer brand in Britain will give all food customers free long-lasting bags for one month.
Then they will begin to charge 5p for each of the old ''free'' plastic bags from May 6.
Chief executive Sir Stuart Rose said: "We want to make it easy for our customers to do their bit to help the environment and our trials have shown us that they want to take action.''
About 13 billion plastic bags are handed out in Britain alone each year.
We suspect that as just as many are given away at Big C, Tesco, Tops and Carrefours on Phuket in the space of a couple of hours.
Look for TRENDS regularly at Phuketwan
There is no doubt that Phuket is a beautiful place, with spectacular vistas. Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually see the island and all its beauty?
Instead, we are all being forced against our will to look at billboards. Hundreds, perhaps by now thousands of them.
They seem to be multiplying every day, especially along Phuket's prettiest roadsides.
Some of the most respected brands on the island have now joined in and become visual polluters.
There was a time when the billboards of Phuket were mostly about making a big impression, in relative isolation.
Advertisers seemed to compete for the largest signs, as if those passing by actually cared.
The road from the airport has always been the worst possible introduction to Phuket, jam-packed with ugly wall-to-wall signage.
Then there's the turn at the tee-junction on the main road, where the really anxious advertisers plead for attention, fearing they might miss out.
Patong Hill has always been difficult enough to negotiate without being distracted by screaming signs.
These days, the problem is growing much, much worse. In some places, it is out of control. Every day, more signs appear.
Billboard advertisers now choose to promote themselves in much smaller sizes, one after another, the second sign followed by a third, then a fourth, along the roadsides.
They mutiply and multiply and multiply . . . over and over again. It's alarming.
And it's destroying Phuket's image as an eye-catching island. Right now, it's an eye-sore.
The dramatic beauty of the drive along the coast between Patong and Surin has been entirely spoilt by signboards.
How many tourists come to Phuket, expecting to find a spectacular tropical haven?
What they actually see along the roadsides is crass commercialism and competitive greed.
How many would bother to come back for a second dose of this visual pollution?
It's hardly any wonder that Phuket rates lower and lower in the important surveys that determine the world's most beautiful islands.
If there was any obligation to put truth in advertising, then the TAT would be forced to say: ''Come to Phuket to see the billboards.''
Phuket's travel industry leaders should come back to the island with the solution to at least one problem: this one.
Genuine signposts are being obscured. So is Phuket's beauty, and along with it, the island's future.
Money-back Holiday
A TRIBUNAL in Australia has awarded partial damages to four travellers who complained that their trip to a ''luxury'' destination in Switzerland in 2005 failed to live up to expectations.
Travel writer Clive Dorman tells Sydney Morning Herald readers that the landmark consumer case has sharpened the definition of hotel room standards and confirmed that consumers have redress for overzealous advertising.
Australians now visit Phuket in record numbers, so the case is worth noting by island resorts.
The tribunal reported that the Swiss resort had been represented on its website as "the height of luxury."
Yet according to evidence, the holidaymakers' "summit view room" was "very small, dingy and equipped with single beds rather than the queen- or king-size beds one would expect".
"It had one chair, no in-room facilities, no bathtub or bath robes, no full-length mirror, no iron or laundry service, no facility for making outside calls from the room," the tribunal wrote.
The party of four ate Christmas dinner off their laps because of a shortage of space in the resort's dining room.
"It wasn't that the room was defective," a tourism law specialist told Dorman. "It just was not of the right standard.''
Plastic not fantastic
FROM APRIL, the big Marks and Spencer brand in Britain will give all food customers free long-lasting bags for one month.
Then they will begin to charge 5p for each of the old ''free'' plastic bags from May 6.
Chief executive Sir Stuart Rose said: "We want to make it easy for our customers to do their bit to help the environment and our trials have shown us that they want to take action.''
About 13 billion plastic bags are handed out in Britain alone each year.
We suspect that as just as many are given away at Big C, Tesco, Tops and Carrefours on Phuket in the space of a couple of hours.
Look for TRENDS regularly at Phuketwan
