PHUKET: Beach workers still want sunbeds back on Phuket's beaches and are planning to agitate this weekend for their return as soon as possible.
The move comes as more time is being sought by university researchers who have been asked to produce all the solutions to Phuket's beach problems by August 20 - next Thursday.
''We need more time,'' Dr Pan Thongchumnum of Prince of Songkhla University told Phuketwan yesterday. ''New points are being made as we talk to stakeholders.''
However, European tourists usually decide where to go for November-January holidays about now - so some will be looking at other destinations apart from Phuket unless the vexed beach chair issue is resolved quickly.
But Dr Pan told Phuketwan: ''We can't produce a result by August 20 because we need more basic information from key stakeholders.''
The university is doing the research voluntarily without any initial expertise on beach management.
A new complication is posed by a meeting of about 50 beach workers at the weekend - coincidentally to be held at Prince of Songkhla University.
''We believe the sunbeds need to be returned to Phuket's beaches as soon as possible,'' Palat Jantarasopin, the head of Phuket's Tourism Services Operators Club, told Phuketwan.
A decision on the way forward for Phuket's prime tourist attractions, its splendid west coast beaches, has been a long time coming since the military took charge in Thailand and ordered all commerce cleared from misused public space along the sands and foreshores.
Strangest of the decisions made since then has been a total ban on sunbeds and beach chairs, which means that veteran European visitors who have been coming to Phuket for decades have been forced to make do with mats at sand level.
The Europeans have also been banned from bringing their own sunbeds, beach chairs and umbrellas - with Governor Nisit Jansomwong declaring that only 10 percent of each beach can be used for umbrellas, mats and commercial activities.
This is a dramatic change from the days when umbrellas and sunbeds - in some cases, thousands of them - covered virtually all of Phuket's prime beach space.
The ''10 percent'' zoning project may work at some beaches with just a few swimmers and sunlovers but at popular spots including Patong, Kamala, Surin, Karon and Kata, 10 percent of each beach is likely to quickly prove to be not enough.
The beach causing most alarm is Patong, once popular with swimmers, where a ''zebra stripe'' zoning that extends into the water means that scores of jet-ski operators now run their businesses just where they want to - right among potential customers.
The Mayor of Patong, Chalermlak Kebsub, says it's impossible for local municipal staff to control the activities of the beach vendors or the jet-ski operators and the governor's commercial zoning idea to help the '' Patong poor'' was wrong because there are no poor beach vendors in Patong.
The original concept of the beaches being kept clear so their natural beauty could be seen would have worked if tourists had been allowed to bring their own equipment and use it anywhere they like.
Instead, regimented ranks are required - but of mats and umbrellas only. European visitors - not used to sitting at ground level like their Asian contemporaries - mourn the ban on sunbeds and say it's discriminatory.
Virtually all the stakeholders were given time to say whatever they wished at a succession of meetings on Phuket - with the exception of the tourists or their most obvious spokespeople, the island's honorary consuls.
The fact that every decision so far has alienated more and more of the people who have the money and who pay all of Phuket's bills does not seem to have sunk home yet.
Phuketwan understands that a small group representing the views of the beach-loving tourists was finally asked to put its perspective to Dr Pan and his research team earlier this week.
The move comes as more time is being sought by university researchers who have been asked to produce all the solutions to Phuket's beach problems by August 20 - next Thursday.
''We need more time,'' Dr Pan Thongchumnum of Prince of Songkhla University told Phuketwan yesterday. ''New points are being made as we talk to stakeholders.''
However, European tourists usually decide where to go for November-January holidays about now - so some will be looking at other destinations apart from Phuket unless the vexed beach chair issue is resolved quickly.
But Dr Pan told Phuketwan: ''We can't produce a result by August 20 because we need more basic information from key stakeholders.''
The university is doing the research voluntarily without any initial expertise on beach management.
A new complication is posed by a meeting of about 50 beach workers at the weekend - coincidentally to be held at Prince of Songkhla University.
''We believe the sunbeds need to be returned to Phuket's beaches as soon as possible,'' Palat Jantarasopin, the head of Phuket's Tourism Services Operators Club, told Phuketwan.
A decision on the way forward for Phuket's prime tourist attractions, its splendid west coast beaches, has been a long time coming since the military took charge in Thailand and ordered all commerce cleared from misused public space along the sands and foreshores.
Strangest of the decisions made since then has been a total ban on sunbeds and beach chairs, which means that veteran European visitors who have been coming to Phuket for decades have been forced to make do with mats at sand level.
The Europeans have also been banned from bringing their own sunbeds, beach chairs and umbrellas - with Governor Nisit Jansomwong declaring that only 10 percent of each beach can be used for umbrellas, mats and commercial activities.
This is a dramatic change from the days when umbrellas and sunbeds - in some cases, thousands of them - covered virtually all of Phuket's prime beach space.
The ''10 percent'' zoning project may work at some beaches with just a few swimmers and sunlovers but at popular spots including Patong, Kamala, Surin, Karon and Kata, 10 percent of each beach is likely to quickly prove to be not enough.
The beach causing most alarm is Patong, once popular with swimmers, where a ''zebra stripe'' zoning that extends into the water means that scores of jet-ski operators now run their businesses just where they want to - right among potential customers.
The Mayor of Patong, Chalermlak Kebsub, says it's impossible for local municipal staff to control the activities of the beach vendors or the jet-ski operators and the governor's commercial zoning idea to help the '' Patong poor'' was wrong because there are no poor beach vendors in Patong.
The original concept of the beaches being kept clear so their natural beauty could be seen would have worked if tourists had been allowed to bring their own equipment and use it anywhere they like.
Instead, regimented ranks are required - but of mats and umbrellas only. European visitors - not used to sitting at ground level like their Asian contemporaries - mourn the ban on sunbeds and say it's discriminatory.
Virtually all the stakeholders were given time to say whatever they wished at a succession of meetings on Phuket - with the exception of the tourists or their most obvious spokespeople, the island's honorary consuls.
The fact that every decision so far has alienated more and more of the people who have the money and who pay all of Phuket's bills does not seem to have sunk home yet.
Phuketwan understands that a small group representing the views of the beach-loving tourists was finally asked to put its perspective to Dr Pan and his research team earlier this week.
Vendors want beach beds back
Hotels want beach beds back
Tourists want beach beds back
The honorary consuls will tell you people want beach beds back
Study over - bring beach beds back and stop this foolishness.
Last year there was a 25% drop in Nordic countries coming to Phuket. One of the main reasons was the sunbed situation. The biggest travel magazine in Sweden voiced their opinion with words i cannot post here.
Posted by Ciaran on August 13, 2015 15:17
Editor Comment:
Vast numbers of Scandinavians have given up on Phuket down the years as its beauty has disappeared under sunbeds, Ciaran. So there's clearly a division among Scandis between those who love nature and the layabouts. Nothing foolish about wanting Phuket's beauty preserved . . . many Europeans also moved on to Phang Nga and Krabi. Most of the people who like the sunbeds don't represent the next generation who do understand what nature is, whether in Sweden or Thailand.