PHUKET: A smaller number of lifeguards returned to Phuket's beaches today for the first time in a month - with the number of tourists taking holidays on the Thai tropical island also reduced because of the coup.

''There are not as many lifeguards as before,'' said a spokesperson for the Phuket Lifeguard Club. ''The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation [which provides the funding] has cut the number of lifeguards from 108 to 88.''

The agreed budget in the contract, signed on May 23, provides 22 million baht for the protection of swimmers at 13 prime holiday beaches on Phuket's west coast.

The organisation is to provide the lifeguards with new equipment which should be on Phuket by the end of next month.

Phuket has now entered the monsoon season, the most dangerous time of the year for beach swimming. More Russian and Chinese tourists are now visiting Phuket, which means there are a greater number of non-swimmers or poor swimmers among Phuket's tourists.

Reducing the number of lifeguards provides a pay rise to the more highly skilled lifeguards even though water safety experts acknowledge that Phuket needs to increase numbers of protectors, not cut them.

There's no money though for lifeguards at Racha, an island off Phuket where Chinese snorkellers have been inclined to drown too often. The added protection would cost 30,000 baht a month.

About 35 tourists are believed to have drowned on Phuket beaches or at day-trip sites in 2013 - a high number for a beach holiday destination. Hundreds of others have been saved.

The lifeguards say that with the right equipment - jetskis fitted with sleds - the speed of rescues would improve dramatically and the number of drownings would be reduced.