Visit to Phuket Island (2006/1/31-2/1)

Contributed by: JTBF Survey Team   

Japan Thailand Business Forum (Note 1) sent a mission to Thailand from the end of January to the beginning of February, 2006. In a course of the itinerary, 5 members of the mission extended a trip to Phuket, January 31 through February 2. In Phuket, while it is recovered from disastrous damages caused by Tsunami (Note 2), Japanese tourists have not recovered to the previous stage yet (Note 3).

We, 5 members of JTBF, visited major leisure spots of Phuket island, Patong, Kamala, Surin and Bang Tao beaches on February 1. We also had opportunities of meeting with those who are concerned with tourism recovery, Vice Governor of Phuket Province, Chairman of Japanese Association of Phuket, Assistant Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, Southern office, and so on.

Following are what we observed and sensed. Hopefully, the article will provide better understanding of current Phuket to Japanese tourists who are interested in visiting the place.

1. Recovery Status at Major Leisure Spots

• Starting from Patong beach, we visited and stopped at Kamala, Surin and Bang Tao beaches. Beaches were beautiful as before and accommodation facilities, entertainment spots and all other influstructures were ready to welcome tourists. Some of them were obviously reconstructed anew. We observed a number of tourists enjoying their leisure time at beaches or at streets. We noticed that a primary school was under reconstruction on the way from Patong to Kamala. It seemed to suggest that restoration of tourism infrastructure, which had been the first priority over the past year, almost came to completion.
• Early morning time at Patong beach. Chairs and parasols on the shore made us imagine crowd of the beach which was to be seen a few hours later.
  
  
  
• Kamala beach was most seriously damaged in Phuket. When we stopped at, the beach was already crowded (below left).
• At open cafe of Kamala Beach Hotel, tourists were enjoying relaxed time taking late breakfast. The hotel, which was destroyed by Tsunami, reopened in August last year after an urgent reconstruction (below right).
  
  
  
• Surin and Bang Tao beaches, which suffered less damages owing to some topographical advantages of the sea bottom, impressed us by an overwhelming beauty of seashores. The spot had a presence of the first class resort area.
  
  
  
• Patong, other than being an attractive beach spot, is also an entertainment district. In the previous night, we stayed at the Royal Paradise Hotel located at the end of Patong town. As we walked through the district, it was full of tourists enjoying their night time at open bars and/or disco bars in the bustling environment. It was indeed another aspect of recovery, even though the bustling did not meet with our taste so much. Our interest was more on beautiful nature and prestigious presence of resort spot of Phuket, which, we believe, will surely attract Japanese tourists of middle-aged and older generations.

2. Tsunami Alarm System

• Picture below right is one of 3 tsunami alarm towers newly installed at Patong beach. They say, in Phuket island alone, 26 towers were installed in total, which is a part of Thai government plan of installing 62 towers over 6 provinces alongside Andaman sea side. Recovery of safety image is one of significant concerns of Thai government and local government as well. Completion of the alarm system seems to be a symbolic representation of achievement towards the direction.
• Reliability of the alarm system has been improved through repeated tests. Evacuation drills have also been practiced over the time. All of these proceedings have been reported by the Phuket local paper Gazette time to time, and Japanese Association have them excerpted as translated to Japanese in their homepage.
• To be noted also is a speech given by Mr. Suranand Vejjajiva, Minister attached to the Prime Minister?fs office, on the occasion of a memorial ceremony of December 26, 2005 (Note 4). In the speech, he announced completion of Tsunami Warning System which had been achieved after tireless efforts over the past year, and gave a commitment of continuous efforts for further improvements. He referred to a crucial importance of Tsunami sensors and mentioned 2 sets of sea-level-gauges had been installed in Thai waters already and that further installations were planned by March 2006 in Myanmar, Vietnam and Philippines waters to an improvement of sensing accuracy.

3. Memorial Monument

• At Kamala beach, we visited a Memorial Monument (below right). It was built by efforts of Japanese Association with cooperation of a number of Japanese companies which have been engaged in business in Thailand. It was unveiled on an occasion of the memorial ceremony of December 26, 2005. As we prayed for consolation of victims, we felt the monument had some special meaning to mentality of Japanese tourists. Ordinary Japanese people had a sense of imprudence against visiting Phuket just for a pleasure for a certain period of time after many were killed or lost by disastrous Tsunami. The monument will help Japanese tourists lessen a mentality of that kind. It also seems to suggest time of a special consolation is passing by.
  
  
  
• A park was under construction besides Memorial Monument (above left). Once completed, it will provide local residents and tourists with a place of recreation and relaxation. Restoration from Tsunami damages may provide an opportunity of making Phuket a tourism spot of even higher grade. Construction of promenades and parks alongside several seashore spaces, or reformation and beautifying of the public spaces could be an important matter from the view point as such.

4. Meeting with Several Persons

• We met with Mr. Miyashita, Chairman of Japanese Association, and Ms. Traiphankoson, Director of the association. According to them, majority of members of the association are engaged in tourism industry and, accordingly, the lessened number of Japanese tourists is giving serious impacts to the life of members. They were frustrated by Japanese mass media's biased introduction of Phuket as being extremely damaged everywhere. They asked us to introduce a fair view of restored Phuket. They may be the persons that miss Japanese tourists most significantly.
• We visited Phuket provincial office and met with Mr. Niran, Vice Governor. On the same day, Governor was in Japan for a propaganda of tourism promotion of Thailand. Mr. Niran introduced to us a strategic view of tourism development in Phuket, such as marine resort development, condominium development for long stayers etc. We hope the development will be conducted in a manner to coexist with natural beauty of Phuket.
• We also had a chance to talk with Mr. Siripakorn, Assistant Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, southern office and Ms. Kanokaporn, a staff of the office. When we met, they had just returned from Phang-Nga province after having a meeting to promote tourism including Phang-Nga and Krabi provinces. To ordinary Japanese people, Phuket is an entrance to tropical tourism spots located around Phuket, not limited to Phuket alone. In that sense, an earliest recovery of Khaolak of Phang-Nga province or Phi Phi islands of Krabi province, which have a strong popularity for Japanese, are sincerely expected.

Closing

• It was our pleasure to realize Phuket has rich resources for marine resort tourism to be proud of in the world.
• We would express our sincere thanks to every person who kindly shared a time with us out of each busy schedule. We also appreciate hospitality shown to us by Royal Paradise Hotel.
• Survey team consists of 5 members. This article is a collaboration of the team.
  H. Morita: Team leader, Vice-chairman of JTBF
  K. Mizutani: Chairman of Tourism Committee of JTBF
  K. Katoh: Vice-chairman of Long Stay Committee of JTBF
  N. Okumura: Chairman of Public Relations of JTBF
  K. Kikkawa: Secretary General of JTBF

Later Update (as of Jan.26, 2007)

Entering the year of 2007 about one year after our last visit to Phuket, have come to our attention articles of Thai papers, the Nation and the Bangkok Post, They report remarkable recovery of tourism industry in the southern part of Thailand. The number of tourists last year in the area was 6.4 millions against the target 6.0 millions, revenue was 122 billions Baht against 97 billions Baht. The main contributor was recovery of Phuket island. They also report several opinions emerging from the tourism industry which are to put more focus on "quality" than "quantity or number".

For us, JTBF, while this recovery reports are encouraging, we welcome the new opinions which seem to be in line with our desire of "making Phuket a tourism spot of even higher grade". We also share the new safety concern induced by the Bangkok bombings on New Year's Eve. Counter measures are expected to be taken in a visible manner to secure safety of tourists.

In the mean time, Ms. Phornsiri has been appointed the new governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). As has been reported lately, Ms. Phornsiri has put forth the strategy which suggests the new approach towards quality focus. The message is briefed as following.

• Ms. Phornsiri believes that attracting quality foreign tourists is better than merely focusing on numbers. Her strong ambition is to develop Thailand as a quality destination and raise spending per trip by foreign tourists to an average of 41,473 baht in 2010, from 35,238 baht reported last year.
• In order to create a quality tourist destination, both the public and private sectors have to help improve services and products. She said. ?gPolicy in the past was aimed at increasing income and increasing the number of tourists, but the industry paid less attention to preserving the environment and adding value to tourism products,
• She referred to TAT plans to improve its tourism campaigns with more emphasis on target groups, instead of launching projects without definite targets. The target areas for arrivals with potential for increased spending per trip are health, sports, and special-purpose trips such as weddings, honeymoons, and the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) industry.
• Ms. Phornsiri said she would pursue these plans with a budget of 3.6 billion baht this year, lower than 4.2 billion the agency used last year. To work within such a limited budget, the state agency needs to find partners or financial sponsors to help run some events such as the Loy Krathong and Songkran festivals. Online campaigns for overseas markets would be used more.
• Ms. Phornsiri said the "Amazing Thailand" theme was a good way to describe the country's brand which included various product areas of Thai culture such as boxing, cuisine and spas.
  
  
  
  

• Note 1: Japan Thailand Business Forum is an association consists of persons who have once worked in Thailand as executives of various Japanese companies as well as government offices located in Thailand. It was organized 4 years ago for a purpose of exchanging frank opinions with Thai authorities in regard to tourism, economy, investment and other various subjects.
• Note 2: In Thailand, 5,895 persons were killed and 8,457 were injured over 6 provinces, such as Phuket, Phang-Nga and Krabi, alongside Andaman sea side. It is said about 3,000 are still missing. Victims converged to north-European tourists other than local residents. Japanese victims are 29, of which 15 were killed at Khaolak, most seriously damaged place in Phang-Nga province,
• Note 3: According to statistics of Tourism Authority of Thailand, number of users of Phuket international airport was 12,500 in January 2005 right after the disaster, which was 92% less than same period of the previous year. It recovered to 70,000 in October 2005, 29% less than same period of the previous year. While recovery was mostly contributed by Western tourists, number of Asian tourists including Japanese was still low. Number of Japanese tourists sharply dropped in January 2005. While it was gradually recovered, number of a period January through October 2005 was about 38,000, which was 65% less than same period of the previous year. According to major local travel agents, the number of Japanese tourists continued to increase in November and December. But, flight was not sufficient enough to satisfy demands. It was partly because direct flight from Japan to Phuket was not in service any more and partly because less domestic flight Bangkok to/from Phuket was available to be conveniently connected to Japan to/from Bangkok flight. They say January through December, number was 60% less than the previous year. Majority are private tourists. Demand of a big group, such as company's incentive tour, is not recovered yet at all.
• Note 4: Memorial ceremonies were conducted on December 26, 2005 at various places alongside Andaman sea side, Patong, Kamala MaiKhao, Khaolak, Namkem, Phi Phi islands, where they suffered from serious Tsunami disaster. Many people attended from Thailand and foreign countries and mourned the victims. It was also an occasion to impress recovery of the places as was achieved by a leadership of Thai government. Thai government had funded one billion Baht for the recovery and supplied low-interest loan to the damaged companies.