Speaking after a meeting at the Radisson BLU Plaza Resort at Cape Panwa to discuss the state of tourism on the island, in Phang Nga and in Krabi, he outlined problems that had been brought up at the meeting and need addressing.
When he started work as Minister on April 6, Mr Somsak said that tourist safety would be his top priority. “If Thailand is not a safe destination in the eyes of foreign tourists, it would be useless to invest many hundreds of billions of baht to boost Thai tourism,” he was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying.
After yesterday’s meeting he said, “We heard a lot of problems and topics of concern.
“We need to have tourist service boxes in important points like Patong with information in foreign languages but we need to talk with the relevant authorities to find the best possible way to do this”.
Another safety problem, he said, was that of tourists renting vehicles without a valid driver’s license – and of vehicle renters allowing them to do so.
“Tourists renting [motorbikes or cars] must have a valid international driving license. Otherwise, when they have an accident, they are not protected by the law. Again, we need to discuss with the relevant authorities about the appropriate solution.”
He said that his ministry understands well the importance of tourism in Phuket to the national economy, and gave assurances that it would support Phuket, particularly in upgrading tourists to “higher quality”.
“We expect tourism income in Phuket to reach B2.2 trillion by the end of 2015, so we need to focus on persuading quality tourists to come and buy goods [and services] in Phuket.
“In Phuket we face a problem whereby high quality tourists are ‘invaded’ by low quality visitors. But the problem is that we can’t force them to do this or that, or to go here or there.
“We have to address this at the origin,” he said, by concentrating marketing efforts on persuading more quality tourists to come to the island.
“I know that Phuket makes a huge contribution to the income of the country, so we need to take care of the island. I know that the problems and bad effects [of mass tourism] are the main issues here, so we have to find ways to solve the problems to keep Phuket going.”
One problem arising from mass tourism is that of illegal foreign tour guides, he said. “These include illegal tour guides from countries such as China. This cannot be allowed. It is illegal, but we need the support of the central government to apply a solution.
“We have courses to teach foreign languages to young people. We have to support them and encourage them to become tour guides.