The event, organised by the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) in collaboration with Netherlands, French and German chambers of commerce, was held at the Amari Phuket resort in Patong on September 3.
Lead panellist Phuket Governor Nisit Jansomwong was unable to attend, and instead Vice Governor Punlop Singhasenee took the lead role in parrying directed queries from Phuket’s expat business fraternity.
However, it was Anoma Vongyai, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand TAT Phuket office, who fired off the most telling statistics, citing that Phuket has 93,750 rooms in 1,800 hotels – of which only 376 venues were registered.
In bringing the hordes of tourists to Phuket’s shores were an average 232 flights landing in Phuket a day, Ms Anoma noted, hence the more-than-B5 billion upgrade at Phuket International Airport, slated for completion next year.
Yet the government’s focus has shifted to no longer target just arrivals targets, she said.
“The focus is now clearly on the volume of revenue generated, not on the number of tourists coming here,” she added.
“Tourism revenue has been set a target of an 8 per cent rise in the coming year.”
More importantly in achieving that tourism revenue boost was that Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul last month revealed that next year will be the first year that tourism officials will not be given a target number of arrivals to achieve, added panellist Dale Lawrence, president of SKAL Thailand.
Meanwhile, tourism board campaigns are to promote a range of products beyond the beaches, shopping and nightlife options to include adventure tours, MMA camps, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) options and sports events and even medical services available, Ms Anoma explained.
She also revealed the new top-priority target markets. Chinese FIT (free independent travellers) took pole position. India ranked lower in the order presented, while Australia, the UK and Russia all ranked fairly highly – but most conspicuous by obvious omission was any specific western European nation, or even Western Europe in general.
However, while the push to transform Phuket into a “Quality Tourism Destination” starts rolling, the number of tourists will continue to rise, Mr Lawrence pointed out.
The Department of Tourism and Sports expects 28.8 million tourists to visit Thailand this year, generating an estimated B2.2 trillion in revenue.
“PATA [Pacific Asia Travel Association] predicts there will be 40 million visitors by the end of the decade,” he said.
In meeting the challenges ahead, guest panellist Nick Porter, General Manager of Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket, noted, “It is obvious there will be growth, but in which direction?”
“Competition is rising,” he said. “New and exciting destinations are opening up in the region with very competitive new arrivals entering the market.”
The strongest way forward was through “synergy”, said Mr Porter, in reflection of Ms Anoma’s closing comment in her presentation that it was critical that the government and the private sector work together to achieve common goals.
“We must work to develop ourselves, and expand in different areas,” Mr Porter said. “We must develop closer working relationships between the public and private sectors. That way we can be stronger against existing competitors and stave off new arrivals to the market.”
To do that, though, Mr Porter noted it was vital for Phuket to “sell the destination first, then you can sell the product and services.”
It was this point that the questions from the floor during the ensuing Question & Answer session targeted issues threatening the very sustainability Phuket’s existing tourism future, never mind attempting to attract higher-spending tourists.
Gulu Lalvani, CEO of Royal Phuket Marina, fired the first salvo, questioning the accuracy of statistics presented by government agencies, citing conflicting tourist arrival figures from different sources.
To this Ms Anoma clarified that statistics provided were no more than that. “Often the numbers given are misreported. For example, the number of international arrivals at an airport is often reported as the number of tourist arrivals, when obviously the figures don’t say that,” she said.
By example, Ms Anoma cited the problem of identifying tourists who arrived in Bangkok then travelled to Phuket on a domestic flight.
“These people are very difficult to identify as international tourists arriving in Phuket,” she said.
The rest of the questions followed in the same theme: local issues that affected the attractiveness of the island in general.
Local resident Richard Joynes questioned the use of underpasses instead of much cheaper flyovers in the government’s efforts to alleviate traffic jams on the island, to which V/Gov Punlop explained that aesthetics played a large part.
“And please keep in mind that this is very much in the hands of local residents,” he said. “Recently, local residents voted against two flyovers in the north of the island due to how much harm they thought the flyovers would cause to the natural beauty of the area.” (See story here.)
Martin Carpenter of Phuket Concierge questioned the sustainability of billboards, which was gifted the reply “that is the responsibility of local administrations”, while Robert de Graaf, General Manager at Albatross Lufthansa City Center, questioned the sustainability of a quality tourism destination when “something as simple as plastic bags” still plagued the island.
After much debate, including how much power provincial authorities have to dispense with plastic bags, apart from using the all-powerful Section 44 of the interim constitution, the short reply was “It’s not that easy.”
Ms Anoma, who graduated with a master’s degree at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, challenged one inquirer from the audience, “How easy is it for the government where you come from to get rid of plastic bags entirely?”
Back on topic was Jerry Minoret, Product Development Manager, Asia Marine, and John Reynolds of Roku Holdings International, who separately question the industry and the government’s “capacity for change” in attracting the type of tourists desired.
To this, Mr Lawrence, pointed out that it was “the role of the private sector to deliver service quality”.
Concerning the issue that just under 80pc of all hotels known to exist by the authorities remained open while not being registered, coupled with the ensuing problem of raw sewage flowing from unregulated hotels into coastal canals, and from there onto tourist beaches, V/Gov Punlop and Ms Anoma to their credit admitted that there was a plain “lack of enforcement” problem, though they cited a “shortage of manpower” as the main cause for that shortfall.
The BCCT presentation dinner series has gained huge popularity in recent months, with pressing issues and quality guest speakers headlining the events. The Phuket’s Tourism Future event last Thursday sold out within days.
The next BCCT business dinner is scheduled to be held at the Amari Phuket on October 22. The Phuket News will post more details as they become available.
The BCCT Phuket Business Dinner series is proudly sponsored by The Phuket News.