Despite being new in the job – he became minister just two months ago – Mr Somsak showed he had a firm grasp of the island’s problems, hitting the nail on the head in his opening remarks at the Kata Beach Resort & Spa.
“The problem is that we now have a great number of tourists coming to Phuket,” he said, “so this leads to more traffic, degradation of tourists attractions and facilities, and land encroachment, especially in public areas.
“These are problems that we have heard about for years, and keep talking about – but when will they be solved?”
The meeting came after the Senate Tourism Committee, led by its president, Phuket Senator Thanyarat Achariyachai, toured beaches and came up with a list of problems caused by disorganized management of beach areas.
The President of the Kata Group and Phuket FC Chairman Pamuke Achariyachai was blunt. “Law enforcement here has failed,” he said.
“Phuket must move forward. We need to make Phuket’s beaches as beautiful as they were 30 years ago, or at least manage them better.
“Local leaders must not ignore the problems. You need to go and talk to [people working in tourism], educate them and tell them that we have to preserve Phuket for future generations.”
Some blamed outsiders or factors beyond the island’s control.
Sarayuth Mallam, vice-chairman of the Phuket Tourist Association, said of the current garbageand-debris-strewn state of the island’s west-coast beaches, “During January and February, our beaches will be clean, but what the senators saw the other day – dirty beaches full with garbage – is because it is now rainy season.
“We cannot get rid of it all in one day. People who make a living from the beach try their best, but it is too much for them to clean up.
“Another problem is that we have people from other provinces coming to Phuket to earn a living, but these people don’t have any sense of belonging, of wanting to look after their hometown.
“If they think Phuket can’t help them to have a better life, they just move to another place”.
But Rangsiman Kingkaew, from the Phuket Chamber of Commerce, made no such distinctions. “We need to change the attitude of locals towards tourists,” he said. “We need to think about what can we do to meet tourists’ needs, and make them feel like they want to come back.
“We are an international destination but lack international standards.”
He also echoed many others in worrying about the effects of never-mind-the-quality-feel-the-width mass tourism.
For years successive governments have urged all those in the tourism industry, particularly the Tourism Authority of Thailand to increase the number of tourists ever year while paying only lip service to attracting “quality tourists”. Some at the meeting clearly felt the chickens are now coming home to roost.
Mr Rangsiman said, “We have seen how the demographics of tourists visiting Phuket has changed. The number of European tourists has decreased, and we have tourists from China and Russia replacing them.
“But even though they are coming in increasing numbers, is this a good thing? European tourists stay here for approximately 10 days, but Asians spend only five days in Phuket. For Europeans, we can sell them lunch and dinner, but Asians only have breakfast.
“Moreover, Chinese and Russians are opening and investing in their own businesses, so what is left for the locals?”
On safety at sea – there have been three serious incidents in the past few weeks involving tourists on ntrips from Phuket (see here, here and here) – Governor Maitree Intusut said, “Boats should carry no more than their allowed capacity. I have also asked the Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet and the Marine Police to stand by at all times.”
Mr Somsak added, “The Phuket Marine Office have said their manpower is limited, so I have suggested to them that perhaps they should outsource some tasks.”
Mr Sarayuth noted that bad news travels fast and wide, “For the beach chair problem, many tourists’ lives were actually saved by those businesses, since their employees are around to help tourists in trouble.
“But the actions of a few bad apples leads to negative coverage in the news.”
The same was true, he said, of taxi problems, most recently the five-hour ordeal of a young Chinese woman at the hands of a black taxi driver, now facing charges of abduction and molestation.
“If we look at the problems, I can say that the black taxi problem is less than five per cent, but as bad news always gets more attention than good news, it creates a negative image of Phuket.”
The meeting took place the day before the minister and the governor were due to meet 17 ambassadors representing European countries to discuss safety for tourists coming to Phuket.