A public hearing held at Rawai Municipality Office chaired by Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos lasted three hours with a large majority of residents disapproving of the new “Hollywood Movie Museum” beach attraction that was planned for Nai Harn beach.
Their reasons for rejecting the B40 million project was that most residents preferred to maintain the natural environment of the beach and believed nature is the reason tourists come to Phuket.
During the meeting, Mayor Aroon said, “The Department of Tourism hired L2K Advertising Agency Co Ltd in Bangkok to proceed with the movie museum project and develop the area into a new attraction to promote tourism industry on the island.
“It was believed that the movie museum will generate income to residents and the tourism industries. The Department of Tourism proposed to use the Nai Harn Beach area of Moo 1 Rawai sub-district for this project, and today we wanted to get feedback and opinions from residents before construction began.”
Many residents suggested that a new venue, such as Gateway at Baan Tha Chatchai in Thalang, is a more suitable place for the project, while others pointed out that any construction near mangroves or the sea will eventually corrode because of the salt water.
One example they gave was the construction of a Sala already built in Nai Harn which is now in completely ruined.
Mayor Aroon told The Phuket News today (Nov 21) that the area proposed for the project was in the pine tree area above the beach so he understood the resident’s concerns.
However, the project was already approved, but now that residents have rejected the plan Mayor Aroon will have to report to the Tourism and Sport Ministry on Monday to see whether they still wanted to proceed with the project.
The Phuket News has been told that construction of the project has been entirely organised by the head office of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport in Bangkok andwas approved by Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul in April.
Plans to construct the museum was first revealed to The Phuket News in April by Phuket Tourism & Sports Department Director, Santi Pawai, who said that Nai Harn Beach was the likely location for the museum.
“The museum will feature memorabilia from movies filmed in Phuket and neighboring provinces such as Phang Nga and Krabi.
“The museum itself will be very attractive and we hope that it will help bring more visitors to the Nai Harn Beach area,” said Mr Santi.
According to Mr Santi, Nai Harn was chosen as the location because it has a beautiful beach that is currently not as popular as the island’s other beaches, and he hoped that the existence of the museum would attract film makers to the area.
Besides the actual museum, the facility was set to be designed to make the most of the outdoors, and would feature rest-and-relax areas, showers, toilets and a food court. (See story here)