Phuket tourism fears ripples from Bangkok floods

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Phuket tourism fears ripples from Bangkok floods


Deutsche Presse Agentur November 14


Phuket, Thailand - Business appears to be booming on the Thai tourist destination of Phuket Island, 700 kilometres south of the floods currently plaguing Bangkok.

The beaches are full, the restaurants and bars are packed and the sun is shining. But some are bracing for slower knock-on effects if the floods linger on the mainland for much longer.


Phuket tourism is recovering strongly from last year, when televised images of violent demonstrations in Bangkok kept travelers away from all Thailand destinations.


Arrivals at Phuket Airport were up 40 per cent year-on-year in the first week of November, despite the worst floods in decades hitting the central plains and north Bangkok, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.


But tourism has not escaped unscathed.


"These negative headlines - the (2006) coup, the protests, the floods - have had a bad effect on tourism for a long time," said Holger Schwab, managing director of Phuket-based Sea Bees Diving Company.


"When you’re far away and see these headlines, you may choose Indonesia, the Philippines or another place to spend your holiday. People don’t realise that Thailand is a big place and that these events don’t affect the whole country," he said.


Schwab, a native of Augsburg, Germany, who has been running the Sea Bees for 16 years, said the precise impact was hard to calculate, but that he has not seen the rise in business he would normally expect as peak season starts this month.


"It’s difficult to tell how much the floods have affected our business, but I’m 100-per-cent sure we’ve had fewer bookings than we would have if there were no floods," Schwab said.


Much will depend on how quickly the floods are tamed in Bangkok, and whether or not authorities can keep the capital’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport flood free.


"If Suvarnabhumi is hit, our tourism season is over," Schwab said.


A more immediate threat to the island’s tourism has been shortages in certain goods, such as some brands of beer, rice and bottled water due to flooding on the country’s road network and disruptions at distribution centres.


An estimated 100 roads have been cut, and runoff from the north is now threatening to inundate the Rama II Highway, the main link between Bangkok and the southern provinces.


"Alcohol is running low," said a Tesco-Lotus supermarket employee who asked to remain anonymous. "I don’t know the exact numbers, but if we don’t get a shipment soon, we may run out of some brands and this goes for a lot of other products.


"Cigarettes as well - we’re running low on all of the popular brands," he said.


A shortage or price spike in alcohol and cigarettes would hit Phuket tourism hard.


But most hotels and retail outlets are confident that things will return to normal by the end of the month.


"It’s more difficult, but for everything we cannot get from our usual suppliers, we’ve found another way to get it," said Opas Damrongkul, resident manager of the Centara Grand Beach Resort.


Unlike many smaller bars and convenience stores on the island, Centara has managed to keep its entire menu of beverages available, Opas added.


"We’re working harder and paying a little more, but we’re avoiding shortages," he said.


The hotel’s occupancy rate is down year-on-year, Opas said, largely because most customers are Thais, who are quicker to cancel or change their holiday plans.


"As for our international guests, we haven’t had as many cancellations, although we have noticed that some people are not coming because they are afraid they won’t be able to fly back out of Bangkok if it gets worse," he said.