The changing face of Phuket’s tourism industry

With the number of tourists visiting Phuket increasing year after year, it has become common knowledge that people from all over the world, at one time or another, have chosen this “paradise island” as their preferred holiday destination. Noticeably in recent years, the number of Chinese tourists has increased, as has the number of Russian visitors.

Previous core source markets ran the gamut from Australia to the UK, the US, Western Europe, South Korea, Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia. Shifting with the world’s winds of change, Thailand’s tourism promotion officials continue to seek out newer, lucrative markets. In the latest notable campaign, The Phuket Tourist Association have joined the “Amazing Road Show to Kazakhstan 2015”.

Vice President of the Phuket Tourist Association Bhuritt Maswongssa said that tens of thousands of Kazakhs travel to Phuket each year, but that most of them come to the island in the high season by charter flights, as no direct flights are available at present.

But many tourism stakeholders remain sceptical about this latest campaign, which echoes similar drives in recent years pushing for “lucrative” tourists from India and Middle Eastern countries.

Indeed, in light of the decline of traditional long-haul markets, the Thai government has realized the potential in short-haul markets, and have already begun to cash in to ensure growth projections remain on target.

Tourists from East Asia – including Asean – made up 60 per cent of all tourists to the kingdom in March, according to a report from the Tourism Department. That represents a 55pc jump year-on-year. This is in contrast to European markets, which made up a fifth of all tourists, about a 15pc decline y-o-y.

Leading the pack, Chinese visitors now account for about a fifth of all foreign travellers to the kingdom, with the arrivals doubling year-on-year.

The dialogue and debate of “quality vs quantity” continues. And to gauge perceptions of readers, The Phuket News’ latest poll asks readers one simple question: “Where’s your preferred foreign tourist from?”