Phuket in big push to revive tourism

Promthep Cape, one of the island’s best-known locations, hopes to see large numbers of local tourists soon. file photo

Phuket: The island province is drawing up short, medium and long-term campaigns to revive the local tourism industry, brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Provincial governor Narong Woonsew said on Tuesday the province contributes 400 billion baht in tourism revenue to the country each year on average.

The sector, which employed 323,219 people locally before Covid-19 struck early this year, generated 245 billion baht in annual gross provincial product (GPP).

Mr Narong said the pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to Phuket’s tourism industry on which 80% of its economy depends.

The damage to the province’s tourism sector caused by the outbreak is estimated at 160 billion baht. It is forecast the number of tourist visiting Phuket this year will shrink to only five million, substantially down from last year’s figure of 14.4 million. Of those five million tourists, 1.5 million are predicted to be Thais.

Source: Phuket in big push to revive tourism

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