The main problems in Phuket are overpriced prices that do not match the quality of goods and services provided and inadequate infrastructure.
Social media users in Thailand have been outraged by the high cost of airfares to Phuket. Ticket prices offered by budget carriers from Bangkok to Andaman Island have soared to 14,000 baht for a trip 2-3 days before the scheduled departure date.
Outraged users have also reported paying 5,000 baht for a one-way trip to the island, even though they booked tickets weeks in advance, the Bangkok Post reported.
Average airfares and hotel prices in Phuket have been rising steadily since the end of the pandemic, said Suksit Suwunditkul, president of the Thai Hotel Association’s Southern Branch. The price hikes have coincided with a surge in demand during the current high season, mainly driven by foreign tourists.
“Foreign tourists are not worried about high prices because tourist trips are planned and booked in advance. Airfare prices are usually combined in the form of connecting flights from Bangkok, so foreigners have not noticed the price change on domestic routes,” Suksit said.
It is not tourists who have been affected, but mainly local travellers and businessmen or other people who need to travel domestically said the hotel association president. In February, 90 per cent of arrivals to Phuket are foreign tourists. Domestic travellers account for only 10%.
Chinese New Year celebrations helped the Chinese market surpass the Russian market for the first time this year, with 66,775 Chinese and 54,908 Russian tourists visiting Phuket between February 1 and 14.
In January, Russian tourists led the inbound tourism market with 130,709 arrivals, while 84,966 Chinese tourists visited the country. India came in third place with 25,528 tourists visiting Thailand last month.
Phuket’s high season usually lasts from November to March with a peak period between December and February, when there is usually a spike in airfares and room rates as holiday activities spur tourists to book tickets and accommodation quickly,” Suksit said.
According to the hotel association president, Chinese and Indian travellers don’t even try to get a discount as they want to be able to celebrate the holidays at exactly the right time. According to the association, most five-star hotels had up to 40 per cent of their guests from China during the holiday period.
However, the average price tends to automatically drop after April, when demand among both foreign tourists and locals drops during the Songkran festival.
According to the provincial tourism report for January, the average hotel occupancy rate in Phuket was 89.2 per cent, and the average length of stay for guests was 3.66 days. Thirty per cent of the 2,069 hotels with 11,427 rooms participated in the study.
In the first month of this year alone, tourism revenue in the province totalled 64.5 billion baht, which brought in 2 million tourists from both domestic and international markets.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, the ceiling-regulated price for a 698-kilometre one-way flight from Bangkok to Phuket is set at 6,561 baht for budget carriers and 9,074 baht for full-service carriers.
The tourism sector is monitoring airfares but has yet to find any airlines selling tickets at prices above the price cap, said Phuket Tourism Association president Thanet Thantipiriyakit.
However, when other fees and taxes are included in the ticket price, the price may exceed the regulated fare. And in this case, the airline does not violate the price cap regulations because the price cap does not include additional costs,” Thanet explained.
“I still believe that local airlines do not want to get in trouble with the aviation authority by selling tickets that are more expensive than the regulated fare because it is not worth the penalty,” said Thanet.
Prices are particularly high for two reasons: the high season and the short booking period of 1-2 weeks before departure,” said Thanet. For those wishing to travel in the next 3-4 weeks, average airfares remain affordable and will gradually decrease after the high season ends.
Phuket has now managed to resume domestic air traffic at 130 flights per day, close to the level recorded in 2019. However, due to the massive influx of tourists, these services are not enough to satisfy all segments, especially local business travellers.
During the peak season, more Phuket residents prefer to travel to Krabi or Surat Thani to catch a flight to Bangkok, as average airfares in these provinces are much lower than flights from Phuket, Thanet said.
The most worrying problem in Phuket’s private sector is the matching of the quality of goods and services provided with the price increases, says Thanet.
“There are cases where hotels have overcharged four times the normal cost of accommodation during periods of high demand. We are concerned that guests who do not receive quality services and goods will not return to Phuket,” Thanet said.
Negative experiences with public infrastructure and constant traffic congestion on the island will also deter tourists who feel such services do not provide value for money.
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