OrBorJor steps in to help Patong

PATONG: Following the recent release of a visitor survey that uncovered a number of complaints about the island’s most popular beach resort, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) agreed on Monday to help Patong Municipality solve some of its problems. The survey, involving some 1,000 hotel guests, was conducted by six Patong hotels – the Club Andaman Beach Resort, the Horizon Beach Resort, the Patong Merlin Hotel, the Merlin Beach Resort, the Novotel Coralia and the Holiday Inn Resort – to get a sense of the visitors’ views of Patong and to determine what areas needed improvement. Patong scored poor marks in the survey for difficult traffic and parking, for the poor state of its sidewalks, the lack of cleanliness of the town and the beach, the poor quality of goods sold and the aggressiveness of vendors. Dr Prasit Koeysiripong, president of the OrBorJor, joined a meeting on Monday at Club Andaman with representatives of the six hotels and Patong Municipality to discuss ways to solve these problems. “All the problems that hotel guests complained about are problems that can be improved; these are not serious concerns,” Dr Prasit said. To help clean up the town, the OrBorJor will meet with hotels and other Patong businesses to organize regular weekly cleanings of the Patong area, said Dr Prasit. “If we can do it, Patong will look better and it will ease the workload for Patong Municipality,” he added. Another problem in Patong mentioned by guests was the lack of public toilet facilities along the beach. “We plan to build two or three public toilet blocks in Patong,” said Dr Prasit. The smell of sewage was another complaint. Patong Municipality on Monday confirmed that the new wastewater treatment plant would be finished in August. This, the Municipality believes, will solve the problem. More meetings between the various parties are planned in order to hammer out the details of the improvement scheme. The areas in which Patong scored high marks from respondents were the quality of food and service, safety at nighttime, the visible presence of the tourist police, activities on the beach and – surprisingly – the friendliness of taxi or tuk-tuk drivers. For full details of the survey, see the Phuket Gazette, out tomorrow (Saturday).