Phuket delegation heading for Dubai

PHUKET: Vice-Governor Niran Kalayanimit will lead a delegation of government officials, tourism industry experts and the press to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a bid to lure investment to Phuket from the UAE’s booming commercial capital, Dubai.

The four-day trip, from May 6 to 10, will be paid for by the Governor’s Office.

A total of 30 people are expected to go, including representatives of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Region 4 Office, the Phuket Tourism Association and 10 members of the Phuket Reporter’s Club.

Prajead Aksorntammakul, from the Governor’s Office, told the Gazette that the trip was first proposed by Governor’s Office Secretary Rapeepat Na Nakorn as a way of developing the Middle East as a new source of low-season tourists for the island.

Phuket is still suffering from the downturn in tourism that following the tsunami, K. Prajead said.

The Phuket delegation plans to meet with investors and the press in Dubai, as well as visit tour agencies, the city’s business district and shops in the duty-free city. They will also visit one of The Palms – Dubai’s astonishing project to reclaim vast areas of the sea in three places for construction of expensive homes on freehold land shaped like palm trees.

In particular, they will look at how these huge reclamation projects are being achieved with the minimum of damage to the environment.

See here for more about The Palms.