World Cup hits tourist arrivals

PHUKET: Predictions that Phuket will reap windfall profits as thousands of football fans head for the island, seeing it as the perfect venue for sun, sand and soccer, are, apparently, wide of the posts. Anupharp Thirarath, director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), today told the Gazette that the World Cup has had the opposite effect, with many Phuket hotels facing a dearth of bookings for next month. “Many hotels are having problems with excessive vacancies for next month because of the World Cup,” he said. Although he declined to provide statistics, he said, “Our understanding is that people want either to stay home with families and friends to watch matches and cheer for their national teams, or they want to go to Japan or Korea and watch matches live.” He added, however, that a TAT promotional campaign based around the World Cup had partially offset the drop in bookings, particularly in European markets. He said, “Many hotels in Phuket are excited and are preparing big screen TVs or projectors for guests.”