Minister: Samui blackout not serious

Published: 7 Dec 2012 at 18.23
Online news: Tourism

SURAT THANI: The three-day electricity blackout on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan won't hurt the local tourism industry much, Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa said on Friday.

Power was back on the two popular tourist islands in the southern coastal province of Surat Thani after engineers spent the night successfully restoring electricity.

"The outage won't affect tourists and tourism business operators to a great extent because Thailand has a competitive advantage in tourism and is also a regional hub, and foreigners like to come here," Mr Chumpol said.

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Tanami
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Discussion 17 : 08 Dec 2012 at 13.1717
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My wife works in a shop in Chaweng Koh Samui, one day after power came back, she had one customer all day. Most tourists have left Koh Samui. We are now planning to leave because of every day problems like power cuts, corrupt police, scams, fraud, taxi mafia, Bangkok Airways rip-off, over priced non-service, rubbish dumps everywhere. This is a lost Paradise.
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rfukata
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Discussion 16 : 08 Dec 2012 at 08.2416
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this blackout' power shortage' is an everyday occurrence here in Thailand, I live up country in a western moo bahn and experience at least
two power shortages, twice a month without any real explanation. (it just reflects the incompetence of the management or
ministry responsible). It appears that no body cares.
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geoffo
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Discussion 15 : 08 Dec 2012 at 07.0415
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This person also said every woman should put out if she has dinner with a man so its no surprise to learn he thinks 3 days without power is no big deal.
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windyman
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Discussion 14 : 08 Dec 2012 at 06.1314
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dear minister,
Not only we lost the content of our own freezers, but the whole sellers lost as well the content of their own ones. so no way to restock quickly.
you will probably tell me that I don't need stock since there are no tourists anymore.
at the age of internet, the information is moving fast, and therefore loosing confidence from the customers is much faster than you can imagine.
Gaining that confidence back is much slower and therefore we prepare ourselves to suffer for another few months. But we trust you, if you say we are not affected, it must be true. thank you for your great help in restoring our self confidence
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barryw
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Discussion 13 : 08 Dec 2012 at 06.0113
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I agree with Dis#2. Several times I have come off a full flight from Europe or Australia, yet there are only 20 or 30 people waiting at the baggage carousel. All the others are on their way somewhere else, where rape of a tourist or days-long power cuts are taken seriously.
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windyman
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Discussion 12 : 08 Dec 2012 at 05.5312
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dear minister Chumpol Silpa Archa,
as a business operator on Koh Pha Ngan I would like to open your eyes on our reality.
there has been no communication about the problem and since we had no power supply, we could not access internet, listen to radio or watch tv and therefore the craziest rumors were running around.
tourists who were on the island during the outage were so discouraged by the the lack of info that they decided to leave to other places where they could get air con, ice, cold drinks...
on top of not having customers to cater for, we lost the content of our freezers. for many of us, restaurant operators it is a big problem.
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spiceman
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Discussion 11 : 08 Dec 2012 at 05.4211
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I bet the economic loss during that 3 days of blackout far exceeds the cost of having a backup system. The hotel owners should install emergency generators of their own, just in case of another repeat in the future. And I don't think the Minister is serious about preventing another "not serious" blackout in the future. I bet in the middle of the darkness, your lit hotel would become a magnet for customers, who would have the whole island all to themselves, at least for a few days.
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DickFarang
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Discussion 10 : 08 Dec 2012 at 00.3010
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On the Canary Islands there are windmills for electricity production for many years now.
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DickFarang
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Discussion 9 : 08 Dec 2012 at 00.259
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The first time I read that in Thailand “international safety standards” for electricity should be met.
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g.manont
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Discussion 8 : 07 Dec 2012 at 20.498
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.

Oh....

The news say ;

"..The outage won't affect tourists and tourism business operators to a great extent because Thailand has a competitive advantage in tourism and is also a regional hub, and foreigners like to come here," Mr Chumpol said.

...and then...

Thousands of tourists fled the islands ...

...and from the same news...

Thanongsak Somwong, chairman of the Koh Samui tourism promotion association, said the blackout was expected to cause at least 12 billion baht in damage to tourism.

this is NOT happen...

Chumpol, year that guy... just smile !

.
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Minister: Samui blackout not serious | Bangkok Post: business