Travel plan idea blog

How cheap should Hotels in Phuket be?

I met someone who wanted to go to areas of South East Asia affected by the tsunami because of the bargains currently availble. There are many wonderful places that need tourism more now than ever before so traveling to certain places ravaged by the Tsunami may just help these areas get things back to normal.

For example my brother-in-law and his wife went to Phuket, Thailand for their honeymoon and loved it, but Phuket is not known for being inexpensive. However, currently hotels in Phuket are offering steep discounts to try to win back tourists. One report indicates that hotel rooms are generally 50% cheaper now than before the tsunami, but that some travel agents are pushing for even bigger discounts.

The British travel agents suggesting further discounts were not well-received:

A British tour operator said such offers would not hurt the island's image as a high-end destination.

But the request was met with a cold response from local hoteliers and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Nation said.

"If Phuket hoteliers accept this, then we have to give the same rate to all travel agents around the world. This will not help tourism at all," Opas Netr-ampai, the owner of Club Andaman Phuket, was quoted as saying.

Posted by James Trotta at February 15, 2005 12:34 AM