Phuket Hotels Oppose Surin Mega Event

A letter has been sent to the Phuket Governor by the management of many of Surin Beach's leading businesses including Amanpuri, Twinpalms, The Surin, DoubleTree by Hilton, Chava, CBRE and Ayara Hiltops. The letter outlines the issue over the planned Sydictive Element mega party for New Year's which was recently launched by an appearance of Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton.
"Dear Phuket Governor,
In recent weeks we have seen considerable publicity in Phuket ,Bangkok and on international
websites of a "PHUKET MEGA NEW YEAR TECHNO PARTY" to take place on December 30th
and 31o 2A12farr a 48 hours non stop period at Surin Beach, organized by "Sydicative Element"
.This has naturally gained a lot of attention.
As a group of luxury hotels (listed below), owned and operated by both Thai people as well as
Foreigners, who have been welcoming guests from around the world to the beautiful and still
pristine Surin Areas for many years, we have the following comments and suggestions to share
with you.
The welcomed news of worldwide publicized and supported party for Phuket
Attracting stars, VIP's and a large number of guests, could be a great way to promote
Phuket as a prime tourism and entertainment destination.
The very unsuitable choice of date (December 30th and 31st)
Phuket has since many years been "fully booked" over the New Year period. There are
almost no seats on flights available to and from Phuket during this period making it virtually
impossible for additional guests to visit Phuket. The infrastructure is already overwhelmed
during this time of the year leading to traffic jams around Phuket in general and around
Surin beach in particular. The organizers are hoping for 50.000 guests to attend this paid
event. Given the challenges above, it would likely that much fewer people will attend,
leading to disappointment for both guests and organizers. During several months of the
year, when Phuket hotel occupancy is lower and travel infrastructure readily available, an
event such as the proposed would be welcomed and surely supported by all businesses in
Phuket.
The definitely inappropriate selection of Surin Beach & Park for the event
The Surin Area is surrounded by luxury hotels that are, as in the past, already fully booked
during the Peak Season, hosting families visiting from all over the world and several
international VIP's. These hotel guests are not aware of the proposed activities, which
undoubtedly will disturb the traditional Surin Area and the planned New Year celebrations.
The Surin area is also the home of many luxury villas and estates, which welcome either
their wealthy owners or VIP guests during this period. None of which are likely to enjoy the
noise, traffic and other disturbances related to this event and the "occupation" of the Surin
public beach & park and all the relaxing beach restaurants they come to enjoy.
The massive round the clock noise disturbance in the whole area which is home to
thousands of tourists and villa owners, will severely disturb and would probably interrupt
or even block the access to the public beach and park for a week before and several
days after the event which wlll lead to massive disappointment from hotel guests, villa
owners and bathers visiting the famous beautiful Surin beach from all over the island.
The fear that a Techno Event as in other part of the world is often associated with
drug and alcohol, therefore attracting drug traffickers and other criminal elements to
Surin. Alcohol is also likely to be consumed in excess both being harmful for locals and
tourists and surely a detriment to Phuket and Thailand.
As such and for the benefit of all parties involved, whilst you are discussing this event in the
near future, we would ask that you reconsider the date and most importantly the venue. We
suggest that "free seaside/beach spaces" such as the north end of Patong sports field with
adjacent open land along the beach road, could host the guest services of the proposed party
(same location as the Phuket Bike Week). lt would also ease up the infrastructure and traffic
issues, as most of the guest of the pafi are likely to be coming from Patong anyway.
Another suitable location could be the north end of Bangtao Beach lt offers much free space,
has no luxury hotel or luxury private homes in the immediate surroundings that would be
disturbed. Both locations would also allow much better crowd control and therefore improve security,
parking, transportation and health and hygiene issues.
We do hope our request assist you in Thialand in the interest of all parties.
Yours truly, undersigned making the best decision for Surin Area, and Phuket.
cc
Sommai Preechasilpa, Phuket Vice Governor
Chanchai Doungjit, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket Office
Ma-Ann Samran, President of the CherngTalay OrBorTor"
No response has yet been received.