In the beautiful sunny city of Phuket, a tactical maneuver is underway to launch into the high season with fervor and aplomb – the city is motivating the owners and operators of boutique hotels to secure a license to operate. This enthusiastic incentive doesn’t come out of the blue; it is an integral part of the city’s detailed planning for hosting a staggering daily influx of more than 10,000 travelers. Multiply that by 365 days in a year, and Phuket is about to open its arms to an estimated 2.19 million sightseers from all corners of the globe.
On September 7, a seminar spearheaded by the Phuket Boutique Accommodation Consortium (BAC) became the catalyst for bringing to light a ministerial regulation embraced by the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning of the Interior Ministry. This significant ruling, launched initially in June, refreshingly refines the criteria required to secure a hotel license.
Danai Sunantarod, the esteemed Deputy Governor of Phuket, pointed out that these exciting transformations in the hotel license ordinances present an advantageous circle for petite hoteliers to formally instigate their businesses and make way for public agency reviews of their facilities. These changes do not just provide a formality, but they also carve a path for legitimacy, allowing such businesses to gain appropriate recognition and security within the industry.
Fascinatingly, this reworked hotel license ruling extends certain exemptions to tiny hotels that escape the need for building qualifications typically imposed on conventional hotels. Stair width and proximity to public roads, for example, no longer are hills to climb for small hotel operators. However, the necessity for safety qualifications, particularly in the domains of fire management and building structure, continue to remain a significant consideration.
Chinnawat Udomniyom, the charismatic president of Phuket BAC, let slip that an astonishing majority, close to 80%, of small-scale hotels on Phuket Island currently run their businesses outside the purview of legal licenses. With the loosening of certain rules and regulations, he foresees an uptick in license registration from these charismatic, upstart operators, as reported in the Bangkok Post.
Adding to this sanguine outlook, the leader of the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) Division 11, Wirintra Paphakityotphat, professed that Thailand could potentially greet an awe-inspiring 25 to 30 million tourists by the turn of the year, as per data from the Tourism Council of Thailand. Phuket, with its enthralling aesthetics and enchanting culture, hosts an impressive assortment of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 hotels. Yet, just 1,000 of them possess operational licenses.
With the advent of this innovative regulatory amendment, it is greatly anticipated that a larger number of hotels will embrace licensing, thereby strengthening Phuket’s potentials to cater to the forecasted 2.19 million annual vacationers. This manifold could translate into annual tourism gains that surpass 16.2 billion baht in revenue. If you want to stay abreast of Phuket’s latest stories, be sure to like and follow our new Facebook page HERE.
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