Surat Thani To Make 'Samui Festival' Yearly Affair To Attract Tourists

BANGKOK, Feb 11 (Bernama) -- The Surat Thani province which includes the island of Koh Samui, plans to make the 'Samui Festival' an annual event due to the of this year's event in attracting tourist and local visitors. The province's governor, Wongsiri Promchana said the festival held over two days last month succeeded in showcasing other attractions in the province, besides Koh Samui and the Fullmoon party associated with the popular island. He said the tourism receipt from this year's Samui Festival chalked up 100 million baht (US$2.67 million) and expected the turnover from the event to keep on increasing in the years to come. In a recent interview with Bernama, he said the province had other attractions for tourists other than the islands such as the beautiful lake at Cheow Lan dam (Ratchaprapa dam), cultural wonders and historical sites. During this year's 'Samui Festival', Wongsiri said the province lined up several events, including cycling, mini-marathon, and traditional Thai boxing, 'Muay Chaiya' which originated from the Chaiya district in Surat Thani. According to the governor, Surat Thani received two million visitors last year, and this translated to 65 billion baht (US$1.85 billion) in the province's coffers, out of the province's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 180 billion baht (US$5.11 billion). He forecasted the total number of visitors to the province this year would increase to 2.5 million, mainly from China, bringing 100 billion baht (US$2.68 billion) to the its GDP. Currently, he said, there were about 10,000 tourists from China in the province, with 154 charted flights have been scheduled from the country this month alone, alongside 36 regular flights from the province's and the Samui airport. "China's tourist is big market for us because they have a high spending power," he said, adding that Chinese tourists preferred to spend their money on food and beverage, shopping and sightseeing. Besides that, he said Surat Thani, especially Koh Samui also received many Malaysian tourists who likeed to travel overland in a convoy of motorcycles or car, as well as via air. For the western tourists, noted Wongsiri, they usually spent their vacation in Koh Samui or Koh Phangan for the Fullmoon party where they would travel from Phuket Krabi and other locations just to enjoy the party in Koh Phangan. -- BERNAMA