Bangkok, Feb 12: Hotels trying to lure back tourists on the tsunami-hit Thai resort island of Phuket have slashed their prices by about 50 per cent but apparently not low enough for some foreign travel agents.
A media report today said a group of British travel agents were seeking cuts up to an additional 30 per cent as they were "displeased" with half-price rates already on offer.
Keith Betton, of the Association of British Travel Agents, told the nation newspaper that hotels in Phuket should come up with aggressive promotional offers to get their guest
numbers back to pre-tsunami levels.
"If hotels can't cut the rates a bit more, we'll be fine but we might have to offer destinations such as China," another unnamed travel agent said. The request-which would see a room that originally cost USD 100 going for just USD 15-was made at a meeting yesterday between a group of 17 travel agents and officials from 45 hotels in Phuket, the report said. 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.
Bureau Report
