This year's green season on Phuket is anything but a let-down. Coming off of the biggest high season on record, the tourism industry on Phuket is working to build up the current green season and planning for an even bigger high season beginning at the end of this year.

For a post-high season recap, we talked to several key players among the thousands of tourism professionals on Phuket to get an insider's look at what made the 2007-08 high season such a success. We also wanted to know about prospects for the current green season and the challenges Phuket faces as it prepares to host what looks like another record-breaking high season.

Suwalai Pinpradab
Region 4 Director Tourism Authority of Thailand

From the information we have about the last high season, the feedback was very good. The number of tourists increased from the last two or three years. Before the tsunami, the number of tourists was about 4.7 million people, and the year after the tsunami (which hit at the end of December 2004) the number of tourists decreased to around 2 million people during the high season. The total number of tourists who came to visit Phuket was around 5 million people during last high season. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is quite pleased with the number of tourists this year.

Right now we wouldn't want to expect that we would have more tourists visiting only during the high season period. Five million people coming to visit Phuket is quite a good number. But to increase the number in the high season period, we have to consider facilities and whether they are adequate to support tourists when the numbers that come to Phuket reach 6 -7 million. The Phuket airport cannot support those numbers. Problems in Phuket, like traffic jams, garbage and others, still need to be solved. For TAT, we would like to have tourists come to visit Phuket year-round and in every season.

The target market for us is the high-end market because if we draw the same number, we get more money from high-end foreign tourists. Another sector that we're focusing on is the domestic market, such as companies in Thailand that take their staff to visit oversea countries. We promote travelling in Thailand � especially Phuket � instead.

For now, the international markets where Phuket is most popular are the Korean, Japanese and Australian markets. Moreover, Chinese tourists are coming to Phuket because of the Olympic games. China will be the host, so the Chinese government plans to encourage their people to travel to other countries, though many will go to see the Olympics in China. I am sure that Phuket will be one destination that Chinese people would like to visit, and we will be targeting that market at a road show in Japan in June. We are planning to have direct flights from Narita, Japan to Phuket again soon.

For the next high season, we are looking at how Phuket will make facilities ready to welcome tourists. There is plenty of accommodation for tourists. The Courtyard hotels by Marriott will be open in three places in Phuket. This year total accommodations will increase by around 1,000 rooms. Hotel construction is almost all being built for the top market, but in my opinion, I wouldn't want to focus on that area so much.

Arnaud Girodan
General Manager, Indigo-Pearl, Nai Yang Beach

We opened right in the middle of high season in 2006, so we can't say that the past year was our first high season. Our first real high season was 2007. The first phase we opened was the existing resort (in December 2006), the second was the new development and the third was the restaurants and the bar. Because we wanted to open during the high season, we did our work during the low season. The opening with full facilities was in May 2007.

High season exceeded our expectations for being open only one year. In December and January, we were at 83 percent, and February and March went to 70 percent. April closed at 62.5 percent.

Going into the next high season, tourism on Phuket should continue to grow by 5-10 percent at established properties. The first indication is the number of arrivals at the airport. The growth there is substantial. The second is the number of hotels opening. That shows that big chains are interested in coming here. They won't open here if they don't see increasing tourism over the next five years.

We've seen an increase in hotel occupancy over two years, and what we call the forward booking is going to get stronger. But high season � December, January, February and March � has become virtually saturated. The demand is nearly stronger than the offer. What's happening now is we're seeing an increase in rates over 2006 of 10-20 percent.

Geographically our marketing is changing over the past two to three years. Germany and Scandinavia, an increase in France, a big increase from Commonwealth of Independent States countries (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and others) and an increase from Australia. South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are very dynamic markets for us. In terms of demographics, we're seeing an increase in free and independent travelers, although package and tour operators are very strong.

For the green season, with UK and Germany, we have to market a year ahead. For Hong Kong and Singapore, months ahead. For inbound from Bangkok, it could only be a week ahead. First of all, there is a rate reduction, and we try to position ourselves among all five-star resorts here. Then we do incentives, like bonus nights and tactical promotions. We continue to target the places that continue to travel during the low season: Australia in July and August, the Middle East in June, July and August, South Korea in August, September, October and November.

Prawit Janyasittikul
Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Jungceylon Shopping Destination, Patong

We think we finished with a successful high season, and we're satisfied that we made the targets we aimed for after last year's high season. Jungceylon opened around 18 months ago, and by now all the shops and stores are completely open. All the entertainment places are open, like the cinemas, the bowling center and so on, so the tourists and customers are increasing. They're spending more time at Jungceylon for shopping or to be involved in activities.

The green season of Phuket has some effect on our sales and marketing, but more than that recently there're many other factors influencing people's decisions about how to spend money or when to go shopping. The influence from the world economy, the high price of fuel and so on � it's not only Thailand. People around the world have to think about when they spend money. Natural disasters like the storm in Burma and the earthquake in China have an effect.

We have to accept that Asians like the Chinese are the customers and the target market because they travel a lot during the green season. In my opinion, the 2008 Olympic Games held in China will cause many tourists, both Chinese and also tourists from all over the world, to think about traveling in other Asian countries. They might visit the Olympics first, and then they might make a decision to fly to visit Phuket later.

For promotions and our plans to persuade tourists during the green season, right now we have a campaign called the "Phuket Happy Sale". Three hundred brands and shops have joined the campaign, and we are targeting this project to focus on local people, Thai and expats. Every first week of the month in green season we will do something with the promotion. In addition, we are joining with the Patong Hotel Association to distribute vouchers to tourists who stay in hotels in Patong so they can take a card to Jungceylon and get a gift with no conditions.

Wolfgang Meusberger
General Manager, Holiday Inn Phuket Resort and Hotel, Patong

The high season has been excellent for us until maybe April, even stronger than the year before. Occupancies each month were in the high 90 percentiles. We saw strong growth in the Australian, Scandinavian and UK markets. What we have seen for the green season this year isn't as good as last year. We're seeing a small decrease in arrivals from Australia and fewer arrivals from Japan and Korea. We're expecting occupancies in the 70s for May and June and in the high 80s for July and August.

For the next high season, our biggest worry is rising costs. The cost of fuel makes flights relatively more expensive, and cheap flights have a big impact on the buying position of consumers. The flight is almost 50 percent of the purchase for many of our clients, and oil prices are getting to be 25-30 percent more than last year. I would assume some clients would reevaluate their plans to come or relocate to somewhere closer. Our big worry is rising oil prices.

We position ourselves as a mid-scale resort below a luxury resort. We cater predominantly to couples and families, and it's very seasonal. Fifty-five percent book traditional packages, 10-15 percent are meetings and 30 percent are direct bookings, often repeat customers. The fastest growing booking channel for us is the internet. We're seeing strong indications that more and more customers are using the internet to make travel decisions. Sixty percent of the customers I talked to, if they were first-timers, had researched the hotel on the internet.

Traditionally, the mid-scale hotels are the most resilient ones. I think what the customers are looking for more and more are brands. I think the second thing is repeat customers. If a German couple has been coming for 10 years, for example, and if the price goes up 10-20 percent, they'll still come. But their spending patterns in Patong will change. It's not that people will completely stop traveling.

I think we need to be very careful and get more serious about environmental degradation and traffic. New customers are going to be much more environmentally conscious. I think that's coming very fast to the whole travel industry. For instance, 20 years ago organic foods meant only about three things in the produce section. Now they're about 70 percent. People are willing to pay 15-20 percent more for things that are environmentally sensitive. I think with travel something similar will happen � is already happening. I don't think as a country and as an industry we're doing as much as we can to work toward that.

Kasin Owatsuwan
Store General Manager, Central Festival Phuket, Kathu

We're up around 15 percent from last high season, which is quite good. But it's not so good if we compare it to what we expected from our budgets and the profits that we made. It's not growth meeting the goal that we expected, and it is not so striking as in 2006.

For this year, in my opinion, I think we're feeling the effect of the world economic situation, which has a lot of influence on how consumers think about spending money and saving money. Also I think this year the environment changed quite a lot with Phuket going into the green season or low season very early. This year, the end of March was the beginning of the low season since the rains came early.

If we look at the growth of income and sales right now, they're good. Right now we're seeing income growth of about 25 percent for just this month. For the past four months, from January to April, we were growing about 12 percent, and I'm satisfied with that. That's growth over the last high season.

As for our customers, 60 to 70 percent are local people, Thais or expats, and 30 to 40 percent are foreign visitors. Of course, promotions can persuade consumers to decide to spend money. Promotions can also be something that we give back to the customer as incentives, like gift vouchers or coupons to push sales. I think the high season and low season for Central doesn't make a lot of difference because at the end of the high season we have local customers to rely on. We still have local Phuket people who live here and trust Central.