Assistance is currently being provided to hotel businesses in Phuket Province that were forced to close due to illegal construction on public land.
Deputy Phuket governor Pichet Panapong has clarified a recent incident in which a group of hotel operators gathered in Patong to express their plight as their businesses were closed and their assets were auctioned off. He stated that currently, 860 small hotels are permitted to open legally, while 994 hotels were found to have violated regulations and must be rectified. Some of these hotels were discovered to be built in prohibited areas such as national parks, Sor Por Kor agricultural land, or designated zones in ministerial city planning regulations.
According to reports, 53 percent of these businesses violated building control laws, with the violation commonly related to environmental issues. Meanwhile, around 6 percent of the hotels are found to breach hotel and city planning regulations which disqualified them from getting state welfare and loans for their businesses.
Only 91 of the 994 small hotels have fixed their problems, while the remaining 903 hotels that haven’t are struggling and are in need of government assistance.
According to the deputy governor, the province has approached the Interior Ministry’s Land Department for assistance because some residents had purchased condo units with the intention of converting them into hotels. However, the law requires that the building first be cleared of any condo or housing estate registrations before it can be converted into a hotel. The request must be approved by all members of the housing estate. In an effort to increase hotel rooms and customers, he also mentioned a law revision that would require a minimum of 10 hotel rooms and 30 customers as a requirement for hotel registration.
The deputy governor added that authorities understand the plight of these people but the process of revising certain laws to help will take time. The Department of Provincial Administration, which oversees the implementation of hotel laws, is working to help these people, as well as businesses that are facing similar problems in other provinces in Thailand. (NNT)
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