The drifting Diver

What are the Similan Marine National Parks achievements towards being a successful tourist attraction.

1 - The Similan Marine National Park as many other National Park areas in the world is not very easy accessible, that is because the customers need to book with a boat operator to overcome the 60km boat ride from the harbor on the mainland to the Park. The Marine Park itself does not provide any transportation. There is a Marine Park entrance fee, which has to be paid to the operator. However the diving and snorkeling customers are more than willing to overcome these two minor negative issues and visit the park anyway.

2 - As most of the customers get picked up directly from the boat operators at their respective hotels, there is not really a need of a big car park at the jetty. Anyway there is space available and parking is at the unmanaged car park is for free. Unfortunately, there is no special parking space for disabled people available.

3 - The National Park has three visitor centers in place, two of them directly on the islands (Meang island and Similan island) and one (the Headquarter) well hidden (probably not by intention!) to the public near the entrance to the jetty. The wooden buildings fit well into the parks natural environment and are easy accessible also to disabled people. They provide a wide range of information about the wild life, the park and the diving in Thai as well as in English.

4 - The National Park uses for its signs and information the internationally widely used pictograms or Thai and English information texts.

5 - There are shops located within the three visitor centers. They sell nautical maps, some puppets and some interesting books, but most of them in Thai. The most interesting shop of them is in the one located next to the Headquarter, which is a shame, as rarely ever a tourist will find that shop. Without having some real figures available, I think, that the shops certainly could need some improvement in the over all amount of product available but also in the variety. The shop in the Headquarter area could need some more attraction and for sure better signs so that it can be more easily located.

6 - The National Park has on both Meang and the Similan islands each a restaurant with traditional Thai kitchen ready to serve the tourist and visitors needs from 8.00 am until 8.00 pm. The restaurants serving different menus, of course also sea food, but they aren’t really themed towards sea life or the ocean.

7 - There are clean toilets on the islands available. As I mentioned earlier there is also some progress going on, that all the boats entering the Similan Marine National Park need to install marine toilets and wastewater tanks to protect the environment of the park.

8 - With the increasing amount of customers the park management began to realize, that they will have a serous waste problem in the near future on the islands, therefore they started to install litter bins at the main sites. However some more remote attractions on the island still do not have some bins in place. As people getting more environmentally aware there is not too much littering going on. Rats, which get attracted by the waste is another problem on the islands. Luckily there are some big lizards and snakes around to catch up with the increasing rat population. In my opinion, the park management should put some more effort into this problem and try to find a solution, like more litter bins and maybe remove the waste more regularly to get less attention by the rats.

9 - As there are many small rocks, powdery white sand and lovely palm trees all around the islands spending their shadow freely, seating in the sand under a tree is easy and almost everywhere possible. Of course the restaurants and the visitor centers do have some more common seating available as well.

10 - Most of the facilities in the Marine National Park can also be used without any problem by people with disabilities, except the pushchairs on the powdery sand. As the Thais are very helpful, friendly and flexible people, I am sure that there will be some helping hands available and some special arrangements can be made in such an occasion.

11 - The Similan Marine National Park has some tents and bungalows at reasonable rates available, but most of the diving customers will stay overnight on a live aboard anyway. If a customers wants to book an accommodation on the island directly without a locale agent or dive operator involved in can get a little bit tricky, because the booking office staff is not very literate in the English language.

12 - As diving at the Similan islands is a great experience and an overnight stay on the islands is very adventurous and romantic, people keep returning to the park. In general the customers get a very good value from the dive operators on the live aboard as well as on the day trip boats. The over all customers’ service in Thailand is very high, maybe less in European standard, but more in politeness, friendliness and the serving and supporting attitude of the locals towards the guests. I’ll think the tourists still get very good Value for Money in Thailand in general and in the Similan Marine National Park specifically.

With an abundance of 11 islands, marine life, 3 wrecks, great weather, great visibility and a huge amount of coral reef in Thailand, the Similan islands are the Top destination in Thailand’s dive travel niche market.

There are an estimated 10 million active divers in the world. The Similan Marine National Park, Thailand’s most popular dive destination attracted about 150’000 to 200’000 divers & skin divers per season.
There are currently about 100 dive & snorkel operators with a license to operate within the Similan Marine National Park. 70% of the dive tourism to the Similan Marine National Park is focused in Khao Lak, Phang Nga.

According to Rodale’s Scuba Diving Magazine the most important considerations for dive tourists choosing a dive destination is the quality of diving and the cost. A similar survey conducted by the same Magazine found that the most important factor for choosing a dive operator was the operator’s reputation.

The most common reason given by divers and skin divers to the Similan Marin National Park for their visit is to enjoy the beauty of marine life and the islands.

The following dive facilities are available in Khao Lak: Day trip boats, live-aboard, snorkel day trip boats, snorkel live-aboard, and dive training.

The Similan Marine National Park is an attractive dive destination, because it provides healthy marine environment, variety of different dive sites (about 40 different wreck, coral reef and rocky sites), good visibility, marine life and good facilities (dive operators, guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, transportation).

One potential barrier to dive tourism in Thailand is the threat of coral bleaching, coral mortality and rising water temperatures. There should be some diving limitations in place to protect the under water world. Tourist and Operators are required to pay an Entrance Fee which is then used to install mooring lines and maintain the Parks buildings and infrastructure.

With its already well-established tourism market, Thailand has much of the infrastructure required for dive tourism in place to take advantage of this niche market.

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