Hello, Phuket Express Readers and Supporters!

The following is our weekly feature in which we highlight the top local stories in our area of Phuket from the past week. The number of stories differs from week to week.

These are chosen and curated by our editorial team and are designed for our readers to get a quick “catch-up” of important stories they may have missed. We publish many stories daily and it is easy to lose track of important events or changes in our area. We do national recaps in a separate article, this is only the top local stories in the Phuket province.

They are in no particular order of importance but roughly in order of publishing. These are from Monday, January 23rd, 2023, to Sunday, January 29th, 2023.

Let’s get started and see what the top local stories were!

1. A suspect wanted in Phuket has been arrested in Bangkok for arson and allegedly trying to kill a security guard at a snake farm in Phuket 11 years ago. The suspect was also allegedly involved with what Thai media has labeled as an infamous Chinese mafia boss, ‘Tuhao’.
2. Phuket is seeing more activities from tourists, as tourism is now at 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Office in Phuket.

The number of visitors to Phuket from January to December 2022 totaled 9.26 million, with 53.6% being domestic tourists and 46.4% being international tourists, pumping into Phuket 233.38 billion baht in tourism revenue throughout the year.

3. A jet-ski and parasail operator were fined 60,000 baht after breaking rules and operating on a protected beach in Thalang.

Surin Beach is a protected beach (White Beach Project) where marine activity businesses are banned. Those activities have annoyed beachgoers and swimmers and are not safe for them.

4. More than 158,000 Thais and foreigners visited Phuket for the Chinese New Year Festival which generated at least 2.6 billion baht, said the TAT authority.

There were in total 121 international flights from 40 airlines which carried 24,809 passengers while in total 121 domestic flights carried 17,155 passengers.

5. The Royal Thai Navy rescued seven foreign tourists and a captain from a boat after battling with waves in Phuket.

A fishing boat carrying seven foreign tourists in the south of Phuket was battling with strong waves in the sea. The navigator on the boat was broken which meant that the boat captain was unable to take them back to the shore.

That’s all for this week, as always thanks for your support!

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