What local tourism students know about Phuket that global sustainability leaders do not

Trans­ition­ing from an emer­ging hot­spot to an estab­lished tour­ism-led eco­nomy is complex. 

In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ken Drew exam­ines the grow­ing pains of Phuket, Thai­l­and where loc­als, includ­ing his former tour­ism stu­dents, too often find them­selves in danger.

Has rap­id devel­op­ment out­paced basic infra­struc­ture? And has it com­prom­ised the island’s abil­ity to safely handle mon­soon­al rains?

Fol­low­ing last week’s Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil con­fer­ence on the island — planned amid reports of deadly land­slides, tox­ic fires, and poor air qual­ity — a ques­tion arises:

Should the GSTC demand stricter adher­ence to its own cri­ter­ia before select­ing a host des­tin­a­tion? Or is it right to per­sist with the softer policy of engagement?

Welcome to the 2026 Global Sustainable Tourism Conference

If you were a del­eg­ate at the 2026 Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence last week, you arrived at the Roy­al Phuket City Hotel, a ven­ue that was very recently smothered in black smoke. 

That was bound to hap­pen. In 2025, Reu­ters invest­ig­ated Phuket’s infam­ous plastic waste crisis by inter­view­ing someone who lives next to it. Vas­sana Toy­ou’s mil­lion-dol­lar view of green moun­tains had been spoiled by a wall of naus­eat­ing grey trash that has forced her into a kind of lockdown. 

“There is no life out­side the house, (we) just stay at home,” she said. “The smell is very strong, you have to wear a mask.” 

On April 11, 1.2 mil­lion tonnes of trash at that land­fill caught fire and burned for 30 hours. Phuket’s muni­cip­al waste col­lec­tion was sus­pen­ded for a week but resumed a few days before you arrived for your sus­tain­able tour­ism event and learned about “Resi­li­ent Cit­ies & Communities”.

The waste site includes five land­fills and an incin­er­at­or built atop a man­grove forest. The incin­er­at­or allegedly leaks can­cer-caus­ing diox­ins. Down­wind of it is Old Town; a 2.7‑square-kilometre tour­ism zone that houses the Roy­al Phuket City Hotel. Author­it­ies have announced Old Town will be car­bon-neut­ral by 2030. 

This is a story of how dec­ades of tour­ism-led devel­op­ment have shaped life in Phuket. I will tell it through the lens of my pre­vi­ous work as a “tour­ism Eng­lish” teach­er on the island, and via my mes­sages with stu­dents. And I will meas­ure it against the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) Des­tin­a­tion Stand­ard.

Con­tents ^

Welcome to Phuket, Thailand 

I first vis­ited Thai­l­and in 2013. It was nice back then. The hills were green. The roads were slow. You could take your eyes off the road for a second to admire the surroundings. 

Like many del­eg­ates at the GSTC event, I arrived in Phuket expect­ing some­thing closer to the lush, trop­ic­al, and biod­i­verse Costa Rica. That is what the bro­chures and social media show, but that’s not Phuket when you zoom out.

I struggled to live there when I taught at a loc­al uni­ver­sity. I biked to cam­pus every day. The last kilo­metre was the hard­est. Soi Samkong is a skinny six-metre-wide strip with two-way vehicu­lar traffic. Double-deck­er tour buses muscle their way into the street. It’s the only route to the Athena Cab­aret Show. 

Res­id­ents along the road block­ade the side­walk with bar­ri­ers of orange cones and broken chunks of con­crete to push stu­dents on motor­bikes back into traffic. 

Con­tents ^

Built for mass tourism, not for people

Pic­ture Dis­ney­land. One main entrance. Wide walk­ways fan­ning out toward each attrac­tion. Every path is designed to move the max­im­um num­ber of people to the max­im­um num­ber of places where they will spend money. You go where the park wants you to go.

Phuket works the same way. The air­port is the entrance. Two high­ways pour south from it. An hour later you arrive at a beach, Old Town, your hotel, or a pier. You spend money. You get back in a vehicle. You leave. More arrivals equal more revenue. 

The amuse­ment park des­tin­a­tion lay­out works as it was designed, but there are con­sequences when you build for tour­ists and not for locals.

On those high­ways, vehicles race and over­take each oth­er at well over 100 kph. Cars. Trucks. Minivans. Double-deck­er tour­ist buses. And thread­ing between all of them, on motor­bikes and scoot­ers, tour­ists, migrant work­ers, low-income loc­als, and my students. 

My first hit-and-run (as a vic­tim) in my 14 years liv­ing in Thai­l­and happened in Phuket. I was lucky.

Accord­ing to the Thai­l­and Road Acci­dents Data Centre (ThaiR­SC), Phuket recor­ded 114 deaths and 27,502 injur­ies from road acci­dents in 2025. That is approx­im­ately 27 deaths per 100,000 res­id­ents, four times high­er than major cit­ies such as Los Angeles.

These con­di­tions are a dir­ect out­come of long-term infra­struc­ture plan­ning pri­or­it­ising mass tour­ism over loc­al mobil­ity and safety. 

And it affects people daily, espe­cially when it rains.

On July 31, 2025, my stu­dent Non sent a mes­sage with a photo of his flooded street. 

“It’s rain­ing very heav­ily, teach­er,” he wrote in our LINE group.

He turned his ques­tion urgently to the group. “Excuse me, do you know if the pro­fess­or will be teach­ing this period?”

Every stu­dent chose to stay home that rainy day. 

In a sur­vey I gave the pre­vi­ous year, 81% of stu­dents said they could not safely travel to school dur­ing heavy rain due to flood­ing or road conditions.

Phuket exper­i­ences sea­son­al mon­soon rain­fall, but infra­struc­ture has not adap­ted to rap­id urb­an­isa­tion and runoff.

Con­tents ^

Deadly deforestation and the blame game

On August 23, 2024, four months after Phuket was selec­ted to host the 2026 GSTC con­fer­ence, a land­slide killed 13 people and injured 19 oth­ers, des­troy­ing 209 house­holds across nine villages.

Col­on­el Dus­it Kaesonkaew alleged that con­struc­tion and defor­est­a­tion at the Big Buddha site, begin­ning in 2005, had blocked nat­ur­al waterways.

The Roy­al Forestry Depart­ment con­firmed that trees on Nak­kerd Hill had been felled to make way for the com­plex. Blame was assigned to the found­a­tion that built the statue, rather than those who approved per­mits for con­struct­ing it. 

Phuket has a long his­tory of defor­est­a­tion. Research­ers at Tham­masat Uni­ver­sity in Bangkok unearthed start­ling data: 

• Phuket’s urb­an area expan­ded from 51.2 km² in 1987 to 345.6 km² in 2024. 
• Forest cov­er dropped con­sist­ently from 138.2 km² to 109.9 km². 
• Man­grove cov­er shrank from 33.7 km² to 23.6 km². 
• The aver­age annu­al urb­an growth rate was 6.65%, with peak years hit­ting 88%. 

Phuket is no longer in an early devel­op­ment phase. By 2024, the island’s urb­an area had reached 345.6 km², just under half the land area of Singa­pore and roughly equi­val­ent to about three Par­ises com­bined.

Between 1987 and 2024, Phuket’s urb­an area expan­ded at an aver­age rate of approx­im­ately 6.7% per year, con­sist­ent with rap­id urb­an growth pat­terns asso­ci­ated with boomtown devel­op­ment rather than incre­ment­al coastal tour­ism expan­sion. This expan­sion has coin­cided with recur­ring flood­ing chal­lenges dur­ing the mon­soon sea­son, par­tic­u­larly in urb­an and rap­idly developed areas of the island that even now con­tin­ue to expand.

Con­tents ^

Phuket doubles down on deforestation at Bang Khanun Hill

In Janu­ary 2025, five months after the land­slide, Phuket Gov­ernor Sophon Suwan­nar­at had enough of loc­al envir­on­ment­al­ists com­plain­ing about encroach­ment at Bang Khanun Pro­tec­ted Forest.

How the issue was resolved high­lights how Thai author­it­ies con­tin­ue to shift away from con­ser­va­tion towards rezon­ing and devel­op­ment, dur­ing the Phuket’s real estate boom.

Bang Khanun is a 3,700-rai (592-hec­tare) forest-covered hill over­look­ing Phuket Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. It is cru­cial for absorb­ing heavy rains. Act­iv­ists warn that defor­est­a­tion on it has already con­trib­uted to flood­ing risks in the air­port area. No forest means no flood pro­tec­tion for the airport.

Rather than pri­or­it­ising strict pro­tec­tion, author­it­ies are mov­ing to rezone the land. Only about 1,000 rai (160 hec­tares) would remain des­ig­nated as water­shed con­ser­va­tion forest, a frac­tion of the ori­gin­al area. That rep­res­ents about 27% of the reserve, mean­ing more than 70% of the forest would be rezoned for gov­ern­ment and mil­it­ary use, hous­ing, or devel­op­ment-related purposes.

Con­tents ^

When sustainable tourism leaders meet, do they clear the air?

The Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) has high­lighted a range of meas­ures designed to reduce the envir­on­ment­al impact of its 2026 con­fer­ence:

• The car­bon foot­print of the event was cal­cu­lated and offset; 
• Poly­styrene foam was avoided; 
• Name badges used no plastic; 
• Reusable lan­yards with min­im­al design were dis­trib­uted; and
• Elec­tric shuttle buses were used for air­port and event transportation.

I am very impressed by that, and the people behind it deserve cred­it. But that suc­cess makes one ques­tion unavoid­able: Why was a sus­tain­able tour­ism con­fer­ence held in a des­tin­a­tion that so vis­ibly struggles to meet those same standards? 

If Phuket applied the same level of com­mit­ment island-wide, it could rival places like Costa Rica, Singa­pore, or San Fran­cisco.

While del­eg­ates moved between ven­ues in emis­sions-free elec­tric buses, they were also exposed to three cigar­ettes worth of air pol­lu­tion dur­ing the four-day con­fer­ence. Air qual­ity in Phuket reg­u­larly fails WHO stand­ards, and Thai­l­and fre­quently exper­i­ences some of the worst pol­lu­tion levels in the world dur­ing peak peri­ods due to open burn­ing and weak envir­on­ment­al laws.

I have per­son­al exper­i­ence with this. Air pol­lu­tion in Thai­l­and forced me to resign from Ayut­thaya Raj­abhat Uni­ver­sity in 2023 and Phuket Raj­abhat Uni­ver­sity in late 2025. 

I exper­i­enced heart­beat irreg­u­lar­it­ies, asthma, and loss of mus­cu­lar con­trol in my legs, among oth­er ser­i­ous symp­toms. Des­pite a back­ground as an elite ath­lete, pro­longed expos­ure to PM2.5 between 2012 and 2023 caused last­ing health dam­age. In 2023, I was one of 10 mil­lion people hos­pit­al­ised.

So, while the GSTC event has demon­strated what sus­tain­able tour­ism can look like in prac­tice, in its chosen host des­tin­a­tion, tour­ism con­tin­ues to be pro­moted as a key eco­nom­ic driver des­pite ongo­ing air pol­lu­tion that affects res­id­ents, expat­ri­ates, and vis­it­ors alike. 

Con­tents ^

Inside the GSTC, sustainability works as intended 

After del­eg­ates were trans­por­ted in air-con­di­tioned elec­tric shuttles, they atten­ded ses­sions in which they learned from renowned speak­ers about resi­li­ent cit­ies and com­munit­ies, and how des­tin­a­tions can nav­ig­ate the bal­ance of growth and livability.

The Tour­ism Author­ity of Thai­l­and (TAT) Gov­ernor Thapan­ee Kiat­phaibool boas­ted about her department’s com­mit­ment to sustainability:

“Host­ing the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence 2026 in Phuket marks a sig­ni­fic­ant mile­stone for Thai­l­and as we con­tin­ue our jour­ney toward becom­ing a lead­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism des­tin­a­tion on the glob­al stage. 

This con­fer­ence reflects our strong com­mit­ment to driv­ing tour­ism devel­op­ment based on the prin­ciple of ‘value over volume,’ while ensur­ing a bal­anced approach to vis­it­or man­age­ment and resource preservation.”

Con­tents ^

Outside the GSTC, sustainability is more complicated

Out­side the con­fer­ence, these policy ambi­tions sit with­in a broad­er gov­ernance structure.

Eight months pri­or, Thaneth Tan­ti­piriyakij, the Pres­id­ent of the Phuket Tour­ist Asso­ci­ation spoke plainly about the lack of sup­port. In Thai­l­and, devel­op­ment in des­tin­a­tions such as Phuket is shaped by nation­al tour­ism and infra­struc­ture policy, which estab­lishes the frame­work with­in which loc­al imple­ment­a­tion takes place.

“If we could only choose one urgent improve­ment [for Phuket], it would be the roads,” he said. “Tour­ism must con­sider the qual­ity of life for loc­al res­id­ents. Traffic con­ges­tion adds daily bur­dens to their lives and it affects trav­el­lers’ exper­i­ence. We want the gov­ern­ment to address this.”

My former stu­dents would agree. Dur­ing the mon­soon sea­son, I gave them a road safety sur­vey to see if I should teach online or not. Some 49% repor­ted flood­ing at or near their Phuket homes. One stu­dent described his 16 km motor­bike com­mute: “My house is far… in this weath­er, there’s a risk of accidents.”

So, while I applaud GSTC for shut­tling its del­eg­ates around in EV buses, I can­’t help think­ing that my stu­dents could have been rid­ing the Phuket Island Light Rail Trans­it (LRT) by now if the author­it­ies had com­mit­ted to rein­vest just a frac­tion of the island’s tour­ism revenues. 

The LRT was estim­ated to cost US$1.1 bil­lion in 2019. Between Janu­ary and July 2025 alone, some 7.6 mil­lion tour­ists vis­ited the island, gen­er­at­ing about $8.9 bil­lion in revenue. 

Con­tents ^

The gap between sustainability standards and reality 

The Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) pro­motes its GSTC Des­tin­a­tion Stand­ard as a glob­al bench­mark for man­aging tourism’s envir­on­ment­al and social risks, includ­ing plan­ning for crises and enga­ging loc­al stakeholders. 

The GSTC Des­tin­a­tion Cri­ter­ia (v2.0 2019) include core require­ments for sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment. Three that stand out include:

Planning regulations and development control (Criterion A9)

• Devel­op­ment on for­es­ted hills, includ­ing defor­est­a­tion linked to the deadly Nak­kerd Hill land­slide and sub­sequent rezon­ing of Bang Khanun Hill, raises ques­tions about wheth­er land use is being prop­erly con­trolled to pre­vent envir­on­ment­al harm.

Risk and crisis management (Criterion A11)

• Flood­ing, land­slides, and the land­fill fire all point to recur­ring, fore­see­able risks that affect daily life for res­id­ents and were not effect­ively mitigated.

Solid waste management (Criterion D9)

• The large-scale land­fill fire, sus­pen­sion of waste col­lec­tion, and prox­im­ity of waste infra­struc­ture to pop­u­lated and tour­ism areas high­light sys­tem­ic chal­lenges in man­aging waste sus­tain­ably. Dur­ing my three years, I nev­er saw any plastic or e‑waste recyc­ling. No city-wide ban­ning of single-use plastics either. 

Des­pite all this, Phuket was selec­ted to host this con­fer­ence in April 2024. The Thai­l­and Con­ven­tion and Exhib­i­tion Bur­eau (TCEB) called it “a great vic­tory for Thai­l­and” and pro­jec­ted 50 mil­lion baht (approx­im­ately USD 1.4 mil­lion) in MICE revenue.

Four months later, a defor­est­a­tion-linked land­slide killed 13 people. 

Five months after that, the gov­ernor was review­ing plans to ‘devel­op’ anoth­er pro­tec­ted forest on anoth­er mountain.

Con­tents ^

The question nobody is asking

The GST­C’s own cri­ter­ia exist for a reas­on. The GSTC exists for a reas­on. If the GSTC rewards unsus­tain­able des­tin­a­tions with rev­en­ue-boost­ing con­fer­ences that give author­it­ies in those des­tin­a­tions the abil­ity to gre­en­wash, then how can ‘good tour­ism’ ever scale glob­ally to uplift com­munit­ies, pre­serve cul­tures, and pro­tect nature?

My Thai travel & tour­ism stu­dents are wait­ing for an answer to that every time it rains.

Con­tents ^

What do you think? 

Share your thoughts in a com­ment below about sus­tain­able tour­ism stand­ards and cri­ter­ia, espe­cially if you are a rep­res­ent­at­ive of GSTC, Thai­l­and, Phuket, or affected stake­hold­ers. All per­spect­ives are wel­come because travel & tour­ism is every­one’s business.

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“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please con­sider sup­port­ing “GT” via a Part­ner­ship and/or …

Con­tents ^

About the author

Ken Drew is a Cali­for­nia-based sus­tain­able tour­ism writer and con­tent strategist with more than a dec­ade of firsthand exper­i­ence in South­east Asia.

As a former seni­or edit­or at a European sus­tain­able travel pub­lic­a­tion, Mr Drew pro­duced des­tin­a­tion blogs, trav­el­ler guides, and invest­ig­at­ive fea­tures cov­er­ing gre­en­wash­ing, land­scape con­ser­va­tion, and the human cost of unchecked tour­ism development.

He also taught Tour­ism Eng­lish and led SDG work­shops at Phuket Raj­abhat Uni­ver­sity.

For sev­er­al years, in Ayut­thaya, Ken led free (no tips) bicycle tours through the UNESCO World Her­it­age Park, fun­nel­ing curi­ous back­pack­ers dir­ectly into the loc­al community.

“Guid­ing trav­el­lers to unique exper­i­ences is why I help oper­at­ors, hotels, and des­tin­a­tions com­mu­nic­ate their green com­mit­ments to those who are look­ing for them.” 

Featured image (top of post)

Indeed, what do loc­al tour­ism stu­dents know about sus­tain­ab­il­ity in Phuket that glob­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity lead­ers do not? A Gem­ini-gen­er­ated image. “GT” added the words.

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