With its stunning limestone cliffs towering over stilt houses surrounded by azure waters, the island of Panyee is a typical Thai paradise. However, it is not mother nature drawing tourists here — it is a floating soccer pitch.
Thailand’s tourism industry has taken a battering this year following months of protests, the May military coup, the subsequent imposition of martial law and the brutal slaying of two young Britons on the island of Koh Tao in September.
The Thai Immigration Bureau says there has been a near 9 percent annual drop in tourist arrivals in the first 10 months of the year — a painful blow for the millions of Thais whose livelihoods depend on the industry.
However, in Panyee, part of Thailand’s picturesque Phanga Nga Province, foreign visitors keep coming thanks to excitement over the community’s innovative and highly unusual soccer pitch.
Nestled next to the largely Muslim island’s ferry pier, the 16m by 25m pitch has become something of a national treasure after an advertising campaign by a Thai bank in 2010 made the fishing community locally famous for their dedication to soccer.
“What do you do when you come to Panyee Island? You must see the floating soccer pitch,” island chief Muhammad Prasanpan said, adding that 50,000 baht to 70,000 baht (US$1,500 to US$2,100) now comes in from tourists each day. That represents a five-fold income increase for the 320 households on the island since a decade ago when fishing was its mainstay, the chief said.
The island has long had a reputation for soccer-obsessed inhabitants who have refused to let something as inconvenient as a complete lack of flat surfaces hold them back from practicing the “Beautiful Game.”
Originally, islanders played on a beach, but could only do so during low tide when enough sand was visible. The first floating pitch was built 30 years ago, but was a dangerous hotchpotch of wooden boards knocked together with rusty nails.
“We had to avoid nails coming up. It was risky and dangerous, but we had to play on it because we had no pitch,” said boat driver Prakit Prasanpan, sporting the local team’s shirt.
Inspired by their dedication, TMB Bank commissioned a series of advertisements charting the local team’s success in a soccer tournament despite the rickety pitch. After the campaign aired the islanders, with help from local authorities, built themselves a new — and crucially nail-free — floating pitch.
Since those advertisements aired in 2011, Panyee has become famous both locally — and increasingly internationally — for soccer.
However, the pitch has done more than attract new arrivals. It has kept the island’s younger inhabitants from leaving.
Depopulation is often a major problem in Thailand’s poor communities, with youngsters traveling significant distances to find better paid work — usually to support large families back home.
In Panyee the young are staying put. The island’s population has increased to 1,800 from 1,200 over the last 10 years.
However, other tourist hotspots are not so fortunate. From January to last month, income in Thailand fell 6.1 percent compared with the same period last year to 905 million baht.
With so many reliant on tourism in a country that dubs itself the “Land of Smiles,” Thailand’s generals know they must restore confidence.
The junta have vowed to “Return beaches to the people” — a side project of their wider promise to “Return happiness to Thailand.”
The first clean-up campaign was launched in the large resort island of Phuket where the authorities took down unregistered umbrella and food stalls.
While the campaign restored a more pristine look to some of Phuket’s beaches, it angered many local businesses.
Meanwhile, the junta’s attempts to bolster tourism were dealt a blow by the September murder of David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, on Koh Tao.
The authorities have charged two Burmese nationals with killing the British pair, but they later retracted their confessions, alleging they were obtained under duress.
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