Spooked Tourists Admit Fear on 'magic' Island

It was standing room only at the bars on Koh Samui’s Chaweng beach at 11.30pm on Thursday night as thousands of mostly young foreign tourists settled in for another night’s drinking, dancing and making new friends.

Nothing appeared amiss. Hostesses were smiling overtime to attract patrons, everyone had to shout to make themselves heard over the music, groups posed for holiday snaps and there was plenty of laughter.

But beneath the jocularity some people admitted to being nervous about staying on what has become Thailand’s fastest growing holiday destination. The rape and murder of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old backpacker from Thornhill, Cardiff, on January 1 a few miles from Chaweng shocked not just the tourist community, but the whole island.

"I have real concerns when I hear stories about things like that," said Dave Moogan, 31, an engineer from Liverpool in the Wigan Pier pub with four friends. "We’re not going to change our plans but we are going to take greater care."

The killing has had much greater impact on women. "I don’t really like it here; I’m spooked," said Carly Hopkins, 24, an estate agent from Sidcup. "I wouldn’t come back. There are lots of things - but it’s really the murder."

The authorities appear even more worried. More than 100 detectives have been deployed to the holiday isle that lies 300 miles south of Bangkok, and scores more are providing back-up in the capital. They announced yesterday that they have a DNA sample from semen found on Ms Horton and are taking samples from at least six foreigners, including four Britons, and more than a dozen Thais.

"This case has caused severe damage to the reputation of our nation and the tourist business," Thailand’s Prime Minster, Thaksin Shinawatra, said yesterday.

Regular visitors cannot remember an incident and reaction like it on the island. "Everyone is shocked by it because it’s so unusual," said a freelance British writer, Jules Kaye. "Everyone’s worried it’s going to give Samui a reputation it doesn’t deserve."

"We haven’t had anything like it for a long time," said the island’s mayor, Marakorn Pattanark. "Yes, we have petty crime but where doesn’t? This is something new."

The fact that Ms Horton was British is of particular concern because about 157,000 Britons visited the island last year, more than from any other country.

"Most people will probably forget about it in about a year. But the British won’t and we need the British because so many come," Mr Marakorn said. "Hopefully the police will catch the culprit soon."

Others in the tourism industry are more confident. Paul Watson, from Bangor, who runs an Irish bar, Tropical Murphy’s, on Chaweng beach, said: "People understand these things do happen in holiday resorts, they could happen anywhere. Resorts are very resilient."

He maintains that Asia has bounced back from bombings, the Sars epidemic, the tsunami, and bird flu.

Koh Samui has experienced a triple boom recently, benefiting from financial crisis which suddenly made Thailand very cheap for visitors, the 2002 Bali bombing which discouraged people from going to the Indonesian island, and last year’s tsunami which devastated the west coast of Thailand but left Koh Samui unscathed.

The mayor hopes the tragedy will stir the central government into approving his request to turn the island into a separate municipality, which would result in a bigger budget for security.

The island’s tourism police force stands at 15 officers to handle up to 26,000 visitors at a time, with 200 regular officers. The permanent population is 40,000.

"It [the police strength] should be at least 500 considering we have so many unregistered workers and tourists," Mr Marakorn said. "And the tourism industry is increasing all the time."

Four years ago there were 9,256 hotel rooms on the island, according to the tourism authority of Thailand. There are now 13,305 and the mayor estimates the figure is increasing by about 2,000 a year.

"It used to be a retreat, a paradise, an escape from the stressful life of the west," Mr Kaye said. "Now it’s become a very cheap, warm, comfortable place to live."

A Tesco superstore arrived three years ago, four shopping centers are on the way, and package holidaymakers started arriving a couple of years ago.

It is also feared that more criminals are eyeing the island. A British woman was raped several months ago and there are increasing numbers of reports of drinks being spiked and minor assaults. But the number of attacks is still relatively small.

"You’re going to get the Spain crowd that doesn’t want to go to Spain anymore," Mr Watson said. "Hopefully the yobbos will stay [away] and I’m happy about that."

Koh Samui’s real weakness is not expected to be rising crime, but the wholly inadequate infrastructure buckling under the island’s unregulated development. "Even though there has been the murder, my biggest worries are infrastructure and the environment," Mr Marakorn said.

Much of the island was paralyzed by severe flooding in November, traffic jams are becoming a part of life because there is only one proper road round the island, and the mayor said he could not rein in the developers.

"As long as they don’t break any laws they can do what they want," he said. "We cannot set any criteria.

"We need the government to do that but they just see that we contribute so much money to them every year and want more."

Despite these concerns, for many Britons Koh Samui is still a glorious idyll.

"OK, there has been a murder and it means we have to be more careful," said Craig Ryan, from Norwich. "But I’ve come from snowy, freezing England so in comparison this is magic. Pure magic."