Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Phuket Town
The cultural and historical sights of
Phuket
Town
offer every-thing from world-class
beaches and natural scenery to a traditional urb-
an home, fascinating 100-year-old Straits Settle-
ments mansions and shop houses, traditional
open-air markets and shops, as well as the
vividly hued Chinese shrines built during the tin
boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
when thousands of Chinese migrated to Phuket
for work. Walking tours are generally the best
way to explore the town.
Market stall, Phuket Town
Tourism Boom
In the mid-1980s, southern Phuket experienced a wave of development that
is widely credited with sparking the island's tourism boom. First, Club Med
opened a new resort on Kata Beach in 1985. It proved so popular that THAI
Airways soon introduced a daily non-stop flight service from Bangkok to
Phuket. The rest is history.
