According to the numbers of the statistics from the Department of Tourism, these indicate that the numbers of the foreigner tourists who select the destination of Phuket will increase year by year, which recognises that the main income of Phuket is based upon tourism. The persons or the related departments should give priority to the development of Phuket. Transportation in Phuket is not convenient, as there is no public transportation to neither accommodate nor truly support tourists. Development of human resources and the local community is an important factor for Phuket, which needs to plan development for quality human resources at standards of tourism requirements, and the local community needs to support and educate people in the local community (Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization: http://www.phuketcity.org/policy.php).
Marketing trends of Phuket tourism indicate that many tourists choose to select Phuket as their destination, and the strategy needs to be modified based upon Phuket vision. The centre of world-class marine tourism has good quality of life, with a unique culture for sustainable development. Phuket has enough resources and manpower, but also lacks true cooperation and a lack for marketing in terms of its tourism (Chaiyanan 2012).
Although Phuket old town and its cultural attractions have a long history, are interesting and have enough potential for the welcoming of tourists, there are problems with regards to development, and giving knowledge to the people in the community who lack skills for the maintenance of the successions of cultures and do not realise conservation or keeping up with their ways of life, the arts and architecture of Phuket.
Image of Chinese Temple in Phuket
Image is also important visitors first seeing a destination, but not for all destinations. Tourists will choose a destination by their beliefs or their knowledge, and Bignon et al. (1998) felt that image depends upon the people. For Baloglu and McCleary (1999), the basic beliefs and knowledge of a destination come from the physical attributes of the destination by the feelings about the attributes and the destination environment. The destination image of the Chinese temple is as of a place of spirit, beliefs and religion. The image of tourism is important for tourist behaviour, as it also affects the purchasing decisions of tourists. The image of a tourist influences the decision-making process, whereby tourist attractions directly affect the satisfaction of tourists, and a good image makes the motivation to be attracted to the destination and to have the will for the processing to decide to select the destination of attraction.
The image of tourist destinations impact both directly and indirectly, when concerned with the desire to return for tourists, and recommending attractions to others. Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2004) felt that the importance of destination image for tourists is tourists’ perspective of their destination from their senses, understanding and connection to the place. Kotler and Gertner (2004) define destination image as “The sum of beliefs and impressions people hold about place. Images represent a simplification of a larger number of associations and pieces of information connected to a place. They are a product of the mind trying to process and pick out essential information from huge amounts of data about a place.”
A good image for Chinese temples and their interesting historical facts lead to studies and research, and these cause motivation for choosing to visit Chinese temples. So, the image of tourist attractions seems important. Images of Chinese temples in Phuket are not important in the eyes of tourists, despite the high potential for such temples, yet this may be due to a lack of promotion or marketing. Thus, Chinese temples cannot do enough to attract tourists.
Chinese temples in Phuket are an important place of worship, and have valuable engagement with the Chinese people, Thai people of Chinese descent, and also some Thai people. But there are no guidelines for the correct conservation of their ideology, with more attention paid to interest in education. Thus, how to sustain the beauty of art, architecture and their remains should be an area of interest for study (Old Phuket Foundation, 2003).
Chinese temples in Phuket are not well known enough. Most tourists come to visit them in Phuket for the vegetarian festivals only. So, what should be done for visitors to see the Chinese temples of Phuket, rather than showing interest only during festivals, is something which needs improvement, especially considering Chinese temples in Phuket are numerous, with each temple having a different of history. Cultural tourism concerning Chinese temples is for tourists or people who are interested in cultural tourism and Phuket can combine and encourage different groups of people, race, culture and religions to stay together for a long time.
The cultural role of Chinese people is as one with many other nationalities. The Chinese took traditions and culture, and established their own culture, thus establishing Chinese temples. Originally, Chinese temples were for socialising after the construction of more Chinese temples (Phuket Vegetarian Festival http://phuketvegetarian.com/phuket-shrine/index.htm). Each Chinese Temple in Phuket has different Gods, according to the beliefs of the people or the groups involved in their construction. Therefore, the stories of Chinese temples in Phuket have many stories which need to be researched.