Floating football pitch drags more tourists to Koh Panyee
With its stunning limestone cliff above stilt houses surrounded by azure waters, the island of Panyee is a typical paradise. But it's not only Mother Nature drawing tourists here - it's a floating football pitch.
Tourism has taken a battering this year following months of protests, the coup, imposition of martial law and more. The Immigration Bureau says there has been a near 9 per cent drop in tourist arrivals between January and October compared to the same period last year – a painful blow for the millions whose livelihoods depend on the industry.
But in Panyee, part of Phang Nga province, foreign visitors keep coming thanks to excitement over the community’s innovative and highly unusual football pitch.
Nestled next to the largely Muslim island’s ferry pier, the 16 by 25 metre pitch has become something of a national treasure after an advertising campaign by a Thai bank in 2010 made the fishing community famous for their love of football.
“What do you do when you come to Panyee Island? You must see the floating football pitch,” beams island chief Muhammad Prasanpan, who says Bt50,000 to Bt70,000 now comes in from tourists each day. That represents a five-fold income jump for the 320 household-island since a decade ago when fishing was its mainstay, the chief says.
The island has long had a reputation for football-obsessed inhabitants who have refused to let the lack of flat surfaces hold them back from playing the game. Originally islanders played on a beach, but they could only do that during low tide when enough sand was visible.
The first floating pitch was built 30 years ago, but it was a hotchpotch of boards knocked together with rusty nails.
Inspired by their dedication, TMB Bank commissioned a series of adverts charting the local team’s success in a football tournament despite the rickety pitch. After the campaign aired, the islanders, with help from local officials, built themselves a new nail-free floating pitch.
Since the adverts aired in 2011, Panyee has become famous both locally – and increasingly internationally – for football. But the pitch has done more than attract new arrivals. It has kept the island’s younger inhabitants from leaving.
Panyee’s population has risen to 1,800 from 1,200 over the last 10 years.
“Jobs here are better than on the mainland – the young can find money more easily here, they can earn thousands of baht driving canoes,” 74-year-old Aporn Janchulee, a market stall holder, explained.
