Thailand accelerates Phuket tourism clean-up amid nominee crackdown
Thailand is accelerating efforts to regulate tourism businesses in Phuket as it steps up action against nominee firms, with 39 companies already facing legal proceedings.
- Thailand's Interior Ministry is investigating hundreds of companies in Phuket suspected of using Thai nationals as illegal "nominees" for foreign owners.
- Out of 159 companies already reviewed, legal action has been taken against 39, and 34 have been ordered to divest their holdings.
- As part of the clean-up, the process for issuing hotel operating licenses to legitimate businesses has been accelerated, with 45 granted in just 10 days.
- The campaign's goal is to help legal businesses operate without illegal levies and to combat wider transnational crime.
The Interior Ministry has outlined progress in its campaign to bring Phuket’s tourism businesses into line with the law. Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwanchawee explained that 159 companies believed to be acting as nominees have already been referred to a review committee.
Legal action has been taken against 39 companies, while 34 have been ordered to divest their holdings. About 200 more companies are due to be submitted to the committee for further scrutiny, he noted.
Polapee expects an update on the operation this week and anticipates a joint press conference with the Department of Lands on July 2 or 3. He added that he and Deputy Interior Minister Worasit Liangprasit are expected to return to Phuket in about two weeks.
On hotel business licences, Polapee noted that Phuket previously issued about 40 hotel operating certificates a year. Following changes to working procedures after the latest field visit, authorities managed to issue about 45 licences in just 10 days.
He underlined that the move is intended to help hotel operators and other businesses in Phuket operate legally, while removing illegal levies so honest operators can conduct business without having to constantly look over their shoulders.
The operation forms part of an urgent policy set by Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who has emphasised the ministry’s core approach: “alleviate hardship, promote well-being, protect public peace, eradicate drugs and defeat gangsters”.
The campaign targets nominee arrangements, in which Thai nationals are used to hold shares on behalf of foreigners, alongside wider measures to prevent and tackle transnational crime.
