CHAWENG beach, which used to crawl with tourists, is becoming less and less busy these days.

The skyrocketing prices of goods and the current oil price shock seem to have started biting into the island’s tourism industry.

Tourism business groups on the island say the lack of tourists on Chaweng is a clear sign of a slowdown in tourism arrivals on Samui.

Tourism-related businesses are thus worried. “The tourism prospect for the rest of the year does not seem good as we estimate that tourist arrivals will decrease by 10 percent,” said Wanwalee Tantikan, head of the Koh Samui Spa Association.

Business groups that rely on tourist income are thinking of ways to attract tourists to Samui.

For example, according to Ms. Wanwalee, over 100 spa business owners on the island have initiated the Green Spa Project in support of the broader Green Island Project, which was launched in June last year and which is being spearheaded by the Koh Samui Tourism Promotion Association, the Thai Hotels Association Southeastern Chapter and the Samui Spa Association, with the support of provincial authorities, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The Green Island Project aims to protect and preserve the environment in order to ensure long-term sustainability.

“The Green Spa Project involves using natural products such as coconut, which is the symbol of Koh Samui,” Ms. Wanwalee explained, adding that the project would be promoted in the market fair “MATTA”  in Penang and then featured in a road show in Japan in August, a travel expo in Moscow in November and the World Travel Mart in London.

Under the green concept, spa rooms will be cooled by the air from natural surroundings instead of an air conditioner as a way of helping prevent global warming, she said.

To attract tourists, spa establishments under the Green Spa project have to seek accreditation from the Ministry of Health, which will serve as a sort of a seal of quality.