In Goa, he came as a listener to THINK2012. Lost in the crowd of biggies, what Goa missed out was the man who created a high-end tourist destination from a backpackers paradise in Phuket. The Goan met Gulu Lalvani, the man behind the Royal Phuket Marina
In 1970, Gulu Lalvani, the founder of Binatone, a hugelysuccessful phone company, decided to live a little. That year, he made aresolution, that he would visit three new destinations a year, but they all hadto have something in common, “the four S’s – sun, sand, sea and sailing.” Itwas 21 years later, in 1991 that he chanced upon Phuket, fell in love with it,found out that the villa that he was renting was up for sale, bought it andchanged his life and the seascape of the area forever.
Gulu Lalwani is now the owner of the Royal Phuket Marina,built in 2002, after convincing the Thai Prime Minister of its potential.Today, the marina is always full, tourism in the area is at a high and Phukethas been named the best yachting destination in the world for the past threeyears.
He visits India often, since his roots are here in thecountry, but his lament is, with “over 7000 kilometres of coastline, I’msurprised the government hasn’t thought of building a few marinas.” Of course,for marinas to come up, the country has to have a passion for sailing. It seemsas if Indians aren’t interested in boats, but Lalvani isn’t convinced. “I seemany Indians buying boats and parking them in Phuket. Here, the import dutiesare high, around 40%. Reduce that and you’ll see not just boats coming into thecountry, but a good brand of tourism too.”
With boats and a well-run marina, comes a boost in theeconomy with a higher class of tourists. This automatically means better andbigger investments by hotel chains, more money for preservation of the areasaround the marinas and a great employment opportunities too. After 10 yearswith the marina, Lalvani crunches the numbers and narrow Phuket’s success downto a few simple facts, one of them being, “for every dollar spent by a yachtowner, 10 dollars is injected into the economy by the allied services and thepeople employed there.”
Work is on to improve and expand the marina, a move thatwill double the amount of boats. This is also spurred on by the fact that morepeople from across Asia are now buying boats and parking it there, using it fora holiday for a few months. “Goa can act now, before someone else in thecountry decides to be a pioneer and build a marina. It will do wonders forGoa’s tourism prospects and bring in better tourists too,”Lalvani sums up.
