With Apec Thailand 2003 invading Bangkok, hotel and resort occupancy on the island of Koh Samui has risen with more than 70 percent as many Thai office workers and government officials begin a 5-day holiday to lessen traffic in Bangkok during the Apec 2003 summit in Thailand.

Many resorts and hotels on the island of Koh Samui are currently fully booked until after the Apec 2003 summit.

The current long school holiday in Thailand is also contributed to this unusual high occupancy rate on Koh Samui island, said the director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Khun Pramot Subyen.

Most of the tourists going to Ko Samui are Thais from Bangkok. Foreign tourists are fewer in number because it's not yet the high tourist season on Koh Samui, he further added.

Khun Ruangnam Jaikwang, the president of Ko Samui's Tourism Association, said that less than 10 percent of the tourists currently arriving on the island were foreigners.

Second Lieutenant Anek Nurak, president of the Surat Thani Tourism Association, acknowledged that the Koh Samui and Surat Thani province's many tourist attractions, such as national parks, tropical jungles and scenic reservoirs, always took second place to the Koh Samui beaches.

A poll conducted by Suan Dusit showed that 36.6 per cent of the Thai people agreed that giving the Bangkok government officials five days extra holiday during the Apec 2003 summit would help ease the traffic congestion in Bangkok, and almost 30 per cent said it would help police maintain better security in Thailand's capital during the Apec 2003 conference.