From Chartered House to TCDC Phuket พาเราย้อนกลับไปสำรวจเรื่องราวของบ้านชาร์เตอร์ดแบงค์ และการเปลี่ยนผ่านของเศรษฐกิจภูเก็ตจากยุคเหมืองแร่สู่เศรษฐกิจสร้างสรรค์
เพราะปลายทางที่ดีอาจไม่จำเป็นต้องมีสถานที่ใหม่อยู่ตลอดเวลา บางครั้งสิ่งที่ต้องการคือ “มุมมองใหม่” ต่อสถานที่เดิม และหาก Tourism Lab สามารถเชื่อมผู้ประกอบการ ชุมชน ศิลปิน นักสร้างสรรค์ อาหาร วัฒนธรรม และนักเดินทางเข้าด้วยกันได้จริง ภูเก็ตอาจค่อย ๆ ขยับจากภาพจำของ Sea, Sand & Sun ไปสู่เมืองแห่ง Story, Culture, Creativity & Local Life ได้อย่างน่าสนใจ
📍 TCDC Phuket
เปิดวันอังคาร–อาทิตย์ เวลา 10.30–19.00 น.
ปิดวันจันทร์
เข้าชมและใช้บริการฟรี
Beyond the Beaches: How TCDC Phuket Could Add a New Dimension to Travel in Phuket
Does Phuket really need another tourist attraction?
For an island already known worldwide for its beaches, Old Town, food and culture, perhaps the answer isn't simply to create more places to visit.
Perhaps the opportunity is to make what Phuket already has more meaningful and valuable.
That is what makes the opening of TCDC Phuket – Thailand Creative & Design Center Phuket, located in the historic Chartered Bank House, particularly interesting.
From the City's Past to Its Creative Future
Developed by the Creative Economy Agency (Public Organization), or CEA, together with the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization, TCDC Phuket is built around the concept of “Tourism Lab.”
At its heart is a simple idea: Use Creativity + Design + Local Identity to rethink tourism.
Instead of viewing tourism only through destinations and attractions, creativity can transform local food, craftsmanship, architecture, history, art and community life into richer travel experiences.
What Does This Mean for Travelers?
If the Tourism Lab concept develops successfully, future visitors may discover a Phuket that goes well beyond the traditional beach holiday.
Travel could become an opportunity to explore neighborhoods, understand local cuisine, meet artists and makers, discover historic architecture and connect more deeply with the people who give the island its identity.
Several exhibitions at TCDC Phuket already demonstrate this approach.
From Chartered House to TCDC Phuket traces the history of the building and Phuket's economic transformation from the tin-mining era toward the creative economy.
Jab Hoy reinterprets the culture of traditional neighborhood grocery stores while introducing locally created products.
Show Roy uses food as a storytelling medium, bringing professional chefs together with experienced local home cooks.
Meanwhile, the Phuket Artist Showcase presents the island through the perspectives of Phuket-based artists and creatives.
From Sea, Sand & Sun to Story, Culture & Creativity
Phuket welcomes more than 14 million visitors annually and generates more than THB 540 billion in tourism revenue.
For a global destination of this scale, the next challenge may not simply be attracting more visitors.
A more interesting question is:How can travelers understand the destination more deeply, spend more meaningful time in the city and create greater value for local communities?
Creative tourism could provide part of the answer.
A local dish can become the story of a community.
A historic building can become a place of learning.
Traditional craftsmanship can evolve into contemporary products.
And an old neighborhood can become somewhere travelers want to explore slowly rather than simply stop for a photograph.
Deintamtawan The Journey Diary Perspective
what interests us most about TCDC Phuket is not simply its potential to become another landmark.
It is the question behind the project: How can we experience Phuket more deeply?
Great destinations don't necessarily need something new every year. Sometimes, what they need is a new way of seeing what has always been there.
And if Tourism Lab succeeds in connecting entrepreneurs, communities, artists, creatives, food, culture and travelers, Phuket's identity could gradually expand beyond Sea, Sand & Sun toward Story, Culture, Creativity & Local Life.