There is probably no finer word than ?summer? to an English youth. For one thing, the official advent of the season meant a vain hope that the grey clouds would perhaps part to reveal the mythical and beautiful golden sun.

Summer in England has a remarkable effect on the English, if only for what it represents in stories and films and an innate indescribable inkling of what it should mean. Tops are whipped off, pub tables are dragged outside and beauty is revealed as frowns are replaced with smiles, jeans with shorts and trousers with skirts. It?s a time when both literal and metaphorical pretense is finally removed.

As the English boy or girl gets older, however, the promise of an English summer becomes more and more disingenuous. To an adult the changing of the clocks (28 March 2010) to British summer time is met with scorn. Yet foolishly a thin strand of optimism remains that perhaps this year there will be more than just a week or so of lackluster warmish weather.

The average Englishman also perseveres with the disillusion that the current England squad will lift the World Cup trophy once again. When the sun fails to show and Rooney (or zeitgeist equivalent) fails to score then we are once again reminded that the English team along with the English summer isn?t really all it?s cracked up to be.

Summer or low season in Phuket meanwhile is a whole different affair. It seems to suffer from the reverse predicament where pessimism permeates perspectives despite there being some great reasons to visit during this time.

It is indeed accurate that from May to October there is traditionally heavier rainfall in Thailand owing to winds from the the Indian Ocean bringing with it the South West Monsoon season, however probably not as much as the hesitant traveler believes.

This is perhaps the first challenge for Phuket summer tourism and one that Bangonrat Shinaprayoon, Director of TAT Phuket, is ready to tackle, ?The weather is not that bad, sure it rains but not so often.? This year will be the first where the TAT will be issuing e-letters to hotels, resorts and media outlets to inform both Thai people and tourists of what is going on.

According to Khun Bangornrat, there is certainly lots to inform them of, ?There?s Phuket Bike Week, Songkran festival, the wonderful sights of old Phuket town, snooker tournaments and next month our first ever fun fly paragliding event.?

Low is a three letter word, which is why the season we have currently entered is either referred to as Green Season or Summer season and there is a campaign that exists to prove it.

Nick Anthony, one of the founders of the Summer in Phuket campaign, said ?We?re trying to annualise Phuket tourism, so that there?s not just a spike during high season.?

For Nick, there are two other major challenges to overcome for the campaign to be a success; dirty beaches and the absence of sufficient lifeguards.

Starting on 22 April and as part of the campaign, the beaches will be cleaned once a month to ensure that when tourists visit the island they are no longer met with the ?ocean trash? that invariably drifts in with the westerly winds and uncollected roadside litter.

Nick explains of the second challenge, ?The water in the West Coast oceans is very unpredictable, and there have been many drownings in recent years. In Australia, we have a similar situation but we educate the people before they go into the water and we use flags to warn and to indicate the safe swimming zones. There is one on every beach, and in that zone there should be a fully trained life guard.?

Up until earlier this month, that situation seemed only feasible in hypotheses, but a contract has finally been awarded to the Phuket Lifeguard Club which means that our beaches will once again be safe... at least until January 2011 when the contract expires.

The third obstacle that Phuket has to overcome in order to attract more visitors is that despite the aforementioned pessimism there are glorious weeks of weather, especially in the early months of the season, interspersed with the odd drizzle.

In order to remedy this, the Summer in Phuket campaign has come up with a way of proving it: ?We are just a few steps away from installing web cams at 20 different spot around Phuket. The TAT have agreed to provide the broadband for free and we?re currently appealing for investments and donations.?

A miserable man in Hong Kong or elsewhere could then theoretically log in and substantiate his day dream of a beautiful day on a Phuket beach.

K Bangonrat told the Post that there were so many reasons to come to Phuket, indeed the hotel rates are on average 40% cheaper, flight fares will cost less and you won?t be fighting over beach chairs. So there?s really no reason to not come to Phuket and have the summer of which you?ve always dreamed.