Phuket (city)

Phuket is a city on Phuket Island in southeastern Thailand, capital of Phuket province and historically an important port on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, about 862 kilometers south of Bangkok. One of the oldest cities in Thailand, it grew as a port where Chinese immigrants first arrived and prospered during the tin mining era, and it was formally elevated to city status in 2004. As of 2024 the city municipality had 71,284 residents, with an urban population of 252,515 across the district and about 430,000 in the broader metropolitan area. In 2015 Phuket was designated a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, the first city in Southeast Asia to receive the title, in recognition of its unique multicultural and historic culinary traditions.