I just came back from Phuket, where I spent two weeks, including a 4 days sailing trip.

The main difference with my last trip is that there were only three customers in the hotel (the SARS effect). For the same reasons, the prices were really low.

SARS is really the problem, and the Thai government is launching a SARS-FREE guarantee for USD 100,000. This could be interesting, but you will only get this prize if you die (!!) from SARS within 90 days after a trip to Thailand. No thanks!

Another interesting point: During the boat trip, we stopped on a small island, and we decided to have a beer in a small restaurant near the beach.
Halas! The shop cannot sell alcohol any more: Even if the owner is Bhudist, the Muslim community around the area is putting a lot of pressure (I don't know which kind of) to force everybody to follow their own rules :-(
I guess that alcohol was previously the main source of revenues over there; this is probably the end for this shop, then for this nice island itself when tourists will avoid it. I am not sure the local population needed this with the current situation :-(