This research on language phenomena of public signs in Patong Beach of Phuket Province, which is a famous tourist destination of Thailand, consists of two objectives: to analyze language characteristics on public signs in Patong Beach; and to analyze the relationship between the language on the signs and the context of Phuket tourist city. Data were collected from 689 signs of government and business sectors. The data were analyzed using the conceptual framework of linguistic landscape of Landry and Bourhis (1997). The findings indicated that the most common languages on the signs were Thai and English, with Thai always having a position above English, while English has larger fonts than Thai. This illustrates Thailand’s tourism policy in providing information to tourists through the use of English as an international language, which is in line with the promotion of Phuket as an international tourist destination. Chinese and Arabic languages are also mostly found on signs, which represent the large number of tourists visiting Phuket. Therefore, informational public signs must accommodate the main tourists in the area.

Linguistic Landscape, Sociocultural Linguistics, Public Sign, Tourist City, Phuket