Category Archives: Phuket News

More hotels, not enough tourists

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A recent study has expressed concerns about the future of Koh Samui as a tourist destination, as the supply of hotels on the island begins to exceed the arriving request.

e-Travel Blackboard, an Australian online publication, said “Samui hotel market update 2010,” a study by the firm of C9 Hotelworks blamed Koh Samui boom in the construction of four years as well as limited to air transport for the current situation of the island.

“The simple problem is that you can not stay there if you can not get there,” C9 Hotelworks Management Director Bill Barnett has been cited in the report said. The study says the development of the private sector in the hotel sector in Samui climbed well in advance of improving transport infrastructure, which has caused the market into a tailspin.

The report, which collected the opinions of resort owners and managers of the hotel, cited the inability of the island to large aircraft and the lack of carriers of budget as reasons why potential tourism of Koh Samui is actually being capped.

“As new markets emerge discount carriers and Charter flights are generators of demand,”Barnett said in the report.”"

“The new international airport on the island of tourist emerging from Lombok in Indonesia near Bali, who seem willing to leapfrog growth through capacity ashore body large Boeing 747 and Airbus planes, is an example of a concurrent regional destinations”, said the Director General of the Office of the Council.

The news is not all grouchy however, with the introduction of many luxury properties on the island, boosting trading before Outlook, he said.

He added that expectations for 2011 seek to focus on the coming of the debate of the age and increasing international brands can induce sustainable demand.

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Mystery surrounds death of owner bar

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Mystery surrounds the death of a British citizen whose body was found on May 25 in the murky waters of Chaweng Lake.

Police identified the dead: Kevin James, 56, a British citizen who owned honey Bar pub of the beer of Chaweng.

His staff said police Mr James bar the previous night, saying he was going to a tattoo shop near Chaweng Lake. Later in the night, police said, his Thai wife attempted to join him, but just kept mobile phone ringtone.

The next day, the Centre of Bophut police station radio received a call saying a body tattooed of what appeared to be a foreigner floating in Chaweng Lake, a major water reservoir of the island. A police team led by Pol. Lt. colonel Phongkhajon Sukkasang, Inspector of displacement, rushed to the Lake to verify the report.

Police found the body lying on its side on the West end of the reservoir. He had no injuries, police said. He was wearing black pants and a grey T-shirt. Found nearby, added police, were a bottle of whisky, an empty red-black back pack, a package of cigarettes and a sandal.

Police believed that the body died from three to four hours at the time where it was found.

While they are step decide on anything, the police said they had no evidence of foul play or suicide.

Their initial theory, they said, was that Mr. James had been r only drink near the shore of the Lake. He was too bu it fell into the water and drowned, although it is difficult to believe that he has been drinking alone in the dark and one side isolated from the Lake.

Police sent the body for autopsy in the hope of the mystery behind the death of the owner bar.

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Worst flooding ‘ in the Decade hits Samui

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Days of heavy rains in the South of the Thailand have caused what local residents described as worst floods in Koh Samui recent memory.

Most of the main roads of the island were flooded and rendered impassable.

People climbed trees to escape rising water and several houses, bungalows and roads have been destroyed by urban water that proliferate.

With the dams and rivers threatening to burst and overflow, hundreds of residents have been evacuated from their homes. A number of deaths were reported from various regions of the South, caused mainly by landslides.

Samui had at least one fatality. In Lamai, a 19-year-old boy was electrocuted when water has caused a short circuit in the wiring of their home system.

“This is the worst flooding (on the island).”The situation is tragic. The extent of the damage is damage is unimaginable, said Tomas Ortiz, a Samui resident for the past ten years.

Flights to and from the island have been suspended for days because of flooded tracks, leaving thousands of tourists stranded in the airport and their hotels.

Suraphon Svetasreni, the Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, said South tourism is losing out in the hot season of this year. Samui Hotels, he said, were being flooded with calls for cancellation.

Samui hotel occupancy is normally 70 to 80% at the time of the year, but it has fallen to only 50-55% as a result of widespread flooding.

Governments provincial and municipal deployment of hundreds of police and emergency workers on the island to residents in difficulty, particularly those living along the banks of the River, such as around the Lake of Chaweng. Emergency measures are also taken to stop the Lake to breach its banks.

While flood waters began retreat Sunday 28 March, many areas of Chaweng, Lamai and Maenam remained under water.

As we went to press, hundreds of stranded vacationers is remained stranded on the island of outgoing flights. Hundreds of travellers make the Samui International Airport after hearing reports that two Bangkok Airways aircraft had managed to take off from runway flooded earlier this week.

The airline said PG100 and PG104 had landed in Bangkok after leaving Samui with 376 passengers on board. Two other aircraft were said to wait on the tarmac a respite in time. An area of low pressure in the region resulted in a disruption of all modes of transport linking the island to the Mainland.

Ferry services were also suspended and domestic and international flights to Koh Samui had been cancelled.

According to Bangkok Airways, approximately 2,100 passengers were not able to obtain a flight since the beginning of the week. Some passengers were facing floods to visit the airport on a daily basis in the hope of finding a seat off the coast of the island.

Others spent their nights at the airport.

Rain continued to anchor a large number of roads on the island, including tracks from the airport of the fall.

Damage to power lines have also caused electricity to some areas to be lost. The airport is currently in relying on an emergency generator and check-in counters are operated manually.

The authorities of the island are continuing to evacuate people in the worst of the flooding as well as for fresh water and food to those in need.

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