Tag Archives: samui

Hotels to freeze new developments in Samui

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International hotel chains that was eager to arrive at, or expand their presence in Samui are having doubts because the island limited airlift capabilities.

Mr. Seni Phuwasethaoworn, head of the Office of the Council of tourism of the Thailand suratthani, said the combined number of flights to Samui from Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways 36 per day. These flights were only 2 000 to 3 000 passengers per day.

To fill the current number of hotel on the island, the required total airline seat capacity would be 4 000 to 5 000 a day, said Mr. Seni.

Air capacity at height, hotels have frozen or delayed their expansion plans.  Mr. Seni said that before talking about other expansion plans, they wanted assurance from the Government that something would on the airport and the airlines limited capacity.

He said potential Samui as an international tourism destination remains high. The current inventory of 17,000 rooms is not enough to meet the projected growth in tourism on the island for him.

Four and five-star hotel chains had been eager to add more rooms on the island. But if there is not enough flights to service tourists, more expansions hotel would be unworkable, he added.
He said that 80% of foreign tourists come to the island by air, with only 20% of the ferry. The solution, he said, is for the Government to build a second airport or convince Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways to add more flights.

Samui hotel owners and other stakeholders of the tourism industry, said, planned to take the problem at the national level after the elections of July 3. Mr. Seni that they would take the issue with the new Prime Minister, to put an end to the current uncertainty in the tourism industry of the island. He said that travel operators could not launch aggressive marketing plans, because they were not certain that they have seats on the airline that they should be expected when the time comes. -CHAT ANUPAN

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Energy project allows the Cabinet Bt3.9b Samui

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54 km of submarine cable to run from Surat to the island- Samui City Council recently approved a revised draft to be able to avoid a crisis of possible power on the island.

The power of Bt321 million project includes the installation of underground cables and transmission line 31 kilometres linking General long Lamai Maenam.
These General cables will be supported by poles of concrete and the 22-metre steel beams. Fourteen years in the 18-member Council voted for the project proposed by the authority of electricity Provincial (PEA).

If it is approved by the Governor of Suratthani, work on the project could begin in early 2011.The peas has proposed the project in 2005. But it immediately experienced a strong opposition of the local tourism stakeholders who were concerned the presence of the imposing concrete poles along the road from Ban Phanga through Hua Thanon, Lamai, Chaweng and Maenam could affect the horizon landscape and laidback tropical island.

But a meeting with local officials, business and civic leaders months men Mr. Noppong Vichaidit, head of the Department of the provincial authority of electricity, region 2, operation network warned that without a new source of energy Samui, in the prospect of a severe crisis of authority is particular during the tourist high season due to the increase in demand.

During the meeting, held in municipality of Koh Samui, Mr. Noppong, said the current demand of power was at a record level.

With the supply is falling below demand, power outages and rationing would soon be inevitable, he said.

The pea official, said the energy of Samui had been dating regularly with the growth of tourism.

“We are really concerned that demand for electrical energy in December will be too high and that we cannot treat”, he said. “We can only now is back up and to reduce unnecessary consumption of energy.”

A looming power crisis prompted Samui Mayor Ramnet Jaikwang to give the second plant planned in Maenam project seriously.

Many people objected to the before project because of his need to install 22 metres from the poles to connect the lines of the first plant of Ban Phanga for the new power of Maenam. However, the Mayor, was convinced that the new plant was the only viable solution to the problem of power.

Some members of the municipal Council who proposed instead of overhead, the new line linking Ban Phanga and Maenam should be brought under the sea to avoid the towering concrete yesores.

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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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