Phuket to Add More Than 2000 Resort Rooms in 2011
By Chutima Sidasathian
Friday, February 11, 2011
PHUKET will enter 2012 with an additional 2071 rooms opened this year, taking the Phuket total to 43,036, says Suchart Hirankanokkul, President of the Thai Hotels Southern Chapter.
A moratorium on resort building of the kind that has been imposed in Phuket's largest regional rival, Bali, was not possible under Thai law.
In any case, Khun Suchart said: ''If we stop building hotels and tourists keep on growing in numbers, where will they stay? Phuket needs more resorts, but we need to make sure the management process is as it should be.''
Much of the development over the next two years is taking place in and around Patong. Patong Mayor Pian Keesin told Phuketwan ''Bali can do this because their religion is so strongly connected to the law.
''If we wish to protect the environment, it would be good to follow their lead. This would be a good thing. But they can do it, and we cannot.''
Khun Suchart said that he believed Phuket was continuing to move up as a four and five star destination, and the question of the quality of future tourists was in the hands of the resorts.
By providing better service and better value, the better prices would ensure that the quality of tourists rose rather than fell, he said.
On Khun Suchart's list of openings for 2011 are the West Sands Resort (426 rooms) and the Holiday Inn (244 rooms) in Mai Khao, the Novotel Phuket Kamala Bay (305 rooms) and the Novotel Phuket Dahlia (305 rooms) in Patong, as well as the Regent Phuket Cape Panwa (106 rooms) and the Four Points by Sheraton (200 rooms.)
A change in management, though, appears to have led to the Four Points by Sheraton brand going elsewhere on the island, with the Cape Panwa resort's opening pushed back from March to April.
Credit: Phuket Wan (phuketwan.com)
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