Arrivals Phuket aims to welcome six million visitors this year, up from 2009’s 5.5 million, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
TAT Phuket office director Bangornrat Shinaprayoon said the forecast was based on the monthly growth of 20 to 30 per cent from January to May.
Foreign visitor numbers are projected to reach 4.5 million, up from last year’s four million. Australia, the UK, Sweden, South Korea and Germany were Phuket’s top five markets in 2009 while Russia is poised to overtake Germany this year as the fifth largest source market.
TAT Phuket office is mining the high growth potential of the Australian and Middle East markets through activities such as a September roadshow to Sydney and Brisbane and a low-season promotion for Middle East visitors.
Also showing much promise are Russia and India. Russia will be tapped through an annual roadshow and ad hoc promotions, while the Indian wedding market will be wooed through subsidies such as a welcome reception, half-day tour and discount vouchers.
Traditional high-season markets, like the UK and Germany, will be nurtured through regular fam trips for agents and media.
Rates Last year, hotels island-wide offered discounts of around 20 per cent, costing Phuket’s tourism industry US$300 million in room revenue, according to C9 Hotelworks’ Phuket Hotel Market Update.
C9’s managing director Bill Barnett said average occupancy on the island last year was 64 per cent, while average rate fell 20 per cent; revenue per occupied room, 22 per cent.
Marriott International president and managing director - international lodging, Edwin Fuller, said its Phuket hotels recorded excellent lift this year. The group is implementing strategies to bring up occupancy and yield.
Accor’s six Phuket hotels with a combined 1,211 rooms enjoyed an average occupancy of 80 per cent from January to June, around 10 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Oswald Pichler, Accor’s vice president of operations – Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, expects occupancy of the group’s Phuket properties this year to remain unchanged or improve slightly on last year.
Pichler noted that rates at the group’s properties in Phuket (Novotel, Mercure, All Seasons and Ibis) surpassed those of their counterparts in Bangkok from January to June. Average rate at Accor’s economy hotels in Phuket are now 50 per cent more than the same brands in Bangkok, due to rising demand and the influx of Scandinavians and Australians. Midscale properties command 15 per cent more than those in the capital.
Despite the anticipated surge in arrivals this year, AED Travel Company managing director Apichart Sankary said Phuket hotels had maintained their contract rates for the coming high season. But some properties might offer early winter discounts of eight to 10 per cent from late-October to mid-December, he said.
Hotels C9’s Barnett said delays due to economic and political concerns had affected 19 per cent of new hotel projects. Some 31 properties and 4,600 rooms – a 12 per cent hike on the current room inventory – will open over the next three years.
The 143-key Avista Resort and Spa, 68-villa Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas and 78-room Serenity Resort and Residences opened last year. Making their entry this year are the 180-room Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa, 261-room Westin Siray Bay Resort and Spa, and 262-key Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, among others.
Access According to Apichart, Stockholm-based My Travel, for which AED is the groundhandler, plans to add winter charter flights to the island. AED expects passenger numbers to equal the last high season’s 80,000.
CCT Express chairman Vichit Prakobgosol expects more direct arrivals from China, due mainly to Hainan Airlines’ thrice-weekly Beijing-Phuket services from end-July. He said the Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association was also lobbying the government to help finance around 100 charter flights from China to Phuket and Bangkok.
Bangornrat believed the growing number of direct regional flights would bring in even more visitors from Australia, India, the Middle East and South Korea.
INCREASING AUSTRALIAN DIRECT FLIGHTS
In less than a year of operating direct Australia-Phuket flights, V Australia and Pacific Blue are already increasing their frequencies from five to seven flights per week.
From August 19, low-cost carrier Pacific Blue will raise Perth-Phuket frequency from two to three flights per week. It launched the service on November 14 last year.
From December 20, its sister boutique airline V Australia will increase the Melbourne-Phuket service from one to two flights per week. It inaugurated the flight on December 4 last year.
The frequency of V Australia's twice-weekly Brisbane-Phuket service, launched on November 29 last year, will remain unchanged.
Raymond Honings, managing director of LTU Asia, the airlines' GSA in Thailand, said the five existing flights had been enjoying an average load factor of more than 90 per cent to full house from their inauguration dates.
EASING RESORT BANK FINANCING
Cape View Resort and Spa has clinched a Bt567-million loan agreement with Kasikorn bank to finance its new development on Phuket's Kalim Beach.
The four-star Kalima Resort and Spa will feature 168 hotel rooms on the 24-rai property, which requires a total investment of Bt1.25 billion. Construction will begin late this year and is scheduled to be completed by late 2012.
"Phuket still offers huge room for growth," Paponpat Niyomdun, an executive of the new hotel, said. "As we have witnessed, Phuket can recovery quickly from turbulence and still remains a major destination for foreign travellers. The hotel should welcome a warm response given the location - facing the sea."
The hotel will mainly target European tourists, especially those from Scandinavia, for the high season, and Asian markets during the summer season. Some marketing activities are being planned in cooperation with Blue Marine Resort and Spa.
Tawit Thanachanan, first senior vice president of KBank, said the loan was extended due to confidence in Phuket's potential to keep attracting tourists. Hotel business on the island remains buoyant, despite concerns about political instability.
Tawit noted that the bank had been approached to finance new developments and refurbishment of existing hotels and resorts, with many seeking loans of more than Bt500 million each.
Earlier, the bank had signed a Bt1-billion loan for a new hotel on Phuket's Patong Beach, and is about to sign a Bt1-billion loan deal for a hotel in Thalang district.
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