Bill Barnett
- Tourism News
Mono airlift remains key barrier to Koh Samui’s tourism success
PHOTO: Koh Samui Sunset Bill Barnett and c9hotelworks.com analyse the current hotel and tourism challenges on Koh Samui. Bill says that in the past year the Gulf island has been shaken by declining demand and reduced airlift to the island. (graphics below) “The China slowdown is widely cited as a key factor, together with high airfares. According to Bangkok Airways, half of…
- Tourism News
Taiwan’s Eva Air adds direct flights to Phuket from next April
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com As the tourist demographic matures and evolves, so does the airline mix landing in Phuket. Now Phuket’s direct international airlift is set to increase again with non-stop flights from Taipei, Taiwan on Eva Air. The island’s airline traffic is already almost booked out for the next few months with Phuket International Airport officials asking airlines…
- World News
Vietnam Airlines opening direct Phuket to Ho Chi Minh City flights
by Bill Barnett c9hotelworks.com Vietnam Airlines will commence direct flights between Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Phuket on October 27. Flights will operate three days a week, on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. The airline is also launching direct Ho Chi Minh City to Denpasar (Bali) service. Vietjet Air, the popular new low-coast airline out of Vietnam, is currently servicing the increasingly…
- Business News
Laguna Angsana Resort opens conference and exhibition venue
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Laguna Phuket’s Angsana resort is set to debut it’s new 1,500 square metre conference and exhibition space. It’s actually a renovation and rebranding of the successful Laguna marquee space and relocated to a more permanent location within the Angsana Laguna Phuket complex. Tagged as ACES, the venue will open at the end of September. For…
- Property
Wyndham adds two more hotels for Phuket’s south
PHOTOS: Artists impressions of the new Wyndham Nai Harn Resort Phuket Global hotel group Wyndham has announced two more Phuket pipeline hotels. The announcement follows a long list of new developments and openings over the next few years on the island. First for Wyndham, is a 353 key property named the Wyndham Nai Harn Resort Phuket at the popular southern west-coast…
- Tourism News
Indian visitors to Phuket surge whilst total numbers drop
by Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com The soaring number of Indian visitors to Phuket for the first seven months of 2019 has propelled Indian tourists into the Top 5 arrivals for the first time. Arrivals from India from January – July, compared to the same period in 2018, grew 354%, amassing a total of 186,360 arrivals. Mainland Chinese arrival figures continue…
- Tourism News
Koh Samui is looking to the skies, an island tethered to an airline
by Bill Barnett “I’m looking to the sky to save me. Looking for a sign of life” There is much to be said about the Thailand’s phenomenal rise in tourism over the past decade and that trend has eclipsed the borders of the Kingdom into other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Fueled by a rising Asian consumer…
- Property
New hotel and condo developments flood Phuket’s property market
by Bill Barnett The continuing wave of developers bringing hotel investment grade real estate to the Phuket real estate market is escalating. Notable new entries include 74 units at the Melia Phuket Karon Residences that are now for sale. Pricing for one and two bedroom units starts at 8.4 million baht. A 7% three-year guarantee is offered with 30 days owner usage. Meanwhile,…
- Tourism News
Thailand’s Koh Chang by numbers, another island on the rise
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Despite being one of the country’s biggest islands in the Gulf of Thailand, Koh Chang has remained somewhat off the mass tourism development footprint. C9 Hotelworks has taken a look into what makes the island tick in their newly released Koh Chang Tourism Market Review. Koh Chang is off the coast of Trat in far…
- Tourism News
Radisson brand add another Phuket hotel to its portfolio
The Radisson Hotel Group has signed a deal for a 222 key mixed-use hotel on Phuket’s north west coast at Mai Khao. Set to open in early 2023, the hotel has sales and leaseback units under a hotel residences program. Radisson Phuket Mai Khao Beach is being developed by Thai-Chinese Property Holdings. Phuket’s ongoing development surge continues to attract Chinese…
- Property
Amnesty program for unlicensed Thai hotels finishes September 9
PHOTO: We needed a photo of a small hotel. So this is The Small Hotel in Krabi (already licensed!!) The Thai government has issued guidelines for unlicensed hotels under their amnesty program. Hotels must submit applications and complete improvements before September 9, so time is of the essence. Baker McKenzie Thailand has outlined the process and guidelines which we are republishing…
- Expats
Potential for retirement properties in Thailand
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com While a number of property offerings in Phuket, Hua Hin, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and more recently in Bangkok have promoted themselves as retirement-centric offerings, the jury is still out on the broad success of the sector. Despite retirement communities and assisted living being mainstays in Western countries like the US, UK and Australia, these are…
- Phuket News
Phuket leads the way in managed hotel residences
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com – Feature article “Hotel Residences – properties that sell individual units in the real estate market and operate as either hotels or else are branded by hospitality operators. Other often used terms are condotel, hotel branded residences and hospitality-led real estate.” Phuket’s love affair with hotel managed properties started in the late 1980’s with the…
- Phuket News
Digging into the Phuket hotel data
by Bill Barnett, c9hotelworks As Phuket’s hotel operators and owners face a disruptive 2019, we thought it was time to do a deep dig into the island’s accommodation performance metrics. Global hospitality data and analytics group STR was the logical resource, so we spoke to their Area Director Asia Pacific, Jesper Palmqvist. The following are key takeaways from the highly focused…
- Phuket News
Phuket accommodation pipeline – 55 new hotels under development
by Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com PHOTO: Horizon Beach Resort Hotels Phuket One of Asia’s leading resort destinations Phuket looks set to weather a perfect storm as soaring hotel supply is forecast to be challenged by declining tourism demand. New research from consulting group C9 Hotelworks in their Phuket Hotel Market Update Mid-Year Edition has revealed an island development pipeline of…
- Tourism News
Chiang Mai hotels battle disruptors
by Bill Barnett Thailand’s northern tourism hub of Chiang Mai has become a victim of its own volume-driven success. According to hospitality data provider STR, market-wide hotel occupancy for the first five months of the year is down 5.1%, compared to the same period in 2018. In the newly released C9 Hotelworks Chiang Mai Hotel Market Update, the comparison between…
- Phuket News
Progress on Phang Nga’s new international airport
by Bill Barnett, c9hotelworks The AoT (Airports of Thailand) planned international airport in Phang Nga, set to be part of a triangle of international airports serving the Phuket, Phang Nga, Khao Lak and Krabi tourist zones, is poised to move past another development milestone. The mooted private airport has now been binned and the AoT-operated airport project is now forging…
- Tourism News
Burasari opens second Phuket hotel on Coconut Island
PHOTO: Original Vision Island Escape by Burasari, the second Phuket hotel from the Thai-based group, will have a soft opening this September. Located on Koh Maphrao (also known as Coconut Island), the initial product will be 15 villas. By December this year, the full inventory of 180 rooms and 40 villas will be operational. With Island Escape, Burasari Group will operate eight…
- Tourism News
Beam me up Phuket – new space theme hotel for the island
A 150 key space themed hotel is under development in Kathu, Phuket, by a Singaporean group . Located close to the Central Festival and Makro complexes, the project is expected to open next year according to a report in TTG Asia. The One Pioneer – Beyond Space Travel hotel say it’s “highly focused on an outer space storyline and will have…
- Property
Boat Pattana’s Cherng Talay villa project reports strong pre-sales
Thai developer Boon Yongsakul’s latest development Shambala Grand Villa in Cherng Talay is experiencing strong pre-launch sales. With 22 available units, the Boat Pattana group has already reserved 17 units. The landed properties feature two bedroom pool villas with land plots ranging from 300 to 600 square metres. Property management is through an affiliated company and buyers are offered a 6% guaranteed…
- Tourism News
Phuket Airport passenger arrivals dip
by Bill Barnett, c9Hotelworks.com To date, 2019 is shaping up to be a slightly volatile year for tourism to the island. Passenger arrivals at Phuket International Airport rose 1% year-on-year in January, but took a step backwards in February with a substantial 6% decline. While we are still early in the year, overall visitor arrivals to Thailand on a country-wide…
- Property
Bangkok luxury poised to push through the US$300 ceiling
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com PHOTOS: Rosewood Bangkok For hotel owners and managers in South East Asia, one of the great mysteries of the past ten years has been the low rate profile of Bangkok’s luxury hotel set. Despite soaring and sustained tourism growth, rising airlift and a strong economy, rates at Bangkok’s top tier properties have remained fairly stagnant. Have…
- Business News
Phuket hotel watch – trends in 2019
by Bill Barnett of C9Hotelworks.com At the beginning of the year Phuket’s tourism and hotel sector was cautiously optimistic after a strong first half of 2018 and humbling second half. Key terms that kept popping up were Mainland Chinese, Thai Baht Appreciation, Elections and Supply Concerns. So today, with five months of performance under the belt in 2019 what are…
- Opinion
Fox News fake news, Phuket gets a bullet
by Bill Barnett, C9Hotelworks.com As Phuket moves slowly into low season, a story published in the international media by the US-based Fox News about how tourists could face the death penalty over taking photos at the island’s airport is a highly flaw piece of sensationalist fake news. Clearly there is no likelihood that the Thai authorities will apply a legal maximum…
- Koh Samui News
Koh Phangan and Koh Tao try to shake off monthly boom and bust
by Bill Barnett Thailand’s idyllic Koh Phangan island is renowned globally for its marque Full Moon parties. On the heels of soaring demand for the big event, visitor numbers surpassed the one million ceiling two years ago and over a five-year period registered compound annual growth rate of 17%. While the numbers are impressive, the reality for resorts on the…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s hotel and property players look north
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com One of Greater Phuket’s real estate and hotel market’s that has a decided buzz of late is the area north of Phuket over the Sarasin bridge in Phang Nga. In Natai Beach, the entry of the Baba Beach Club and nearby Akyra has created renewed visibility for the broad West Coast stretch of white sand beach,…
- Phuket News
Phuket airport numbers soar, despite the sag in the second half of 2018
“India became the fastest growing source market last year with more direct flights in 2019.” by Bill Barnett of C9 Hotelworks In 2018, Phuket tourism experienced volatile trading. While the first half year achieved a record high 4.8 million passenger arrivals, the second half year dropped unexpectedly due to the impact of the boat tragedy in July when 47 Chinese…
- Business News
Top 5 Phuket (and Thailand) hotel trends for 2019
by Bill Barnett Moving through high season in 2019, hoteliers are starting to look for strategies for the rest of the year in order to not be reliant only on volatile mass markets. The following is C9 Hotelworks read on key trends for the year. Pressure On Demand – Good Hotels Perform, Others Left Out Diving into the numbers, the reality is that…
- Business News
Strong baht a concern for Thai hotel sector
by Bill Barnett Thailand’s baht performance against Asian currencies in 2018, was unmatched, with the exception of the Japanese yen. Commenting on the trend financial news Bloomberg have highlighted that in 2019, a further 4% in growth this year have it sitting at the top of the table. Oddly, one of the underlying factors stimulating the baht’s appreciation is the…
- Phuket News
Hong Kong property tzars team up for new Phang Nga development “Aquella”
FILE PHOTO Two of Hong Kong’s leading entrepreneurs Allan Zeman and Richard Li are developing a mixed-use project in Thai Muang, Phang Nga named Aquella. The initial phase of the development includes a par 72, 18 hole golf course, resort pool villa residences with two to four bedroom unit configurations back of a massive land site that offers over 2.5…
