Bill Barnett
- 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
Phuket hotels under pressure to perform
by Bill Barnett C9 Hotelworks Despite registering a record high 9 million passenger arrivals at the island’s gateway international airport in 2018, performance data is indicating that a slowdown in its double-digit growth rates over the past few years is on the horizon for Thailand’s resort destination of Phuket. While airport arrivals grew 8% year-on-year, the gains posted were at…
- 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
City by the Bay – Laguna Phuket’s urbanisation
by Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com If you were going to play a soundtrack to this story, perhaps it could be started off best with the 80’s hit “We Built This City”. If you toured the Laguna Phuket area in the year the song charted in 1985, the area was an eerie lunar landscape of a former tin mining domain. Today the…
- Business News
Sporting events, meetings and Indian weddings spur Phuket tourism in 2018
PHOTO: WeddingSutra.com by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Phuket’s surging MICE market is now valued at 10.9 billion baht, as meetings, incentives and exhibitions attracted over 800,000 visitors to resort island in the last year. The islands increasingly prolific MICE market nearly doubled in year-on-year growth in 2017. As revenue for the segment skyrocketed from 5.9 billion baht to a record-high 10.9…
- World News
From condoms to condos – Southeast Asia’s sex tourism journey
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com “One thing I can assure them is that business will never be the same. Never.” This is a story that has all the epic elements of military power, big oil, sleaze, real estate, greed and ultimately transformation. Southeast Asia’s sex tourism journey on a broad scale goes back to the 1960’s and the Vietnam War.…
- Phuket News
Pulp Fiction – Phuket tourism by numbers
by Bill Barnett This week netizens have been captivated over a photo in the blogosphere proclaiming that “Phuket high-season was dead as a dodo.” Excuse me as I digress for just a minute on the subject of dodo’s, which is clearly something I know nothing about, hence putting myself on par with the individual proclaiming the ‘end of days’ for…
- Koh Samui News
Koh Samui balancing on tourism razor’s edge
PHOTO: www.thekalasamui.com “…shrinking Chinese demand due to the economic slowdown and depreciation for the yuan versus the baht” The time has come to open the discussion about the troubling drop in one of Thailand’s leading resort destinations, Koh Samui. Looking into the island’s performance numbers, according to data from international hospitality benchmarking group STR, at the end of August room…
- Property
The future of Bangkok’s Chinatown
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com (First appeared on linkedin.com) The emergence of boutique hotels, hostels, hip bars and cafes has revolutionised the way Chinatown, Bangkok is seen. This, together with the entry of international branded operators setting the stage for exciting changes. Overview of Chinatown For over 200 years, Yaowarat Road in Bangkok or Chinatown has been a center of Chinese immigrants…
- Business News
Pattaya’s hotel performance rebounds as EEC drives positive market sentiment
Domestic tourism growth outshines Mainland China and Russia source business Thailand’s second largest tourism market, Pattaya has pushed through the glass ceiling from the volatility hangover of the 2014 era, with its hotel sector now showing strong signs of rising stability. According to the latest available data, strong demand from the Thai domestic sector accounted for 38% of hotel guests…
- World News
Budget Phuket to India direct, from October
Indian low-cost airline carrier GoAir will commence direct flights between India and Phuket in October. Flights between Delhi to Phuket start October 11 and from Mumbai on October 12. GoAir is the 5th largest airline in India, with a home base of Mumbai. The city-based airline, which became eligible to fly overseas more than two years ago when it took delivery of its…
- Koh Samui News
Direct flights, luxury hotel brands and wellness push Samui performance
While most of Thailand’s resort markets struggle with an onslaught of mass tourism, Koh Samui has remained a ‘calm in the middle of a gathering storm’ in the numbers driven industry. While low-cost airlines have tapped into Asia’s soaring consumer class in most destinations, creating dizzying growth numbers, the island’s privately-owned airport has allowed for poised and sustained development over…
- Property
From tropical paradise to busy urban island – Phuket
By Bill Barnett Phuket’s tourists, expats and property buyers are finding new reasons to head to the Pearl of the Andaman. They’re now spending more time and money seeking out alternative activities in areas other than the famed west-coast beaches. A report says that the island is transforming into a more well-rounded destination as visitors and new residents takes advantage…
- Phuket News
Global Green Hotel Report – the third annual edition launched
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com The Green Lodging Trends Report 2018 (the third annual report) has been launched and will remain open until August 10, 2018. To participate, which is free, hotels need to sign up using the link HERE. Given the current influx of tourism to Phuket and all resort markets across Southeast Asia, this is a invaluable tool…
- Phuket News
Comment: Will the Blame Game result in a Chinese Phuket tourism boycott?
by Bill Barnett As the death toll climbs past a reported 40 from the recent sinking of a tourist boat in Phang Nga Bay, social media in Mainland China is creating a hailstorm of negative criticism about Phuket. While there is a general perception in Thailand that the tourism market dodged a bullet, with the Chiang Rai cave story dominating…
- Property
A tale of two cities, Phuket style
By Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com The raindrops keep falling on my head. Rainy season always brings with it time to dust off the classics, and strangely enough, straight off my top shelf came Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Life is played out so well in these tattered pages, which are turned a mottled brown on the edges. There…
- News
The evolution of an island – Phuket’s rise and rise
PHOTO: Banyan Tree Phuket “Thailand’s great push forward on mega-transportation projects is seeing strong dividends being paid in its tourism industry. One key example is Phuket, where passenger arrivals grew by nearly 19% in the first four month of the year at the newly upgraded and expanded international airport.” By Bill Barnett Why Phuket? One only has to look at…
- Health
Phuket’s monsoon – here comes the green season
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Rainy season often brings a shroud of darkness over the island, when strong showers can even make it difficult seeing anything farther away than the short span across the road from my office. Imagine pulling a hoodie over your head on a sunny day and dropping suddenly into the netherworld of dimly lit shadows. These…
- News
Phuket report shows arrivals up 19% in Q1
By Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com Thailand’s great push forward on mega-transportation projects is seeing strong dividends in the local tourism industry. One key example is Phuket, where passenger arrivals grew by nearly 19% in the first four month of the year at the newly upgraded and expanded international airport. Why Phuket? One only has to look at the upward trajectory…
- News
Phuket Airport’s arrival growth soars
By Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com. Looking at the numbers alone, the new upgrade and expansion of Phuket International Airport has been a roaring success (although the renovations are ongoing and, especially the domestic terminal, are an unfinished mess right now). January through March, 2018 passenger arrivals at Phuket International Airport surged by 19.3% compared to the same period last year, totalling…
- News
Rayong supercharged by China’s ‘Belt and Road’
FILE PHOTO: U-Tapao Airport Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com reports… China’s massive outward bound economic expansion is now experiencing a massive impact on Thailand’s enormous infrastructure initiative, the EEC (Eastern Economic Corridor). A clear example of this is in the country’s Rayong province, which last year hosted 7 million visitors. According to consulting group C9 Hotelworks newly released Rayong Hotel Market…
- Thai Life
Phuket’s Grand West Sands Resort – massive makeover
by Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com One of Phuket’s largest integrated hospitality resorts, the Grand West Sands Resort and Villas is underway on a massive makeover drive. Aligning with Hong Kong’s Langham Hospitality Group, the hotel offering is being split into separate four and five star offerings. The top end hotel will be renamed to Langham’s Cordis brand with 198 villas and suites,…
- Thai Life
New GLOW for Ao Nang, Krabi
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Thailand’s InVision Hospitality has debuted their GLOW brand in Krabi with a 130 room boutique hotel. Located in the popular tourism area of Ao Nang, this is the fifth GLOW hotel in Southeast Asia, and third in Thailand. Krabi has swiftly expanded its tourism market, between 2006 to 2016, airport arrivals surged from just over 240,000 up to…
- Thai Life
Nikki Beach to take over management of luxury Chiang Mai hotel
By Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com In a somewhat surprise announcement, Nikki Beach Worldwide has signed on as operator of Chiang Mai’s Dhara Dhevi hotel. Nikki has assumed management of the property and the rebranding process reportedly will be done by the middle of the year. Nikki Beach became known to Phuketians when they launched the Nikki Beach Club at the northern end…
- Thai Life
Laguna launches Dhawa Phuket branded residences
Leading island developer Laguna has launched Dhawa Phuket branded residences at the main entrance of the integrated resort. Featuring one and two-bedroom apartments, the entry level pricing starts from 4.9 million baht. Dhawa is a new brand of the Banyan Tree group that also operates Angsana and Cassia properties. Buyers of the property will have access to the full beach…
- Thai Life
Phuket’s new Environmental Rules hit island development
By Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com A new set of guidelines that quietly come into law late last year are set to alter the state of real estate and hotel development in Phuket. The revised regulations were issued by Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and apply to Phuket Province. Perhaps the most significant amendment is that buildings are no…
- Thai Life
New Hiltons on the way for Phuket
From Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com One of the leading hospitality groups in the world, Hilton Hotels and Resorts has two properties in the Phuket development pipeline. Newly signed is the 177-key Hilton Garden Inn Phuket Bang Tao which is located near the entrance of Laguna Phuket. There is also the 300-key Hilton Patong Resort in Kalim underway, which is targeting to come…
- News
‘Poshtels’ pushing into Southeast Asia’s budget and economy hotel space
PHOTO: Agoda.com by Bill Banett, c9hotelworks.com A new market report question’s if cookie-cutter hotel groups will again fall asleep at the wheel as they did with online travel agents and Airbnb Call them ‘poshtels’, hostels or hybrid hotels, but one of the most exciting travel spaces across Asia is the emergence of socially-focused accommodation. Not only have millennials embraced the…
- Thai Life
Phuket’s low season growth produces record tourism numbers in 2017
By Bill Barnett of c9Hotelworks.com For 2017 the island’s gateway airport posted 11.3% year-on-year growth to reach an estimated 8.4 million incoming passengers. This was mainly driven by a 20% surge in Mainland Chinese travelers to the island and a rising number visitors during low season of 11.2% compared to the same period in 2016. Passenger arrivals remain the key…
