- 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…
- Travel
New Greater Phuket Airport to create tourism Golden Triangle
By Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com An announcement by the Airports of Thailand (AoT) about approval of a plan for a new second Greater Phuket airport has created quite a stir in the tourism sector in one of Southeast Asia’s leading resort markets. Located just over the Sarasin Bridge in Phang Nga’s Khok Kloi area, work is reportedly set to start…
- 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…
- 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
Boracay’s closure sparks global travel fallout
By Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com The biggest worldwide tourism story going is that of the trending closure of the iconic resort island of Boracay in the Philippines. In a bold move President Rodrigo Duterte who termed the island a “cesspool” is banning tourist visits from April 26 through October 25. For an island that last year hosted over 2 million…
- 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
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…
- Thai Life
A Tale of Two Bali’s – Tourism under the Volcano
The year 2017 was the best of times and the worst of time for Indonesia’s tourism icon and Phuket tourism rival, Bali. For the first nine months of the year market demand soared, only to be undermined by global news headlines over volcanic activity of Mt. Agung in October, which in turn resulted in massive hotel cancellations. As Bali sets…
- 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
Global Hotel Brands boosts Japan’s Niseko tourism
Mount Yotei, Niseko in summer. The Hokkaido destination is rapidly becoming as popular in the summer as it is in the winter. Image courtesy of The Ginto Residences. Japan’s famed ski destination Niseko is well on its way to becoming a world-class year-round holiday destination back the back of sustained growth in summer visitors over the past six years. Last…
- News
Residences on the rise
Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com reports on the rise and rise of the residential living properties with hotel branding and management…. Property developers across Thailand are experiencing a magnetic attraction for hotel branded residences in order to spur price premium points and buyer demand. Currently there are 29 new hotel residence projects countrywide with nearly 90% of these located in resort…
- Property
Phuket’s Burasari Group Expands Into Hotel Management
Bursari Phuket. Photo courtesy agoda.com by Bill Barnett, c9hotelworks.com One fast emerging Phuket borne hotel chain that is stretching out into expansion is the Burasari Group. Starting out on the island in Patong the current Burasari Phuket now has 184 keys. In a bold move to Bangkok the Shanghai Mansion is in the now trendy Chinatown/Yaowarat area with 76 rooms and…
- Thai Life
Hot hotel trends – Branded residences
by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Asia’s property developers are jumping into bed with hotel groups as branded residences flourish. Southeast Asia’s real estate love affair between property developers and hotel brands is morphing into a feeding frenzy. With nearly 100 mainstream hotel residence projects and over 21,000 units completed, the next three years is set to take the sector into…
- News
Phuket Waterworld – New ‘off beach’ condo for Bang Tao
A new 555-unit hotel managed residence project named Phuket Waterworld is now offering apartments for sale. Located ‘off beach’, near to Casuarina Shores and the Outrigger Laguna Beach Resort, the project is being developed by the New Nordic Group. Phase one units range for studios from 26 square metres, one bedroom apartments and two bedrooms up to 104 square metres.…
- Property
Sell now or sell later?
Property insights from Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com One of the most common mistakes by property developers in hot markets or with premium properties is the misconception that a fast sell-out is good. It’s often hard for real estate sales people whose mantra follow’s the ABC’s (always be closing) to understand the big picture, or more importantly the bottom line. Property…
- News
Urban push is on in Phuket’s Cherngtalay area
Phuket tourism is no longer just about the beach and the urban push is ‘game on’. One leading example is Cherngtalay which is near to the destination resort Laguna Phuket and Bangtao Beach. Upcoming in the fourth quarter of this year will be the X2 Vibe Bangtao that is set to usher in a rush of new ‘off beach’ properties. Within…
- News
Is Bangkok’s property market cooling off? No, says Bloomberg.
An update on the Bangkok property market from Bloomberg. “We’re still undervalued as a country, compared to Singapore and Hong Kong. And China, in a lot of major cities.” Click the chart to watch the Bloomberg report on Thailand’s biggest property portfolio. PHOTO: fazwaz.com
- Property
From Russia with Love. Russian buyers on the rebound.
From Russia with Love might is a James Bond 007 thriller but it has also been a mantra for island developers as the past nine months has seen a strong uptick in demand in Phuket real estate by Russian buyers. According to the recently released Phuket Russian Tourism Market report, over 51% of Russian travelers to Thailand come to Phuket.…
- Business News
Sports events leading the way in MICE
Sporting events are a key catalyst for Phuket’s MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) demand, with the industry valued at THB 5.74 billion. C9 Hotelworks has released their new Phuket MICE Tourism Market Update (c9hotelworks.com). With Thailand being ranked as the top MICE destination among ASEAN countries in 2016, Phuket is one of the major contributors with a total of 202,555 visitors.…
- News
Upgraded flights from Doha to Krabi.
Qatar Airways is upping flights from Doha to Krabi to a daily basis starting December 1st. The increase in service is a response to strong demand for the destination. Currently Qatar operates twice-daily flights to Phuket from Doha and the service taps into the airlines considerable European network. Last year passenger arrivals at Krabi International Airport hit a record high exceeding…
- Property
Do we need a new airport at Phang Nga?
As Thailand’s Phang Nga Province recorded a record high of nearly 4.5 million visitors in 2016, the lack of a gateway airport is looking to be a key stumbling block, according to a new report by consulting group C9 Hotelworks. Annual arrivals growth has slowed since 2014, but the compound annual growth rate for the five years ending 2016 remains…
- Business News
Property Lawyer Matthew McEvily Passes Away
Well-known longtime Phuket real estate lawyer Matthew McEvily passed away in the United States on June 20th. He was 59 years old. McEvily was actively involved in the real estate sector in Phuket, Bangkok and Samui. For a number of years he was a a partner in McEvily & Collins law firm, and later on his own under McEvily and…
- Thailand News
Phuket hotel registration remains a challenge
Phuket is attracting an ever-increasing number of international visitors to our golden beaches and turquoise seas. But many of the millions of travellers who visit Phuket each year could be staying in unlicensed – and effectively illegal – hotels. According to a new report by hospitality consulting group C9 Hotelworks, less than a quarter of hotels in Phuket (429 out…
- Property
Malaysia considers restricting foreign property purchases
A hot topic over the past month has been the Malaysian government’s review and possible increase of the set minimum of investment in property by foreign buyers.Currently the level for the most part is RM1 million (approximately USD225,000), The trigger of the issue has been the weakening Malaysian currency, the ringgit, which has been on the slide for a continued…
