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Sharp rise in tourism predicted
SYDNEY: Asia will see strong performance in aviation, travel and tourism in the final quarter this year, according to an industry report just released. While Thailand is not singled out, the report says Asia has made an “unexpectedly rapid recovery” from the Sars virus scare and accelerated air traffic should ensure a “very positive” outlook. Pent-up demand should drive the…
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Diamond Cliff row “must be solved fast’
PHUKET TOWN: Conflicts between hotel workers and their employers should be resolved quickly in the interests of the Phuket tourism industry, a conference heard today. Union leaders and other interested parties met for the first time to discuss worker-boss relations in the island’s increasingly unionized hotel industry. A focus of their attention was a dispute at the Diamond Cliff Resort…
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Guides protest against foreign tour staff
PHUKET TOWN: Some 300 Phuket tour guides gathered at the Lan Nawamin square on Phuket Rd this morning to protest Cabinet’s resolution last Tuesday to allow tour agencies that bring in more than 5,000 tourists in the preceding year to hire 10 foreign workers. The resolution also stated that Cabinet would consider reducing the threshhold to 1,000 tourists a year.…
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Rock Hard dancer murdered
PATONG: Police are hunting the ex-boyfriend of a go-go girl from Rock Hard after she was found stabbed to death with a peeling knife. Pranee Asasri, 41, from Mukdaharn, was found dead at 2 am on August 23 by her niece, Pachanee Rattabhat, 22, who went to the victim’s rented room after she had failed to turn up for work…
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Phuket Town green team wins award
PHUKET TOWN: Phuket Town Municipality has won top honors in a contest run by the Thai Environment and Community Development Association (Tecda) for having the most outstanding recycling project of 85 government offices and private businesses. Phuket Town Mayor Phummisak Hongsyok explained, “Phuket Municipality was chosen because of its well-organized project plans, which are administered by the project committees.” The…
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Tiger attack: one dead, two critical
PHRAE: Given the madness and mayhem that afflict Thai roads, it’s only natural that people want to spend as much time as possible in the safety of their homes. But a recent tragedy in Phrae province shows that even being at home in front of the TV is no guarantee of safety from drunk drivers. At about midnight on August…
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When the village headman loses it
BURI RAM: A mentally-disturbed man in Buri Ram’s Ban Dan district sliced off the head of his brother-in-law then walked around the village in a demented state, carrying the head in a plastic bag and laughing. The incident occurred in Tambon Prasaat on the morning of August 2. The victim, a 68-year-old farmer named Bun Tharuangrum, was living in the…
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Samson takes a fall “for mom’
BANGKOK: Popular Thai kickboxer Samson Lookjaopormahesak has been arrested for allegedly throwing a fight, becoming Thailand’s first boxer to face legal action for suspected match fixing. Samson is one of the country’s most famous boxers, and his fight on the evening of August 5 was highly anticipated. Samson dominated the early rounds, but the referee stopped the fight in the…
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Korean store busted for dodgy drugs
PHUKET TOWN: A Taiwanese man was arrested this morning for illegally selling traditional Thai and Korean medicines. The arrest came when officers, led by the national Commander of the Tourist Police, Pol Maj Gen Panya Maman, raided a store on the bypass road after complaints from tourists. Gen Panya said that officers moved to raid the store after the South…
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Apec in talks on high-tech counter-terrorism
KARON: The use of high-tech scanners and integrated databases listing details of passengers and flight crews were among the latest methods of identifying terrorists discussed yesterday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting at the Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort. The timely meeting – coming in the wake of the Marriott bomb in Jakarta and the capture of top terrorist Hambali…
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Indonesians cleared of terrorist links
PATONG: The three Indonesian fisherman who washed ashore at Kalim Beach yesterday morning have been cleared of connections with the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Pol Maj Narong Laoprathumviroj, an Inspector at Kathu Police Station, has told the Gazette. “They were all investigated and we have verified that they did not come to stage acts of terrorism in Thailand during…
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Pirate goods blitz continues
KATA-KARON: Some 1,400 fake items with a street value of 1.4 million baht were seized in raids on eight vendors in Kata and Karon yesterday evening, Tharadol Thongruang, Deputy Director of Phuket Commercial Affairs, said today. At 6 pm, police officers simultaneously raided two shops and two stalls opposite Mom Tri’s Boathouse & Villa Royale in Kata. Officials then moved…
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Fishermen survive 5 days adrift
KALIM: Three Indonesian fishermen who spent at least five days adrift without food after their boat was caught in not one but two storms, washed ashore at Kalim Beach this morning and are now recovering at Patong Hospital. Pol Maj Narong Laoprathumviroj, an Inpector at Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette today, “Three men and their fishing boat washed ashore…
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Patong praised for fake goods blitz
PATONG: Deputy Director of Phuket Commercial Affairs, Tharadol Thongruang, has announced that the blitz on fake goods has resulted in 90% of offenders in Patong either closing down or turning to selling authentic, legitimate goods. “Now there’s only less than 5% of fake goods left [in Patong], mostly fake brand-name sports shirts. “Fake watches, glasses, bags, CDs and shoes are…
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Cracking start to safety campaign
PHUKET TOWN: Four-hundred motorcycle riders turned out today to exchange their substandard headgear for free safety helmets of life-saving quality. In a ceremony at Phuket Town Provincial Hall, officials used hammers to crack some of the old helmets as a way of demonstrating their ineffectiveness. The safe-riding campaign, which urges motorcyclists to use quality helmets and to ride with headlamps…
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Two gangsters die in shootout with police
PHUKET TOWN: Two gangsters were shot and killed during an ambush by plain-clothes police that turned into a motorcycle chase after bullets ripped the twilight at Saphan Hin last night. The drama came as police moved in on four men believed to be members of a gang at the top of the Most Wanted list, suspected of murder, bag-snatchings, rape…
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Four arrested for reporter’s murder
PATONG: Police yesterday arrested four more people they believe were involved in the execution-style murder of newspaper and TV reporter Surapong “Od Patong” Rittee in Patong six months ago. One of those arrested is a police officer who was formerly stationed at Kathu Police Station. K. Surapong, 43, was gunned down by two .38 rounds fired close to his left…
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Lobster fest underway
PHUKET: The month-long Phuket Lobster Festival got underway on Friday with a promotional event organized jointly by the local Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA). The festival, which coincides with the August 14-23 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meetings in Phuket, is intended to boost tourist spending on the island for the period to 500…
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Island security stepped up for Apec
PHUKET (Gazette, Nation): A team of 150 officers from Region 8 police headquarters in Surat Thani are in Phuket to bolster security during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, Pol Col Ronapong Saikaew, Superintendent of Investigation Police Region 8, said today. Col Ronapong told the Gazette, “There are 150 investigation and inspection policemen covering every area where Apec [meetings] will take place…
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Italian tourist dies under bus
PATONG: Italian tourist Michael D’Aries, 31, was run over by a tour bus and died in front of the C&N Resort in Patong at about 3:15 am yesterday. Pol Lt Col Pisit Chunpet of Kathu Police Station told the Gazette that Mr D’Aries was driving a rented JDR scooter along Sirirat Rd with a Thai woman riding pillion. They were…
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Thai center to drive Apec life sciences growth
PHUKET: Thailand and private US interests have agreed to establish a Center of Excellence for the Life Sciences in Thailand that will lead growing interest in the topic throughout the region, a ground-breaking Apec conference has been told. The announcement came from Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti in the lead-up to the opening of the first Life Sciences Innovation Forum,…
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Island’s tourism tide turns
PHUKET: Latest airport arrival figures and resort occupancy rates indicate that Phuket’s tourism trade is recovering rapidly from the Sars scare, with some hotels already planning to hang up “House Full” signs soon. Official statistics for the first 10 days in August show that 8.7% more international visitors flew to Bangkok compared with the same period last year, an increase…
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Island gears up for OrBorTor elections
PHUKET: Moves to publicize the August 30 elections for Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) members are underway, with the Phuket Election Commission Bureau (PECB) and the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) lending a hand. At a meeting at the PECB offices yesterday, OrBorJor President Dr Prasit Koeysiripong pledged four sound trucks to promote the elections for 10 days, while the PECB…
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Patong sea wall: residents open fire
PHUKET TOWN: Patong residents petitioned Governor CEO Vasaputi Pongpayome today, alleging corruption over a 40-million-baht project to build a retaining wall along Patong Beach. They also say the seashore wall, which will vary in height from two meters to 3.5 meters along a distance of about 1.5 kilometers, will be an environmental disaster. Construction of the wall has already begun.…
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Ganja and magic mushrooms seized
PATONG: Four men were arrested on Monday in two separate drug raids along the Patong-Karon road that netted quantities of marijuana and “magic” psilocybin mushrooms allegedly packaged for re-sale. In the first raid, Pol Capt Sophon Borirak led Kathu Police officers to the Rasta Bar just south of Patong and arrested three Thais and a German at about 8:30 pm.…
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Fake goods raids set vendors running
PATONG: Police seized about 500 items of fake goods with a street value of 500,000 baht in raids on two Patong stalls last night as the crackdown on imitation products continued. The people selling the goods ran off. Led by Deputy Director of Phuket Commercial Affairs, Tharadol Thongruang, officers moved in on one stall near the Holiday Inn at 9…
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Korean drowns at Karon
KARON BEACH: A middle-aged Korean woman drowned in heavy surf in front of the Phuket Arcadia Beach Resort just after midnight yesterday. Pol Maj Sanae Panmee, of the Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that the victim, identified as 41-year-old En Seck Sea, entered the dangerous surf with a friend after drinking together at a local bar. The pair were…
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Bus passengers win shelter from sun and rain
PHUKET TOWN: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) is to build bus shelters for the comfort of passengers using its public mini-buses, the Vice-President of the OrBorJor, Samroeng Chaisorn, said today. “There are 132 places where our buses stop for passengers,” K. Samroeng said. “The OrBorJor can build 32 shelters but many of the other stops are in front of…
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Water aplenty, says Governor
PHUKET: Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has confirmed that Phuket should have no water shortages until at least the end of this year and perhaps beyond. Gov Pongpayome told the Gazette that heavy rain had alleviated the problem, which at one stage saw Patong and Karon with water rationing and the prospect of restrictions also looming for Phuket Town. The completion…
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TAT tips increase in African visitors
PHUKET: Officials believe a tourism road-show to South Africa last month will lift the number of visitors to Phuket and the region by more than 20,000 based on the levels of interest. Anupharp Thirarath, Director of the local Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office, visited South Africa from July 13-20 with representatives from 40 tour companies based in Phuket, Phang…
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