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Sponsored Infinito helps hotels in Thailand with revenue management
Maximising revenue and profit–isn’t that the ultimate goal for every business in the hospitality industry? If you run a hotel, you might have heard that revenue management is an effective way to boost your top-line revenue. It involves using data...
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Swedish Gripen jet fighters in tests over Phuket
PHUKET: The Royal Thai Air Force is conducting high-speed aerial flyovers of Phuket Town today and tomorrow in order to test its radar installation at Khao Mai Thao Sip Song, the island’s highest point, in Chalong. Following reports by concerned residents in Phuket Town, the Phuket Gazette contacted the Phuket Air Traffic Control center run by Aerothai at Phuket International…
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Phuket’s Soi Dog Foundation expands into Bangkok
PHUKET: Phuket’s renowned animal welfare charity Soi Dog Foundation (SDF) has joined forces with the Bangkok-based Soi Cats and Dogs organization (SCAD) to launch operations in the Thai capital. SCAD, a well established and highly regarded Thai foundation, will be integrated into SDF and Phimpakarn Petpichetchien appointed General Manager of the new operation, SDF’s founder John Dalley announced in press…
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Separate shootings leave two dead in Phuket
PHUKET: Two people died in separate shootings in Phuket last night. The first incident was an ambush attack in front of the Thepkrasattri Municipal Market, just west of the Thalang Junction on Don Chom Tao Road. A 25-year-old man identified only as “Pisut” was driving a motorbike along Don Chom Tao Road towards the junction at about 9:15pm when he…
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Phuket road victim identified as Aussie model
PHUKET: The young woman who died in a motorbike accident in Phuket early on Saturday morning has been identified as Lana O’Connell, a successful young model from the Gold Coast, Australia. Miss O’Connell was riding a motorbike along Patak Road toward Chalong Circle with her long-term partner Kenneth Trivett at about 3:30am when they struck a motorbike with sidecar. Mr…
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Two baby elephants seized in Phuket
PHUKET: Two baby elephants seized in Phuket today will be sent to an elephant reserve in the Northern Thailand province of Lampang. Meanwhile, investigators are continuing their probe into whether three elephant camps near Phuket’s Big Buddha image are encroaching on protected forest land. The transfer of the two baby male elephants – Popeye and Joey – follows officials from…
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Phuket sports: Golf guru weekly round-up
PHUKET: THE media hype around the USPGA tour this week wasn’t enough to get Phil Mickelson into the winner’s circle two weeks in a row. The Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California was the venue for the Northern Trust Open, formally known as the Los Angles Open, less than a block away from Sunset Boulevard. The Riviera C.C. is a…
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Thanachart close in on Portrait FC
PHUKET: THE Adult Futsal League (AFL) season nine presented by Thanachart Bank entered week five at Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club (TSLC) last Thursday with a full compliment of games played in both divisions. Jitjongrut took on a struggling Honda in the evening’s first Premier Division fixture, well aware that the game was a good opportunity for them to climb…
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Shakers and Rugantino in the mix for Phuket Super Six
PHUKET: Round two of the Phuket Super Six League (PSSL) produced more evenly contested matches last week at Football Island, but the goal count continues to rise. The first fixture saw league leaders Pita Bar Phuketeers and the experienced Morning Star, in their first league outing, play a guarded game that ended with honors divided. After a goaless first half,…
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Prompong pushes for 10bn baht rail link
PHUKET: Government spokesman Prompong Nopparit has voiced his support for a 10-billion-baht extension of train lines from Surat Thani to just north of Phuket. Currently, rail passengers and freight bound for Phuket can travel only as far south as Surat Thani. The extension would be about 160 kilometers long, stretching from Keereerat District in Surat Thani province to Baan Thanoon…
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Phuket hotel barman dies in motorbike crash
PHUKET: A hotel barman died instantly last night when his motorbike slammed into a utility pole in Koh Kaew, north of Phuket Town. Phuket City Police were notified of the accident, opposite the Isuzu showroom on Thepkrasattri Road, at about 11:45pm. Phuket Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers rushed to the scene to find 40-year-old Phichit Masmalai lying face down on the…
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Phuket Police round up Rohingya refugees in Nai Harn
PHUKET: Chalong Police have rounded up 90 starving Rohingya boat people who came ashore in the south of Phuket this morning, but 12 more remain unaccounted for. The Rohingya, all males, were on their way to Malaysia when they ran out of food and their wooden boat began to fall apart at sea, forcing them to come ashore at Nai…
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Phuket beer garden fire not arson: owners
PHUKET: The owners of a beer garden that went up in flames in Phuket early this morning are denying rumors that the blaze was set by a disgruntled former employee. It took six fire engines about an hour to extinguish the fire that gutted the Kamala Beer Garden on the main road through Kamala before dawn today. Owners Chollada Nakballang,…
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Phuket Opinion: Truth not optional in the media or in public relations
PHUKET: Since Phuket’s emergence as a tourist destination in the 1980s, the island has maintained a remarkable ability to attract foreign visitors, through good times and bad. Apart from the 2004 tsunami disaster, few events – locally, nationally or globally – have been able to buck the trend in any appreciable way. Despite a seemingly endless series of ‘tourism threatening’…
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Australian, Swede die in accidents in Phuket
PHUKET: Two foreign tourists, one Australian and one Swedish national, died in separate accidents in Phuket last night. Matthias Andersson from Sweden died after falling three storeys at a resort in Karon, where he was staying with family members. Staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital said the apparent cause of death was a head injury sustained in the fall, which occurred…
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Groundbreaking movement on Phuket Bus Terminal impasse
PHUKET: Construction workers this morning began work to remove the median strip in front of Phuket Bus Terminal 2 on Thepkrasattri Road in Rassada, raising hopes the long-dormant facility might go into operation soon. Workers were at the site at 8am, putting up warning signs to alert motorists of the work, which will close two lanes to traffic during work…
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Phuket Blues and Rock fest feasts on talent
PHUKET: Friday nights don’t get much better. A superb venue and organization matched with a range of music that voiced soulful lyrics and pumped out thumping rock rifts helped kickstart the 2012 Phuket International Blues Rock festival at Laguna Beach Resort last night. A slightly later than scheduled opening allowed visitors to drift in to the Festival Marquee having not…
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Phuket Rotary Club rolls out high-tech devices for the disabled
PHUKET: The lives of nine disabled people from Phuket and Phang Nga took a turn for the better on Thursday when they took possession of high-tech wheelchair “pullers” donated by local and international chapters of Rotary International. The handover ceremony, at Queen Sirkit Park on Thalang Road, was presided over by Sanguan Kunaporn, head of the Rotary Club of Tongkah…
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Phuket Gazette: Tourists go ape for Krabi bus stops
PHUKET: Tourists to Phuket’s neighboring Krabi Province are impressed by a new two million baht network of bus stops that feature a striking monkey design, the province’s transport chief says. Worawut Ma-in, an expert in logistics and acting chief of the Krabi Transport Office, says construction of the 13 stops has just been completed. The project was launched at the…
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Bangers bring home the bacon to Phuket
PHUKET: They’re here! The ‘Bangers on Bikes’ Bangkok to Phuket charity bike riders crossed the Sarasin Bridge just after 11am and a Gazette photographer was on hand to witness their arrival on the island. After losing four riders to exhaustion by the end of day four, the group had recouped one determined pedalist for the home leg between Takuapa and…
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Weird World News: Weather warnings of Europeans acting strange due to cold
PHUKET: While bitter weather blots Europe, the heat wave continues to stifle here in Phuket. This week’s Weird World News round-up is homage to those suffering the onslaught of the cold-snap in Europe, and ways weather can make people muddle words. Swede survives two months in a snowed-in car A SWEDISH man was found alive after being trapped in his…
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Red light confusion ends in Phuket pickup sideswipe
PHUKET: A two-vehicle collision in Thalang last night was likely the result of one pickup braking for a red light, only to be slammed from behind by a second pickup whose driver expected him to run through it, Phuket Police said. Each of the vehicles had two passengers, none of whom were injured in the crash. Thalang Police were notified…
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Bangers bike riders hightail it to Phuket
PHUKET: Four days of hard pedaling has taken its toll, but the 2012 Bangers on Bikes Bangkok to Phuket Charity Bike Ride is nearing the final leg while the hardy cyclists are on their last legs with only 140km to go. On Monday, 11 riders and five support crew left Bangkok on a 916km saddle mission to raise 500,000 baht…
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DAM! Taxi driver forgets handbrake, plunges car into Phuket reservoir
PHUKET: A taxi driver from Khao Lak, the coastal tourist town in Phang Nga to the north of Phuket, this morning found his chicken and sticky rice too tasty to remember to put his handbrake on.The result being his Honda Civic plunging into the reservoir behind Phuket Rajabhat University.“I often come to Phuket to visit my brother, who lives here,”…
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Tourists from Taiwan to Phuket to double in 2012: PTA
PHUKET: The number of Taiwanese tourist arrivals in Phuket this year is expected double last year’s figure, a senior government official has announced.Paiboon Upatising, currently caretaker president of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor), said that the island can expect up to 100,000 Taiwanese arrivals in 2012 – compared with 50,000 last year.The projections were announced following the “Phuket Road…
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Phuket Thai Navy base joins anti-pirate joint patrol
PHUKET: The Royal Thai Navy Third Naval Area, based at Cape Panwa on the east coast of Phuket, is coordinating with other armed forces from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in a joint exercise to combat pirates in the Strait of Malacca. Under the “Eye in the Sky” program, representatives from each country will join forces in patrolling the strait in…
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Phuket Court launches night, weekend hearings
PHUKET: Faced with thousands of unresolved cases, Phuket Provincial Court on Tuesday launched a “night court” service in an effort to reduce the backlog. Phuket Court Acting Chief Justice Audthakarn Foojaroen and fellow justices yesterday held a press conference at the courthouse to announce the night court hours, which run Monday to Friday from 4:30pm to 8:30pm. The night court…
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Beauties and the beach: Indian pageant contestants hit Krabi
PHUKET: The white-sand beaches and stunning limestone karsts of Krabi Province have some competition in the beauty stakes this week following the arrival of 23 contestants from the Miss Indian Princess 2012 pageant. The beauty queens received a warm welcome when they touched down on Thai Airways flight TG241 at Krabi Airport on Tuesday. The guests seemed impressed when they…
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Illegal Phuket migrant workers get five-month reprieve
PHUKET: More than 20,000 unregistered migrant workers in Phuket now have until mid-June to register with the government, thanks to a Cabinet resolution earlier this month extending the deadline by five months. The extension gives employers time to obtain two-year work permits for unregistered alien workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, said Phuket Provincial Employment Office Chief Noppadol Ployudee. Workers…
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Fire forces evacuation of Phuket Town theater complex
PHUKET: An electrical fire caused a panicked evacuation from a cinema complex in the heart of Phuket Town last night, but no injuries were reported. Staff at the Coliseum Paradise Mutliplex cinemas at Ocean Shopping Mall noticed smoke billowing from two electrical transformers on a fourth-floor control room at about 7pm. They tried to cool the transformers with fire extinguishers,…
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Racism gets the boot
PHUKET: “We want to make sure football is all about a power to do good, rather than anything else.” UK prime minister David Cameron vowed to rid football of racism during an anti-discrimination summit held at Downing Street recently. “What happens on the field influences what happens off the field. You see children as young as six imitating the behavior…
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