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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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Athletes flock for Laguna Phuket’s 18th international triathlon
PHUKET: Over 1,000 competitors are descending on the island for the 18th Laguna Phuket Triathlon (LPT) which officially begins today with race registration and a press conference at the Dust Thani Laguna Phuket.Registration numbers have smashed all previous records from the 17 year history of this prestigious Southeast Asian athletic event.Master of ceremonies Whit Raymond will introduce several guest speakers…
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Police confirm handover of 95 Rohingya near Phuket to Thai Army
PHUKET: Police in Kuraburi, Phang Nga province, have confirmed that 95 Rohingya landed on the island of Koh Phra Thong on Thursday morning. The island lies in the Andaman sea about 110km north of Phuket. “We received a call from local villagers on the island saying that a boat full of Rohingya people had landed on the shore there, but…
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Phuket business owners at Karon Beach win reprieve from street clearing
PHUKET: Business owners in the chaotic street of “Soi Centara“, formerly known for years as “Soi Islandia Resort“, in Phuket’s tourist-popular Karon Beach area, have won a reprieve from having structures on their street demolished. Adam Simone, owner of Bershat Guesthouse and a resident in the area for more than 12 years, told the Phuket Gazette, “Two days ago we…
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Phuket gets dedicated “rape case’ police officer
PHUKET: Phuket now has a female police officer dedicated to handling rape and sexual assault cases, Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pekad Tantipong confirmed yesterday. Speaking at the quarterly meeting of Phuket’s honorary consuls and top officials on the island, Maj Gen Pekad confirmed that the officer is stationed at Phuket City Police Station and is on call to handle cases…
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Phuket Sports – FC Phuket to battle Warlords in Saraburi on Saturday
PHUKET: FC Phuket returns to action tomorrow evening when they meet ninth-placed Saraburi FC. Set for a 6pm kickoff at the Saraburi Provincial Administration Organization stadium, the match follows a 41-day hiatus from league play – a relief period that allowed several footballers, including Phuket’s Sarach Yooyen, to compete in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia as well as…
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Phuket jet-skis on the rise
PHUKET: The Phuket Marine Office has decided to take it easy on jet-ski rental operators who haven’t registered their jet-skis, the quarterly meeting of Phuket’s honorary consuls was told at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday. “Since we started managing jet-ski rental operations in 2007, we have had 219 jet-skis registered in Phuket. We are still trying to control the number of…
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Khao Sok Organics coming to Phuket
PHUKET: The Australian Chamber of Commerce (AustCham) Sundowners business networking meeting returns to Phuket tonight at the Thanyapura, Phuket International Academy in Thalang. Keynote speaker will be Martin Smesters, managing director of Pura Organics, speaking on producing and using organic food products in Thailand. Pura Organics sources from a network of more than 40 organic suppliers and sources in Thailand.…
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FA u-turn on video technology
PHUKET: “Goal-line technology would be a huge boost for the game [football], and for years we’ve thought this was a good addition to a referee’s armory.” So says Alex Horne, general secretary of the FA, and shocking and confusing are ways to describe his statement. Let’s go back to a previous Phuket Gazette “quote of the day” posted on October…
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Phuket amnesty prisoners make merit for HM
PHUKET: Phuket prisoners today helped to clean up Wat Charoen Samanakit, located behind Phuket Provincial Hall, in order to make merit for HM The King Bhumibol Adulyadej ahead of his 84th birthday on December 5. The 40 prisoners involved in the cleanup are all under consideration for amnesty under His Majesty’s annual birthday pardons, explained Phuket Prison Director Rapin Nichanon.…
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Bangkok bus, train services to South return to normal
PHUKET: After a month of Bangkok suffering from one of the worst floods to hit Thailand in the past century, bus services to Phuket and bus and train services to other destinations in southern Thailand have returned to normal. Rising flood waters forced bus services from the New Southern Bus Terminal (Sai Tai Mai) on Borom Maratchachonnani Road in Bangkok…
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Phuket “best in Thailand’ for wearing helmets, says study
PHUKET: A recent study has placed Phuket as the top province in Thailand when it comes to motorbike riders and passengers wearing helmets. “Since we launched our ‘100 per cent helmet’ campaign in 2010, Phuket has been chosen as a model province for wearing helmets. We are the top province for wearing helmets,” said Phuket Public Health Office (PPHO) Deputy…
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Phuket police bust uncovers dope ‘brick’ in woman’s shorts
PHUKET: Phuket Police acting on a tip-off arrested two people for possession and intent to sell marijuana on Monday night. One of the arrested was a woman who had a “brick” of marijuana stuffed into her shorts. The other was a man who was already wanted for dope charges. After receiving the tip-off that “someone” was selling drugs at a…
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Phuket Governor confirmed to stay another year
PHUKET: Governor Tri Augkaradacha will remain the Governor of Phuket until October 2012, Manas Nurak, personal secretary to Governor Tri, confirmed today. Mr Manas said that the news comes following his office’s receipt of formal notification of the Thai Cabinet’s approval of the 34 transfers to be made among high-ranking positions in the Ministry of Interior, including the position of…
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Island View – Fighting for British pensions in Phuket’s paradise
PHUKET: Your signatures are needed to end the unfair frozen overseas pension policy of the British government. Some of you may not be aware that when a United Kingdom state pensioner retires to live abroad in certain countries their pension is frozen and they do not receive annual cost-of-living increases. There are over half a million of these pensioners affected…
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Inaugural Copenhagen-Phuket flight welcomed
PHUKET: Thai Airway’s inaugural direct flight from Copenhagen landed safely at Phuket International Airport on Saturday.At the airport to greet the first 336 passengers aboard flight TG953 were the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Suraphon Svetasreni, Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Bangonrat Shinaprayoon, Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) Vice President Bhuritt…
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Phuket Rajabhat to staff local hotels with flood-affected students
PHUKET: Rajabhat University (PRU) in Phuket is accepting applications from students nationwide who have been affected by the flood crisis, to join its latest tourism “work-and-study” program.The 4 R project is an extension of last year’s 3 R project and is organized in collaboration with the Phuket Office of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Phuket Tourist Association…
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Evoque SUV ideal for “new age’ business folk in Phuket
PHUKET: The Range Rover Evoque, the latest high-end Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) by Land Rover, hit the Phuket market with an official open-house party. The Evoque, with a starting price tag of 4.09 million baht, was introduced at the Benz Ramkhamhaeng Group (BRG) showroom in Rassada. The British-assembled SUV was initially unveiled in the United Kingdom in July, before making…
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Canon camera distribution unaffected by Thailand’s floods
PHUKET: Supply of Canon camera equipment in Thailand has not been disrupted by the recent flooding, a senior manager at Cannon Marketing (Thailand) has confirmed. “Luckily, our camera production facilities are not located in the affected areas,” said Warin Tantiphongpanid, Senior Director and General Manager Consumer Imaging and Information of Cannon Marketing (Thailand) Co Ltd. “We have a printer factory…
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Patong resort moves to stave off “boulder rain’
PHUKET: After waiting months for steps to be taken to prevent boulders from tumbling from the Guanyin construction site into their resort, management at L’Orchidee Residences in Patong have hired their own contractor. Jean-Claude Guillet, the retired developer and the owners’ representative of the resort, explained to the Phuket Gazette that the move follows months of failed attempts to get…
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Special report: Struggling to end Phuket’s transgender stigma
PHUKET: Bad news moves quickly – constantly – and there is a cast of usual suspects who society likes to push the blame on, people who are “different” or somehow not representative of the whole. Who are they? Illegal immigrants, stateless people, migrant workers and essentially any other minority group that has the misfortune of being a convenient scapegoat. One…
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Phuket gears up for first World Musiq Festival
PHUKET: Popular Thai artist Todd Tongdee Lavelle, a main organizer of the Phuket World Musiq Festival, has confirmed the lineup of artists who will be performing at the event. The festival, to honor the 84th birthday of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, will be held at Saphan Hin, in Phuket Town, from December 2-5. The festival will open on December 2…
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Swedish snorkeler “likely died of heart attack’
PHUKET: The Swedish man who died off Racha Yai Island earlier today likely died of a heart attack, the Phuket Gazette has been told. Martin Anders Christer Nilsson, 63, was on a Phuket fishing tour with his stepdaughter’s boyfriend and her children when the incident occurred. “He had gotten off of the boat to go snorkeling,” said Phuket Tourist Police…
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KMS win Phuket junior soccer championship
PHUKET: Jungceylon recently held the Junior Soccer 2011 football tournament, the event’s fourth edition. This year’s tourney hosted a total of 32 teams from 25 schools from all over Phuket. Championship honors went to Tessaban Wat Kitti Sangkaram School, which is also known as Karon Municipality School. The champions were awarded a trophy and prize money of 10,000 baht, which…
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Phuket Sports: Thailand World Cup hopes still alive
PHUKET: Thailand’s senior national football squad are still in the race for the 2014 World Cup, despite back-to-back losses to Saudi Arabia and Australia on November 11 and 15. In what was a closely contested match at Supachalasai National Stadium in Bangkok last week, the War Elephants were narrowly defeated by the Socceroos who went ahead with a header by…
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Phuket sport tips: Tennis – power is balance
PHUKET: Balance is one of the fundamentals to developing great tennis ground strokes. In today’s game of power tennis, many of the players are leaping in the air to hit their forehands and backhands. This results in not only many errors but also many injuries. One of the great ground-strokers and inventor of the power game, Andre Agassi, had phenomenal…
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Swedish “fishing tourist’ found dead near Phuket
PHUKET: The body of a Swedish man was found today floating in the waters off Racha Yai Island, about 20 kilometers south of Phuket, police have confirmed. Phuket Tourist Police Volunteers were informed at 12:20pm that the body of the 63-year-old Swede had been found by staff of a diving company. The victim is believed to have fallen into the…
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Phuket Lifestyle – jury is still out on litigation funding
PHUKET: One very exciting new asset class available to individual investors that I have been looking into is litigation funding. When I first heard about some notes attached to this I thought it sounded too good to be true and dismissed it, but as sometimes is the case, extraordinary opportunities can arise. The asset class is currently only accessible via…
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Two new Phuket biz-consumer apps launched
PHUKET: Software developer Boonsoong Technology Co Ltd and media consultants, Phebe5 Co Ltd have partnered with local coffee shop chain Tiny Coffee to launch two new business-to-consumer mobile applications, designed exclusively for the Phuket consumer base. The two new mobile applications; “Tiny Coffee” and “Check in 4 Good Deals” were simultaneously launched last week at a press conference held at…
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Phuket police go to town on drug dealers
PHUKET: After Phuket police officers swooped on two suspected meth dealers in Chalong on Friday night, fellow police in Phuket City arrested seven people on drug-related charges over the weekend. At a press conference today, Phuket City Police Superintendent Chote Chidchai said that a team of anti-drug officers seized 60 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and more than 40 grams of…
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Phuket’s “Grumpy Old Men’ on mercy mission for flood victims
PHUKET: What started off as a conversation between Phuket businessman Paul Newson and his wife and business partner Skulna “Bird” Varayu has quickly developed into a relief effort to assist flood victims in the Central Thailand province of Nakhon Sawan. The original idea focused on helping immediate family in Nakhon Sawan, but the concept quickly snowballed into a larger effort…
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