Phuket News
Discover the latest news and updates from Thailand’s most famous and beautiful island, The Thaiger’s hometown, having previously operated as the Phuket Gazette.
Our team brings you breaking news, in-depth analysis, and exclusive stories from Phuket, covering everything from local politics and business to lifestyle and tourism. Learn about the island’s stunning beaches, vibrant nightlife, and thriving expat community, as well as keeping updated on events, and attractions.
The Thaiger is your ultimate guide to staying connected with Phuket’s ever-evolving landscape. To keep up with the most reliable news source on the island, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
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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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Phuket Punchline Comedy returns in October
PHUKET: Following the success of its sell-out show in June, the Phuket Punchline Comedy Club will return to the Holiday Inn Resort in Patong on October 13 with three more top-class comedians. Set to take the stage this time are Englishman Pierre Hollins, Australian Darren Sanders and Philberto from Portugal. Pierre Hollins claims the only “proper jobs” he’s ever had…
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Phuket to host ‘Alternative Ownership’ conference
PHUKET: Some 150 delegates are expected to descend on Phuket next month for the second Alternative Ownership Conference for Resorts and Hotels – Asia Pacific (AOCAP) at the Millennium Resort in Patong. “Following the success of the inaugural AOCAP conference in 2009, we are excited to announce AOCAP 2010 will take place 10-12 October in Phuket,” said Bryan Lunt, Chairman…
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U-turn scheme planned to solve Phuket bus woes
PHUKET: Hopes are being pinned on a novel approach to traffic control to solve the problem of how cross-country buses will head north after departing Phuket’s new provincial bus terminal on Thepkrasattri Rd southbound in Rassada. How buses will head north is one of two crucial issues facing the new terminal, which has been sitting idle since its completion in…
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Tsunam drill puts Phuket students on alert
PHUKET: Some 350 primary school students in Patong ran for higher ground today in a tsunami drill organized by the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket). At 1pm yesterday, the students at Baan Sainamyen School in Patong were split into two groups and educated about tsunamis by DDPM-Phuket officer Thanakuan Pinthong. After the information session,…
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Pheu Thai presents reconciliation plan to Phuket
PHUKET: A regional spokesman for the opposition Pheu Thai Party was in Phuket yesterday to promote the party’s plan for national reconciliation. Chaturont Kochasiha addressed an audience of party coordinators and the media at the new Pheu Thai ‘Andaman Operations Center’ in the Phuket City Home estate in Rassada. Mr Chaturont said he had come to the island to help…
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Phuket mulls Muslim prayer hall for Laem Phromthep
PHUKET: Phuket’s Laem Promthep may soon have a Muslim prayer hall (surau), says Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos. The mayor has confirmed that Rawai Municipality is considering plans to build such a facility on the iconic peninsula at the southernmost tip of Phuket island. The surau, if built, is to provide a place for the Muslim faithful to perform prayers while…
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Corpse confusion: mix-up in Phuket morgue
PHUKET: Mourners at the funeral of a British man in Chalong were shocked to discover that the corpse handed over to them by staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital was not his, but that of an unidentified Westerner. William John “Bill” Young, 61, of Ipswich, England, passed away in his sleep on Friday, September 3, a friend told the Gazette. Friends…
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Construction of new Phuket incinerator underway
PHUKET: Work to build Phuket’s second incinerator at Saphan Hin is underway and the 940-million-baht facility should be completed by the end of the year, a provincial committee on trash management issues was told on Wednesday. Prachoom Suriya, who heads the Phuket City Municipality Environmental Division, told the Phuket Provincial Trash Management Committee that project contractor PJT Technology is now…
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Toxic waste collection drive in Phuket
PHUKET: A special tent has been set up at Saphan Hin as a collection point for toxic waste materials for safe, off-island disposal.The project, started on Monday, invites households, businesses and government organizations to bring any and all toxic waste to the tent, located near the basketball gymnasium.Light bulbs, batteries of all sorts, toxic packaging and other dangerous materials not…
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Phuket students to be punished for not wearing helmets
PHUKET: Staff and students of Prince of Songkla University (PSU) Phuket campus are now liable to punishment by the university if they are caught traveling by motorbike without a helmet. The new provisions were introduced by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the PSU campus in Kathu on September 1. With some 200 students present as witnesses,…
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Suthep confirms possible assassination attempt rumor
The National News Bureau of Thailand this afternoon reports that Deputy Prime Minister for Security Affairs Suthep Thaugsuban admits there are reports of possible assassination attempts on important figures, but no reports of such attempts to occur during the upcoming red-shirt rallies on 19 September. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep said he has instructed the police to tighten security, although there…
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Global scorching; Thai Banks also scorched; Tales of two TATs
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Scorching forecast for Thailand PHUKET: In the next 35 years, the temperature in Thailand will rise a whopping 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, which will result in the eastern provinces being inundated in 300 millimetres of rainfall…
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FC Phuket hoist championship trophy, down Phang Nga FC 2-1
PHUKET: Goals either side of halftime from Thawin Butrsombat and Nithirot Sukuma were enough to ease FC Phuket to a 2-1 home win over Phang Nga FC at Surakul Stadium last night. Thawin, signed during the mid-season break, put the Southern Sea Kirin 1-0 up after just seven minutes, when he kept his composure in the box to finish off…
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Water service finally restored in Kathu, Phuket
PHUKET: Residents in parts of Phuket’s Kathu District are angry with local authorities because their water supply, cut off on Monday, was only restored this afternoon. Residents of the Baan Neua and Moo Baan Pak Dee communities, off Wichit Songkraam Road, contacted the Gazette at 10am to complain about the shortage, which forced students to go off to school without…
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Phuket barber found dead inside shop
PHUKET: Thalang Police think a barber found dead in his shop in Pa Khlok yesterday afternoon died of natural causes at least five days earlier. Thalang Police duty inspector Seksan Komsakorn identified the remains as those of 44-year-old Pira Ruengsamut, a Ranong native who had operated the shop in Ban Ao Por for many years. Thalang Police arrived at the…
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Phuket sails in China; Phuket air lift; Reliable police?
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Team Phuket to sail in China PHUKET: The Nation reports that ‘Team Phuket King’s Cup Regatta’ has entered the China Cup International Regatta, to take place in Daya Bay, Shenzhen, China from October 29 to November 1.…
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Cook arrested for religious icon theft in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket Police on Sunday arrested a thief who tried to return two stolen religious relics to their rightful owner, claiming they had brought him bad luck. News of the arrest came at a press conference at Chalong Police Station yesterday afternoon. Chalong Superintendent Police Colonel Wichit Intorrasorn identified the culprit as 36-year-old Janya Tongboonto, a resident of Karon. Presented…
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Another meth dealer busted in Phuket
PHUKET: The Kathu Narcotics Suppression Unit arrested a Bangkok-based drug dealer in Phuket Town on Monday morning, seizing almost 3,000 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills and a Mercedes-Benz as evidence. It was the third drug arrest for the suspect, who was only recently released from jail The arrest was announced at 1pm the same day by Kathu District Chief Siriphat Phathakul.…
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Choke Thavorn 6 salvage to begin off Phuket today
PHUKET: Efforts to salvage sunken transport vessel Choke Thavorn 6 are scheduled to begin at about 4pm today, weather permitting. Rear Admiral Nawin Thananet, Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Navy’s Third Area Command, said the salvage effort will be conducted by the vessel’s owner and the Harbormaster Department. “We will just observe the operation and help them if…
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Phuket tuk-tuk hero spoils drunken thief’s getaway bid
PHUKET: A Phuket tuk-tuk driver’s bravery led to the arrest of a man who allegedly tried to steal more than 170,000 baht from his employer early on Monday night. Tuk-tuk driver Phathaphon Phumdee, 34, was driving a fare to Phuket Bus Terminal 1 on Phang Nga Road in Phuket Town when his cell phone rang. It was his wife calling…
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Swiss man falls to his death in Phuket
PHUKET: A Swiss man fell to his death from the third-floor balcony of his home on a Patong hillside this morning. The man was living in a rented home on Phisit Gorani Rd, Soi 1 in Patong, not far from Suwankhiriwong Temple, at the time of his death. The man’s live-in Thai girlfriend, a woman of about 30 years old…
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Phuket Police nab postal fraud trio
PHUKET: Chalong Police yesterday held a press conference to announce the arrest two employees of a camera store in Chonburi for allegedly defrauding a camera store owner in Phuket out of more than 150,000 baht’s worth of photographic equipment. Ya Paenkaew, a local motorcycle taxi driver, is also in police custody for his alleged role in the scam. Anankorn Itthi-atsakorn,…
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Readers’ Poll: Would an ‘Asean Visa’ help Phuket?
PHUKET: For years, Asean members have been working to develop a single “Asean visa” that would allow free travel within the bloc. Such a visa would closely follow the highly-praised “Schengen visa”, which allows free travel throughout 15 European countries. Last month, former tourism minister Weerasak Kowsurat called for more support for the project, saying it would boost tourism within…
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Phuket Poll: 60% think current ‘low’ season a bad one
PHUKET: About 60% of respondents to a Phuket Gazette poll believe that tourism businesses on the island are doing poorly in the current low season. In total, well over half of respondents (58.7%) had a negative view: 33.6% said the economy was doing “not very well”, while 25.6% said it was doing “very badly” The remainder had positive views: 26.6%…
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FC Phuket beat Phattalung FC, 2-0
PHUKET: FC Phuket rebounded from being bounced out of the Toyota League Cup competition last weekend with a solid 2-0 win at Phatthalung on Sunday. Phattalung FC came into the pairing in tenth place in the 13-team Division 2 South of the AIS Regional League, while FC Phuket had already clinched the division title. Both sides came out aggressively, but…
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Phuket ‘surfer girl’ takes another title
PHUKET: Annisa Flynn, an 11-year-old from Chalong, took top honors in the under-15 category of the Rip Curl GromSearch Surf Series at Kata Beach on Saturday. The event, the second leg of the 2010 Phuket series, was held under very rainy and windy conditions. Despite this, competitors as young as four years of age took part. The GromSearch series is…
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Phuket oil scare ends; Phuket probes asthma
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket oil spill alert ends PHUKET: A Phuket provincial marine official says no more oil is leaking from the sunken tanker. Bhuripat Theerakulpisut told The Nation yesterday that the stricken vessel, the Choke Tavorn 6, was carrying…
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Phuket set for Indians; Storms ravage Thailand
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily digest of news about Thailand from around the world, compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community. Phuket set for Indian Travel Congress Phuket: The Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI) is expecting 800 to 1,000 delegates, including spouses, to attend their 59th annual convention – the Indian Travel Congress – in Phuket. The…
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Update: Phuket oil spill
PHUKET: As feared 40,000 liters of diesel fuel is leaking from the wreck of Choke Thavorn 6, a small tanker that sunk about 10 kilometers south of Phuket yesterday morning. The state-run Thai News Agency reported at 1am today that Navy helicopters confirmed a large and growing contamination plume above the site of the wreck, which now sits about 30…
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Phuket pow wow over illegal alien workers
PHUKET: The number of illegal alien workers in Phuket is around 200,000, it was announced at a Senate committee meeting in Phuket on Friday. About 150 government officers, senators and private-sector representatives met at the Kata Beach Resort on Friday morning to brainstorm better ways to legalize the estimated 1.5 million illegal workers from neighboring countries, especially Burma. Suvit Meksereekul,…
Phuket is a province in the south of Thailand. Phuket's beaches face the Andaman Sea allowing the west coast beaches fantastic sunsets right throughout the year. If you're looking for news in Phuket, go to thethaiger.com/phuket Or follow our instant news in our Facebook pages.
The good news is that Phuket is famous for its foodie scene with an enormously diverse range of local and international foods - Phuket and southern favorites, street food along with international choices catering for the 12 million visitors to the island each year. Thaiger follows Phuket news and information 24 hours a day with regular updates.
Phuket is only 'just' an island with a 300 metre bridge linking it to Thailand's mainland. We're always reporting in the news that the channel beneath is frequently dredged to maintain Phuket's status as an island. On the other side of Sarasin Bridge is the Province of Phang Nga.
Getting to Phuket is easy as the island has land, air and sea connections. Phuket is also used as a take-off point for local island trips as Thailand's largest island is surrounded by over 30 pristine islands. Koh Phi Phi and the famous Maya Bay are always in the news and would be the best known of the island's just off Phuket's shores.
Phuket is an island and a province. It's the largest island in Thailand – 48 km north to south, 21 km east to west.
It's about 20% smaller, in area, than Singapore but much less densely populated. Whilst the island nation of Singapore boasts a population of nearly 6 million, Phuket has a permanent population of around 400-450,000 (but varies a lot with the influx of tourists and a workforce that is always changing). Most of Phuket remains jungle and tropical rainforest despite an acceleration of development over the past 20 years.
Unlike some of Thailand's other popular islands (that are in the Gulf of Thailand), the news is that Phuket is located in the Andaman Sea.
Phuket is 878 km north of the equator.
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