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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Phuket marine center moves to save bleached coral
PHUKET: The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) will today request that parts of the Similan and Surin national parks be closed to protect dying corals there. DMCR Director-General Kasemssan Jinnawaso announced yesterday that his department would file the request with the National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Department, which manages the national parks. “We will request closure of…
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FC Phuket scores Thai star as manager
PHUKET: Former Thai national team star Surachai Jirasirichote today stepped into his new role as manager of FC Phuket. Surachai, 40, is a former national team defensive stalwart with over 50 caps and two goals for his country. He takes over the reins of FC Phuket (also known as the “Southern Sea Kirin”) from former boss Arjharn Songngamsap, who stepped…
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New Patong one-way system now in place
PHUKET: Police launched the new one-way traffic system in Patong on Saturday, with one change from the original plan: Soi Ruamjai is now one-way heading toward the beach, not one-way away from the beach. Kathu Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakhao explained to the Phuket Gazette that having the road heading away from the beach caused traffic jams on Prachanukroh Rd at…
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Phuket to host Deep South food fair
PHUKET: Phuket Town will host the second-annual Five Southern Border Provinces’ Product Fair from January 31 to February 6 at the central stage area at Saphan Hin. Boonchoke Khanabkeaw, Assistant Director of the Ministry of Industry office in Songkhla, said the event will showcase food products from the five southern border provinces of Songkhla, Satun, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. Hosted…
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POLL: Phuket readers in standoff over police checkpoints
PHUKET: Despite this year’s new year holiday road toll being only half that of last year, Phuket Gazette readers are not convinced that the extra police road checkpoints during the ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety campaign actually made Phuket roads safer. Readers were asked: “Four people died on Phuket roads during the recently-completed Seven Days of Danger road safety…
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Phuket hero lawyer in apparent suicide
PHUKET: A lawyer who specialized in defending poor villagers in land rights cases has been found dead in an apparent case of suicide.The body of Supachai Singjan, 54, was found hanging by the neck from a door in his apartment in Rassada sub-district yesterday.Mr Supachai apparently tied a bedsheet to his neck, looped it over the door and bent his…
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Special Report: Phuket sea gypsies fight for their rights
PHUKET: More than 70 representatives from 30 sea gypsy communities across the six Andaman provinces met officials in Phuket earlier this week to voice grievances and defend their way of life. The meeting, at Phuket Community Hall followed the arrest and release of 17 sea gypsy fishermen of the Pramongkit clan arrested in late December for fishing inside Had Jao…
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Phuket Blues Fest artists nominated for top accolades
PHUKET: Curtis Salgado, one of the headline acts to play at the Phuket International Blues Rock Festival next month, has been nominated for the Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year award at the 2011 Blues Music Awards. The awards, the blues music equivalent of the Grammys, will be held in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 5. The nomination follows Salgado’s…
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Phuket Andaman Airshow dazzles the crowds at Phuket Airpark
PHUKET: The Phuket Andaman Airshow and Fly-In returned yesterday to Phuket Airpark, with a crowd of roughly 400 spectators and private aircraft from all over Southeast Asia. This year’s event, which celebrated the extension of the Airpark’s runway to 800 neters, had some special bonuses, including a heart-pounding show of aerobatics, an equally exciting appearance 14 bikini-clad competitors for the…
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Phuket pitches for Slovakia
PHUKET: Tourists on Patong Beach received a midday surprise yesterday when the 12 finalists in the Miss Slovakia beauty pageant arrived to try parasailing. The bevy of beauties are in Phuket to film a promotional video to be screened on TV in their home country during the final round of the Miss Slovakia contest. Bangornrat Shinaprayoon, director of the southern…
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Phuket’s Kamala Festival kicks off
PHUKET: The Kamala Festival 2011 began last night, marking the start of three days of free entertainment at Kamala Public Park. The event began with a sunset parade by Phuket FantaSea, from its showgrounds to Kamala Beach. Vice Governor Somkiat Sangkaosuttirat officiated at the opening of the event, before the live entertainment began on stage. First up was a show…
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Phuket announces recycling drive
PHUKET: Phuket’s Wichit Municipality will hold a two-day recycling drive this week as part of its ‘sort, re-use and recycle’ campaign to reduce the volume of solid waste sent to Saphan Hin for incineration. All members of the public are encouraged to sort recyclable wastes such as glass, tin and plastic and bring it to the children’s playground at the…
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Brit gang-rape report sparks Phuket police warning
PHUKET: Following reports of a 23-year-old British woman being gang raped near Patong, police are urging young women to exercise caution while on holiday in Phuket. Patong Police Superintendent Arayapan Pukbuakhao today told the Phuket Gazette, “It is hard to prevent this kind of situation from happening. Sometimes tourists let their guard down to strangers. Tourists should be careful and…
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Raid in Rawai: Phuket bar crackdown continues
PHUKET: Five popular nightspots in Rawai had some unexpected guests early this morning when a provincial security task force arrived to enforce closing times. The crackdown is part of an island-wide effort ordered by the Interior Ministry. It follows the December 27 signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by Deputy Interior Minister Thavorn Senniam and the operators of nightspots…
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Get ready for the weekend in Phuket
PHUKET: The latest edition of the Phuket Gazette is on sale now. Pick up a copy of Phuket’s most popular local newspaper for lots of interesting articles not available online, including: NEWS – Upcoming MICE event to be largest ever held on the island. – Efforts to secure UN World Heritage status for Phuket Town buildings. – Sea gypsies fight…
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Phuket Police pounce on porn pirates
PHUKET: Coordinated raids on a counterfeit video manufacturer and three sales outlets have led to the arrest of six people and seizure of more than 30,000 discs, some of them pornographic. Fifty provincial and Region 8 police officers divided into four teams set out from Phuket Provincial Police headquarters at 7pm on Wednesday night to make the arrests. Joining them…
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Phuket Governor launches night venue crackdown
PHUKET: The Phuket Governor has warned entertainment venues to abide by the law – or suffer the consequences. The warning from Governor Tri Augkaradacha comes after officers from the Phuket Provincial Office and Muang District Office teamed up to raid popular nightspots across the district last week. Muang District covers Phuket Town and surrounding sub-districts, running all the way south…
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Phuket Blood Center calls for donations
PHUKET: The Phuket Regional Blood Center run by the Thai Red Cross is calling for blood donations, especially of blood types A-, B- and AB-. “After the Seven Days of Danger [national road safety campaign] over the new year, we do not have enough to support the patients at Bangkok Hospital Phuket,” said Pornthip Rattajak, acting director of the center.…
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Phuket revelers gatecrash curry shop
PHUKET: The owners of a mom-and-pop store in Phuket got a rude awakening early this morning when a car crashed through the front of their home. Thalang Police received a report at 2:45am that a car had crashed into the shopfront of a home on the northbound side of Thepkrasattri Road, opposite the electrical substation in Baan Lipon, Thalang. Led…
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Phuket “lucky license plates’ to go under the hammer
PHUKET: The island’s high-rollers will descend upon The Metropole hotel in Phuket Town on February 26 and 27 for the sixth annual “Lucky” License Plate Auction. Organized by the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO), the event will see 301 license plates go to the highest bidders. The auction will be held from 8:30am to 4:30pm in the Prapitak Grand Ballroom.…
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BREAKING NEWS: Phuket tour van crashes in Phang Nga
PHUKET: Seven people, including at least five Koreans, are receiving hospital treatment after their Phuket tour van slid off the road and into an embankment in Phang Nga earlier today. Lt Col Songwut Khunjun of the Takuatung District Police said the crash occurred on the Petchkasem Highway in Krasom subdistrict. The vehicle was on its way to Surakul Pier when…
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POLL: Did the “Seven Days of Danger’ safety campaign make Phuket roads safer?
PHUKET: Four people died on Phuket roads during the recently-completed ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety campaign, half last year’s toll. Do you think the police road checkpoints set up around the island as part of these campaigns actually make Phuket roads safer? Have your say in the latest Phuket Gazette readers’ poll by clicking here or on the icon…
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EXCLUSIVE: One-on-one in Phuket with Bob Sinclar
PHUKET: More than 3,000 music fans flocked to Famous Nightclub in Patong last Tuesday to see French DJ Bob Sinclar – the man behind the worldwide hits Love Generation and World, Hold On. Here’s the Phuket Gazette‘s exclusive interview with the man himself. If one DJ has stood out from the rest over the past decade it would be Bob…
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New development plan for Phuket’s Saphan Hin
PHUKET: A proposal has been put forward to develop a multi-purpose tourist center at Saphan Hin in Phuket Town. The plan was pitched to Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha by Norwegian maritime engineering company LMG Marin at a meeting last week. Saphan Hin is Phuket Town’s largest park and its seafront has long been earmarked as a location for a major…
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Major Phuket blackouts to start Tomorrow
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has announced scheduled blackouts to carry out maintenance on high voltage power lines, install new lines and move power poles. The dates and locations of the operations, which will carried out from 9am to 4pm, are detailed below: January 11 – Chalong Luang Por Chuang Road, from the TOT office on Chao Fa…
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TAT takes Deep South kids on Phuket megatrip
PHUKET: The Tourism Authority of Thailand took 60 poor children from Thailand’s troubled Deep South provinces on a National Children’s Day trip of a lifetime to Phuket on Saturday. The lucky youngsters were chosen from schools in Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces, where an Islamic separatist insurgency continues to rage with almost daily acts of violence. Included on the itinerary…
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Gazette Poll: Phuket has too many hotels
PHUKET: A clear majority of Phuket Gazette Online readers believe the island’s hotel industry is in a state of oversupply, the results of the newspaper’s latest poll reveal. Overall, more than half of those taking part (58.9%) thought there were too many hotels in Phuket, compared to just 17.1% who thought there were not. Almost a quarter of all those…
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Park booze ban: Phuket tourism players “shaken, not stirred’
PHUKET: Reactions by key figures in Phuket’s tourism industry are mixed over the recent ban on alcohol inside 110 national parks nationwide. However, many agree that the rule will be very difficult to enforce at marine national parks. Pracha Rachai, Events Manager at Andaman Aqua Trails, said the ban had already caused “a lot” of cancellations by Russian tourists, the…
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Phuket PIMEX gets down to business
PHUKET: The 2011 Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX) is off to a flying start, with Jaguar selling one of their all-new cars and Derani Yachts selling a Monterey 298SS Super Sport on the show’s opening day. Other deals inked include Phuket boat broker Lee Marine selling a 57-foot Jeanneau and a 33ft Fountain powerboat changing hands through a private sale.…
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Children’s day on Phuket
PHUKET: Children’s Day activities kicked off in Phuket today with addresses to the island’s next generation by the Phuket Governor and head of the provincial council. Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha and Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) president Paiboon Ubatising both addressed a crowd of youths and civil servants at Phuket Provincial Hall, one of the many places staging special events…
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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