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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Thailand's healthcare system is affordable and supported by the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) scheme, offering essential services to most citizens. However, hidden healthcare costs can surprise patients and lead to unexpected expenses. These include specialist fees, insurance gaps, emergency services,...
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Tsunami Memorial Day in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Patong held tsunami memorial activities on Saturday December 26, the fifth anniversary of the disaster and now National Disaster Prevention Day in Thailand. After an early morning alms-giving ceremony, activities began as planned with Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop reading out a letter from Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Many elected officials and high-ranking government officers attended, including Patong Mayor…
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New Phuket flyover under consideration
PHUKET CITY: The Highways Department is studying the possibility of building a flyover or tunnel to relieve traffic congestion at the Darasamuth School Intersection near Central Festival Phuket.The first in a series of five planned public hearings on the issue took place at The Metropole Hotel on Thursday morning.The Highways Department has included the project in its 10-year development plan…
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Phang Nga remembers the tsunami dead
PHUKET CITY: It was a somber time in Phang Nga on Saturday, when residents gathered to take part in ceremonies remembering those who died in the 2004 tsunami disaster that shocked the world five years ago. Early in the morning, 1,000 Buddhist monks took part in a mass alms giving ceremony in front of the Takuapa Police Station. At the…
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Colorful Phuket Countdown 2010
PHUKET CITY: With Christmas 2009 now in the past, Phuket is gearing up for the arrival of 2010 with a three-day ‘Colorful Phuket Countdown 2010’ festival to take place at the main stage at Saphin Hin from December 29 to 31…and well into the opening hours of 2010. The event is being jointly organized by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization…
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Phuket’s ‘Seven Days of Danger’ announced
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Police are gearing up for the annual ‘Seven Days of Danger’ road safety period that will this year run from December 29 to January 4. Nine main police checkpoints on major roads and 18 more on local roads will be manned around the clock to ensure public safety, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation…
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Government support for Phuket investments
PHUKET: Phuket OEM Co plans to build a 76-million-baht surgical-mesh factory on the island following a grant of tax incentives from Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI). Surgical mesh is used to help surgical wounds heal better and more quickly. BOI senior executive investment adviser Hirunya Suchinai said the company had been successful in turning a Swedish company’s research on synthetic…
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Santa to remain in Phuket for high season
PHUKET: In an exclusive, impromptu interview with the Phuket Gazette earlier this morning, Santa Clause – spotted arriving at a Phuket beach by long-tail boat on the last of his deliveries to the island’s good boys and girls – said he plans to take some time out here. Mr Clause said he had been thrown off his sleigh and dumped…
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Child labor ‘not a big problem’ in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: Workplace inspections by the Phuket Provincial Labor Protection Office have found that minors make up a very small fraction of the Phuket workforce. At a meeting at the Phuket Provincial Labor Protection Office chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Tri Augkaradacha yesterday morning, it was revealed that inspection tours in fiscal 2009 discovered 24 unregistered workers under the age…
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TOT rolls out fiber optic Internet service in Phuket
PHUKET CITY: TOT has launched a new fiber optic internet service in Phuket. Starting at 8,600 baht per month, the long-awaited ‘Fiber To You’ service offers internet speeds of 10-20 megabits per second. TOT President Varut Suvakorn said the state-owned company invested 200 million baht to install its ‘fiber to the x’ (FTTx) network in selected parts in each of…
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Catholic mass schedule for Phuket
PHUKET CITY: While Christmas is little more than a celebration of consumerism for most people in Phuket, for the island’s small Catholic community – and many Catholics here on holiday – it remains a Holy Day of Obligation under canon 1247 of Canon Law, which states: ‘On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate…
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Phuket ‘EM Ball’ project underway
PHUKET CITY: In a bid to help the environment, a group of activists on Saturday released thousands of ‘effective microorganisms’ (EM) balls into the sea off Pa Khlok and into Klong Pakbang in Patong. The event was presided over by Fourth Army Area Commander Lt Gen Pichet Wisaijorn. Joining him were project manager Pareeya Jullaphong of Bangkok Hospital Phuket’s Cooperate…
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Opening of new Phuket Bus Station on hold
PHUKET CITY: The opening of Phuket’s new 128-million-baht bus station is on hold while authorities work out which organization will be put in charge of its operation. Structural work on the station was completed earlier this month, with project contractor Anda Phuket Construction Co Ltd officially handing the structure over to the Land Transport Department on December 4. No date…
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Kathu Police change drug testing policy
PHUKET CITY: To keep Patong free of drugs, Kathu Police have adopted a new strategy that focuses on a new method of random drug testing for nightclub staff. Kathu Police Superintendent Grissak Songmoonnark said that Kathu is compiling lists of staff from participating nightclub owners in order to conduct surprise urine testing to see if staff test positive for ya…
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Phuket to host Canon Photo Marathon Thailand 2009
PHUKET CITY: Central Festival Phuket will host the Canon Photo Marathon Thailand 2009 photography contest on December 26 at in the outdoor area on the ground floor. The Phuket event will be the first and only leg of the photo marathon to take place in Southern Thailand. Similar events have already taken place in Bangkok, Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai.…
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Russian Orthodox Church coming to Phuket
THALANG, PHUKET: A Russian Orthodox Church now under construction in Tambon Thepkrasattri is scheduled for completion by the end of next year. The groundbreaking religious ceremony at 4pm yesterday was performed by Archbishop Hilaion of Volokolamsk from Moscow and other clerics representing the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand. The service was attended by Vice Governor Smith Palawatvichai and Rasada Mayor…
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Crackdown on illegal taxis at Phuket Airport
MAI KHAO, PHUKET: Tourists disembarking at Phuket International Airport this morning encountered even more high-season chaos than usual, as police erected a new checkpoint there in an attempt to crack down on illegal ‘black plate’ taxis. Phuket International Airport Director Prathueng Sornkham held a meeting at the airport yesterday to announce the crackdown, which he said was put in place…
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Phuket’s Kajonkietsuksa School signs MOU with PSU Wittayanusorn
PHUKET CITY: Phuket’s Kajonkietsuksa School has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Prince of Songkla University’s (PSU’s) Wittayanusorn School in Haad Yai, one of the top secondary schools in Southern Thailand. Phuket Vice Governor Teerayuth Eimtrakul was guest of honor at the signing ceremony, which took place at the Royal Phuket City Hotel late Friday afternoon Signing the…
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Phuket’s Happy Air launches Langkawi flights
PHUKET CITY: New regional airline Happy Air on Saturday launched its three-times-weekly flights from Phuket to Malaysia’s duty-free island of Langkawi. The service, which takes 40 minutes, is aboard a Swedish-built SAAB 340A aircraft. The 34-seat, twin-engine turboprop plane will be manned by two cabin crew per flight. The Happy Air marketing team told a press conference at the The…
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Patong motorbike taxi drivers get free helmets
PATONG, PHUKET: Hoping to improve both safety standards and their public image, scores of blue-vested motorbike taxi drivers on Saturday took part in a training project and received free safety helmets. The initiative is part of a road safety and crime prevention campaign created by Kathu Police Superintendent Grissak Songmoonnark. At 1 pm on Saturday, about 400 members of the…
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Homeless Swedes face deportation from Phuket
PHUKET CITY: A homeless couple from Sweden face imminent deportation for overstaying their permits to stay. Lt Col Boonlert Onklang of the Chalong Police identified the couple as Bjorn Lennart Lundqvist, 59, and his female companion Gabriella Rose-Marie Strand, 58. Officers found the couple lying on the sidewalk in front of the Bangkok Bank branch in Kata at 1pm last…
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PTT expands search for liquid gold off Phuket
PHUKET: PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP) will continue its search for oil and natural gas reserves off Thailand’s Andaman Coast, with the possibility of drilling as early as 2013, a company project manager told the Phuket Governor on Thursday.PTTEP project manager Bandit Chaisilboon, responsible for three concession areas (A4/48, A5/48 and A6/48) off the Andaman Coast, said PTTEP has…
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OPINION: Tuk-tuks clearly a bane to Phuket tourism
PHUKET: The past week saw the launch of the Gazette’s new readers’ forum that allows readers to post their comments on news stories. The interactive feature was an instant hit, with more than 120 comments in three days on a single story: the demand by a group of tuk-tuk drivers for a bigger slice of the transport pie at a…
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Englishman dies in Phuket boating accident
CHALONG, PHUKET: An Englishman died yesterday after the catamaran he was sailing in with two friends capsized off Koh Hei.Chalong police identified the deceased as UK national Kevin Corrigan, a retired former employee of AIG Insurance.One of the survivors, 67-year-old English expat Bill Dobbs, told the Gazette that he and Mr Corrigan left Chalong Bay in the catamaran owned by…
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No late nights for Phuket City bars
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Governor has refused a request by several bar owners on Yaowarat Road to be allowed to stay open until 2am, saying he lacks the authority to overrule Ministry of Interior regulations.In recent years a number of small bars and restaurants have opened up on the stretch of the road close to the intersection with Dibuk Road…
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Phuket Sea Gypsies face lawsuit, possible eviction
RAWAI, PHUKET: Thirteen Moken sea gypsy families are being threatened with eviction after a businessman bought the title for the land their homes are built on. The families claim they occupied the land before the chanote land title was issued. The owner of the 2.7 rai plot of land in Rawai Village 2 has applied to the Phuket Provincial Court…
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Krabi motorbike monk seeks media justice
PHUKET CITY: A monk from Krabi made his way to the Phuket press club office yesterday in an effort to clear his name following a newspaper report that he was breaking the monk’s code of conduct by using a motorbike instead of walking during his morning alms collection. A photo of Phra Tossaponchana Kommasutho of Wat Tamtheppratan in the Muang…
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Phuket lifeguards seek back pay from PPAO
PHUKET CITY: Fifty former members of the provincial beach guard gathered at the offices of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO) yesterday morning to protest over non-payment of two months’ salary. The guards, led by Kamala Beach head lifeguard Tawee Sariya, were met by PPAO Vice President Chawalit Na Nakorn at about 11:30am. The guards complained that all 67 members…
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Kamala Fest 2009 activites announced
KAMALA, PHUKET: Live performances from Kangkeng and Hin Lek Fai as well as a fishing competition and a football tournament are among the highlights of the Kamala Festival 2010, set to take place next month. Juta Dumluck, president of the Kamala Tambon Administration Organization (TAO), recently announced details of the festival, funded to the tune of three million baht. The…
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Phuket’s ‘Golden Boy’ back in town
PHUKET CITY: Satree Phuket student Peerasak Sae-eung returned to Phuket yesterday as the island’s first-ever gold medal winner at the International Junior Science Olympiad in Azerbaijan. A crowd was on hand at Phuket International Airport to congratulate him on his victory, which took place earlier this month. Later the same day, he returned to his school where he told reporters,…
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Royal Project outlet shop opens in Phuket City
PHUKET CITY: Phuket residents can help improve the lives of some of Thailand’s poorest citizens by purchasing products from ‘Thung Ngern Thung Thong’, a new store that opened in Phuket City on Saturday. Thung Ngern Thung Thong, which translates as ‘bag of silver, bag of gold’, is the first-ever store in Phuket with permission from the Office of the Royal…
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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