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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5 hidden healthcare costs in Thailand and how to avoid them
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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3 dead, 424 hurt on Songkran roads
PHUKET: Three people died in accidents on Phuket roads during the official Songkran period, which began on April 9 and ended at midnight on Sunday. Metha Mekarat, Chief of the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, yesterday announced that the latest two victims were Visanu Chulap and Kajornkiat Sae-iew, both 20 and from Mai Khao. The two men were…
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Wildlife touts arrested in Patong
PATONG: Four photo-taking touts have been arrested by police and charged with having young gibbons in their possession without the required wildlife licences. One has already been fined 20,000 baht. The men were taken into custody over Songkran in Patong after a steady stream of complaints from tourists. Further charges will be laid against the four if allegations that the…
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Water supply projects completed
PHUKET: Two new mains water projects by the Phuket Provincial Waterworks Department (PPWD) are now in operation, and the authority is nearing completion of three additional supply lines as part of its fiscal 2004 budget. Speaking at the Governor’s monthly press conference at the Phuket Provincial Health Office yesterday, PPWD chief Sayun Vareearoonrod said residents could now apply for hook-up…
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Green light for bypass road widening
PHUKET CITY: Work to widen Chalermprakiat Ror IX Rd (the bypass road) to four lanes and, along one section, to six lanes, is due to begin on May 7. The 111-million-baht project, which will be paid for by the central government, will run from just south of the Dara Samut School intersection (known to many people as the Thainaan intersection)…
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Songkran blitz holds road toll down
PHUKET: A Songkran crackdown by police and government officials has held Phuket’s Thai New Year holiday road toll to one death and 340 injuries so far. The figures, recorded up to midnight last night, were in line with last year’s, when the number of deaths was restricted to two during the 10-day festival. In contrast, the tally of arrests at…
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Laws of physics win
OOPS: Passers-by at the Thepkrasattri Rd – Komarapaj Rd intersection in Phuket City on Saturday night were astonished to come across this humpbacked pickup truck. Witnesses said that the truck, heavily laden with fruit, was not involved in an accident, but had jack-knifed – vertically – after its driver slammed on his brakes at the lights.
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First road death recorded in “Safe Songkran’
PATONG: Within minutes of government officials urging people to ride safely, Sarawuth Kohavee became the first road fatality in Songkran week in Phuket. About noon his motorbike, bound for Phuket City, slammed into the rear of a six-wheel truck as it turned into a soi in Chalong, near the entrance of Phuket Vanich Company. K. Sarawuth was not wearing a…
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Report to Immigration, foreigners told
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Immigration Office has renewed its warning that foreigners holding any type of one-year extension-of-stay must visit an Immigration office every 90 days to confirm their identity and address, or face a 2,000 baht fine. More stringent application of the rules – along with random visits by officers to check passports in areas where foreigners gather –…
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Air hostess grants offered to needy dreamers
PHUKET: The government is offering 60 scholarships for good-looking, tall, well educated Thai women living in poverty to realize their dreams of becoming air hostesses. Under the “Eur Ah-torn Air Hostess Project”, women granted the scholarships will attend the three-month basic cabin attendant course at the Civil Aviation Training Center (CATC) in Bangkok. The project, says an announcement from the…
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More Songkran water play zones designated
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has designated two more zones for Songkran water play, adding to the three previously announced by Phuket Provincial Police. In a pamphlet issued by the Provincial Public Relations Office, the Governor listed the following areas as places where people may legally fling water at one another during Songkran: Muang District: Saphan Hin, Tambon Rawai,…
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Two-tier pricing claim baffles developers
PHUKET: Real estate developers have reacted with bafflement and irritation to an accusation that the property industry in Thailand indulges in double pricing, with foreigners paying up to 75% more than Thais do for homes. The accusation came in a report published yesterday by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong – the biggest market by far for the…
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Patong politician attacked with metal bar
PATONG: Suwat Somnam, a member of the Patong Progress Party, which is currently under investigation by the Phuket Election Commission for vote-buying after it won the February 8 Patong municipal election, was beaten with a metal bar early on Tuesday morning while he was jogging along Patong Beach. “I woke up early as usual and went jogging along Patong Beach,”…
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Bad debt property up for auction
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Legal Execution Department (PLED) will hold its first “distressed property” auction of the year on May 15 at the Phuket Merlin Hotel. The PLED, which is responsible for auctioning off bad-debt properties, currently has on its books 220 properties worth an estimated 750 million baht. Those that are unsold on May 15 will be offered at…
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Air Andaman to launch Phuket-Singapore route
PHUKET: Air Andaman will begin a regular service between Bangkok and Singapore from May 13, stopping at Phuket on the way. Public Relations Manager Am-nad Thienhiranchaikul told the Gazette that the airline is awaiting delivery of two new Fokker-100 jet airplanes to fly the new route. With capacity for 108 passengers, the new planes will replace the smaller F-50 turboprop…
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Warning over export of antiques
PHUKET CITY: Officers from the Customs Office at Phuket International Airport and from the Thalang National Museum have issued a reminder that people wanting to take antiques or Buddha images out of Thailand must first obtain a permit to do so. Nittaya Pinchaisiri, an officer at Thalang National Museum, said, “People who want to take antiques or Buddha images bought…
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Phuket City elects a new mayor
PHUKET CITY: A woman is Phuket City’s first directly-elected mayor. Somjai Suwannasuppana led the Khon Noom (Young Turks) Party to a relatively narrow victory in the Phuket City Municipality poll yesterday. K. Somjai, previously second on the party ticket, behind long-serving mayor Phummisak Hongsyok, polled 11,986 votes, narrowly defeating Prawat Suwannadithakul, of the Chao Baan Sarng San (Creative) Party, who…
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Reward offered over missing man
KATA: The family of missing dive instructor David Wiewel are offering a reward of 50,000 baht for information leading to Mr Wiewel being found. The 57-year-old Dutchman walked out of his home in Kata on the morning of March 26 and has not been seen since. His brother, Frank, said, “We are living between hope and fear and the situation…
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Dulwich to open college on Samui
KOH SAMUI: David Cook, Headmaster of Dulwich International College (DIC), has announced that the international school will open a new campus on Koh Samui next year. At a meeting of property developers and agents on Koh Samui on Friday, Mr Cook said that DIC had concluded the purchase of 65 rai of land with 300 meters of road front in…
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Mob protests police “lack of action’
CHERNG TALAY: In the latest flare-up in an ongoing gang war between youths from Bang Tao and neighboring Baan Don, some 100 teenagers blocked the main road intersection in Cherng Talay last night for seven hours. The mob were protesting about the “unfair” arrests of two Bang Tao teenagers during a brawl yesterday afternoon in Thalang, and about the repeated…
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Anti-disease drive in markets
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) plans to spray the island’s fresh markets with germicides frequently this summer with the aim of preventing diseases. Somboon Aiyarak, from the PPHO, told the Gazette “Stomach illnesses such as diarrhea spread very quickly in the summer – we have problems almost every year. So we should try to provide some protection for…
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Sun sets on Phromthep eyesore
RAWAI: Visitors going to Laem Phromthep recently to watch the sun set have been getting more than they bargained for. At the top of the stairs leading up from the carpark, and blocking the view, is a large, unfinished stone monument. But now it has been decided that the unsightly new structure, built at a cost of 200,000 baht as…
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Confusion over new entertainment licenses
PHUKET: About 30% of the entertainment venues on Phuket have not applied for any of the new entertainment service licenses, Wisut Romin, Deputy Secretary of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Office, has told the Gazette. Owners of entertainment venues had until March 12 to apply, after which their existing licenses automatically became void. Those who did apply are allowed to continue…
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Gov urges swift action on seaweed
PHUKET: At a provincial meeting this morning Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura admitted that bright green seaweed covering large parts of Patong Beach is the result of poor waste disposal practices by the Patong Municipality, but stressed that it is not a danger to human health. The Governor did acknowledge, however, that the piles of macroalgae are a threat to tourism.…
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Tax man’s take rises 50pc
PHUKET: The island’s tax collectors were highly successful in February this year, collecting almost 50% more than in the same month in 2003. The latest figures released by the Phuket Provincial Revenue Office show a rise in the overall tax harvest from 223.97 million baht in February last year to 334.17 million baht in the same month this year, an…
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Heated views at zoning seminar
PHUKET: What might have been a dry discussion of the technicalities of zoning in Phuket turned into a wide-ranging and sometimes emotional discussion of Phuket’s ills when 150 people attended a Phuket Gazette-Nation seminar on Saturday. On stage to lead discussion of “Can Zoning Save Phuket?” at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort were Dr Sommai Prijasila, Head of the Foreign…
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Appeal over missing dive instructor
KATA: The wife and friends of dive instructor David Wiewel, 57, have issued an appeal for anyone who has seen the Dutchman since 8 am on Friday (March 26) to get in touch with them. Mr Wiewel left his home at 121/1, Koktanod Rd, Kata, at that time and was last seen walking toward Kata Noi. He left behind his…
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Hotel unions examine service charge issue
PHUKET CITY: For members of local hotel labor unions, the question of who gets service charges was high on the agenda at a recent international meeting of labor officials in Phuket. Regional representatives of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) gathered at the ST Hotel on March 27-28 to discuss collective…
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Video captures tourist’s “suicide’
KARON: A video recording of a Thai tourist speaking her last known words was found in the bedroom of her Karon holiday home where she apparently committed suicide. Pol Maj Jessada Sangsure, of Chalong Police Station, told the Gazette that he received a call yesterday at 6 pm from a male cleaner who found the body. Maj Jessada arrived to…
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First round of zoning hearings completed
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Public Works and Town and Country Planning Office (PWTCPO), which is responsible for drawing up a comprehensive set of island-wide zoning regulations by October 1, has completed a first round of public hearings in each of Phuket’s three districts to gauge public opinion on zoning issues. The zoning is intended to curb the unregulated development that…
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Direct Phuket-Pattaya flights take off
PHUKET: Bangkok Airways will launch direct Phuket-Pattaya flights on Sunday (March 28) – part of a general aviation expansion that also sees Hong Kong-based airlines Cathay Pacific and Dragonair getting access to some domestic routes within Thailand. Bangkok Airways’ Sales Executive in Phuket, Julalak Atiwattananon, told the Gazette that, starting March 28, the new Phuket-Pattaya service will fly on Sundays,…
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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