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.
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The Great American Smokeout, held this year on November 17, is a nationwide event that encourages smokers to take their first steps towards a smoke-free life. If you’re an expat in Thailand, this day could be a timely reminder to...
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Japanese women fight off rapists
PHUKET TOWN: Two Japanese women were nearly raped by two illegal Thai guides in the early hours of Wednesday. Usuki Sato, 27, and Soko Yakanimoto, 26, came to Phuket on Tuesday and were staying at the Panwaburi Hotel on Cape Panwa. The following day, they went out with the two Thai guides, who usually hang around the front of the…
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Swingin’ monk gets the sack
BANGKOK (AFP): An abbot at a Thai temple was forced to leave the monkhood in disgrace today after being caught carousing with a group of women in a karaoke bar. Phra Pativetviset, from the Bangkok temple Wat Sriboonruang, was banished after being captured on film during a police raid on the karaoke joint last weekend. Despite wearing a disguise of…
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Blast and fire damage yacht
AO MAKHAM: A fire broke out this morning on a 4-million-baht sailing yacht berthed at Ao Yon, causing damage estimated at 1 million baht. The fire started at 7 am aboard the ketch “Red Moon”. Pol Lt Col Teerapol Thipjaroen, acting superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that villagers heard an explosion before the yacht began to…
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Decade of inaction on twin city slammed
PHUKET TOWN: The man behind a twin-city agreement between Phuket and the French Riviera city of Nice slammed the provincial government today for ignoring the agreement for more than 10 years, causing Phuket to miss some big opportunities to learn from Nice and to attract more French visitors. Jessada Kraipusspong, former deputy managing director of Asia Voyage and Pansea Group…
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Airport limo operators slam “black’ taxis
PHUKET AIRPORT: Legitimate limousine operators fed up with illegal “black taxis” taking business from them at the airport protested today to the Phuket office of the Airports Authority of Thailand (AAT). Representatives of the Phuket Limousine and Business Service Cooperative Ltd (PBC), led by Vitoon Sae’iw, the organization’s secretary, presented the AAT with a video that they said shows the…
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Hotels reiterate refusal to pay new tax
PHUKET: The committees of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), Southern Chapter, and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) today announced that they will not collect hotel tax from tourists on behalf of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) until the organization is able to clarify a number of issues. The refusal to collect the tax came in response to the latest…
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Slow progress in murder and rape cases
PHUKET: The police have admitted that investigations of two recent headline-grabbing cases have not being going as well as they had hoped. In the case of the mutilated corpse of an unidentified woman found in Kathu on October 7, Pol Maj Withoon Kongsoodchai, Inspector of Tung Tong Police Station, said, “There has been almost no evidence that points us towards…
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Lions Club raffle results
PHUKET TOWN: The Lions Club of Phuket Pearl has announced the winners of its “Smile for the Future” raffle and food fair, drawn on Saturday at Saphan Hin during the club’s annual fund-raising event. The winner of the first prize, a Nissan pick-up truck, was K. Chalermpong (ticket number 19195). Sompong Aunmettajit (ticket number 27367) won the Yamaha motorcycle, Maneerat…
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Elephant owner sought after death crash
LAMPANG (AFP): Police in this northern Thai province were today looking for the owner of a female elephant which was in a collision with a truck, resulting in the deaths of two people. Police tracked down the elephant yesterday, a day after it collided with a fuel tanker truck while crossing a main road leading to Chiang Mai. The truck…
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Police arrest motorbike hit-man
PHUKET: A finance company employee was shot dead while on his way home at 8:20 this morning. His killer was arrested just three hours later. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station said that the victim, Aroon Yutitham, 28, was riding his motorbike from Phuket Town to his home at 8/4 Moo 1, Tambon Wichit, and had stopped…
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Red-tape nightmare for parks entry
PHUKET: It’s official: the postponement of the fee hike for foreigners visiting national parks in Thailand has been canceled. Thais will be allowed into the parks at the old price, ranging from as little as 5 baht to 20 baht, whereas foreigners (including foreigners resident in Thailand) will have to pay 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
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Efforts to stop deadly child disease stepped up
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Health Office has set up protection measures at the Phuket International Airport to ensure that an epidemic in Singapore of Coxsackie B virus – better known as hand, foot and mouth disease – does not spread to Thailand. The potentially deadly disease has already spread to Malaysia, with 221 cases reported, and two deaths. In Singapore,…
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Chaos reigns over park fees
PHUKET: Conflicting announcements from the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) have left tour operators and dive companies wondering just what the policy on national park entry fees is, how it will be applied, and when. On August 15, the RFD announced an increase in entry fees – for foreigners only – to 200 baht for adults and 100 baht for children.…
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Bad weather will last 3 more days
PHUKET: The island will experience strong winds and heavy rain over the next few days as a tropical depression passes over the province, Amorn Chantanavivate, the director of the Southwestern Regional Meteorological Center, said today. The current bad weather is being caused by a moderate southwest monsoon over the Andaman Sea and the southwestern coast of Thailand, he explained. Storms…
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Phuket chosen for crime prevention experiment
PHUKET TOWN: The commander of the Royal Thai Police today chaired a meeting at Phuket Town Police Station to discuss a project to make Phuket a model for crime prevention and suppression. If the project, due to start next year, is a success, the lessons learned will be applied to Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Hua Hin, and then to other…
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Bangkok autopsy for murder victim
KATHU: The mutilated corpse of an unidentified woman found near the Loch Palm Golf Club on Saturday has been sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bangkok for an in-depth autopsy. “We have sent the body to the institute because no pathologist in Phuket can perform complex analysis such as DNA testing,” explained Pol Maj Tanapong Moktong of the…
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Four injured in early-morning crash
PHUKET TOWN: Two Korean men and two Thai men were injured in a two-car accident early yesterday morning. Pol Capt Kitipong Klaikaew of Thung Thong Sub-District Police Station said that a pick-up truck and a jeep collided on Wichitsongkram Rd, west of the Thainaan Restaurant, at 2 am. At the scene – a part of the road that locals call…
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Massive manhunt for rapist
PHUKET TOWN: The Provincial Police Office today launched a city-wide hunt for a man who raped a British tourist, Dawn Farmer, 22, on Tuesday night. They also issued a sketch of the man, drawn from a description given by the victim. Saying that the crime is “a blot on Thailand’s reputation in the tourism industry”, the head of all Thailand’s…
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Park fee hike postponed
PHUKET: The Royal Forestry Department (RFD) has announced that the increase in entrance fees to Thailand’s national parks will be postponed until October 1, 2001. Announcing the postponement, the RFD said it had decided to delay charging the higher fees in order to “encourage tourism” and to give tour operators and travel agents time to adjust their rates. The fee…
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Injured activist regains consciousness
PHUKET: Environmental activist Siripoj Cheechang, critically injured in what appears to be have been an assassination attempt on Wednesday morning, has regained consciousness, his doctor reported this afternoon. Dr Niran Taweekul, a neurosurgeon at Wachira Phuket Hospital, said that K. Siripoj is now in stable condition. “Last night, he was responding to us, but we can’t check his ability to…
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Scottish tourist raped during festival
PHUKET TOWN: Instead of enjoying her holiday during the island’s Vegetarian Festival, a tourist from Scotland ended up being raped on Tuesday night. The victim, 22-year-old Dawn Farmer, told police that she was raped by a man wearing the traditional white clothing popular with celebrants during the chaotic festival. The white clothing is associated with the festival’s undertone of purity,…
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Deadly child disease “not seen in Phuket’
PHUKET: A doctor at the Phuket International Hospital has allayed fears that a virulent form of Coxsackie virus, more commonly known as hand, foot and mouth disease, has spread from Singapore to Phuket. Primary schools in Singapore have been closed in an effort to limit the spread of the Coxsackie B virus, which can result in death, particularly in infants.…
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15-year-old “mama san’ arrested
PHUKET: “Nid”, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Udon Thani wanted on charges of pimping, was arrested on Saturday at her uncle’s home on a construction site in Soi Parlai, Chalong. “Nid” disappeared after police arrested two men for having paid sex with a 14-year-old schoolmate, “Noi”. The 14-year-old alleged that “Nid” had persuaded her to become a prostitute, had arranged clients,…
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Boat operators warned over Similans
SIMILAN ISLANDS: Boat operators wanting to enter the Similan Islands Marine National Park before November 2 have been warned that they must get special permission first, or face action for contravening the National Parks Act of 1961. The warning was issued after two vessels were halted on Wednesday by Wittaya Hongwiangchan, who took over as the park’s Chief in May.…
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Start of hotel tax postponed
PHUKET TOWN: Members of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) today voted to postpone the introduction of the controversial tax on hotel room revenue for one month. At the meeting, the members decided that collection of the tax should be postponed until November 1, and that the rate should be 0.5%. This rate will hold until September 30, 2001, after…
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Airport throughput up in August
PHUKET: This year’s low season numbers continue to be impressive, according to the latest monthly figures issued by Phuket International Airport. These show an 8.23% rise in passengers using the airport in August, compared with August 1999. The statistics show that 294,733 passengers went through the airport in August, compared with 272,326 in the same month last year. The number…
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Hotels continue to batter OrBorJor
PHUKET: With just three days to go before the new provincial hotel tax comes into force, hoteliers have continued to assail the Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) with criticism and threats of lawsuits and even industrial action. During a meeting at the Patong Resort yesterday, with mostly middle-level employees from 140 Patong hotels, the hotels argued that the way the Phuket…
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No more dog slaughters: Governor
PHUKET: It’s official: there will be no more killing of stray dogs in Phuket except in the case of individual animals that pose a threat to the public. The ruling came after a meeting of provincial officials and their counterparts from the Phuket Town Municipality, chaired by the Governor of Phuket, Charnchai Soontharamut. The meeting came on the heels of…
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Hotel tax: OrBorJor faces more hostility
PHUKET: Leaders of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) today went out to explain the proposed new hotel tax to the island’s hotels. They found themselves facing hostile and querulous audiences of mostly middle-level hotel employees – hotel owners and senior managers mostly stayed away. Neither the Phuket Tourism Association (PTA) nor the Thai Hotels Association (THA) was represented. In…
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IBAP holds inaugural meeting
PHUKET TOWN: The fledgling International Business Association of Phuket (IBAP) held its inaugural meeting today at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, drawing a capacity crowd of 73 people. The meeting was held to introduce the concept and aims of the IBAP and to solicit discussion, questions and suggestions from those who attended. Keynote speaker Dr Prasit Koysiripong, President of the…
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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