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The 5 best luxury villa rentals in Koh Samui by The Luxury Signature

Koh Samui has long been known as one of the world’s finest luxury travel destinations. Its pristine beaches, lush landscapes, and crystal-clear waters create an idyllic setting that attracts travellers seeking an escape from the everyday grind. And opting to stay in one of Koh...

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  • The world’s top 25 luxury hotels

    The world’s top 25 luxury hotels

    Luxury hotels. Sure, we plenty of those in Phuket and around Thailand. But where are the world’s best luxury hotels? Out of the top 25, only one is in Thailand. The votes are in by the people who visit and stay in these expensive but ornate and luxurious accommodation offerings. Trip Advisor guests have stayed …

  • Preparing to close down Maya Bay

    Preparing to close down Maya Bay

    The General Director of the Department of National Parks (DNP) visited Maya Bay yesterday, which is expected to close down for 4 months from the start of June. Thanya Neti Thammakul, along with his team, visited Koh Phi Phi Ley and Maya Bay yesterday (April 23) to follow up the readiness before closing down the …

  • Nai Harn Phuket celebrates the 2nd anniversary of Rock Salt

    Nai Harn Phuket celebrates the 2nd anniversary of Rock Salt

    On Friday, April 20, The Nai Harn Phuket marked the second anniversary of Rock Salt, the resort’s stylish, laid back stand-alone beachfront bistro. The team at Phuket’s only member of Leading Hotels of the World celebrated the occasion with a Whispering Angel Rosé Party during which guests were served a welcome glass of wine from …

  • New 101 villa luxury property heading to Mai Khao, Phuket

    New 101 villa luxury property heading to Mai Khao, Phuket

    PHOTO: Viagens e Férias Global hospitality group Melia Hotels International has signed a new 101 villa luxury property in Mai Khao, Phuket. The developer of the property is the Phuket Villa Group. Each of the hotel villas feature private pools. Slated for 2021, the group will enter the Phuket market with an exclusive luxury resort on the idealic …

  • The 110cc power plant of South East Asia

    The 110cc power plant of South East Asia

    Please ensure that you are properly licensed and wear a helmet anytime you hire or ride a motorbike in South East Asia. Whenever you visit South East Asia one thing becomes immediately apparent – the economies would never survive without the ubiquitous 110cc step-thru motorbikes. Some may have bigger engines, some might have been ‘modified’ …

  • Another month, another surge in tourists to Thailand

    Another month, another surge in tourists to Thailand

    Thailand’s tourist arrivals clocked up 3.4 million visitors in March 2018, an improvement of over 16 percent year-on-year. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has confirmed March finished with 3,497,260 visitors. Earnings for March were estimated at 189,158 million baht, up 22 percent year-on-year. Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent secretary for the tourism ministry, noted that East Asia …

  • Boracay – Last one out, turn the lights off

    Boracay – Last one out, turn the lights off

    Philippines officials are sending in the troops to keep tourists off the island and deter potential protests as Boracay Island prepares for closure from April 26. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has branded the tourist magnet island and its white-sand beach a “cesspool”. In a move that’s sent tour operators, hotel chains and locals into a …

  • Private investors being wooed over planned marina for Samui

    Private investors being wooed over planned marina for Samui

    Samui is looking to establish the island’s first marina and is currently looking to investors for the project in the Gulf of Thailand. Asia Pacific Superyachts reports that Koh Samui has succeeded in attracting international five-star brands, a strong luxury villas market as well as quality golf courses. The report says that superyacht sailors are …

  • Hainan Island: 30 day visa-free for 59 countries starting May 1

    Hainan Island: 30 day visa-free for 59 countries starting May 1

    China will adopt a new 30 day visa-free policy in Hainan province (Hainan Island, south west of Hong Kong) for people from 59 countries starting May 1, in an attempt to lure more tourists to the southernmost province. Hainan has been trying to tempt travellers away from the popular south east asian tropical hot spots …

  • Failure to turn browsers into buyers – online travel booking

    Failure to turn browsers into buyers – online travel booking

    A report from Ve Global indicates that there are far more travel browsers than travel buyers. The report shows that the dropout rate is as high as 95.5% when it comes time to paying online for a travel service. The data, advertising and marketing technology company’s report shows that every sector of the travel industry …

  • The Thailand Travel Mart heads to Pattaya this June

    The Thailand Travel Mart heads to Pattaya this June

    Pattaya will host the annual Thailand Travel Mart this June. The show was hosted in Pattaya back in 2001, followed by years in Bangkok before it moved to Chiang Mai in 2016 for a two-year stint. Now the annual B2B event, that showcases travel content from across the country and neighbours in the Mekong Region, …

  • Founding partner of Pavilions Himalayas honoured for charitable work in Nepal

    Founding partner of Pavilions Himalayas honoured for charitable work in Nepal

    One of the founding partners of The Pavilions Himalayas, Douglas Maclagan, is to be honoured for his work helping underprivileged children in Nepal. The award is considered as the Nobel Prize for Children, and endorsed by UNICEF. World of Children, which provides funding and assistance for vulnerable children worldwide, has selected Mr Maclagan as a …

  • Will you be booking a flight with standing plane seats?

    Will you be booking a flight with standing plane seats?

    PHOTO: Aviointeriors They’ve threatened charging ‘fat’ people more for their aircraft seat, even smaller seats and zero-recline seats. Anything the bean-counters running the world’s airlines can do to increase their bottomline, whilst discomforting ours, it seems, they will try. The idea of a ‘standing seat’ was posited nearly a decade ago but was considered a …

  • TropOut is back in Phuket all this week

    TropOut is back in Phuket all this week

    TropOut – the stylish international gay beach festival – is returning to Phuket from April 15 – 22. The festival debuted in Phuket in 2016 and was headlined by DJ Robin Schulz who performed a memorable set at Xana Beach Club. The 2018 Phuket edition of TropOut will host parties at Dream Beach and Cafe del …

  • World’s best airlines – People’s Choice, Trip Advisor

    World’s best airlines – People’s Choice, Trip Advisor

    PHOTO: Singapore Airlines Trip Advisor has compiled the world’s best airlines from the data and votes of their users around the world. No panel of judges here – the people have spoken. Not surprisingly, Singapore Airlines has come out on top, again. The Singaporean national airline is a consistent winner of best airline competitions over …

  • The spirit of Songkran – Ajarn Pranee

    The spirit of Songkran – Ajarn Pranee

    By Pranee Sakulpipatana, AKA Ajarn Pranee Songkran is one of the happiest festivals celebrated by Thais. When I was young and lived in Phuket, I always found the Songkran celebrations in other provinces such as Chiang Mai to be very unique and beautiful. Over the years Phuket has grown into a hub filled with Thais …

  • Songkran activities around the country

    Songkran activities around the country

    Songkran is celebrated across Thailand. It’s the annual celebration of the Thai New Year – a farewell to the hot season and a welcoming of the coming wet season. But it is celebrated in many different ways, from the insane water-fights in Patong, with elephants in Ayutthaya or the Sand Pagoda Ceremony in Chonburi. The word …

  • Phuket’s Grand West Sands Resort – massive makeover

    Phuket’s Grand West Sands Resort – massive makeover

    by Bill Barnett from c9hotelworks.com One of Phuket’s largest integrated hospitality resorts, the Grand West Sands Resort and Villas is underway on a massive makeover drive. Aligning with Hong Kong’s Langham Hospitality Group, the hotel offering is being split into separate four and five star offerings. The top end hotel will be renamed to Langham’s Cordis brand …

  • The world’s busiest airports 2017

    The world’s busiest airports 2017

    So which airport is the busiest in the world? Perhaps surprisingly, the busiest airport is not in Asia, but in the US in Atlanta, Georgia – the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The city is within a two-hour flight of 80% of the United States population of more than 300 million people. But it’s reign at the …

  • Ranong Visa Runs – a few things you should know

    Ranong Visa Runs – a few things you should know

    The situation for visa runs changes all the time. Check before embarking on your Ranong journey to see if you are eligible for a visa run at that destination. From time to time we need to do those pesky visa runs. The nearest land border to Phuket is about a five hour drive north to …

  • Vendors hit back at criticism of Bangkok’s Mae Klong market

    Vendors hit back at criticism of Bangkok’s Mae Klong market

    by Kachorn Phonimthai Vendors at Mae Klong, also known as Rom Hup – one of Thailand’s landmark markets – have defended its quirkiness and surroundings after coming under criticism online. They have spoken up to defend the world-famous market after several foreigners made critical comments on a BBC News video clip titled “The train that …

  • New GLOW for Ao Nang, Krabi

    New GLOW for Ao Nang, Krabi

    by Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com Thailand’s InVision Hospitality has debuted their GLOW brand in Krabi with a 130 room boutique hotel. Located in the popular tourism area of Ao Nang, this is the fifth GLOW hotel in Southeast Asia, and third in Thailand. Krabi has swiftly expanded its tourism market, between 2006 to 2016, airport arrivals surged from …

  • The economic impact of closing down Maya Bay for four months

    The economic impact of closing down Maya Bay for four months

    So what impact will closing down Maya Bay for four months have? Will it be cataclysmic for Phi Phi and Krabi tourism? Will tourist operators survive? Pullawat Pitigraisorn from SCB’s Economic Intelligence Centre has done the sums and estimates that tourist earnings for Krabi Province will only suffer a 6 percent drop as tourists will …

  • Boracay’s closure sparks global travel fallout

    Boracay’s closure sparks global travel fallout

    By Bill Barnett of c9hotelworks.com The biggest worldwide tourism story going is that of the trending closure of the iconic resort island of Boracay in the Philippines. In a bold move President Rodrigo Duterte who termed the island a “cesspool” is banning tourist visits from April 26 through October 25. For an island that last …

  • Customs scraps order requiring Thai travellers to declare valuables

    Customs scraps order requiring Thai travellers to declare valuables

    The Thai Customs Department says it will scrap an order that requires Thais leaving the country to declare their personal belongings they take out of the country so that they won’t be taxed when they return. The requirement was heavily criticised when it was announced because the procedure of declaration at the international airports would be …

  • Get off our island – The Philippines’ Boracay closes down

    Get off our island – The Philippines’ Boracay closes down

    PHOTO: Shutterstock The Philippine’s island of Boracay is closing to tourists for six months following concerns of damage to its once pristine shores. This mirrors a closure of popular Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Ley, made famous in the movie ‘The Beach’ for four months from this June. Asia’s first holiday island to shutdown …

  • VietJet introduces more flights in Thai skies – BKK to Krabi

    VietJet introduces more flights in Thai skies – BKK to Krabi

    Thai Vietjet has launched a new service between Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Krabi with 2 flights daily. The fully booked inaugural flight VZ340, operated by new aircraft Airbus A320 wearing “Amazing Thailand” tourism logo landed safely yesterday morning at Krabi international Airport with a full water canon salute. All passengers and flight crew were greeted with …

  • Dusit rolls out the new ASAI brand

    Dusit rolls out the new ASAI brand

    Thailand’s Dusit Hotels and Resorts is rolling our a new ASAI brand which is reportedly aimed at millennial curious-minded travellers promising ‘authentic local experiences in vibrant cities and resort destinations worldwide’. Set to officially launch in the opening quarter of 2019 with its first hotel in Bangkok’s renowned Chatuchak Market, ASAI Hotels embraces a sustainable, …

  • Air Asia launches direct daily flights to Penang from Phuket

    Air Asia launches direct daily flights to Penang from Phuket

    Getting from the Pearl of the Andaman to the Pearl of the Orient just got a lot more competitive. The only way you could get from Phuket to Penang, direct, in the past has been either a hair-raising overnight passenger van ride or flying with Firefly Airlines in a twin prop plane a few times …

  • Thailand Event Round-Up – April

    Thailand Event Round-Up – April

    with The Sponsorship Experts – Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co. Ltd. The month of April is typically dominated by a slew of events related to Songkran, the Thai New Year, and this year is no different. One of our favourites is the Singha Songkran Night Run, which returns to Chiang Mai on 13 April. …