PHUKET: With Laguna Phuket celebrating its 25th birthday and making plans for fresh strategic development, we couldn't help thinking: What if the advice of Laguna Phuket management had been sought by Phuket's administrators over the past two decades?
What would the entire island of Phuket look like now?
And that started us wondering: why is it that more advice from successful private Phuket businesses is not sought on a regular basis?
It's worth remembering that back when Laguna Phuket began, the property on Bang Tao beach was an undesirable tin mine wasteland.
Photographs show a desolate, treeless landscape that some people thought might be too toxic to save.
Back then, in the late 80s, the Phuket outside the Laguna Phuket boundary looked more appealing than the shocking mess on the inside.
How Phuket has changed in the intervening years. Today, the inside of Laguna Phuket is far more attractive than almost all developed areas of Phuket on the outside.
The resort complex is beautifully landscaped. Laguna Phuket has managed to create its own water supply, attracting back native birdlife and working with neighbors on forward-thinking community projects.
Even with the creation of the new Xana Beach Club and the proposed 1000-shop retail-resort complex, there will still be greenery and water at every bend among the seven resorts.
How is it that one private Phuket enterprise can carefully plan its future while the island as a whole has been unable to manage nearly as well?
Both Laguna Phuket and the broader Phuket community have set out to make Phuket attractive for tourists and for property development.
The aims have been the same, but the results have been vastly different. We venture to suggest that as a properly run Phuket business, Laguna Phuket has always put Phuket first.
Laguna Phuket has also always thought about what might happen in five years, or perhaps 10 years.
The problem is, we believe, that the people making the decisions on the outside have not always had Phuket's best interests at heart.
Today's administrators now have an enormous task of correcting the mistakes of the past. And the longer the mistakes go uncorrected, the greater the problems become.
We suggest that as an international tourist destination, it's time for Phuket to break with its outmoded viewpoints.
Laguna Phuket has managed to enhance Phuket's natural appeal while achieving corporate financial and social goals.
It's well past time for Phuket's present-day decision-makers to actively seek the advice of Laguna Phuket and other successful Phuket businesses.
They know a thing or two about making a profit, but not at the expense of nature. That's the winning strategy for the future that Phuket desperately needs.
What would the entire island of Phuket look like now?
And that started us wondering: why is it that more advice from successful private Phuket businesses is not sought on a regular basis?
It's worth remembering that back when Laguna Phuket began, the property on Bang Tao beach was an undesirable tin mine wasteland.
Photographs show a desolate, treeless landscape that some people thought might be too toxic to save.
Back then, in the late 80s, the Phuket outside the Laguna Phuket boundary looked more appealing than the shocking mess on the inside.
How Phuket has changed in the intervening years. Today, the inside of Laguna Phuket is far more attractive than almost all developed areas of Phuket on the outside.
The resort complex is beautifully landscaped. Laguna Phuket has managed to create its own water supply, attracting back native birdlife and working with neighbors on forward-thinking community projects.
Even with the creation of the new Xana Beach Club and the proposed 1000-shop retail-resort complex, there will still be greenery and water at every bend among the seven resorts.
How is it that one private Phuket enterprise can carefully plan its future while the island as a whole has been unable to manage nearly as well?
Both Laguna Phuket and the broader Phuket community have set out to make Phuket attractive for tourists and for property development.
The aims have been the same, but the results have been vastly different. We venture to suggest that as a properly run Phuket business, Laguna Phuket has always put Phuket first.
Laguna Phuket has also always thought about what might happen in five years, or perhaps 10 years.
The problem is, we believe, that the people making the decisions on the outside have not always had Phuket's best interests at heart.
Today's administrators now have an enormous task of correcting the mistakes of the past. And the longer the mistakes go uncorrected, the greater the problems become.
We suggest that as an international tourist destination, it's time for Phuket to break with its outmoded viewpoints.
Laguna Phuket has managed to enhance Phuket's natural appeal while achieving corporate financial and social goals.
It's well past time for Phuket's present-day decision-makers to actively seek the advice of Laguna Phuket and other successful Phuket businesses.
They know a thing or two about making a profit, but not at the expense of nature. That's the winning strategy for the future that Phuket desperately needs.
Phuket Laguna did indeed find its balance with nature - it's just a pity they disposed of part of it, for huge profit.
Posted by agogohome on August 31, 2012 17:37