A new daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective. Reports from national and international media, with translations into English from Thai.

Straits Times: More than 100 hotels and resorts are reportedly up for sale in Thailand [reported in The Nation] as hotel occupancy plunges to historic lows on the back of the worldwide recession and the country's political turmoil. ''Business is very, very bad, and the future looks absolutely bleak,'' the outgoing general manager of the Mandarin Oriental, Mr Kurt Wachtveitl, told foreign journalists on Tuesday. He estimated that hotel occupancy rates were just 20 per cent across the board.


thephuketinsider.com: Resort consultant Bill Barnett writes: ''Phuket was mentioned to have 28 hotels for sale, though no names were mentioned and the [Nation] article contained only vague references to a property sales representative in Koh Samui. At the end of the day Phuket's hospitality market is strong on fundamentals but currently suffers from an omnibus approach to being lumped into the entire Thai basket of issues and problems. While we welcome hotel buyers here, and certainly there will be transactions in the near future, the iconic 28 seems to have been plucked from thin air.''

bbc.com: Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be charged over a visit by a US national who swam across a lake to her off-limits home, her party says. American John Yettaw was held last week. A spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) said he had been told by her lawyer that Ms Suu Kyi and her maids would face unspecified charges.The 63-year-old has been under house arrest for much of the last 19 years.

The Nation: The Department of Special Investigations will send a team to check mysterious containers on the seabed off Chon Buri's Sattahip district. The containers have been linked to rumors that hundreds of bodies are inside, either human trafficking victims or ''lost heroes'' from the bloody crackdown on a May 1992 prodemocracy rally in Bangkok.

Bangkok Post: Vacances Siam (Club Med) Ltd expects the performance of Club Med Phuket will improve in the third quarter if political uncertainties ease. With occupancy around 50 percent since the Songkran riots, this is still higher than the 20-30 percent of nearby hotels on Karon beach but down from the normal 80-90 percent. Tourists have shifted from Club Med Phuket to Club Med Bali and the Maldives ''because they are very sensitive to political issues here," a spokesman said.

AFP news agency: Explaining the postponement of the Phuket Asean Summit, Foreign Minister Kasit Pirom said: ''Some countries are having by-elections, two or three countries are having general elections and others have plans to host state visits that cannot be moved. Every country has tried to make our proposed dates work but they cannot adjust schedules." Thailand had tried to reassure leaders that a new meeting in Phuket in June would be free of political chaos by promising to use an internal security law that placed the army in charge of guarding the summit.

thestar.com.my: The Asian Tour have lost their flagship Masters of Asia event after sponsor Volvo pulled out, blaming the confusion surrounding golf in the region and political unrest in host country Thailand. The season-ending tournament was first played in 2002, The demise is another blow to a Tour battling not just the global economic crisis but the emergence of the rival OneAsia Tour, which have taken over four events they used to run.

Times of India India's second largest airline, Jet Airways, has retrenched all the 120 foreign airhostesses it had as part of its 3000-strong cabin crew. Jet has so far never hired cabin crew from the west and all expat airhostesses hailed from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. With Jet closing overseas crew bases in these three places, the 120 expats were laid off.


Asean Plus Six Summit Postponed Until October
Updating report The Asean Plus Six Summit, seen as as useful low season boost for the Phuket economy next month, is now being postponed until October.
Asean Plus Six Summit Postponed Until October

Phuket Film Festival: More Villains than Heroes
Latest Phuket needs a film festival. The efforts to organise the 2009 version before the Asean Plus Six Summit run the gamut from drama, through action, to tragedy.
Phuket Film Festival: More Villains than Heroes

Phuket's Messy Power Lines Going Under
Latest Tourism in Old Phuket Town is looking up because the scramble of ugly wiring is coming down, then going underground. The 20 million baht project may be just the beginning.
Phuket's Messy Power Lines Going Under

Phuket Jobless Tide Turns: Resort Cuts Loom
Latest The outlook on Phuket is bleak as resorts undergo an occupancy slide that will test the nerves of managers and staff. Unpaid leave is becoming more common, along with uncertainty.
Phuket Jobless Tide Turns: Resort Cuts Loom

Tourists Trek to Phi Phi Despite Deaths Mystery
Latest Young travellers continue to flock to Phi Phi, undeterred by the strange deaths of two young female tourists who occupied adjoining rooms at Laleena Guesthouse.
Tourists Trek to Phi Phi Despite Deaths Mystery


MediaWATCH: Deep Divide on Summit Security
Latest Phuket security debate: Can each country bring its own gunslingers?; Air fares cheapest in a decade; Thailand tourism plunges by 50 percent; swine flu confirmed in Thailand.
MediaWATCH: Deep Divide on Summit Security

MediaWATCH: Report Casts Doubt on Summit
Latest Will the Phuket Asean Summit go ahead? A Singapore report says diplomats have doubts; Ikea on the way to Thailand; Three Phuket resorts win rave reviews; swine flu latest.
MediaWATCH: Report Casts Doubt on Summit

MediaWATCH: More than 100 Resorts For Sale
Latest Swine flu continues to swirl as an issue while the red shirts mass in the Bangkok rain and a report says that more than 100 resorts are for sale in Thailand. Here's Monday MediaWATCH>
MediaWATCH: More than 100 Resorts For Sale