KARON beach is long and appealing, but for most of the resorts along its seafront, there's one big problem: the beach road separates them from the sand.
That's not a problem with the five-star-plus Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket.
When this large resort is finished, it will be right on the edge of the sand, close to the quiet (at least for now) northern end of the beach.
We can hear the deep sighs emanating from the Hilton Phuket Arcadia, the Movenpick Resort and Spa, Woraburi Phuket Resort and Spa, Baan Karon Buri Resort, Thavorn Palm Beach Resort, the South Pacific Karon Resort and others.
They wish that road wasn't there.
As well as being nicely placed on the Karon beach, Centara, along with Courtyard, are the big, moving brands on Phuket.
There are others, of course, but those two are the ones adding big numbers of rooms for now.
The new Centara is still just a construction site behind a green fence, but not for long.
Phuketwan found plenty to like on a visit to see the resort-to-be, tucked into the beach hillside as the roadway turns uphill to Patong.
What we are talking about in this single resort is, with the price of the 32 rai of land included, a 1.9 billion baht investment.
By high season 2010, a classy, colonial style resort for 262 guests should become evident.
Centara say it will be five-star plus, with ground-floor villa suites equipped with private pools, three restaurants, a beach bar and a cocktail lounge, as well as meeting rooms.
High-end guests will be targetted from the European market, Australia and New Zealand. Britons and Germans are bound to hear about Centara, the resort right on Karon beach.
So will well-heeled travellers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Jobs galore will come with the resort, 320 to add to the burgeoning number of staff now working under the Centara brand on Phuket.
While at Laguna Phuket the new Number Seven resort now being built means the brand will retain its position as the largest private employer on the island, a combination of Centara, which was launched in 2007, and its parent brand, Central, might make a sizeable impression.
Here's the present tally: Centara Karon Resort Phuket :335 rooms / 321 staff, Centara Kata Resort Phuket : 158 rooms / 146 staff, Centara Villas Phuket : 72 Villas / 114 staff.
The new resort will bring the total to 901, without adding Central employees.
Elsewhere, there's less competition for Centara/Central in terms of the total of employee numbers. Centara alone has 3900 throughout Thailand.
Centara Hotels and Resorts owns and/or manages the activities of Sofitel Centara Grand Bangkok, Sofitel Centara Grand Resort & Villas Hua Hin, Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre CentralWorld, Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Krabi, Centara Grand Beach Resort Samui, Centara Villas Samui, Novotel Centara Hat Yai Centara Duangtawan Hotel Chiang Mai, Centara Mae Sot Hill Resort Mae Sot and Centara Chaan Talay Resort and Villas, Trat.
Not too many of them are right on the beach, either.
That's not a problem with the five-star-plus Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket.
When this large resort is finished, it will be right on the edge of the sand, close to the quiet (at least for now) northern end of the beach.
We can hear the deep sighs emanating from the Hilton Phuket Arcadia, the Movenpick Resort and Spa, Woraburi Phuket Resort and Spa, Baan Karon Buri Resort, Thavorn Palm Beach Resort, the South Pacific Karon Resort and others.
They wish that road wasn't there.
As well as being nicely placed on the Karon beach, Centara, along with Courtyard, are the big, moving brands on Phuket.
There are others, of course, but those two are the ones adding big numbers of rooms for now.
The new Centara is still just a construction site behind a green fence, but not for long.
Phuketwan found plenty to like on a visit to see the resort-to-be, tucked into the beach hillside as the roadway turns uphill to Patong.
What we are talking about in this single resort is, with the price of the 32 rai of land included, a 1.9 billion baht investment.
By high season 2010, a classy, colonial style resort for 262 guests should become evident.
Centara say it will be five-star plus, with ground-floor villa suites equipped with private pools, three restaurants, a beach bar and a cocktail lounge, as well as meeting rooms.
High-end guests will be targetted from the European market, Australia and New Zealand. Britons and Germans are bound to hear about Centara, the resort right on Karon beach.
So will well-heeled travellers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Jobs galore will come with the resort, 320 to add to the burgeoning number of staff now working under the Centara brand on Phuket.
While at Laguna Phuket the new Number Seven resort now being built means the brand will retain its position as the largest private employer on the island, a combination of Centara, which was launched in 2007, and its parent brand, Central, might make a sizeable impression.
Here's the present tally: Centara Karon Resort Phuket :335 rooms / 321 staff, Centara Kata Resort Phuket : 158 rooms / 146 staff, Centara Villas Phuket : 72 Villas / 114 staff.
The new resort will bring the total to 901, without adding Central employees.
Elsewhere, there's less competition for Centara/Central in terms of the total of employee numbers. Centara alone has 3900 throughout Thailand.
Centara Hotels and Resorts owns and/or manages the activities of Sofitel Centara Grand Bangkok, Sofitel Centara Grand Resort & Villas Hua Hin, Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre CentralWorld, Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Krabi, Centara Grand Beach Resort Samui, Centara Villas Samui, Novotel Centara Hat Yai Centara Duangtawan Hotel Chiang Mai, Centara Mae Sot Hill Resort Mae Sot and Centara Chaan Talay Resort and Villas, Trat.
Not too many of them are right on the beach, either.
