Updating All Day, Every Day
reuters The number of tourists arriving in Thailand rose for the fifth straight month in February, up 29.6 percent from a year earlier, continuing to recover after an army coup last May ended months of political unrest.
bangkokpost.com A 56-year-old Australian man died in a fall from the rooftop of a 26-floor residential building. His papers indicated he was a director of an Australian research firm.
AP A powerful earthquake rattled the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea on Monday, generating a small tsunami and frightening locals near the epicenter, but prompting no reports of damage or injuries. A tsunami of half a meter (1.5 feet) was measured in the harbor of Rabaul.
bangkokpost.com Transport Minister Prajin Juntong will implement ''special measures'' to pre-empt moves by foreign countries to ban Thai airlines due to ''significant safety concerns'' cited by the International Civil Aviation...
news.com.au When a resort in Phuket, Thailand posted a photo on Facebook of what it believed was an ''amazing Sunday brunch,'' it never expected just how much attention it would end up attracting.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/whats-wrong-with-this-picture/story-fn6yjmti-1227284722412
skynews.com Britain's PM will warn of a ''stark choice'' facing the country as the closest election battle in decades officially gets under way today.
bangkokpost.com Police are going over files of 1300 cold cases and vow to break up gangs and find the ''big fish'' behind slavery like that in Indonesia - all within 30 days. Cases are being placed into four groups - prostitution, forced labor, organised begging and the smuggling of Rohingya.
PhuketWATCH Daily Media Wrap
PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.
Today's Top News Items
cbc.ca A Transportation Safety Board investigator said Air Canada Flight 624 passengers were ''pretty lucky'' that the Sunday morning crash wasn't more serious after the plane touched down more than 300 metres short of a Halifax runway and smashed through an antenna array before finally skidding to a stop.
nationmultimedia.com Hotels in Phuket are reportedly running at up to 85-87 percent full this week. Wantana Chaimanee, senior sales manager for the Royal Paradise Hotel and Spa Phuket, said Phuket is one of the popular getaways for Indonesians. The hotel is losing some guests from Russia and China, but gaining more local guests as wells as Indonesians.
bangkokpost.com The UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has rejected Thai airline regulation reform as three times too slow, but the military thinks it can fix the problems.
Killer in the Cockpit
bbc.com Five days after Germanwings flight 4U 9525 crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 on board, investigators say they have isolated DNA of 78 victims. However, they denied German media reports body parts of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had been identified.
independent.co.uk The partner of the Germanwings co-pilot who crashed Flight 9525 into the French Alps was pregnant and the couple were apparently planning to get married, according to reports.
Human Trafficking in Thailand
bangkokpost.com This week, Gen Prayut told reporters not to elaborate on human trafficking problem, as the defence minister assured the world that there are no slaves in the Thailand fishing industry. Exactly a year ago this week, the elected government was just about to arrest the mastermind behind the Rohingya smuggling. The reason human traffickers and drug traffickers aren't going to stop in Thailand is simple enough. They're protected.
http://bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/511257/the-big-issue-the-tip-ping-point
Phuket World of People
nationmultimedia.com Chinese firms are interested in investing in tourism and medical care in Thailand to serve high-end markets following their success in Cambodia and South Africa. Richard Solomons, chief executive officer of IHG, said 90 million Chinese households could take long-haul trips by 2023.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Chinese-investors-eye-tourism-30256993.html
bangkokpost.com A man was killed when his motorcycle was hit by a car driven by a police officer who allegedly ran a red traffic light in Pattaya, Chon Buri in the early hours of Sunday.
wantchinatimes.com A renowned think tank in Thailand has forecast that the kingdom's outward trade to the US will likely increase substantially during the second half of this year, thus enabling the US to regain its status as Thailand's No. 1 export destination.
scmp.com The sombre mood at a Hong Kong viewing of the live broadcast of Lee Kuan Yew's state funeral was momentarily broken by a Kim Jong-un impersonator and activist. He carried a sign saying: ''Long live one-party rule in Singapore.'' The man, known as Howard, was escorted out of the building by police and told not to return.
reuters Liberia called on Ebola survivors to strictly observe a period of sexual abstinence after recovering from the disease amid fears the country's latest case may have resulted from sexual transmission.
scmp.com China had started evacuating its 590 citizens from war-torn Yemen, Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed, as Arab leaders vowed to continue Saudi-led air strikes against Shiite rebels.
nationmultimedia.com The Thai Embassy in Oman, which covers Yemen, is preparing to evacuate Thai residents there as Saudi Arabia escalates air strikes.
smh.com.au Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party and its allies have won the second and final round of French local elections on Sunday, a BFMTV exit poll by pollsters CSA showed.
scmp.com A Guangzhou-based activist best known for his campaigns against official abuse of government cars, was detained in neighboring Hunan for allegedly soliciting a prostitute, police confirmed.
Around the Asean Region
bloombergview.com In building Singapore into a modern economic power, the late Lee Kuan Yew displayed admirable flexibility - scrapping policies that didn't work, expanding those that did. His political heirs should be similarly pragmatic about revising the illiberal social and political policies for which Lee was equally famous.
Try Phuketwan's Asean Today daily:
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/asean-today-quake-shakes-islands-singapore-farewells-lee-vietnam-backs-subs-against-china-22139/
Phuket World of Sport
bangkokpost.com Sebastian Vettel struggled to control his emotions and his language as he realised a childhood dream by winning for Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
afp ''It is bloody hot,'' he told the crowd, before informing journalists: ''I want (to) celebrate today. I want to get pissed, probably, tonight.'' He added: ''I was shitting myself, the last couple of laps.''
theage.com.au Michael Clarke retires from international one day cricket as a World Cup champion, with Australia romping home to a seven wicket victory over New Zealand at the MCG.
bbc.com Sunday's 1-0 victory over Chile at the Emirates Stadium in London means that Brazil have now won eight consecutive matches.
Coming Events on Phuket 2015
April 11-19 Phuket Bike Week
April 13-15 Songkran Festival
May 4 Additional public holiday scheduled
June 20-21 Baba wedding at Old Phuket Town
July 15-19 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek
As long as resorts are running 85-87% occupancy rate, and other economc metrics of hotel sector is more or less stable, it is very small chance that such market situation would promote increase of quality of service , incl. improvement of General infrastructure or government policies .. - actually such hot market stimulates only procrastination of existing vices and ills, inaction, and appearance of "new normal - new low".
Usually business plans for hotels are made with 50% occupancy rate over the year as being very good rate, anything above are gifts from above , graticiously accepted, but in the end not relied upon. Destinations that have 70%+ occupancy rate over the year like Phuket nowadays by far are not "buyers market" with all the consequences what quality expect in the end.
Such hot markets can deflate only when service level deteriorate very low, and is not sensitive to some minor or isolatedand also moderate hiccups.
Posted by Sue on March 30, 2015 07:20
Editor Comment:
You cannot assume revenue is stable. If prices drop, the level required to break even goes up from 50 percent . . . to 60 percent . . . and so on. It's not possible to speculate at what level some Phuket resorts become profitable, such has been the race to the bottom.