Overseas Investors Take Advantage of Rise in Thai Tourism
By Cyrille Hareux
Germany, Finland and Korea have agreed to invest about four billion baht to develop real estate projects in major tourist spots throughout this year. Nearly 150,000 up-market Korean tourists will become Longstay members this year. In fact, the Korean investor KTCC will invest 400 million baht to develop a 100 room serviced apartment complex on Jomtien Beach.
A three billion baht longstay complex including condominiums, a hotel, a spa and a sports club in the Bang Na-Trat area is being developed by Vivas Co., a Finish real estate firm. A joint venture in Cha-am will be developed by a German investor and local partners. They plan to develop serviced apartments with an investment of around 500 million baht.
There are 5,000 current members in Longstay, which is a partner of Company Vauban. Members are mostly from Europe and Japan and about 3,000 of them stay in Phuket spending over 100,000 baht a month. Longstay expects their membership to rise dramatically now that visas can be issued for a one year stay in Thailand.
Foreign tourist arrivals to rose over 2 percent in just one month! Arrivals from Europe rose 12.5% and Russian tourists had the highest growth of nearly 38%. These increases are a promising trend for the tourism industry. In fact, foreign arrivals will most likely reach close to 15 million this year.
The new governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Mrs Phornsiri, feels strongly about attracting quality foreign tourists rather than looking at numbers. Company Vauban is also working in association with TAT to help bring upscale tourists to Thailand.
Nearly 8% of Thailand's GDP comes from foreign tourists so Mrs Phornsiri will work strongly to develop as a featured destination throughout
the world before she retires in 2009. To achieve this task she will work with both the public and private sectors, such as Company Vauban, to improve services and products.
In addition, TAT plans to develop its tourism campaigns with more stress on target groups, rather than launching projects without specific targets. The areas targeted for arrivals that may potentially spend more per trip include health, sports, and special-purpose trips such as weddings and honeymoons.
TAT will add three more offices worldwide bringing the total overseas to 25. However these plans are going to have to be met with a decreased budget this year. To compensate TAT will search for partners or sponsors to help with some events or festivals such as Songkran and Loy Krathong.
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A Traveller in Siam in the Year 1655
<P class=producthead>A Traveller in Siam in the Year 1655</p><P class=productheadtwo>Extracts from the Journal of Gijsbert Heeck<br>Translated by Barend Jan Terwie</p><p>Gijsbert Heeck (1619-1669) visited the east with the Dutch East India Company. From his journal we get an eyewitness account of 17th. Century Siam. He gives us not only information on larger political issues such as the problems between the Dutch and the Portuguese, but also the smaller ones like the relationships of local Dutch men with indigenous women</p><p>Paperback<br>Chiang Mai 2008<br>Silkworm Books <br>124 pages<br>ISBN 9789749511350</p>