Published on May 23, 2005

A bevy of international beauties splashed around at the beaches on Laguna Dusit Resort, one of the five-star properties on Phuket’s best-known seaside estates.

Six months after a brutal tsunami submerged Phuket’s image as a disaster zone, it appears the Miss Universe event is doing much to help people forget the frightening event.

Indeed the recovery has not been particularly easy and is far from bringing hotel occupancy to levels recorded before tragedy struck.

James Batt, managing director of Laguna Resorts and Hotels, speaking at a recent business luncheon hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the current second quarter appeared to be hard for many hotels.

“We expect 30-per-cent occupancy in the low season, which runs to June,” said Batt. “Business should steadily improve after that.”

Laguna was luckier than other sites as damage and loss of life were relatively low.

More surprisingly, Batt was touched by the avalanche of donations, mostly from guests who had stayed there, to help its 3,000 staff and Phuket folk to survive the economic difficulties.

“We have already spent two-thirds of the Bt26 million raised for the Tsunami Recovery Fund,” he said of the special charity that was created soon after the disaster to help workers and communities. The fund, which Batt and staff also chipped in, was recently closed.

The money went on repairing fishing boats and paying for items such as prosthetic legs for victims who had lost limbs in the tsunami.

The economic cost has been devastating to hotel workers, whose incomes are two-thirds dependent on the service charge. Actual salary, in normal times, accounts for just one-third.

As the fight to bring in guests continues, Batt said, the best contribution anyone can make is to “come to Phuket” to save jobs. Low local rates are available now, he added.

The brighter spot in the resort business, he said, is the sale of residential property. Income from the Bt16-million townhouses and Bt32-million private villas has bolstered its revenues.

Stephen O’Brien, managing director of Knight Frank in Phuket, said not all developers had been lucky as Batt. Laguna has been able to capitalise on its good reputation, but many others are first-time builders.

But the gloom from the early days has dissipated. “When I first came back from vacation to the island after the tsunami struck, I thought all was lost. Today, looking back six months later, I’m amazed Phuket has done so well. The pace of the recovery will from here on depend on the work of operators and developers in Phuket,” he observed.

While many players employ professional firms like Knight Frank and CB Richard Ellis, he said, the smaller builders tend to cower and hide during tough times instead of putting up a strong front.

Nigel Cornick of Raimon Land said the firm had not shut down a single day or stopped marketing its Kata Gardens condominium project since the tsunami struck.

The result is that the firm has sold 16 units of a total of 33. Its smallest 112-square metre unit there goes for bt6.9 million.

Cornick is confident Raimon will be able to launch its second Phuket project, located on a hill.

Meanwhile Songkran Issara, managing director of Charn Issara Development told the chamber that the real-estate potential of Phuket remained bright.

The infrastructure of Phuket is excellent and its problems of traffic congestion and public works can be rectified by building new networks such as flyovers.

Also, unlike Pattaya, which is geared towards an industrial, more downmarket segment, Phuket can, if properly handled, be a playground for the rich and famous.

As to the problem of violent insurgency in the South, Songkran said: “It would be foolish to say there is no threat whatsoever. If it is not resolved, no one can guarantee nothing will happen to Phuket,” he added.

His company is now building villas and a hotel at Cape Panwa. He sold the largest home for bt160 million.

As to a more immediate problem surrounding the pulling out of Dulwich Collge from the island, O’Brien said the incident had badly affected many global buyers. “Distraught mothers are thinking of relocating their children to other schools in the region.”

CB Richard Ellis chairman David Simister downplays the pull-out. “I predict that in the next year or so we’ll see two international schools operating on the island. I would be very surprised if one of them wasn’t Dulwich.”

He likens the incident to hotel-owners changing management chains. Over time, such events will become just as common and less dramatic, he said.

Itthi C Tan

The Nation

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