CEO Giovanni Angelini said the 20-hectare project would be located on the west coast of Phuket, on the 5-kilometre-long beach at Bang Tao Bay, a 25-minute drive from Phuket Airport. It will be set among lagoons, gardens and a natural river.

Shangri-La has contracted Durham Holdings (Thailand) to manage the new resort.

Designed by Spanish architects, the 315-room resort hotel will comprise 223 guestrooms and suites and 92 villas. All villas will either have plunge pools or be suspended over lagoon waters.

Private gardens will be accessible from large terraces.

The resort's rooms will be a minimum of 50 square metres in size, while the one- and two-bedroom villas will measure from 90-280 square metres.

Fifty of the pool villas are soon to be released for private sale through international property consultants CB Richard Ellis. They will remain an integral luxury component of the resort, under its management.

Shangri-La's signature spa brand, Chi, will be located in its own spa village at the resort. For the first time, guests will be able to opt for residential spa villas. At more than 200 square metres in size, these villas will offer in-room treatments and direct access to all Chi spa facilities and amenities.

Additional facilities will include a health club, tennis courts, squash courts, water sports, a children's club and entertainment centre and three swimming pools, one of them a 3,000-square-metre three-tiered cascading pool.

Dining options will include a piazza with a market atmosphere of open kitchens, cafes and speciality retail shops, a grill, a Thai restaurant, two pool restaurants, a tapas bar and a lobby lounge.

A beachfront, ocean-view chapel will be a venue for weddings, vow renewals and related ceremonies. Meeting and

banquet facilities at the new resort will include a 550-square-metre ballroom with a 165-square-metre foyer, capable of accommodating 400 and 100 persons, respectively. Additional function rooms will offer 440 square metres of meeting space.

Shangri-La's Phuket Resort and Spa will complement the hotel group's new deluxe properties currently under development in the Maldives, the Seychelles and Boracay, the Philippines.

Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts currently manages 49 hotels under the five-star Shangri-La and four-star Traders brands, with more than 23,000 rooms.