From Bt20 million last year, Mukdara plans to reap revenues of Bt200 million this year.

"Few tourists visited here last year due to bad infrastructure and fears of ghosts. We lost about Bt10 million in the first 10 months of last year," said president Wirat Songsang.

However, once the high tourist season kicked in last November, Mukdara generated about Bt20 million during the rest of the year.

He called it a good sign of recovery, given that since the advent of the high season, the resort had enjoyed a high occupancy rate of 90 per cent.

Badly hit by the tsunami, the five-star Mukdara currently has 148 rooms.

Wirat said the hotel had no plans to increase the number of rooms but had spent Bt50 million to build an auditorium to support special events and conferences. Construction should be completed in June.

Although renovations have increased the resort's operating costs, room rates have not risen. On the contrary, a number of special promotions have been offered to boost guest numbers.

"We'll try to reach our revenue target this year. We also plan to promote our resorts by cooperating with other operators in holding road shows in Europe," Wirat said.

He explained that most of the resort's tourists were from European countries, particularly Germany.

However, he is seriously worried about labour shortages. "We need 200 workers but have only 100 at the moment. How will we handle an increasing number of guests in the high season?" he complained.

Besides Mukdara, Wirat also owns two other Khao Lak resorts: Palm Beach and Sudala.

Sudala has been 90 per cent renovated and is expected to reopen in October.

Meanwhile, four-star Palm Beach has been operating since

last year. He said the revenue target for Palm Beach was Bt100 million.

But he said he might sell some of his resorts soon. "I lost my family in the devastating tsunami. I don't think I can run all of them by myself," he said.

Chalida  Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation