Phuket to have biggest aquarium in SE Asia

Ripley Entertainment, the operator of Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, plans to build a huge aquarium in Phuket costing Bt2.1 billion and open it within three years.

The firm will enter into a joint venture with local conglomerate Minor International Plc, the franchisee of the Ripley museum in Pattaya.

The aquarium project will be Ripley's second property in Thailand and the first unit to be opened outside the United States.

The aquarium is planned to cover 10,000 to 12,000 square metres, and would be bigger than the Underwater World in Singapore, which claims to be the biggest aquarium in Southeast Asia.

Ripley Entertainment president Robert Masterson said the group intended to hold a major stake in the new project.

He said Phuket's tourism had recovered from the great damage inflicted by the 2004 tsunami. Masterson declined to reveal the location and amenities of the project, saying it was too early to go into the details.

He did not think political uncertainty would affect investor confidence and believed the Kingdom was drawing more international tourists.

"The tourist market will be our major target," Masterson said.

Meanwhile, Somporn Naksue-trong, general manager of the franchisee of the Pattaya museum, said it would invest in two new projects worth a combined Bt200 million.

The first project is set to open by 2009. It will highlight many famous models, including some from Madame Tussaud's in London.

The second is tied to the Guinness World Book of Records, and is set to open by the end of this year. It will demonstrate or showcase recorded feats to visitors and challenge visitors to break the record by doing the same thing.

According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), nine of the world's 25 most visited theme parks are located in Asia. Visitors to the nine parks accounted for 35 per cent of the all visitors to the 25 theme parks in 2006.

The top 10 Asian theme parks alone hosted more than 68 million visitors last year, achieving 4.4 per cent growth, or twice that of the industry's worldwide increase in visitors. The Hong Kong attractions market is forecast to grow by nearly 22 per cent a year from now through 2010.

The Asian theme parks and related leisure activities sector is currently growing five times faster, on an annual basis, than the West European or American attractions markets.

Suchat Sritama

The Nation