More hotels in Phuket pipeline

Over 5,000 hotel rooms are expected to open on Phuket island by 2015 with the majority of the investments focused on mid-scale and budget properties, according to the C9 Hotelworks mid-year report released late last week. The addition of 5,080 rooms will increase the island’s capacity by 11% based on the current 42,498 rooms last surveyed in March 2011, according to the Phuket market report. The majority of new hotels will be near Patong Beach representing 3,125 rooms of the total production. It represents 20% of the total new investments in the province. Approximately 80% of the investment will be in mid-scale to budget properties. Altogether, 26 properties are due to open by 2015. Of that, 11 properties are on Patong Beach, two each on Nai Thon, Thalang, Kamala, Kata and Siray Island, while one each in Phuket town, Cape Panwa, Nai Harn and Cape Yamu. The report also says that the transaction volume in 2012 will reach US$315 and many of the owners of older hotels will be forced to sell their properties due to rising renovation costs. For the first half of this year, Phuket recorded an occupancy of 75%. There were marked increases in both average room rates (ADR) and revenue by available room (RevPAR) of 5% to 8%. It was mainly due to the influx of Asian travellers who elevated overall market earnings despite a decline in the spending power of visitors from the Eurozone. Mid-scale hotels in Phuket registered room rate growth of 10%, followed by the budget sector that increased rates by 8%. Apart from new hotel developments, many hotel transactions have been completed in the first half of this year namely; Möevenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach (April), Evason Phuket and Bon Island Resort (May), Bundarika Villas & Suites Resort (June) and Laguna Beach Resort (June). (Based on C9 Hotelworks release). From ttrweekly