Khao Lak hotels will cut low-season prices

Business News - Thursday December 20, 2007

TOURISM DESTINATIONS, MARKETING AND CONVENTIONS

Khao Lak hotels will cut low-season prices

CHATRUDEE THEPARAT

Hotel and tour operators in Khao Lak plan to reduce room rates and tour package prices to improve occupancy rates during the low tourism season next year. Discounts of 30% to 50% would be offered for luxury hotels and resorts in the resort area north of Phuket, which business operators say is still recovering from the tsunami disaster in late 2004.

About 4,000 rooms are available in Khao Lak today, most of which would be available at discounts in the low season from June to October. Hotel operators hope to increase the occupancy rate to between 10% and 20%, up from the norm of only 5%.

The Phangnga Tourism Business Association said the number of hotel rooms next year would rise to 6,000 in 2008, the same as before the tsunami. Therefore, promotional campaigns, including discounts, would be necessary to keep hotels afloat in the off-season, said Yanyong Khorpetch, an adviser to the association.

Normally, the popular beach is crowded with tourists in the high season, with almost 90% occupancy.

''Operators need quick cash to pay off loans, so they can borrow from the tsunami recovery fund to renovate damaged properties or offer attractive prices for tour packages and rooms,''said Mr Yanyong, also managing director of the Khaolak Bhandari resort.

Mr Yanyong has borrowed 150 million baht from the fund to rebuild his hotel that was damaged by the waves three years ago. He plans to lower room rates to only 1,000 baht per night, down from 4,000 to 5,000 baht at present.

The package would be offered as part of Thai Travel Thai, a marketing campaign to be launched by the Tourism Authority of Thailand in March.

Other operators, most of whom have been financed by the tsunami fund, plan to join the campaign. They include Khao Lak Bay Front and Eco Khao Lak Adventure, both of which plan to slash package tour rates.

''The campaign will be continued in order to boost the rate to reach 30-40% during the low season in the next five years as planned,'' he said.

Hotels also slashed prices last year, but visitors said they were concerned over safety measures.

''Actually, the warning system and other necessary safety measures have been already put in place at every beach in the South, including Khao Lak,'' said Mr Yanyong.

The installed system gives warnings 30-40 minutes ahead of earthquakes larger than 7.5 on the Richter scale in Thai, English, Chinese, Japanese, German and Swedish.

The Phangnga Tourism Business Association expects the price cuts to help the province earn 7-8 billion baht from tourism next year, up from an estimated six billion baht in 2007. By 2010, the association expects the province would earn 10 billion baht, the same amount it earned before the tsunami.

Bangkok Post