Phuket charity launches monthly pub quiz @ 2012-07-25

PHUKET island news : The last Monday of every month will see the brains of Phuket converge for a battle of wits and intellect – all for a good cause.

The Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation, in conjunction with Aussie Pub Kamala ( the famous beach in Phuket ) , begin monthly pub quizzes on July 30 starting at 7pm. The entry fee of B100 per person goes directly towards making a difference to underprivileged local children. B10 from every drink will also go to the charity.
Teams of up to four will go head to head for the title of ‘Phuket’s Most Smartest’, while improving the lives of local children.
Phuket Has Been Good To Us is a Thai registered charity which teaches free English classes to every student in Kamala and Kalim Schools. They also run free after school and weekend programmes for the 130 residential children at Kamala School, most of who have no family to take care of them.
Prizes include bar tabs, meals and beauty treatments – all generously donated by local businesses.

Thai AirAsia CEO calls for infrastructure improvements at Airport @ 2012-07-21

The Chief Executive Officer of Thai AirAsia in Thailand , Tassapon Bijleveld, has called for the improvement of Phuket’s infrastructure to support tourism growth when the Asean Economic Community (AEC) starts in 2015.

Speaking during the Phuket Creative Tourism Forum at Rajabhat University yesterday (July 20), Mr Bijleveld said Phuket had high potential to be a regional hub of southern Thailand. However, the improvement of infrastructure such as the expansion of the Phuket International Airport (PIA) was required. Mr Bijleveld said about 120 million people in the Asian-Pacific region travel on a plane each year. Fifty three per cent of those are people belonging to countries of Asean, which means Asean countries is a large market for tourism. The countries in Asean are Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. In addition, 47 per cent of the total number of tourists who visited Thailand were from Asean countries, he said. “To support the growth of tourism, the PIA will need to be upgraded and expanded,” said Mr Bijleveld. Mr Bijleveld believed the limitation of PIA’s capacity also prevent the establishment of new charter flights, which would expand Phuket’s tourism market. For example, one Indian wedding brought more than 200 Indian guests to Phuket, with about USD5 million to spend on their trip. This market is expected to expand in Phuket, however there are still no direct flights from India to Phuket. In addition, Mr Bijleveld said Phuket needed good public transportation to improve tourism, and perhaps even a bigger deep sea port to support high-end tourists who came on cruise ships. “About 1,000 to 1,500 passengers can come on a cruise ship, which is ten times more than the number of passengers coming on one flight,” he said. “If we can improve the deep sea port, it will help boost the tourism industry.” Because there are many tourist want to travel to Phuket .

Hotel staff in Phuket survey backs five-day week @ 16-07-2012

The new resort very swiftly attracted the cream of the island’s hotel workers, and dismay and anger among hotel owners and managers, who were used to having their staff work a six-day week.
In the past 10 years things have changed hugely, a recently released survey has found. Now, 50 per cent of the island’s top 100 hotels have a five-day work week, and another 23 per cent have arrangements that amount to a 5.5-day week.
The survey, conducted over the course of a year by 10 employees of luxury hotels, some which are among the 27 per cent still on a six-day week, has a very specific agenda: to have 100 per cent of top hotels in Phuket work a five-day week
One of those involved commented, “Those at [six-day] resorts were deeply concerned about the direction of their business and people, and [therefore felt] compelled to delve into this important issue by collecting data.”
The staffer, who for obvious reasons asked not to be named, says that the survey team are convinced that hotels benefit from allowing employees enough time off “to recover from work, reflect upon work, and enjoy a certain quality of life”.
The surveyors argue that there is a large relational gap between overworked servers and the guests at six-day hotels. Service can become grudging or lacklustre. Good employees leave, resulting in a decline in quality.
The survey is currently a work in progress, say the researchers, but they felt their findings should be aired at this point to raise interest in working hours in the hotel industry.
It lists the following hotels and hotel groups as having five-day work weeks: Absolute Group; InterContinental (Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn); Lauguna Resorts & Hotels; Marriott; Movenpick; Thanyapura Group; Six Senses; Starwood, Aleenta, Amanpuri, Anantara Villas, Andara, Best Western Karon, Cape Sienna, Dewa, Hilton, Mai Khao Dream, Millennium, Paresa, Patong Resort, Pavilions, Raddison Blu, Sala, Sea Sun Sand, Trisara, Kata Rocks and the new Pullman Arcadia.
Everyone want to work 5 days and rest 2 days a week .

Gov wants 5,000 CCTV for Phuket : 04/07/2012

Actions to improve security in Phuket have been proposed by Provincial Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Chonasit Watanawarangkun, following a meeting yesterday (June 2) with commanders of police stations on the island.
Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha said yesterday (July 3) that he wants to see the number of CCTV cameras in Phuket increase to 5,000 by next year.

He said he will allocate B2 million from his B10 million emergency fund to pay for 100 cameras, and he urged the 19 local authorities on the island to include the purchase of high-quality cameras in their budgets for the coming fiscal year.

“I hope we can achieve this goal [of 5,000 cameras],” said Gov Tri. “However, it depends on the support from local authorities as well.”

There are currently about 1,000 CCTV cameras installed around the island but many of these are not actually in use.

Phuket city is safe city for tourist .