The web developer has designed the virtual map from thousands of panoramic street-level photographs, allowing anyone with a ‘Net connection to travel the streets of the resort. You can adjust the angle, turning left and right and moving back and forwards. The virtual map will help first-time visitors learn their way around Pattaya as well as giving them the chance to check out hotels, bars and shopping destinations.Boutique Thai hotels join WorldHotels Indigo Pearl Phuket and Villa Lawana in Koh Samui are the latest members of WorldHotels, the Europe-based group specialising in boutique hotels. Indigo Pearl celebrates Phuket’s tin mining heritage with a subtle theme that runs through the finest details, from the names of the restaurants and bars to the staff uniforms. Villa Lawana, on Koh Samui’s Chaweng beach, has a stylish contemporary design with a Sino-Thai accent, recalling the history and culture of the region. Read the rest of this entry »
Government puts Bt100-bn tourism project back on the ‘fast track’ The government of Prime Minister Samak Sundara-vej has given the green light to the Ao Phuket development plan, a 100-billion-baht mega-project on 3,000 rai of reclaimed land that would include a convention centre, marina and other facilities. The latest movement in the Ao Phuket plan, first conceived over two decades ago, follows from PM Samak’s assigning responsibility for the project to the the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Adminis-tration (DASTA), a public organisation under the direction of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports established in 2005 under the first Thaksin government. Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit met with DASTA’s Ao Phuket working committee at the Phuket Merlin Hotel on May 2. The Ao Phuket committee, accompanied by DASTA chairman General Soonthorn Khum-komkul, earlier that morning traveled to the waterfront to view the intended project site, which stretches across Phuket Bay all the way from Saphan Hin to Rassada Harbor.Sustainable development Samak authorised the DASTA in March to take responsibility for areas it deems as appropriate for “sustainable” tourism development. Rajathin Syamananda, who heads DASTA’s Ao Phuket project committee, is well acquainted with the project as a former director-general of the Interior Ministry’s Town and Country Planning Department. Allowing DASTA to develop the project meant it could be fast-tracked, he said. Before the Ao Phuket project was put on hold following the coup, responsibility for it fell to the Town and Country Plan-ning Department, who put a Bt63.5-billion price tag on the designs it drew up. That plan in many ways resembled a spectacular Bt130-billion plan put forward for the project in 2005 by Japanese construction specialist Umeza-wa Tadao - except that the Japanese design called for a “floating city”, not one on reclaimed land. ”The most important aspect of this development will be environmental and natural resource conservation, and ensuring that it improves the lives of local people,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »