Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks, said yesterday that in the year following the 2004 tsunami, guest arrivals in Phang Nga fell sharply to fewer than 300,000. But in a remarkable sustained upswing, the figure rose to 962,020 last year and is expected to break the 1-million mark this year.

C9 Hotelworks says the key drivers of this upsurge are Chinese and Australian visitors, adding to the European guests who still dominate the market with 80 per cent of arrivals, resulting in a new wave of hotel development.

Khao Lak has 104 registered accommodation units with 7,822 keys, which pales in comparison with neighbouring Phuket with close to 50,000 rooms.

However, over the past five years, the destination has grown 16 per cent a year, a performance not gone unnoticed by both Thai and foreign hotel developers, which are putting 1,213 guestrooms into the pipeline.

Barnett said the upcycle in tourism was highlighted by the planned return of Bill Heinecke’s Minor Hotel Group and the coming onstage of more international brands such as IHG’s Holiday Inn.

“Geographically within Khao Lak we are seeing the push north for the newest and larger resorts, with Bangsak in particular seeing a number of large-scale properties.”

Winter visitors from European countries, especially German-speaking nationalities, have been the legacy market. These tourists in fact the main drivers of the destination in the period after the tsunami.

By 2006, foreign visitors eclipsed domestic demand for the first time and the trend has grown ever since.

“Over the past few years, Khao Lak has attached itself to Phuket’s fast-rising airlift and China and Australia in particular, with strong arrivals in the traditionally lean summer months, driving the growth and market maturity as it becomes a year-around market as opposed to the disruptive seasonality it used to be known for,” Barnett said.

Other key emerging markets such as Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are key catalysts of change.

“Khao Lak has been able to attract an increasing number of visitors from nearby Phuket who have destination fatigue and are disconnected by the widespread urbanisation of the island’s resort atmosphere.

“Though the destination is firmly connected to the bigger Greater Phuket infrastructure including the soon-to-open expanded airport, in the long term Phang Nga will have to develop its own gateway airport in order to control its own tourism destiny.”