Hilton Hua Hin hopeful of busy high season

[buksida]

Despite three risk factors - political and economic uncertainties and natural disasters, managers of the Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa are hopeful that tourism in the resort town will continue to improve in the second half of the year.

General manager Boris Blobel said the overall tourism market in Hua Hin returned to normal activity in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period last year, particularly in May 2010 when the country was paralysed by the political crisis.

The hotel's occupancy rate from January to May this year stood at 70%, up from lower than 60% in the same period last year.

The disappointing rate in the first five months of last year was mainly due to cancellations from big markets such as European tourists.

"The rate might have been lower [than 60%] if we had had no Bangkok people fleeing to Hua Hin from the political crisis in the capital," he said. "We hope the second half of 2011 will continue to improve from the first half if the post-election situation is good"

Revenue per room in the first five months of 2011 improved by 3-5% but is still not near the records seen in the boom years of 2005-07. Currently, the average room rate is 4,000 baht a night at a property where rooms range from 2,500 to 50,000 baht.

The hotel targets an occupancy rate of 70% this year under normal circumstances and 66-68% if one of the negative factors affects the business. Last year, it recorded a 64% occupancy rate.

Mr Blobel said there were new groups of visitors coming to Hua Hin including people from the Middle East, Russia, China, Australia and India. In April this year, a medical association from India came as a group for a meeting.

"India is a healthy market. Some Indians extended their stay after the meeting. We've also had Indian guests hold weddings," he said. Russians also moved from Pattaya to Hua Hin as families with chartered flights as Hua Hin is more peaceful.

About 60% of the hotel's guests were Europeans, mainly Danish, followed by Germans, Britons and Scandinavians while 30% were Thais, both groups and walk-in guests, and the remaining 10% were a mix of Asian tourists including Koreans, Japanese, Arabs and Russians.

Established in 1992, the hotel was formerly owned by the Spanish hotelier Melia. It was acquired in 2000 by Bangkok-based Destination Properties Co owned by a Canadian group investing in the hotel business mainly in Phuket and in Si Racha, Chon Buri.

Source: Bangkok Post

Thoughts: Funny that when occupancy is currently around 25%, they've got some high hopes - especially if they think the post election situation will be good.

[Super Joe]

Mr Blobel said there were new groups of visitors coming to Hua Hin including people from the Middle East, Russia, China, Australia and India.

So riff-raff basically


There's no location specific data released yet on TAT website, just countrywide Jan & Feb data, but look how many people they reckon visited in Jan-Feb... 3.6 million! that's 23% higher than 2007 which saw a record 14.5 million for the year, at that time...

Look at the Ruskies go, 196,000 first 2 months of this year, compared to just 80,000 in Jan-Feb 2007, overtaking long time tourist leaders, the UK, to be the largest group outside Asean countries. Funny thing is when you look at arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport, it only shows 110,000 Russians, so how are the other 86,000 getting here, streaming through holes in the fence?

Sorry that's all Thailand in general, so a bit off-topic, getting back to Hua Hin I've noticed it's busier compared to recent 'dead' years, but I can't see it's higher than those big busy few years from Tsunami through 2007, anyone else noticed it much busier? I'd hazard a guess it's a 'bit busier' in Hua Hin, and that other resorts (particularly Phuket as I just googled) are a 'lot busier' accounting for the nationwide increases... if true


SJ

[Dr Mike]

The airport near to Pattaya --- U-Tapoa (sp?) has no scheduled flights except charters from Russia. That could expalin some of the numbers

[lomuamart]

It's only a very rough example but I've just come back from walking the beach to Khao Takiab and there was hardly a soul on it and it was "spot anyone" around and in the big resorts.
A bit of a cloudy morning but....

[usual suspect]

Points to note.*.HH tuk-tuk drivers say it's been their quietest 'high-season' for a long-long time.
* Considering how easy it is for a political party to bring BKK to a burning halt..
..& get away with all the damage/mayhem/misery Scott-free let's wait and see
what happens post-election week..??
* Seems the Ruskies are taking over in Patong as well..reports of malicious fighting on
the beach thru' the daytime does not bode well for night-time peace down there.
(Many blame the influx on the direct-flights arriving daily).
* I hear time & time again about tourists opting for Vietnam...any tourist-figures for
that country to back this claim..??

From a business point of view 'high-season' is always like fishing, but do we welcome the
Indians (who spend bugger-all when they're here), the Middle-Easterners..same as Indians,
but treat the bar-girls like meat for their pleasure when in a bar. Japanese..??
At least the Europeans spend well on holiday..thank you all.

[Dr Mike]

The Swedish nubers are sensational Sweden has 9 million populatuion as against 60mill+ in Uk, or France or Gernamy but has similar number of visitors to Thai.

[PeteC]

....Funny thing is when you look at arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport, it only shows 110,000 Russians, so how are the other 86,000 getting here, streaming through holes in the fence? SJ

They have a lot of jam packed charters come into U-Tapao, that's probably the difference. Pete

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see Dr. Mike's reply above. Besides charters, U-Tapao has 2-4 flights by Bangkok Airways to/from Samui each day, and some direct charters from South Korea. Pete

[Korkenzieher]

I did hear once - a few years ago now - from someone in the industry, that German tourism companies expect Vietnam to largely replace Thailand as a destination within a decade (perhaps 2015-2017). The Hilton announcement itself (we had a wedding... puhlease!) sounds rather like prepping for bad news in the expectation that there will be disquiet over the election. Something like, 'Well, we would have made target, but for tourist fears yada yada yada', to be released say a month after the result.

[kalbow]

"...We've also had Indian guests hold weddings," he said...

...well there's 5000 visitors (per wedding!)

[STEVE G]

Sorry that's all Thailand in general, so a bit off-topic, getting back to Hua Hin I've noticed it's busier compared to recent 'dead' years, but I can't see it's higher than those big busy few years from Tsunami through 2007, anyone else noticed it much busier?

I spent most of last month in Hua Hin and as far as European visitors go, I thought it was as dead as I'd ever seen it which actually suits me but then I don't have to make a living out of the place.

[hhfarang]

I noticed that in SJ's chart, Russia is listed under Europe... maybe those numbers are just for travelers originating west of the Urals...

[Dr Mike]

The Aussie figure is huge 138,000. and of course Jan & Feb are high summer in Oz not a peak time for Aussie tourists
Phuket has direct flights and doesa huger amount of Aussie business

[jimmy40]

well i was in binterbaht 2 nights ago and there on my walk i seen maybe 20 falang. Last night i was at cha am bus soi, and i think easy 50% bars where empty for sale or closed down, its as if it where a ghost town. These figures we here are rubbish, talk to any business owner. I bet they will say there turnover is down about 40%, most are not breaking even.

[Spitfire]

Are we taking government/TAT figures at their face value without any hint of the usual 'massaging' factor?

Sure it's not all just departmental lies to cover arse?

I'd certainly like to know where the hell all these so-called tourists are in reality.

I can't even get the truth out of the diesel garage attendant about how many PSI is currently in my tyres (US tire) and then get a truthful answer on whether he has filled it to the level I requested or just pumped it up to barely off explosion.

[Korkenzieher]

I would never trust TAT figures or hotel occupancy figures when looking at anything like that. As a starting point, I'd look at the trend of arrivals at swampy, by nationality. Most tourists fly into there - you could add HKT - but adding numbers from most land borders just distorts the figures. Then knock off a good chunk for the numbers of resident people doing home visits, visa runs and so on. Don't forget, if you do 4 visa runs a year you count as 4 people in the figures. Add a few back in for Malay weekenders at Had Yai and you are probably getting someplace close.