bali villas and phuket land for sale and lease

With a combination of increased capacity at Thailand’s Airports, and a host of new international routes announced by major airlines in 2008, The Tourist Authority of Thailand expects inbound tourists to grow at 6.3 per cent per annum during the period 2007 to 2010. Thailand´s main resort destinations including Phuket, Samui, and Pattaya have already experienced a particularly active 2007/08 high season.

Pattaya undoubtedly benefited from the opening of Suvanahbnumi Airport in 2006, as its location is considerably closer to the resort city than that of Dong Muang. The journey can be made in as little as an hour. The TAT noted that Pattaya enjoyed a 14.55 per cent increase in tourists in the year after the new airport opened. This has benefited the property market, with the value of transactions during 2007 rising by 17 per cent.
Phuket enjoyed an even higher rate of growth with a 22.6 per cent increase in passenger arrivals form 2006 to 2007. Indeed in 2007, Phuket enjoyed a record-breaking number of visitors, exceeding 5 million.

Much of the increase can be attributed to upgrades of air services by international airlines. Dragon Air is upgrading its Hong Kong to Phuket flights by using larger aircraft. Air Asia is scheduled to start tapping into the lucrative Macau market by offering direct daily Macau to Phuket flights. Chartered flight arrivals also increased 150 per cent from October 2007 to March 2008 with departure countries including Switzerland, Russia, UAE and a number or Eastern European nations.

Phuket has been the most active resort property market in Q4, 2007. Transaction numbers rose by 32 per cent quarter-on-quarter and the value of property transactions went up by 59 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Paul Martin, Sales Manager at Phuket One Real Estate told Property Report Thailand "There has been a definite increase in activity in Phuket which has lead to strong pre-sales of our newest offering, The Chava, at Surin Beach."

Samui has also seen stellar growth. Bangkok Airway’s plans to make Samui a second international hub, has meant that the island can now receive larger aircraft. Bangkok Airways is planning mid-haul international routes from Samui to Dubai, Shanghai, KL and Bali, Silk Air is planning a direct Samui to Singapore Service, and Thai airways has already started to serve the island twice daily from Bangkok using larger aircraft. The upgrades will allow Samui to receive up to 62 per cent more passengers going forward.

The increases in capacity are likely to be a key driver of growth to the Property market on the island. The Conrad Residences Koh Samui and The Estates, which both launched in 2007 have already garnered much interest.

All in all, with substantial upgrades in air travel continuing to provide strong increases in tourist arrivals, the future of the Thai resort property markets remains bright.
 

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