Veranda Group, a luxury hotel company, is spending at least 2 billion baht excluding land costs to build its fourth property in Pattaya.
A bird’s-eye view of the popular resort town of Pattaya, where Veranda Group is developing its fourth property, aimed at attracting Thais and foreigners alike.
Located on Na Jomtien beach, the mixed-use property will consist of the 150-room Veranda Resort and Spa Pattaya and the Veranda Residence Pattaya Condominium, which will have 364 units and four villas. The average condo unit price is estimated at 140,000 baht per square metre.
Surasak Wongkiatthaworn, Veranda's marketing director, said the project is scheduled to finish in the next two years. The hotel will be managed by Veranda.
Managing its own hotels in provinces should boost the group's bottom line, but its sole property in Bangkok still needs the management of an international hotel chain that can generate higher room rates.
Its five-star Sofitel So Bangkok hotel is managed by the Accor chain, while its two upcountry properties, the Veranda Resort and Spa Hua Hin-Cha Am and the Veranda Chiang Mai the High Resort, are managed by Veranda itself.
Occupancy rates of the two provincial hotels are 70-80%, with an average room rate of 5,000 baht per night.
"Forward booking for the Songkran festival remains small. But several bookings will come late on the back of changing tourist behaviour. European tourists will book two months in advance compared with 3-6 months in the past, while Asian travellers including Thais book one month before they travel," Mr Surasak said.
The group is also looking for opportunities to build another hotel in Phuket, which is famous among foreign travellers.
Mr Surasak said Veranda is looking at tourism destinations for both domestic and international markets. The proportion of foreign and Thai tourists at each hotel should be similar as a way of avoiding risks.
For Pattaya, the group sees a large room to grow thanks to its strong popularity among both local and foreign tourists.
"Pattaya has very good infrastructure and Suvarnabhumi airport also helps to support Pattaya tourism," Mr Surasak said.
Last year, Pattaya attracted 8.8 million tourists, of which 6.5 million were foreign and 2.3 million Thai, and they generated income of about 100 billion baht.
The top nine tourism markets for Pattaya are Russia, China, Germany, the Middle East, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Britain and Eastern Europe.
Tourist arrivals to Pattaya are projected to increase by 10% to 9.6 million this year, generating income of 170 billion baht.
Chon Buri province has more than 500 hotels and 50 tourism sites to serve the growing tourism industry, a key revenue generator for the province, which is only an hour's drive from Bangkok.