Bangkok Airways Plc has opened its third hotel on Koh Samui, which is worth 700 million baht and is aimed at cashing in on growing tourism and driving the airline's progress.
The new hotel, Celes Beachfront Resort Koh Samui, has 68 rooms and is located next to the 20-year-old Samui Palm Beach Resort, also under the group.
The hotel is owned and developed by the Prasarttong-Osoth family, which also owns Bangkok Airways, Samui Airport and Bangkok Hospital Samui.
The group also runs multi-brand hospitals under Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Plc, which is the country's largest private hospital, as well as Trat and Sukhothai airports and Sukhothai Heritage Resort.
Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, said tourism business on Samui grew 10% in the first quarter year-on-year.
Key factors that drove growth are the improving economy and the greater air capacity for Bangkok Airways and other airlines, he said.
Last year Bangkok Airways opened new routes from Koh Samui to Guangzhou (daily flights), Chengdu (three flights per week) and Changsha (four flights per week). The airline wanted to increase the frequency on the Koh Samui-Hong Kong route, but failed due to a lack of air slots.
Thai Airways International operates two daily flights from Bangkok to Koh Samui. Silk Air has two daily flights from Singapore to Koh Samui, Lucky Air has one daily flight from China and Tibet Airlines has four flights per week from China.
Mr Puttipong said there are a total of 50 flights from different airlines to Samui every day, 40 of which are with Bangkok Airways.
He said more tourists will travel into Koh Samui, with advanced bookings made for July and August from travellers from Europe, one of the island's high seasons.
"With more air accessibility, tourism and hotel business in Koh Samui will continue to grow. The opening of the new hotel in the island is set to cope with future growth," Mr Puttipong said.
In 2017, 2.3 million tourists travelled into Koh Samui, 1.9 million of which came from overseas and the rest from the domestic market.
Omapatt Nuntapanish, group general manager for both the Samui hotels, expects Celes Beachfront Resort Koh Samui will serve families and honeymooners from domestic and international markets, including Germany, France, Israel and China.
"For the new hotel, we hope to operate with an average occupancy rate of 67-68% for the first year in operations," Mr Omapatt said.
Consisting of 50 deluxe rooms, 10 pool villas and eight beachfront villas with modern boutiques designed at Celes Beachfront Resort, the average room rate is 4,000 baht, about double Samui Palm Beach Resort.
Last year, Samui Palm Beach Resort maintained an average occupancy rate of 68%.