The resort’s inaugural ‘Passion for Perfume’ programme in April was such a success, the resort says, that it will repeat it in August, with two two-day courses, on August 19/20 ad 21/22.

As in April, ‘Passion for Perfume’ will be hosted by perfumer Stephen Dowthwaite, founder of Perfumers World in Bangkok. “Over the two days,” the resort explains, “guests will experiment with fragrances and understand the connection between scents and emotions. In the end, couples can create their own signature perfume, a pheromone-sparking fragrance that sets pulses racing and sends a shiver down the spine.”

Steven Dowthwaite of Perfumers World in Bangkok will teach the courses.

Each day the ‘Passion for Perfume’ programme will consist of a two-hour morning session followed by a three-hour practical afternoon workshop.

Day 1 – In the morning, guests will be introduced to the ABCs of perfumery, learning the basics of blending and beginning to identify a fragrance’s key notes. After lunch, using their newfound knowledge, they will reproduce their favorite perfume using a selection of 26 base fragrances.

Day 2 – In the morning participants blend their own perfume to convey a feeling, place or atmosphere, and in the afternoon, once they understand the senses-stirring ability of essential oils and natural extracts, they will create their own personal aphrodisiac.

Along with a bottle of their signature scent, at the end of the two-day escape couples will receive a 40-page guide to perfumery and a certificate.

The price for the two-day programme, which includes lunch and snacks on both days, is B7,000 per person (about US$260), plus tax. For more information or to book, go here.

If you can’t make it this time around, the course will be repeated in October.

Pool villa at the Outrigger Laguna Phuket resort.

Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, Asia, has officially settled on Phuket as its Regional Operating Headquarters (ROH) and has also been approved by the Thai Government’s Board of Investment (BoI).

With its offices in Plaza del Mar, just outside the gates of the Laguna complex, Outrigger is the first company to set up an ROH in Phuket.

“We are a resort company so we have chosen a resort location,” said Outrigger’s Senior Vice President, Asia, Mr Darren Edmonstone. “Our expertise since our formation in Hawaii over 60 years ago pertains to warm climate resort holidays. Phuket with its great aviation access, human resources and culture of hospitality is a perfect regional headquarters for us in Asia.”

ROH status gives Outrigger privileges and responsibilities in the areas of taxation, human resources, research, product development, sourcing of raw materials and parts, credit management, marketing, sales and technical support. BoI approval has a number of additional advantages, including foreign majority ownership of the business, and easier work permit and visas procedures.

In addition, Edmonstone said, “The quality and variety of Phuket’s existing human resource pool is excellent and improving all the time. Furthermore, with a headquarters in Phuket, Outrigger can easily access resort areas of potential business interest … around Asia.”

The company, which has its corporate HQ in Hawaii, has been on a drive into Asia over the past three years. It manages Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort & Villas, along with a property in Bali, and is looking at other resorts and hotels in Indonesia, Vietnam, Hainan (China), South Korea, the Maldives and India.

Master bedroom in one of Andara's pool suites.

Andara Resort & Villas in Kamala has launched a Summer Escape promotion that includes:

• Two nights in a 1- or 2-bedroom Residential Suite;
• One round trip airport transfer by Fortuner SUV (max 3 persons per car);
• Welcome drinks on arrival and daily fruit plate;
• Daily breakfast in Silk Restaurant;
• Complimentary WiFi internet access;
• Complimentary access to Andara Beach Club;
• Late check out to 4pm (subject to availability); and
• 10% off spa treatments.

Rates for the promotion start from US$580 (about B18,500) per person (double/twin sharing). Stays can be extended by paying from US$650 (B21,000) net per room per night, with complimentary breakfast for two people.

The promotion is valid until October 31. for more information see this web page.

Footnote: The Observer is intrigued as to why Andara is making a point about the free ride “by Fortuner”. First, this is not a Rolls-Royce on a Jag XJ or something similarly exotic. It’s not even a Merc or a Beamer. Or a Volvo. It’s a bulgy SUV based on Toyota’s Hilux pickup truck.

Not only that, but Fortuners are widely loathed by drivers of other cars on Phuket’s highways and byways because Fortuner drivers are almost all road hogs, tailgaters and bullies. Can anyone tell us why this is?

Being on the east coast, Grove Gardens has views of mangroves rather than beaches.

American hotel management company LaTour is at it again, signing up its third property in Phuket, which also becomes, in press releases, its “third property in Asia”. (Well, it’s true, isn’t it?)

The company already has management deals with Indochine in Kalim and the Dewa resort on Nai Yang Beach. This time it’s gone east to Cape Yamu to take on Grove Gardens and run it as a resort.

There is a connection here – Grove Gardens was developed by former hotelier and long-time Phuket guy Lard Ydmark, who also built and part-owns Dewa. Plainly, the LaTour bosses like the big Swede.

Grove Gardens was originally built as a straight property development, with homes for sale. It’s always had a restaurant and has acquired other facilities including a big pool, tennis courts and a spa. More recently, a hotel element was added, allowing owners to make a bit of money from their homes when they are not there.

The pool at Grove Gardens.

Grove Gardens has 36 units ranging from two-bedroom garden apartments to three-bedroom pool residences, thus allowing to to claim a four-star niche between the standard hotel pool villa (usually one room) and the top-end rental villa (anything up to six rooms).

LaTour have been so busy sending out press releases that they seem to have rather run out of superlatives. In the release announcing the Grove Garden deal, Tom LaTour, chairman of LaTour Hotels and Resorts, is quoted as saying, “We continue to build on the strength of our partnership with IndoChine Group and position [of] the LaTour brand as a premier provider of management services in the Asia-Pacific region.”

But we’re sure he’s more excited than that about the new deal.

Naiharn Beach - one of four Phuket beaches where you'll find an Accor hotel.

Accor hotels throughout Thailand – including Phuket – are now offering guests “cash back” incentives during their stays. The “cash back” credits can be used on services within the hotel such as restaurants, bars or even on treatments in the spa.

“Accor is coordinating this campaign to help give tourism a helping hand,” said Oswald Pichler – Accor’s Vice President of Operations for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. “As the country regains stability [after the political violence in Bangkok], tourists will be looking to take advantage of deals for travel to locations such as … Phuket.

“With hotels and resorts in all key city and leisure locations, the Accor network when combined with these ‘cash back’ incentives provides a very strong proposition.”

Until September 30, guests staying at participating Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure, All Seasons or ibis hotels will receive:

• B500 at any Pullman, MGallery and Novotel per room per night to spend in the hotel
• B250 at any Grand Mercure and Mercure per room per night to spend in the hotel
• B150 at any ibis and all seasons per room per night to spend in the hotels

Ibis Patong Hotel

Accor manages six hotels on Phuket. They are the Novotel Phuket Resort in Patong; the Novotel Phuket Beach Resort Panwa on Cape Panwa; the All Seasons Naiharn; the Mercure Patong; the Ibis Patong and the Ibis Kata.

For more on these hotels, go here.

All rooms at the Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa have sea-and-island views.

The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa Phuket is offering room nights for B2,010++ (or US$59++) a night in the lead-up to its official opening, scheduled for August.

The promotion is valid for bookings before 30 September 2010 and stays between August 1 and October 31. The introductory rate is for rooms only, with taxes and service charge taking the checkout price to B2,386, or about US$70 a night.

The resort will be the first Westin resort to open in Thailand. Located on Siray Island, on the east side of the island, the resort overlooks Siray Bay and boasts a secluded beach with direct access.

Siray Island is connected to the Phuket mainland via a bridge. It is a 10-minute drive from Phuket Town and about 45 minutes  from Phuket International Airport.

The beach near the resort is usually much quieter than beaches on the west coast of Phuket.

“We are excited to introduce the first Westin resort in Thailand! We are looking forward to offering travelers an exclusive retreat with our Westin services, products and amenities that will allow them to relax, rejuvenate and recharge,” said Greg Findlay, the resort’s General Manager.

“At Westin our focus is on well being and wellness to ensure our guests leave feeling better than when they arrived.”

The new-build resort will offer 261 guest rooms, suites and villas, all with ocean views and open outdoor balconies.

The hotel website is here.

The lingering global financial crisis, the recent political turmoil in Bangkok and the sometimes wet weather of this time of the year in Phuket all add up to leave a delightfully empty beach in Patong.

The Centara Sawaddi Patong Resort Phuket has launched a “Discover Patong Phuket – Introductory Sale” with rates starting from just B1,200++ per room-night (two people). On top of this, anyone booking the package before June 30 will also get buffet breakfast free. The offer is valid for stays before October 31.

Children under 12 stay free, with a maximum of two sharing their parents’ room and bed. An extra bed can be provided at B600++ per night.

The Centara Sawaddi Patong Resort Phuket is located a short stroll from Patong’s renowned entertainment heartland and renowned beach, the Jungceylon Shopping and Entertainment Complex and the popular Bangla Walking Street.

The resort is about 40 minutes’ drive from Phuket International Airport and about 20 minutes from the island’s capital, Phuket Town. The resort website is here.

The design of the new Centara echoes the Sino-Portuguese architecture of old Phuket Town.

Centara Hotels & Resorts will open its new Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket  at Karon Beach in October this year, its fourth hotel in Phuket.

The resort will have 262 guestrooms and villas, divided between 108 deluxe rooms, 81 deluxe spa rooms, 45 pool premium rooms, 18 pool suites, six one-bed pool villas and four two-bed pool villas, along with four F&B outlets: the all-day restaurant, The Cove; the Mare Italian restaurant and bar; the Luna Chill-Out Bar and Lounge; and a Beachcomber Beach Bar.

Other facilities at the resort, the design of which references Phuket Sino-Portuguese architecture, will include a tennis court, fitness centre, a spa, a playground and two playrooms for children, one for ages 4-10 and another for ages 10-16.

Centara is part of the family-owned Thai giant Central Group, which also owns the Central Department stores (including Central Festival in Phuket and the ill-fated Central World in Bangkok, destroyed by arson in the wake of the recent Red Shirt violence); Robinson department stores; B2S bookstores; electronics retail chain PowerBuy; DIY chain Homeworks and sporting goods store chain Supersports; and a minority stake in Big C supermarkets; .

It also operates the Thailand franchises of brands such as Hong Kong drugstore chain Watson and UK retailer Marks & Spencer.

Michael Ma - "I’ve been green for 30 years."

Michael Ma’s getting pretty fit these days. It’s all that climbing up and down steps at his latest acquisition, the hillside Indochine Resort in Phuket, formerly the troubled Villa Santi property development.

The Phuket resort is a new departure for Ma’s company, the Indochine Group. It’s the group’s first venture in Thailand, and its first resort – all the other Indochine properties so far have been bars, restaurants and night clubs.

Is it hard running a resort? Not really, he says. After all, in the rooms and villas, people serve their own drinks. All the resort managers he has spoken to agreed that the food and beverage aspect is the hardest – and F&B is something Indochine knows inside and out, and on a large scale.

Each of its major outlets – five complexes in Singapore, two each in KL and Hamburg and one in Jakarta, which Dubai next on the list – can hold up to 2,000 people, and the ones in Singapore have catered to events for the International Union of Conservation for Nature, the IMF and the World Bank, along with after-event parties for the MTV Asia awards and the International Indian Film Academy Awards.

It also hosted the International Olympic 2012 Bid parties of London, New York, and Paris – all at the same time in different venues.

Apart from the big parties, individual guests have included Henry Kissinger, Michael Bloomberg, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair and his wife, Mrs. Cherie Blair, and Prince Albert of Monaco. None of these people would tolerate shoddy F&B for long.

The hardest thing about Indochine Phuket, he says, has been getting it finished. The contractor’s six months behind schedule. “This is the hardest it’s ever been,” he says. “Even in Jakarta and Delhi things went much faster than this. That’s why I need to be here right now.” But he perseveres, stumping up and down the steps to deliver instructions in Thai, Lao or English, depending on who needs chivvying along.

Ma’s Indochine Group quietly bought Villa Santi a couple of years ago. He loves the site of the resort, climbing up a hill at the north end of Patong Bay, giving it a panorama that delights Ma night and day. All his existing bars, restaurants and nightclubs – in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Germany – have great views, he explains, but Indochine Phuket is the only one with a 24/7 panorama.

Daytime panorama from Indochine. At night there are the bright lights of Patong, hot air balloons and, often fireworks.

The view is an essential part of Ma’s outlook on business, his approach to tackling new projects. He explains, “I like to see the end-game first. Then I work backwards. I see the picture and I know the ending of the story. I’m a film producer and director.

“I love food, wine, partying. I’ve been doing that since I was about 14-15 years old. Then I got into art and design, so it’s an eclectic mixture of my experience. When I was a commodity trader I went to the best bars and restaurants all over the world – and you see the difference. I know exactly what I want.

“Every day, at the end of the party, there’s romance. Every day there’s drama. It’s an Oscar-winning story. So you just take that story and elongate it to eight hours a day or, in the case of the resort, 24 hours a day.”
Ma’s definitely got a sybaritic side to him – he counts beautiful people and glitterati such as Sting, David and Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, INXS, Gong Li and Mariah Carey among his acquaintances.

But apart from that and his palpable business acumen, he is also very serious about the environment and takes his social responsibilities as a given.

These attitudes are not PR BS. Many resorts – indeed, many corporations, even property developers – tout themselves as “green”. But few can claim among their friends Dr Ashok Khosla, President of the IUCN, the umbrella for hundreds of green activist groups, including the WWWF and Greenpeace. The IUCN is the only environmental organisation to have observer status at the UN. Ma is its Singapore representative.

In an interview, he launches immediately into an explanation of how he is striving to make Indochine Phuket as green as possible.

“It’s not that we ‘want’ to be green – I’ve been green for 30 years. We don’t do shark fin soup, bluefin tuna, yellow tuna, or sturgeon. We’ve been doing this for 11 years in Singapore and everywhere else.

“Everything that we’ve built new [at Indochine Phuket has environmental considerations in mind]. There’s double insulation, there’s LED lighting, there’s a heat exchange system going in so that whenever we turn on the aircon we get free hot water.

“Our investment level is higher but the aim is to reduce power consumption. We’re looking at composting. Anything non-dairy, non-protein will be separated for local pig farms. Any plant trimmings will be turned into fertiliser.

“Our ‘timber’ decking is 50% recycled plastic, 50% rice hull. All the plastic chairs you see are recycled plastic with UV inhibitor so they’re built to be light and last for years. That’s the sort of spec we’re going for.”

Whenever possible, locally-sourced materials are used, not just because they may be cheaper, but because transporting them produces less CO2 than if they were brought, say, from Bangkok.

Similarly, for many companies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is something they feel they must do in order to show they are good corporate citizens – with a helpful PR spinoff.

Ma, however, was taking his social responsibilities seriously long before he went into business. In Australia, where he grew up after his family fled the arrival of the communist regime in his native Laos, he acted, when he was just 16 or 17, as an interpreter between the Indochinese community (many of whom could speak little or no English) and the authorities and NGOs.

Through interpreting, Ma met the Mayor of Sydney and other politicians, and soon graduated into an advocacy role. He was urged to go into politics and joined the more conservative of the two main political parties, the Liberals. This was not, he explained, because he had political ambitions, o because his views are right wing – far from it – but because someone pointed out that the Liberals had no members with Southeast Asian backgrounds.

“I joined so that I could maybe counterbalance some of the people on the extreme right – the Pauline Hansons and so on.” In 1990 he was voted Young Liberal of the Year.

Twenty years on, and he is still involved in supporting the community, locally and in a much wider way. In Singapore, he says, he is on the board of such entities as Action for Community Enterprise, and is a consultant with the National Environment Agency and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Naturally, the company is involved. In the recent past, Indochine has organised events supporting tsunami relief, aid to children with HIV and heart research. This is in addition to its Green Festival, aimed at raising awareness of the issues before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change.

All of these has a strong fun element, reflecting Ma’s own philosophy of life. He’s not going to go as far as giving up his good food, wine and partying to go live in a cave in order to save the environment. And he’s not going to give up his stretch limo. “People ask me how I can be green and have a stretch limo. I tell them it can carry eight people with the same engine as the four-seat version,” he grins.

Dewa Resort, at Nai Yang Beach, is the latest to sign up LaTour for its management expertise.

LaTour Hotels & Resorts of San Diego, California, which recently signed up to manage the Indochine Resort in Kalim,  has signed up its second property in Phuket: The Dewa at Nai Yang.

In a public statement, Phuket landmark Lars Ydmark, the boss of Tri-Asia, which developed and owns the hotel, explained, “We’re excited to put Dewa Phuket Resort into LaTour Hotels & Resorts’ group of managed properties and welcome their team’s expertise and guidance in providing premier services.

“By introducing Latour, we will only enhance further what we have already achieved and thereby add more value for all our individual home owners at Dewa Phuket. As the saying goes, more tools in the tool box.”

LaTour is a new name in the hotel business, founded just a couple of years ago, and with just nine properties in its portfolio – four in the US, three in Mexico and, now, two in Thailand.

However, it does have a great deal of experience in it’s senior management team. Founder, chairman and CEO Thomas LaTour was for many years the boss of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, growing it from one hotel to 45 during his tenure. He is also a big wheel in ResortCom International.

In fact, most of the top management of LaTour and ResortCom are the same people.

In case you were wondering, ResortCom International – despite the coincidence of names – is not affiliated to timeshare exchange giant RCI, though John Small, chairman of ResortCom and vice-chairman of LaTour, once worked for RCI Management – an RCI subsidiary which manages timeshare properties, but doesn’t sell timeshare. And ResortCom also boats that it “can provide a fully integrated platform and 100% of the operational and back office services for a timeshare or fractional resort developer” Clear?

Be that as it may, Ydmark says that there will be no timeshare at Dewa, which is part-resort, part-privately owned apartments. “LaTour is a manager of high-end mixed-use boutique resorts so that fits perfectly with what we have. That’s why we’re delighted to get in bed with them,” he said.