Intercontinental will open its first hotel in Phuket in 2014, following the take-over of the former Evason Resort Hotel.
PHUKET- InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced on December 19 that it has signed a management contract for the former Evason Resort in Rawai. It was previously owned by the SONEVA Group which sold the property last May. Operations ceased on May 22, 2012 with close to 400 employees being made redundant.
Since then, the resort started working on an extensive overhaul under the guidance of award-winning Australian designer Bill Bensley (responsible also for the Indigo Pearl Resort). When completed, the future Intercontinental will be one of the most luxurious property in Phuket. It will offer some 240 rooms and villas. It is scheduled to open in 2014 and will become the flagship property for the InterContinental brand in Thailand.
The former Evason is owned by JTM (Thailand) Ltd, a subsidiary of LC Development Ltd of Singapore, which also owns the Holiday Inn Resort Phuket and the Crowne Plaza London Kensington in the UK. LC Development’s MD, Kelvin Lum, said, “We have had a great partnership with IHG for more than two decades and the signing of the hotel management agreement for the InterContinental Phuket Rawai Beach Resort cements this relationship further.
“The resort, when operational, will be our second hotel managed by IHG in Thailand after the Holiday Inn Resort Phuket in Patong. We are confident that IHG is the ideal operator for this unique hotel in Rawai, Phuket. We are excited about the possibilities this latest collaboration brings and are looking forward to seeing our first InterContinental come to life in Phuket.”
This will be its first InterContinental-brand property in Phuket. Jan Smits, CEO of IHG Asia, Middle East and Africa, remarked, “Having already established our Holiday Inn brand in Phuket, we’ve been looking for the right partner and right opportunity to add a luxury resort offering to meet the demand on the island”.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
