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ARTICLES, SPEECHES AND OTHER READING
GRAY AREA from the Phuket Gazette
RESPONSIBLE RESORTS, December 2006
The Koyao Resort has natural air conditioning only.
Only 50 years after the first jetliner flew
through the air, travel has become the world's largest industry, offering a
multitude of benefits, including prosperity, relaxation and even education.
Here on Phuket we've seen such bounty first hand, and thanks to the
geographical serendipity of our chain of west coast beaches, the island
gracefully embraces a wide array of hotels.
I enjoy a deserted beach, but I still admit that Our Rock provides a good
foundation for well-designed resorts - and we're seeing better architecture
every year. From a planning standpoint, Phuket's west coast carrying
capacity is a hotelier's bonanza, and local workers have seen a definite
increase in living standards in the 17 years I've lived here.
But Phuket is where these resorts belong. Taking resorts off-island is very
risky business. The Koh Racha Resort is tasteful, low key and that island's
only resort - but it's still mainstream concrete and air-con. To find a true
21st century eco-resort around Phuket, visit Shanti Lodge or Koyao Island
Resort.
In the case of Koyao Island Resort, its first obvious asset is that it can't
be seen from the sea - wonderful! It's also elegant, open-air, expansive yet
low volume, serves reasonably-priced quality food, and blends in with the
local environment and culture. In contrast to the expat-ridden operations so
common in Thailand, this 15-bungalow hotel employs 33 locals, creates
off-property jobs for another 30, runs a children's community center and
buys locally.
General Manager (GM) Gavin Pereira says, "The locals enjoy us because we
sincerely care about Koh Yao." He adds that, as a foreign GM, his work
permit requires him to help his Thai staff improve their skills and
knowledge; and he tries to live up to that obligation, unlike many other
GMs, who he feels exploit their staff for their own benefit.
The resort isn't a bamboo bungalow or something like the rustic Sabai
Corner. A vanguard of things to come, Koyao Resort is an upscale eco-retreat
frequented by professionals and millionaires looking for an alternative to
tasteless modernity. Elegant yet inexpensive, this jewel is ideal for
travelers who are affluent yet environmentally-aware and cerebral. This is
about natural beauty over tacky theme parties and noisy bars, traditional
longtails over speedboats. It's about low-impact, sustainable use.
Pereira says, "Our open-air ambiance without AC is a great marketing
point...It's all about innovation. Sometimes it's best to look back so you
know where you are going. My family gets along just fine in our wooden Thai
house, shaded by a jungle canopy. I have lived in modern concrete 'heat
sink' homes without air con, and I thought I would die."
Unfortunately, despite the eco-resort's example, quiet Koh Yao Noi is going
mainstream, and Gavin Pereira is worried. The resort is only six years old
and recovering from 70% tsunami damage, yet now it also has to cope with
noisy construction next door. Gavin is worried that encroachment by modern
hotels will eventually bastardize Koh Yao into another Phuket or Samui.
Developers see virgin territory such as Koh Yao as a morsel too good to be
missed, but many observers are outraged by the lack of judgment and denial
of downstream impacts associated with coastal development, be it luxury
hotels or sewage treatment plants. It's a fine balance between preserving
natural beauty through sustainable use and trampling the garden into the
ground and sucking its resources dry.
Koh Yao Noi isn't Ao Nang or Phuket, and doesn't have their carrying
capacity and infrastructure. The conservative Muslim culture is in for a big
surprise when wall-to-wall beer bars form behind the hotels and topless
Euro-tourists line the few beaches. The east bay islands that form such a
magical view have only two small beaches, and Koh Bele was over-run by Krabi
tourists years ago.
TV crews are already exploiting the pristine beauty of the area to promote
the new developments.
There are an estimated 24 to 38 new Koh Yao Noi hotel plots, so we can
expect a few thousand guests looking off their balconies, yearning to visit
the two beautiful islands before them, each with beaches capable of holding
only a couple of dozen tourists each.
Yet to be seen is how power and water will be supplied to thirsty,
electricity-greedy mainstream hotels. Even without swimming pools and
thousands of hotel showers, locals complain about water shortages.
Will hotels be required by law to provide solar hot water? Will solar cell
panels be used, or Koh Yao's little power station upgraded, or will
inefficient underwater cables be installed? Whatever the case, it will be
expensive, and the taxpayer will bear the brunt of the bill.
It is to be hoped that the hotel developers who have bought land on the
island take a cue from the Koh Yao Resort's universally-appealing
combination of minimalist aesthetics, open air comfort and responsible
management of the isle's natural resources.
In Phuket, Shanti Lodge is the market leader and local role model for
natural style, ambience and ecological balance.
For investors, eco-tourism is the way of the future, with the market
increasing each year. And as shown by such disasters as Class 5 tropical
cyclone Durian, which killed 1,000 in the Philippines this month, the
blow-back from irresponsible mismanagement of our cosmos can be devastating. |
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