The Village, Coconut Island is one of Phuket?s newest five star resorts. It can be reached by a short five minute water taxi ride from Laem Hin Pier.

The resort is built around a tropical community area with a large pool. The Village currently has 44 villas.

Mark Ashman, General Manager of The Village Coconut Island revealed to the Post that the village has forecast its revenue growth at about 30-40 percent which is actually a decrease from the staggering 70-80 percent of the previous year owing to Thailand?s political protests.

As part of the Village?s plans to adjust to the market Mr Ashman will focus more on attracting the Asian market as opposed to the predominantly European expats residing in Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

The Village recently invested more than 750 million baht on expanding their ?second phase? on an area of 50 Rai on Coconut Island and will be spilt in two parts.

The first part is a 120 room project that will be managed by the Village itself with a grand-opening scheduled for November. Part two will house 80 two bedroom villas, each with a private swimming pool, garden and access to new facilities that include, restaurants, bars, a shopping village, and a water park area.

Villas will be sold fully furnished. Customers also will have an opportunity to pay in installments over a 5?0 year period.

During the low-season, the village is offering customers various promotion packages. Mt Ashman believes that as The Village is on a private and secluded island, it has to work twice as hard to compete with the other hotels and resorts in Phuket.

?We produce a lot of promotion packages to attract our target customers. We have to do something different from our competitors. We not only offer a Relaxation packages but also an Extreme package for our more adventurous guests.?

?One day they can go sailing on a yacht, the next day go diving and another day go flying! We try to add more value to our guests? trip,? he added.

The young GM revealed that he is still looking for investment for future opportunities, ?We have several ideas. Perhaps we will buy more land on Coconut Island or we may just extend our resort here. We also own land on Khao Lak, so perhaps building a villa project there could be a real possibility.

Mr Ashman explained that he would prefer to continue working on Coconut Island as the Village has established good working relationships with the locals, many of whom work at The Village.

The Village also sponsor the Koh Maphrao school and its students by providing the necessary funds needed to generate the electricity, and provide a convenient way to transfer between Laem Hin Pier and the Coconut Island as well as an opportunity to work with The Village.

Mr Ashman said, ?Coconut Island is not only unspoiled and private but also remains close to Phuket. The reason we chose Coconut Island is because we wanted something different and something unique.

The concept here is when you are in the Coconut Island you could be anywhere in the world. We are just five minutes from Phuket, but it?s as if we are 1,000 miles away.?