“A Lifeguard & First Aid Training” will be held on 20th – 21st March 2010 and 27th – 28th March 2010 at Phuket International Academy (PIA). It is a collaboration between PIA and the Northern Hotel Marketing Committee (NHMC) which are:

1. SALA Phuket Resort and Spa
2. JW Marriott Phuket Resort and Spa
3. Anantara Phuket Resort and Spa
4. Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa
5. Aleenta Resort & Spa Phang -Nga

The training is about “Basic Water Rescue” with the purpose to provides individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to prevent recognizer and respond to aquatic emergencies. We prepare individuals for aquatic emergencies by teaching them how to protect themselves while assisting others. This qualifications is the basic requirement for those wishing to gain employment as Lifeguard.

Objectives:

• Recognize, respond, and prevent aquatic emergencies.
• Perform self rescue skills.
• Provides assistance to others using a variety of rescues.
• Perform proper techniques for possible head, neck or back injuries on land and in shallow water.

Course Lengths:

• 2 Days – 78 hours/day

Course Content:

• Introduction & Review of content in Level 1 course
• Define an Emergency Action Plan
• Entering The Water, Understanding Risk f Rescue And The Causes of injury and Drowning.
• Perform Defenses and Releases
• Rescues Using Aids, Contact and Non-Contact Rescues.
• Dmonstrate Drags & Walking Assists.
• Survival Techniques such as HELP and Huddle Positions.
• Describe Actions to Take to Prevent or Dalay Hypothermia & Heart related Illnesses.
• Caring for Someone Haing a Seizure in the Water
• Rescue Breathing Mouth to: Mouth, Nose, Mask & CPR
• Using AED
• Head, Neck & back Injuries
• General First Aid & First Aid Kits

For more details about the course, please contact Phuket International Academy
T: +66 (0) 81 078 2024
F: +66 (0) 76 336 099
E: debbie@phuketinternationalacademy.com
www.phuketinternationalacademy.com

Ichi Ban taking the honours in IRC 1 Class at the 2009 Phuket King's Cup Regatta. Photo by Guy Nowell/Phuket King's Cup Regatta.

Provisional NOR 1st May. Class review underway.

18 March, 2010, Phuket – The Phuket King’s Cup Regatta is Asia’s largest keelboat regatta and arguably the most popular with over 2,000 people attending each year. Now entering it’s 24 years, the Organising Committee continue to innovate and develop the Regatta with the aim to provide the same high standard each year, with a few new twists.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the 24th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, Race Director Simon James, gave a few insights into what is in store for this years event.

“We plan to publish the provisional Notice of Race by the 1st May this year. Since the closing day of the 23rd Regatta, we have undertaken a review of Classes and Courses and have sought feedback from participants to see how the sailing can be improved and ensure we are catering to the vast diversity of boats and participants we have.”

James continued, “Each year we review the range of visiting yachts to the region and try to cater for any predominant changes in size or design. Two examples of this have been reflected in the  phenomenal growth in the Bareboat Class and the introduction of the Modern Classics Class in 2009 which gave some of the “less young” boats and competitors an opportunity to return to the Regatta.”

“Already we are seeing a growth in the number of true Cruising Multihulls which are basing themselves in Phuket on a long term basis, and we will endeavor to create a custom class to cater for these boats. Similarly, there is a growth in the number of true Sportsboats in the region and we are working on a plan to attract these flying machines to our event,” added James.

In addition to the introduction of the Modern Classic Class, developments in 2009 saw the re-introduction of dinghy sailing and a re-designed monohull Cruising Class. These will continue as part of the 2010 Regatta, and more changes are in the pipeline.

The Regatta welcomes input from competitors and also from Class Associations who would like to join this unique annual event. Comments should be directed to racing@kingscup.com.

“Following last year’s record fleet, we had a lot of positive and constructive feedback which we have taken on board and we hope to raise the bar even higher this year,” concluded James.

The 24th Phuket King’s Cup Regatta will take place off Kata Beach, headquartered at Kata Beach Resort & Spa on Phuket Island, from 4th to 11th December 2010. Under Royal Patronage, the Regatta is organised by the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta Organizing Committee under the auspices of the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, in conjunction with the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand, the Royal Thai Navy and the Province of Phuket.

Website: www.kingscup.com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70268823885&ref=ts
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/phuketkingscup
Media access to high resolution images: http://kingscup.com/MediaLogin.cfm

PHOTO CAPTION and CREDIT: Ichi Ban taking the honours in IRC 1 Class at the 2009 Phuket King’s Cup Regatta. Photo by Guy Nowell/Phuket King’s Cup Regatta.

Santi Jantarawong, acting in place of Head of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation office, said that there were 28 villages in 5 sub-districts in Phuket affected by drought. Around 673 families are lacking water.

The affected areas consist of Moo 1-9 in Pa Klok sub-district, Moo 1-6 in Cherng Talay sub-district, Moo 1-8 in Srisoonthorn sub-district, Moo 1-5 in Sakoo sub-district and Moo 1-11 in Tepkrasatri sub-district.

Now the related government offices have already sent water trucks to supply water to people living in these areas. There are many areas that are facing drought such as Kathu and Kor Sire where the government offices and local administrative organizations also helped supply water there.

i Somchai Silpanondh, the President of Hotel Entrepreneurs Association in Karon, said that hotels in Karon are affected by drought every year. The hotels help themselves to solve the problem by finding spare water resources or buying water to use in the hotels which increase hotels’ expenses. Anyway, this helps the water truck owners to generate good income during the water crisis.

Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket is making a splash of our own this Songkran with a special Gala Dinner Buffet at the Sand Bar featuring the best of traditional Thai family-style cuisine by a Thai music, dance and cabaret spectacular.

Be there on Tuesday, 13th April from 7.00 pm to 10.00 pm and celebrate this special day with us. THB 1,010++per person – and don’t miss Happy Hour when it’s buy one get one free on selected drink from 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm. The traditional music and dance performances start at 8.00pm. Price is subject to 10% service charge and 7% applicable government tax.

For more information and reservation, please call +66 76 396139 ext. 442.

About Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, an upscale hotel management company with 12,000 employees, is represented through over 90 hotels existing or under construction in 26 countries with a concentration in its core markets of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The international hotel group with roots in Switzerland is expanding and has a stated objective of increasing its hotel portfolio to 100 by the year 2010. With two hotel types, business and conference hotels, as well as holiday resorts, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has clearly positioned itself in the upscale segment. The hotel group stands for uncompromising product and service quality and is owned by Mövenpick Holding (66.7%) and the Kingdom Group (33.3%).

On March 18th, 2010, at the drawing room of Phuket Provincial Hall, Raweewan Changyencham, the Director of Thai Trade Center Southern Region in Suratthani, and Wongpranita Kerdpikul, a trading expert from the Department of Export Promotion, took Fumika Kawakubo, a specialist from ASEAN-JAPAN CENTER (AJC) and her staff to visit Teerayuth Aimtrakul, a Vice Governor of Phuket, to discuss which 5 spas in Phuket should be selected to join a Thai Trade Mission business meeting to be held in Tokyo, Japan in late May 2010.

Fumika said that the Japanese love Thai spas, especially spas in Phuket, therefore it will be a good opportunity for spa businesses to join the event as it can be a way to promote their spas to Japanese people, hotels and tour agents.

Sutee Satasataporn, the Secretary to the Thai Association of ICT Industry (ATCI) and his staff visited Smith Palwatwichai, a Vice Governor of Phuket, to discuss the way to hold Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards

2011 in Phuket. Sutee said that ATCI in cooperation with the Ministry of ICT and the Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) have held Thailand ICT Awards (TICTA) continuously since 2004 in order to support the ICT entrepreneurs and to find outstanding ICT projects to be the representatives from Thailand to join the APICTA Awards.

Phuket, Thailand, was selected to host the competition during November 8th -11th, 2011 as the island represents itself as an IT City, a center of business investment and has a beautiful environment. Importantly, this event could help make Phuket be one of the ICT centers in Asia-Pacific.

There are still a lot of tourists arriving and departing Phuket International Airport, according to the Director of Phuket International Airport, Pratuang Sornkahm, who said on March 17th, 2010 that the mass protests in Bangkok are not affecting Phuket tourism, as tourists were confident of their safety while travelling on the island.

Pratuang indicated that in February, there had been approximately 740,000 passengers arriving & departing Phuket which was 48.28 percent more than the number in February 2009. After the protests in Bangkok began, there were no flight cancellations in Phuket. Moreover, Phuket International Airport is welcoming new charter flights of Mahan Air from Iran on March 18th and 25th, 2010 and April 1st, 2010. Each flight has 485 passengers.

In addition, Pratuang mentioned that Phuket could take advantage from the protests in Bangkok as tourists changed their destination from there to travel on the island which is far away from the political problems. Also Rewat Areerob, a MP of Phuket, suggested that the government should inform the world that the political situation in Thailand now is not really that bad.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pan Thongchumnum, the Vice President of Faculty of Technology and Environment, Prince of Songkla University, revealed feedback in a survey done by Andaman Poll into the project called ‘Phuket Free From
Plastic Bag’ which was officially launched on February 14th, 2010.

After Andaman Poll collected data from 420 people by an accidental sampling method in 6 different areas of Phuket namely BaanZan Market, Kathu Market, Phuket Rajabhat University market, Central Festival Department Store, Big C Phuket, and Tesco Lotus Phuket, the results indicated that on the day of the survey, 74.59% of people used plastic bags, while only 25.41% of people used baskets or fabric bags. 52.71% of the sample said that they knew about the project, mostly from advertising signs.

97.41% agreed with the local government launching this project. 67.06% of them believed that the project would help reduce rubbish amounts in Phuket and 62% agreed that this project would encourage people to use more fabric bags. For the factors that make people not like to use fabric bags, 83% said inconvenience of use and 17% worried about fabric bag prices. Most people or about 84 % would use fabric bags to get discounts from the shops or department stores. The factors influencing people to buy the fabric bags are convenience, duration, design, price and size.

On March 17th, 2010, Teerayuth Aiumtrakul, a Vice Governor of Phuket, presided over the follow up meeting on ‘drought problem solving’ with Wirawat Aungsupanit, the director of Phuket Irrigation Project, Santi Butrwong, Head of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office, representatives from the Meteorological Department, and other related government officers.

Wirawat said that his office has received 41 million baht in budget to develop water resources in Phuket to increase their containing capacity by 50,000 million cubic meters.  He further assured that the amount of water in all water resources around the island was enough to supply to Phuket residents during the dry season. The water at Bang Wad Dam is enough to supply people for 76 days; but he suggested people save or reduce water usage in order to avoid water shortages.

Suwat Wangkait, an executive of Phunaka Golf Course, said that his family and he invested 180 million baht in a 9 hole golf course over 60 rais of land in Chalong. After his golf course opened, there had been good feedback from European, Korean, Japanese and Thai golfers who flew to Phuket for business or pleasure. Everyday Phunaka Golf Course welcomes around 120 golfers which is the expected number.

Furthermore, Phunaka Golf Course is the only golf course in Phuket that provides night golf starting since March 17th, 2010, with a high standard of service and safety. Suwat expects that there will be 40-50 people a day coming to try the night golf. Normally in day golf, the service charge for 9 holes is 950 baht and 1,800 baht for 2 rounds, yet for night golf it is only 800 baht per round.

Apart from the golf course, Phunaka also provides a golf academy for children who are interested to play golf taught by professional golfers from England, Japan and Thailand. In addition, a 160 unit condominium in the center of the golf course, with restaurant and spa, will be launched in June.