Shifting Marketing Strategies for Thailand Resort

---

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Jay Walker is living every marketing executive's worst nightmare.

As the marketing manager for the Village Coconut Island Resort in Phuket, he's spent the last three years dealing with global economic crisis and, more recently, televised riots in the streets of the nation's capitol, Bangkok. In a column for Asia Property Report, Walker calls it "a very interesting experience," displaying a gift for understatement.

The short column is interesting reading, providing some insight into a marketing manager shifting strategies to woo second home buyers in Asia. Like many marketing executives, he's looking for new opportunities and a new course, in the face of a tumultuous market.

For the Village Coconut Island Resort, a boutique property with 44 luxury villas located on an island a few miles off the coast of Phuket, Walker is backing away from the traditional European market to focus on Asia markets, specifically those with direct flights to Phuket.

"We here feel it's time to look at new markets and there's a buzz around many resorts that this could be the way to go," Walker writes.

Phuket continues to draw numbers, but the numbers are deceiving, he acknowledges with a bit more candor than most columns penned by marketing executives. The more interesting stat, he argues, is the amount of money the tourists are spending, which is down.

"You can look at it in two ways," he writes. "Firstly it's good that people still have confidence in coming to Phuket for their holidays - but the second way to look at it is to question whether these are the right type of customers for the luxury resort markets. It can be positive for the more bucket and spade resorts but not so good for the middle to top end markets."

Rather than banging his head against the same walls, Walker is targeting India, China and "emerging markets in southeast Asia."

"The world is changing and Phuket has to change with the world," Walker writes. "The Western tourism markets are now like its football teams--not doing the best--and new teams are emerging and getting better, quicker, and faster and leaving the old teams behind in their wake."

---