Vice Governor Somkiet Songkhaosuttirak presided over the opening of the expo, along with guests and key organisers including Dr Kritsada Tonsakul, the Phuket-based director of the Southern Thailand chapter of the Thai Hotels Association, and Anoma Wongyai, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket office.
“Andaman Hotelier is held to promote and develop the quality labour skills of hotel employees and to push Phuket tourism standards to international level. The annual expo is to bring unity and new ideas to the table and to introduce our cultural heritage into the service business,” explained Dr Kritsada.
“Employees and management in hotel and tourism businesses will learn new skills and gain new experiences from this exhibition, which will raise their skills to international level and help their businesses attract variety of tourists from all over the world. It is a way to open up to new possibilities,” he added.
Among the key events is Thai Iron Chef Chumpol Jangprai creating a new signature dish for the island to help put Phuket on the Unesco culinary map.
Phuket City Municipality and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket joined forces to promote the culinary delights of Phuket’s Baba-Nyonya ethnic Chinese community, also called Peranakan or “Straits Chinese”.
“Phuket wants to be a part of the Unesco Creative Cities Network, so this year we want Phuket to become known for its outstanding food and this will be the best opportunity for hoteliers to learn about Baba cuisine and maybe apply these techniques and ingredients to their modern culinary creations to serve to tourists,” Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupapana at the press launch last month. (See story here).
This afternoon, (Sept 18), will be the Thailand Mix Master Contest, an individual ice-carving contest, a “Cocktail Culture” seminar, a flower-arranging contest and a European-style cooking contest.
On Saturday (Sept 19), the last day of the fair, activities include fruit carving, a cake-decoration contest, a furniture-making contest, a spa and massage contest, a cocktail-mixing contest and a team ice-carving.
The event will close at 8pm.