The third round of the tournament takes place on the 5th September at the Blue Canyon Country Club's Lakes Course. Trophies will be awarded to the top three players in each flight. This is a singles Stableford scoring system over 18 holes. The top two places in each flight join the 12 qualifiers from the previous rounds in the season-ending Master's event to be held in May 2011.

The Asian Hospitality & Travel Show is the first Asian Trade exhibition bringing together suppliers and exhibitors of every facet of the Hospitality and Travel industry from all over Asia, right in the heart of Phuket.

The show will bring together 100+ exhibitors and offer professionally coordinated business appointments between sellers and suppliers. We expect 2000+ Visitors, primarily from the Hospitality and Travel industries, at the show. The vast majority of these will be key decision makers within the industry,

Despite the decided downturn in passenger numbers at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, Phuket recorded an 18.1% increase in May 2010 over the same month last year.

With a total passengers of 424,456, the traffic for arrivals and departures eclipsed the same month for any year between 2005-2010.

Looking inside the numbers the vast improvement is all about airlift as for May this year according to the Air Transport Department at Phuket International Airport total aircraft movements were 3,561 against 2,846 last year. This comes in at a 25.12% increase.

With a surging hotel pipeline, certainly the greater amount of new hotel rooms on the market are taking time to absorb into the supply steam.

Destination seat capacity is a key driver of long term fundamentals and goes back to the adage "you can't stay there if you can't get there. For Phuket getting there continues to be on the upswing.

In a sign of its growing importance to one of the world's largest population bases Phuket is set to welcome the Travel Agents Association of India from September 17-19.

The event will take place at the destination resort Laguna and is expected to draw over 2,000 participants.

While tourism official estimates place the number of visitors from India to the island over 40,000 the actual number is considerably higher given visitors who transit via Bangkok.

Expectations are that both Tourism Authority of Thailand strategic promotions for the growing market, along with upward spiraling airlift and a surging wedding market are set see numbers start to increase in multiples over the next two years.

Press reports have confirmed a joint venture agreement for a new low cost airline between national carrier Thai Airways International and regional budget carrier Tiger Airways.

Plans call for Bangkok to be used as a base and operations to commence from 2011. Targeting domestic and international service the upstart will focus on short haul flights of up to 5 hours.

PHUKET: Royal Phuket Marina is launching a free entry contest on Facebook page at www.facebook.com/royalphuketmarina All you need to do to win their fantastic grand prize of a ‘half-day boat trip to Phang Nga Bay and dinner for two at Les Anges (15,000 baht value) is to ‘Like’ their Facebook page and guess what, exactly, the picture they are uncovering is (in the picture’s comments section). Only one will win the ‘grand prize’, but many consolation prizes are also available! Stay tuned…

PHUKET: This month's lunch will be held at Indochine in Kamala. All are welcome. Members: 450 baht; guests 600 baht. Prior registration is essential. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Carole on 085-782 1332.