AMARI TO SPREAD WINGS INTERNATIONALLY

       Bangkok based hotel-management firm the Amari Group plans to operate an additional 40 hotels and residences in Thailand and abroad over the next decade.
       The move is a bid to enter the international arena.
       The group on Monday revealed a 10-year, US$44.1-million (Bt1.47 billion) expansion plan starting from this year.
       "We now have 11 properties in Thailand - Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Chang, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and Krabi - and plan to operate 40 more here and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific by 2018," said president and CEO Peter Henley, who joined Amari last October.
       Henley said driving the group's growth outside of Thailand was his top priority.
       "This is a good time to grow abroad, after four successful decades in Thailand. The group will focus on hotel management rather than investment," he said.
       A real-estate lawyer by training and having previously worked at Morgan Stanley, Raffles, Pacific Star and Holiday Inn Worldwide, Henley said the Amari Group was negotiating with hotel operators in India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia to manage hotels and residences.
       Domestically, the group plans to manage its first residence next year, the Amari Residences Bangkok. It will also to manage the Amari Hua Hin, a hotel and residence scheduled to open in late 2011. These properties are being developed by the Ital-Thai Group, which owns Amari.
       Meanwhile, the Amari Group today will unveil its new international logo, with "Colours & Rhythms" replacing "Hotels & Resorts".
       Amari will renovate its Amari Watergate Bangkok and Amari Coral Beach Phuket hotels next year. These will be the first properties in the group to encapsulate the new brand. At the same time, Amari will roll out new services and products reflecting the brand's spirit throughout its entire portfolio of hotels and resorts.
       The group will spend Bt60 million of the 10-year budget to reintroduce itself locally and communicate with international markets.
       Henley said the group was considering creating new brands to compete with budget hotels, which were proliferating in Thailand and throughout the region.
       He said while the group understood today's hospitality industry was competitive, it believed long-term development was the way to take the company forward.
       "The hotel industry is expected to have fully recovery by 2011, but the next few years will see many changes for us at both the brand and the property levels, and we must continue to set new standards in modern Asian hospitality," he said.