10 years ago package tours to Samui went mainly to several bigger hotels in Chaweng/Chaweng Noi. Lamai had one or two. Nowadays lots of hotels on the island have contracts with various organizers - even with the German TV promoter "Sonnenklar TV" which seems to be like Aldi in tours.

IMO it is neither good for the hotels which only fill capacity but do not get enough money to keep their properties up to date - how often one can read reviews about 3 year old hotels that are in need of renovation - nor for the smaller businesses on the island. A visit to a bar? 7/11 sells the beer cheaper... They seem to gain as well as Tesco. But even this I doubt as there are too many outlets. Might be that small restaurants as well as the street food vendors have a boom now. But looking at the old beachrestaurants in Chaweng Noi which had to go as a new hotel will be build just there (legally?) I am afraid the charm of Samui will soon be gone completely.

I

Much longer than 10 years ago package tourists were already everywhere at the 3+ resorts all over the island, also at many places at Lamai. A German tour operator had charter flights for Samui to Surat Thani before BK opened it's airport on Samui....

Package tourists from Europe are at the moment less than before. New Asian package markets however are booming.

The new hotel will not be build on Chaweng Noi, but the restaurant.

The original charm of Samui is still here on some places easily to find. But the general smooth hippie feeling you could have 20 years ago everywhere is gone long time.

any tourist spending has to be good, as already said package tours been coming to samui for years. Samui lost its charm after the phuket tsunami and all the developers who have now nearly all gone bust trashed the place. Mcdonalds,burgerking,pizza hut etc no charm once they arrived

samui may have in fact lost some of its charm, or a particular aspect of it but it certainly hasn't lost its charm. in fact, now that i no longer see "developers" and "estate agents" on every street corner and shop house in between, i think it's regained quite a lot. looking out over the water from bang rak to phangan today and it's picture perfect.

Spot on Joe. I couldn't agree more.

Now that a lot of the scammers salesfolk have gone - the place is picking up.

As you said. The views over the water from Bang Rak and Plai Laem were bril today.

Choengmon beach was also very pleasant without the wall to wall sun loungers. (Anyone notice that the beach is approx 1 - 1.5 meters higher than it was in Feb?)

Spot on Joe. I couldn't agree more.

Now that a lot of the scammers salesfolk have gone - the place is picking up.

As you said. The views over the water from Bang Rak and Plai Laem were bril today.

Choengmon beach was also very pleasant without the wall to wall sun loungers. (Anyone notice that the beach is approx 1 - 1.5 meters higher than it was in Feb?)

Did the sand that was lost on Chaweng wash up on Choengmon by any chance?

maybe he meant, that the beach is wider than in Feb.

But it also could be, 'cause of the cancellations of guests after the rain and therefore less people (=less weight) on the beach, that the ground there arches more than usually, which should be fixed with the arrival of the Easter Holiday masses next week.

Nope, went to Choengmon myself today and there has been a lot of sand deposited there, the beach is a lot higher than before the floods a few weeks ago, this in sharp contrast to Chaweng Beach where about a meter of sand is missing! Usually later in the year this sand does get deposited back again.

Mother nature has some strange ways.........................