The Luxury Group was appointed in 2016 for 2 years to increase UK sales to both Anantara Mai Khao Villas, an all-pool-villa 10 year old resort on Mai Khao beach and Anantara Layan, its new sister property on Bang Tao beach, including Minor Group’s first ever Layan Residences.

Layan Residences

The Layan Residences required specific positioning in the ultra high-end market due to their incomparably high quality design and service features. Ranging from 3-bedroom to 7-bedroom in size, the 15 uber luxury houses were £5,000 per night to £13,000 per night for 2,600 sqm of ocean-facing palatial living. The Luxury Group carried out a thorough educational programme presenting Layan Residences to all Virtuoso, Traveller Made and other high end travel agencies in the UK, as well as listing them with luxury tour operators with villa programmes. The agencies with the highest potential were escorted on fam trips with complimentary business class flights to experience the product and surroundings. In 2 years, the UK provided £245k revenue to the Residences through these channels.

Anantara Layan & Anantara Mai Khao resorts

The role for Anantara’s two stunning resorts was to separately identify their unique selling points to the travel industry, justifying the existence of two resorts on one island, and clearly positioning them to different markets; family versus couples. This required a thorough educational programme, complemented by escorted fam trips and a holistic communications plan in collaboration with Minor Group’s Global Director of Sales in London, Minor’s two UK PR agencies and assorted corporate colleagues in the Bangkok head office. We reached the required sales targets attributed to the UK over the 2 year period despite an overall drop in arrivals to luxury hotels in Phuket in the period.