The Central group are mostly retailers and normally hive off any connection with hotel management to those in that line of business. Thus , while owning the Chareonsri Grand they are actively seeking a partner for the hotel. Whilst I understand there are prospective brides, a marriage doesn't seem to be in the offing.The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly most hotel chains are either European or American controlled, therefore the exchange rate, although getting better is still not favourable to a large investment in Thai baht.Secondly, and this has been played down here in Thailand. The TOT forecast for upmarket travellers over the next twelve months has been drastically reduced over this years, already low figure. The reasons cited being mainly the extra cost of travel and a shortage of money generally owing to higher inflation world wide.There are other factors which we as residents could cite such as political uncertainty etc.
If applied to the whole project, a massive scaling down or even some postponements could be a possibility.
