Proudputh Liptapanlop, executive director of Proud Group, leads an extensive and expanding portfolio of world-class, award-winning assets. She spoke to blooloop about the water park element of Andamanda Phuket, a THB 4.5 billion leisure and entertainment development on the island of Phuket in Thailand comprising a world-class water park, entertainment spaces, retail areas, and Holiday Inn resort.
Liptapanlop takes inspiration from her passion for travel and exploration. A keen diver, she is committed to sustainability and believes that her company’s projects should have a positive impact on their destination, surrounding communities and the environment.
Introducing Andamanda Phuket
Andamanda Phuket, the island’s new tourist and leisure destination, fuses the Thai culture, heritage, and local mythology with modern design and cutting-edge rides, in a setting that reflects the lush tropical landscapes and limestone reefs of the Andaman Sea.
Thai characters and icons which include Thai boxers, Kinnaree, dragons, pirates, and whale sharks, lead guests on sea-inspired adventures through Andamanda Phuket’s creation, ‘The Great Water Kingdom’.
The 10,000 square-metre wave pool generates waves up to three metres high. Flanked by a 300-m sandy beach, it is the only place in Thailand where surfing is possible all year round. The 550-meter-long lazy river is the longest in the country, and a collection of slides and over 36 activities and playgrounds for children cover 5,300 square meters.
All 32 rides are by WhiteWater, a leading waterpark manufacturer. This includes a Boomerango with a zero-gravity wall summit, a Master Blaster water slide that is recognized as the first uphill water coaster, and a RainFortress 6 with more than 203 features.
A floating market also features the best of Thai food. Local culinary highlights include seafood dishes, and international food is also available.
Liptapanlop explains:
“The Proud Group holding started off in hospitality doing hotels, and then, over time, we branched out into doing mixed-use development by adding the leisure and entertainment aspect. We have done everything from hotels, through water parks and sports complexes, and a little bit of retail here and there. We believe in creating a destination within a destination.”
Water park development in Asia
Water parks have changed over the last few years. They are no longer simply about offering the biggest, highest, fastest, and deepest attractions. Andamanda reflects this, incorporating theming and narrative elements that incorporate the local culture and mythology.
“I think, especially when we consider the landscape in Thailand, or Asia in general, we are probably a good decade behind water park development in America,” she says:
“We started a little bit later in the game. Looking at Thailand specifically, going back a few decades, the only things that remotely resembled a water park were what you would have next to a shopping centre or within a hotel: more of an auxiliary attraction. When we opened our first park, close to ten years ago, I think it was one of the first standalone water parks in Thailand.”
“At that point, it was about bringing in the most exciting rides and slides: the biggest, the fastest, and so on. With the next wave, as consumers become more accustomed to going to water parks generally, they are starting to look for different experiences, which is why it was so important to us to immerse the water park experience in the local culture. At the end of the day, if you have a story hidden amongst the slides, it will keep people coming back for more.”
The concept behind Andamanda Phuket
Visitors to Phuket, she contends, are seeking a certain authenticity:
“It’s such a charming city. When people come here, they want to see the Phuket culture.”
Accordingly:
“The concept that we had in mind when we designed Andamanda was to incorporate the best that Phuket has to offer. When you talk about Phuket, the first thing that comes to mind is the nature of the Andaman landscape. This is made unique by the limestone cliffs. We have incorporated that into our water park, including all the iconic features like the famous James Bond island.”
About 40 metres (130 ft) from the shores of Khao Phing Kan, an island in Phang Nga Bay northeast of Phuket, lies Ko Ta Pu, a 20-metre tall islet. Both islands are limestone karst towers and are a part of Ao Phang Nga National Park. Since 1974, when they were featured in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, Khao Phing Kan and Ko Ta Pu – separately and collectively – are popularly known as James Bond Island. She adds:
“On top of that whole mountainscape, then we are talking about the local culture; that Sino-Portuguese influence on the Phuket architecture, and on the city: the Southern mythologies, the culture, the food: everything.”
Authentic theming
These are the influences that have informed the theming of the Andamanda Phuket water park:
“If you come to Andamanda, we like to say that we are so much more than just a water park. We offer so much more than slides. Even if you’re not a thrill-seeker per se, we have something for everyone in the family.”
In terms of F&B, authenticity is very much on the menu. She comments:
“We have designed the main restaurant outlet around the concept of a floating market. Rather than modelling it on the general floating markets that you see across Thailand, our market has the authentic Southern type of boats, rather than those that you would see in, for example, Bangkok. It’s little things like that which, I believe, make a huge difference to the visitor experience.”
Andamanda Phuket: an underwater kindgom
Outlining the water park’s underlying story, Liptapanlop says:
“Andamanda is an underwater kingdom, protected by the great Nagon, which is a mythology which we created; a mix of dragon and a Naga, the Thai version of a water dragon. The whole place is divided into five zones. The kids’ zone, for instance, has a whale shark, who shows the kids around and then takes them to explore its undersea life. The next zone has a pirate.”
Moving on, she adds:
“We also have what we call the Emerald Forest, where, based on traditional Thai mythology, an angel-like guardian looks after the wildlife. Then we have the tropical forest, which is where the Nagon is. Essentially, we take inspiration from Phuket itself. All the elements, the underwater life, the greenery, the mythology, can be found there.”
More than a water park
It is, she stresses, so much more than a water park.
“We put a lot of thought into it. There are the shows, and the parades at the end of the day, so everybody can really get a sense of the full story of the park. As a second phase, we will also be launching an app, to bring gamification to the whole water park experience.”
She expands on this:
“You download the app, and as you go through the park, there are quests based on an AR augmented reality application. For example, in a treasure hunt, once you find all the treasure, you collect points that can then be used to redeem either a gift from the gift shop or to receive an F&B discount.”
Ticketing is digital, through an RFID system:
“When the app is launched, we plan to roll out a system where, having prepurchased the ticket, each guest will be able to walk straight into the park,” she says. “Everybody carries a mobile phone, so they will be able to use their phones without having to queue up.”
A range of visitors
The expectation was that the visitorship to Andamanda Phuket would be predominantly domestic, in the wake of the pandemic. However:
“We have been open for the past two months, and it’s still largely international,” she says. “Obviously, the Thailand Pass is now in the past. We are seeing a bit of a rise in international arrivals.”
She adds:
“If we go back a couple of years, the main market was probably from China, which isn’t the case now. What we are seeing is a lot of Middle Eastern and Indian visitors coming in instead. So, we have changed our F&B offering a little to cater to that demographic need.”
Developing Andamanda Phuket
A second project phase is planned, around accommodation, leisure, and culture.
“We want to create a destination within a destination.” She reiterates: “We want Andamanda to be more than a water park. We want to position it as the new entertainment district of Phuket.
“The next phase is the hotel, and then we will also have some lifestyle and retail. Everything is centred around a WET-designed water fountain, which, we believe, will become the next landmark.”
WET, a Los Angeles-based water feature design company founded by former Disney Imagineers Mark Fuller, Melanie Simon, and Alan Robinson, has designed over two hundred fountains and water features using water, fire, ice, fog, and lights. It is best known for creating The Dubai Fountain, the world’s largest performing fountain, as well as the 8-acre Fountains of Bellagio.
She adds:
“On top of that, the plan is to put on a lot of concerts, lifestyle events, and even sporting events, going forward.”
‘Wow’ moments
The water park’s ‘wow’ moment is the wave pool that spans over 10,000 square meters.
“As I said, it is surrounded by the limestone cliffs,” Liptapanlop says:
“One of the highlights is the fact that the wave pool generates up to a three-metre wave, so we can also use it as a surfing pool. Surfing is quite a big thing in Phuket. But, depending on the season, sometimes you can’t go into the ocean, or, especially in the case of beginners, you have to be waiting for the right kind of wave.
“Ours is, obviously, controllable. We can control the height and frequency of the waves. The plan is, then, to have a surfing club.”
The wave pool has a 300m-long sandy beach along its border. This overlooks a nearly life-size replica of Koh Tapu, ‘James Bond Island’.
She adds:
“I know what I said about having moved beyond just having the longest, the biggest, and so on, but a further highlight is our lazy river, which is 550 m. It is the longest in Asia.”
Sustainability is key
Sustainability is at the core of the Andamanda ethos.
Liptapanlop explains:
“It is definitely something that is close to my heart, personally; I’m a diver. The one silver lining of the past two years of COVID-19 has been the fact that nature has had time to recover. If you look at Maya Bay now, after two years of closure, there are schools of sharks returning to the bay. Sustainability underpins Andamanda.”
To break that down, there are two key pieces:
“One is the water management,” she explains:
“Phuket, being an island, of course, there are periods where everybody goes through a little bit of water shortage. What we have done is to ensure the whole water system is a hundred percent recycled. We also invested in our own underground water system, just so we won’t be a burden to the local facilities. With everything together, we only lose about 3% of the total volume to evaporation. Otherwise, we end up using very little water on a daily basis, not more than your typical hotel.”
This is, for a water park of this scale, a formidable achievement:
“The second thing, “ she adds, “which I think is unique to attractions generally, is that we are trying to be completely plastic-free.”
Plastic-free at Andamanda Phuket
It is, she says, a challenge to avoid selling plastic water bottles completely in a water park:
“What we have done, and we’ve tested it now for the past couple of months, is to introduce a water refill system. If you buy a [reusable] water bottle, or if you bring your own, we have refill stations throughout the park. You can keep topping up for 99 baht a day. So, that works out a lot cheaper than buying three or four plastic bottles of water. A percentage of the proceeds from the bottles we sell goes to a marine turtle conservation charity, also based in Phuket.”
“If customers request a bottle, we opt for paper-based bottles, something I’m very proud of. We are one of the first attractions in Asia, if not the first, to be doing this.”
Touching on how sustainability filters over into retail, she comments:
“In terms of sustainability, we approach it from the standpoint of supporting the local community. We sell a lot of products made within Phuket, not only to showcase local craftsmanship but also to support the local community. Everything from the shop is, of course, reusable, and a lot of it is based on our five unique characters. Overall, we are probably working with a couple of hundred local vendors in sourcing, the products.”
