An aerial view of Kamala Beach on the west coast of Phuket, the location of the 15-billion-baht mixed-use MontAzure project. Proud Real Estate's InterContinental Phuket Resort will occupy part of the development.

Proud Real Estate Co, owned by the Liptapanlop family, will spend at least 3 billion baht to open Phuket's first InterContinental-brand hotel, aimed at serving high-end tourists.

Located on Kamala Beach, the InterContinental Phuket Resort with 200-300 rooms is scheduled to open in 2019.

It is part of a mixed-use project called MontAzure on 454 rai of Kamala Beach and worth 15 billion baht.

Proud owns 20 rai of the MontAzure project.

Apart from the InterContinental Phuket Resort, MontAzure comprises 13 private hillside villas, 75 beachfront condos, beach clubs, a retail mall, a spa, a retirement and assisted-living village, mid-range condominiums, hiking trails and 200 rai of protected nature reserves.

The resort will be managed by InterContinental Hotels Group and is the sixth IHG property in the southern province and the 19th in Thailand.

Proud considers the Phuket project an important step forward in its business expansion after recently announcing a big mixed-use project in Hua Hin, executive director Pasu Liptapanlop said.

He said Proud spent 500 million baht last year to renovate and add a new 40-room wing called Blue Port at its InterContinental Hua Hin Resort and was committed to investing in Hua Hin even though the overall economy was not good.

Hua Hin is Thailand's eighth most popular tourist destination, welcoming 4.42 million visitors last year.

Mr Pasu said the company was focused on creating destinations and neighbourhoods through visionary real estate projects.

After the success of mixed-use developments in Bangkok and Hua Hin, Proud envisions replicating the model in Phuket.

The potential of Phuket as a world-class tourism destination led Proud to put up the money to open a luxury resort.

According to market research by C9 Hotelworks, international inbound passengers and flight arrivals have shown sustainable year-on-year growth since 2010, with a compound annual rate of 16% and 13%, respectively.

During the first half of 2015, Phuket hosted 1.73 million international passenger arrivals and 11,020 international flights, both up 6% year-on-year.

Phuket has 752 licensed lodging establishments with a total of 47,475 rooms. Between the second half of 2015 and the beginning of 2018, a total of 4,400 rooms are set to enter the market, of which 173 or 3.93% are part of existing expansion projects.

Proud generated revenue of 850 million baht in 2015 -- 350 million from the InterContinental Hua Hin Resort and 500 million from the Vana Nava Hua Hin water park.

The company expects revenue growth of 5-10% this year.