The Tourism Association of Koh Samui is a not-for-profit organization, numbering over 150 members, including hotels and resorts, restaurants, travel professionals, and retail establishments. It was formed in 1987 for the purpose of promoting Koh Samui as a travel destination.

The pace of the island's development has increased in recent years, and so has the importance of protecting our most precious resources, the natural beauty and the unique character of the island. Within this website, created in early 2000, we hope to anticipate every question you might possibly ask about Koh Samui prior to coming, and to keep you aware of our ongoing efforts to ensure that our island remains one of the world's great tropical holiday destinations.

Ruengam Chaikwang
Khun Ruengnam Chaikwang is president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui. Known to his friends as "Bpeh", he was born and grew up here. His family sent him to the mainland at 16 for his education, where he studied in Bangkok and Chiangmai. A civil engineer by training, in 1985 Bpeh went to the United States where he was employed by the Ohio State Department of Transportation for 4 years as a project engineer in survey and subdivision design. Shortly after his return to Samui in 1989, he found himself standing near one of the viewpoints pictured in this website, and as he looked around him, he had a new and profound sense of the extraordinary beauty of the home he had come back to. He was been working at the local, regional and national level for the benefit of the island ever since, in close cooperation with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and other hotel and tourism organizations.

With his wife "Ying", Bpeh is the owner of Montien House and also operates Blue Horizon Bungalows in Coral Cove Bay. A tennis enthusiast, he plays as often as he can find the time. Khun Bpeh has one son named Polo living in the United States and two who live with him here on Samui, named Baan and Bpoon.
president@samuitourism.com

Darren Kemble
Englishman Darren Kemble designed and maintains the TAKS site. When not in his office overlooking the Gulf of Thailand, Darren can usually be found on one of Samui's tennis courts giving private lessons, sometimes to local children. A USPTR certified coach, he decided when he came to Samui 5 years ago, to force himself to spend lots of time indoors so that he would never take Samui's natural beauty for granted. He tried paint-by-numbers watercolors first, then macrame. At one point he believed to have found his niche with "Mr. Potatohead", but the cost of Chiang Mai spuds kept going up. Finally he stumbed onto website design.

Darren's real dream is to find the next Andre Agassi from amongst the population of Samui children, and to coach him to the top. In the meantime he takes on a bit of website design work, but only from people that he likes or from those who are willing to pay through the nose. He leaves it to his clients to decide for themselves which category they fit into.
webmaster@samuitourism.com

Martin Amada
Editor Martin Amada realized a long time ago it was folly to try and make a living as a screenwriter (or any kind of writer) but he occasionally lets himself get talked into an interesting and meaningful project that contributes something to the local community if free tennis lessons are involved. At just over 5 foot 7 inches tall, Martin moved from his native New Jersey to the South of France in 1990, when he decided he didn't want to spend his entire life as a short guy. After 5 years in Provence as an average-height guy, he wanted to be tall, so he moved to Thailand in 1995. He's been on Samui for 3 years. Unfortunately his new stature doesn't help him much against Darren's kick serve.

As the co-founder and an active (sort of) partner in Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts, Martin is in charge of sales, marketing and leftovers.
editor@samuitourism.com

Steve Taylor
Years ago TAKS website photographer Steve Taylor came to Samui from England, for what he had decided was going to be a well-earned retirement at the age of 33. To his astonishment his optimistic projections for his "Golden Years" proved a little premature. However by the time he came to this conclusion he had prepaid for one year of local Cha-Cha lessons. So rather than go back to the U.K., Steve decided to become a ski instructor. He spent months on a job search until one day while eating a bowl of noodle soup, it suddenly struck him that there was no snow on Koh Samui, and that this fact might be adversely affecting his fortunes. Fortunately he still had the camera he had brought with him from England, from the days when he worked in magazine marketing and photography, and he wisely resumed his career in that field. He has been the editor and photographer for one of the island's most widely-read magazines, and now works on a free-lance basis. Steve lives in Lipa Noi with his wife and the love of his life, Meunjai.
photos@samuitourism.com