Bangkok - Ripley Entertainment - operator of Believe It or Not Museum - has announced plans to build a 2,1-billion-baht (about R420-million) aquarium on Thailand's resort island of Phuket, news reports said on Monday.
The aquarium, which will cover 10 000-12 000 square metres when it is completed in three years, will be bigger than Underwater World in Singapore, which currently claims to be the biggest in South-East Asia, The Nation newspaper reported.
Ripley Entertainment will enter a joint venture with Thailand's Minor International group, which already jointly operates Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Pattaya, another popular Thai beach resort.
Ripley Entertainment President Robert Masterson said that the aquarium in Phuket, 600km south of Bangkok, would target the tourist market.
Phuket was hard hit by the 2004 tsunami, which claimed 5 300 lives in southern Thailand and adversely affected tourism in 2005. Last year, tourist arrivals to the island jumped by more than 20 percent. - Sapa-dpa