Using satellite imagery and ground-level photographs, he and his business partner hotelier Chris Ryan, formerly of Perth, have so far meticulously mapped most of the 10,000 known commercial beach properties in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, North America, South America, Central America, Australasia and the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and Middle East, and Africa.
In a bold move to provide "truth in travel advertising " the free inter-active site plans to become the global authority on beach holidays, accepting only those properties with sand at their doorstep. Each place will have full explanatory notes, booking options, and galleries of photographs, even down to close-ups of comparative sand texture."How many times have you booked a 'beachfront' hotel only to find yourself dodging traffic and crossing roads to get to the water? ", Mr Everingham said.
"With this site, US$30 a night beach shacks on little-known Thai islands can be found as quickly as the best five-star beach resorts in the world".
Operations are based in Thailand where the partners have spent more than three decades in the tourism industry.
To prove that properties are genuinely on the beach, the website has created 2000 high-tech beach maps and satellite images verifying the locations. Galleries of resort-generated publicity photographs can be matched with an independent collection taken by Mr Everingham and his associates. In one year alone, Mr Everingham photographed 1000 properties in Bali and Thailand, the two places for which beachfront information is already complete.
Statistically, a few countries are in for a shock:
• Phuket, Thailand's most famous island resort, has 900 hotels. Only 69 qualify as true beachfront. Phuket's major competitor, Koh Samui has 234 resorts on the beach.
• The USA, Mexico and Spain rank high, in order, on the 'true beachfront' scale. Mallorca, with 180,has the most on-the-beach resorts in Europe.
• Australia, with possibly more beachfront per capita than anywhere in the world, is one of the lowest, with only about 100, of which 35 are on the Gold Coast. (Egypt has 170, Florida 400 and Mexico 490).
Media inquiries: media@thebeachfrontclub.com or John Everingham <john@allasiainfo.com>
