Encroachment of Hua Hin beach for over a decade to build houses and buildings and later converted to hotel accommodations for tourists is now no longer allowed to continue after local district and military authorities started to get tough with such illegal operations that not only affect legal hotel operations but also affect tourism industry.

The move by authorities was aimed to regulate illegal hotel business that operators not only encroached the beach but also had no hotel licence.

Without proper licensing, they lack safety.

Authorities have earlier estimated that about 60 per cent of hotel rooms throughout the country are operating illegally.

Association president Supawan Tanomkiatpum gave a figure of some 400,000 cheap hotel rooms throughout the country, over half or some 270,000 rooms were illegal.

They said most of these illegal hotels are in tourist destinations such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Pattaya, and Phuket.

The military aimed to put the illegal hotel business in place by five years.

At this operations to regulate illegal hotel business by a combined force of the authorities from the Department of Provincial Administration and the military, six buildings which offered rooms along Hua Hin beach from Hua Hin fishing pier to Tab Tim Chinese shrine were raided.

All were found to modify their buildings to provide accommodations for tourists on daily basis, some lower than 500 a day, and have no hotel operation licenses.

All will face legal action, he said.