Chalermchai Charuvastr ( th, เฉลิมชัย จารุวัสตร์, 1916–2009) was a Thai army general, hotelier and business executive, known for pioneering the Thai tourism industry and heading the

Siam Piwat Siam Piwat is a Bangkok-based retail and development company. The company is best known for managing Siam Center, Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon, and Iconsiam shopping malls in Bangkok, Thailand. History Siam Piwat Company Limited was firs ...

company, owner of multiple major shopping malls in the Siam area. Chalermchai was a close aide of Sarit Thanarat, Thailand's strongman dictator prime minister from 1959 to 1963, and he served several government positions under Sarit. Like Sarit, he was a strong supporter of the monarchy. In 1960, he was appointed the first director of the Tourist Organisation of Thailand (now the Tourism Authority of Thailand), and became chairman of The Syndicate of Thai Hotels and Tourists Enterprises, the state-owned company that ran the Erawan Hotel. He also headed the Bangkok Intercontinental Hotels Company, which was established to run the

Siam InterContinental Hotel The Siam InterContinental Hotel was a luxury hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. It stood on Rama I Road, in the neighbourhood now known as Siam in Pathum Wan District, on land leased from Sa Pathum Palace. It opened as part of Pan Am's InterConti ...

and later became Siam Piwat.

References

Chalermchai Charuvastr Chalermchai Charuvastr Businesspeople in tourism 1916 births 2009 deaths {{Thailand-bio-stub