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Young artist holds exhibit in Bang Saen
Elephant woodcarving exhibition begins this week!
A taste of Bavaria returns to Pattaya
The Australian Thai Chamber of Commerce held another of their popular Seaboard Sundowners meetings in Pattaya last weekend. With the Australian Ambassador, H.E. Bill Fisher in attendance, it was an opportune time for the local Australian contingent to say good-bye to Hardy Papson and his wife, Christa. After spearheading the Australian Thai Chamber’s drive into the Eastern Seaboard, Hardy has seized what he described as a “window of opportunity” to relocate to Tasmania, quite a difference from the warmth of Thailand. He introduced his successor in the local scene, Ian Dickson, whose wife has already fallen in love with the lifestyle here and the view over Jomtien Beach from their residence! A new addition to the numbers was the 6 week old son of Executive Director Kathy Lindsay, however the young man appeared more interested in nuzzling Mum than networking. Catering for the delightfully informal gathering was done by the Royal Garden Resort, with Khun Somsak and Khun Chollakrit in attendance to ensure smooth operation. Several bottles of Australian wines were consumed to farewell the Papsons, but it would not be surprising to see the “Big Australian” again in these waters!
by Imtiaz Muqbil, Ruin the destination, and watch the Germans flee the scene. In barely 20 years, the Germans have moved from having virtually no interest in environmental issues, to being among the most environment-conscious travellers in the world. In a 1997 survey published in Germany, more than 80% of Germans mentioned that an unspoiled nature and environment is important in choosing their holiday destination. 75% felt that the lifestyle, traditions and customs of the local people should be respected. The Association of German Travel Agents and Tour Operators (DRV), which groups most of the German tour operators, wholesalers and travel agents, has a vital interest in ensuring that destinations meet those standards. At its recent annual convention in Bangkok, the DRV organised not one but two separate sessions to bang home the point that cleaning up the act at home is necessary for long-term sustainability. The DRV has its own special environmental unit, headed by Mrs Ute Quintar who said that ‘’the environment is not only part of our daily thinking but also integrated in governmental programmes in many (European) countries. The Germany Federal Environment Office was founded in 1974, and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety in 1986. She reminded listeners that tourism’s ‘’capital’’ consists of unspoiled nature, healthy climate and a careful usage of natural resources. “On the other hand, excessive tourism may endanger its very foundation. The ‘magic expression’ is ‘sustainable development’ — defined (by the World Commission on Environment and Development) as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” As tourism is widely considered to be one of the three future growth sectors of the 21st century, it bears a huge share of the responsibility for sustainable, environmentally-based development. However, Mrs Quintar said that many people do not believe that economic and ecological elements can be balanced and look sceptically even at simple things like paper reduction, energy saving measures, etc. She added: “These basic points have to be internalised more and more by travel agents and tour operators as well as in the destination areas, by the service providers and the tourists themselves. Constantly rising visitor totals can lead to serious environmental pollution, especially if the rising figures are combined with mistaken tourism development of the past and sometimes missing infrastructure for waste disposal. To avoid environmental pollution, the principle of sustainable tourism development has to become natural thinking.” The DRV’s own recognition of the importance of treating the environment in a considerate way dates back to 1987 when it became the first business organisation to create an international ‘’Tourism and the Environment’’ prize for outstanding environmental protection projects which are closely connected with tourism. In 1988, it set up a committee on ‘’Environment and Culture’’, comprising of environmental officers of German tour operators and travel agencies, Lufthansa and others involved in sustainable tourism development. Stressing that ‘’informing, informing and informing’’ is critical to its activities, the committee puts out many publications to inform travellers, travel agents and tour operators, hoteliers, destination areas, etc. - on the importance of environmentally-considerate tourism. One such publication is the DRV Environment Recommendations for Tourist Destination Areas - Long- Haul Vacations, which has a lot of information concerning developing regions (copies available free from DRV). The recommendations are primarily intended for decision makers on the spot, but apply equally to all organisations concerned with tourism and the environment. Mrs Quintar said local communities, regions, states and places need to adopt a holistic tourism planning approach, which harmonises commercial viability and growth with the environment, nature and culture, while making an essential contribution to ensuring the long term prosperity and economic assets of their home country. She said that as the movement gains ground, a ‘’mass of innovative ideas’’ are emerging. Mutual co-operation is as important as mutual communication to facilitate an exchange of interests and information. Arranging a regular ‘’round table discussion’’ amongst local communities, environmentalists, hoteliers, and incoming travel agencies has proved successful. ‘’It helps them improve their understanding of future measures and increases - very important - their motivation in implementing the measures by themselves.’’ Here are some measures German tour operators are taking: Check lists: Tour operators already apply ecological criteria in scrutinising hotels and tourist facilities with which they wish to sign contracts. Guest Information: Guests are informed on sustainable tourism issues to involve them personally. Tour operators’ catalogues often include short environmental information on the destination areas. Many German tour operators distribute the DRV brochure ‘’Travel Ecologically - taking care of nature’’ to their guests. Guest surveys: During their holidays, guests can be asked whether they are satisfied with the state of the environment at the holiday spot. Through separate queries on such issues as noise, water/waste, supplies and disposal, rubbish, traffic and scenery, problems can be identified early to determine whether action is required and if so, how urgently. Integration into schools, university curricula: This is much easier if travellers have already grown up thinking environmentally. Incorporating the subject of the environment into educational curricula in Germany and the destination areas will help awaken awareness among the new generation. Training: German tour operators routinely train tour managers on environmental issues. The German study tour operator ‘’Studiosus’’ is a reputed leader in this. They achieve a better identification with the problems and boost tour managers’ motivation. Using I.T.: The new communication technologies allow successful models which have implemented in touristic companies to be collected and disseminated. They will certainly find several emulators world-wide. Concluded Mrs Quintar: “To realise our joint goal of a sustainable development of tourism, many different factors have to be considered. Many projects have to be co-ordinated, step by step, some together, others one after the other. Nobody thinks that the goal will be achieved today or tomorrow. But a change of values has to accompany the measures.’’
Phuket King’s Cup Regattas: Milestones Of Life by Peter Cummins This is the second of a two part story, started in
“Pattaya Mail” of Friday, 19 November, tracing the history of the now
well-renowned Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, inaugurated to celebrate His
Majesty’s Fifth Cycle, sixtieth birthday in 1987. The north-easterly makes exciting racing - when/if it blows. Photo Peter Cummins Over the decade since then, the Regatta has developed into one of the world’s blue riband regatta weeks. In its brief 12 years, it has joined Antigua Week in the Caribbean, Hamilton Island Week in Queensland and that most-hallowed inner sanctum of yachting circles, Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight, at the pinnacle of international yacht racing events. Last week’s story covered the founding and the early days of the Regatta with the horrendous logistic problems encountered in the inaugural event. This week’s article chronicles the regattas held since then. The Second Regatta Onwards The second regatta in 1988, still grappling with logistic problems, nevertheless at least centralized them, with the four divisions all racing off Nai Harn Bay. But as more craft arrived to take part it was, according to one report, “fun sailing at its best, with good winds, plenty of colour and clear, warm waters.” The third edition in 1989 saw the exit of wind-surfers and more accent on keelboats, with ocean-going yachts arriving from many points. The first Andaman Sea race was inaugurated, with spectacular results for all: the sailors, the race management team, the spectators and the press and media corps. By the fourth regatta in 1990, the news of the superb sailing, the beauty and the warm, friendly ambience of Phuket had spread far and wide and a record number of 70 yachts from 15 nations descended on Phuket. The Lasers were dropped as a class, as keelboats moved to centre stage, complemented by a big fleet of beach-launched catamarans.
The 1991 fifth regatta saw a further escalation of entries and the shore-based catamarans (principally Hobie Cats and Nacras) joined the Andaman Sea Race, Phuket to Koh Phi Phi - mooted, at the time, as the “longest open boat” race ever held offshore. As the intrepid catamariners headed out into an uncompromising north-easterly, the management team was not all that sure that it was a good idea and there were many anxious moments as several inexperienced sailors had to be rescued as darkness fell. One exhausted, totally-disoriented Nacra team, which included a petite lady crew, was reaching - under full power - for India! AND, it was even rumoured, the Aussie skipper did not like curry! Nevertheless, this crossing did not deter such daring sailors as the redoubtable Anders Widen who made the crossing sailing single-handed in his Topcat and certainly not Singaporean Scott McCook. For Scott, who had just sailed his Nacra catamaran from Singapore to Phuket along the coast of the Malaysian peninsular, the Andaman Sea crossing was just “another outing.” The 1992 regatta was started from Koh Phi Phi where big fleets had arrived, transiting regattas along the way, and the more than 100 entries for the 1992 sailing placed the Phuket Regatta as the leading event in an Asian region rapidly embracing marine tourism. The beach-launched catamarans raced their last Andaman Sea Race that year. Race management considered the hazards too great to take a chance - Widen and McCook notwithstanding. 1993 was the watershed. The seventh regatta shattered all records, with a total of 134 entries, outstripping 1992 by more than 30 craft, ironically, enough, even as the vaunted north-easterly seemed to opt for a bypass. Unseasonal storm fronts in the Gulf across the Kra Isthmus from the Andaman Sea presaged low cloud cover, passive and unreliable winds and dull grey skies. The regatta continued to evolve through the eighth and ninth, as the organizers and race management teams refined the sailing instructions, based on cumulative experience. The seventh and eighth regattas had been dogged by poor winds which, particularly in the latter event, saw frustrated sailors in constant disputation in the jury room - no doubt to compensate for lack of action on the sea. The ninth regatta was a return to the “status quo”, as the north-easterly returned, albeit about half-way through the week. Nevertheless, the Phuket King’s Cup had stabilized and with a steady fleet of some hundred keelboats and ocean-going multihulls, another regatta “milestone” had been established: “Phuket week” had joined the “big league”, rivalling the long-established Antigua week in the Caribbean, Cowes week at the Isle of Wight and Australia’s Hamilton Island week in Queensland. The tenth regatta coincided with the Golden Jubilee of His Majesty’s accession to the Thai Throne, making the King the longest-reigning Monarch in Thai history. Special social and nautical events marked this historic occasion for the regatta Royal Patron. The eleventh regatta saw a consolidation of classes, entries and numbers while the twelfth broke with precedent and moved north to Kata Beach from Nai Harn Bay. Most welcomed the move which brought both the racing and the social action closer to the people. The Kata Beach Resorts Group welcomed the event to its new home at Kata Beach. Now, the thirteenth regatta is upon us. Nigel J. Hardy, president of the 1999 Regatta Organizing Committee, promoted the start, for the first time, off the towering karst formations and awesome headlands of Ao Nang in Krabi, as a special tribute to the King. With such a backdrop, the press and media coverage of this singularly-spectacular event will, no doubt, bring the world even closer to Phuket and vice-versa. Images of the racing fleets, silhouetted against the magnificent bays, beaches and coastlines of Phuket and Phi Phi for the week of the fifth to the eleventh of December will be projected into millions of living rooms across the globe via the satellite media. Thus, the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, having passed a lot of milestones along the way, has reached another one: the Sixth-cycle seventy-second birthday of His Majesty. Certainly, as each successive president of the Regatta Organizing Committee has been quick to acknowledge, it is sponsorship and the generosity of supporters which have made the regatta possible: “Without them, in fact,” as incumbent president Nigel J. Hardy recently pointed out, “there would be no regatta.” Over the years, sponsors have come and gone. This year, The QBE Marine Insurance Group has taken over principal sponsorship of the 1999 regatta. Having been a consistent supporter of the annual event, QBE, the largest Australian-owned Insurance and Reinsurance company in the Asian-Pacific region, now takes over the prestigious slot as the regatta principal sponsor. This includes the rights to the now-classic regatta blue-riband event which this year will be known as the QBE Andaman Sea Race. “It is a most appropriate liaison,” said QBE Managing Director, Ron Sparks. “Our company started from a sailing ship background, established by the world-renowned Burns Philp Shipping Company in 1886, to service its own ships and cargoes plying the Asia-Pacific shipping lanes,” Mr Sparks added.
QBE has also sponsored individual yachts, including those of four-time regatta racing class champion Bill Gasson sailing his famous series of “Buzzards”. The regatta which, up until 1997, had always been based at Nai Harn Bay, last year moved north to Kata Beach, with the many benefits this new ambience created. “We are delighted,” said the Kata Beach Group at the press briefing, “to be the ‘home’ of the regatta - FOR EVER!” Ricoh, which has also been an ongoing supporter, greatly assisting the complexities of managing such a big international event, again will furnish the regatta secretariat with top-class Ricoh reprographic and up-market information technology equipment. Other supporters include Baan Kata, the Boathouse Inn, Boonrawd Brewery, Coral Seekers, Holiday Inn, House of Kangaroo, the Krabi Business and Tourist Association, Maersk Line, the Nakatani Group, Neil Pryde Sailmakers, Pepsi Cola, Phuket.com, Phuket Magazine, Phuket Sunwest Homes, Thai Airways International, Sunsail yacht charters which will provide upwards of thirty entries and the Yacht Haven Phuket. Dr Sira Chowanawirat and H.E. Chanchai Soontharamut, Governors of Krabi and Phuket, respectively, are keenly supporting this year’s event and, particularly in view of an Ao Nang start from Krabi Province, the Krabi Governor’s office will provide all facilities and the necessary logistic support which the undertaking requires. The Tourism Authority of Thailand, the organizing yacht clubs, the Royal Thai Navy and the Marine Police have all proffered logistic support. Regatta presidents have been Christopher J. King (1987, 1988, 1994, 1997), Peter Ole Herning (1990, 1991), William J. Gasson (1992, 1993), Adolph-Antoni Knees (1989, 1995, 1996, 1998) and incumbent Nigel J. Hardy (1999 -).
Copyright 1999 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd. |
Cristina stopped her very promising international singing
career after she met and married Laurent Betourne, Mercure Hotel’s General
Manager. She has since become the mother of two boys.
Regatta
co-founders: Chris King (left) and Adolph-A Knees. Between them, Chris and
Adolph have managed the regattas as presidents for eight years.
Yachts
pass Koh Phi Phi rock-face at an earlier regatta.