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Support the Blind Foundation of Thailand
Khunying
Uraiwan Sirinupongs, president of the Blind Foundation of Thailand recently
received a donation from funds raised at the art exhibition titled,
“Yesterday Today Tomorrow” from Pierre Andre Pelletier, general manager
of Amari Watergate Hotel and Charlee Sodpraserrt, artist. Shown from left;
Tipwan Buriratana, Foundation director, Charlee Sodprasert, artist, Khunying
Uraiwan Sirinupongs, Pierre Andre Pelletier and the hotel’s PR director
Nichaya Chaivisuth.
Travel industry remains resolute
Buyers, sellers and ASEAN tourism authorities are calm
and confident in the face of yet another potential dampener for regional
tourism - the avian flu. Several admitted cancellations and a slowdown in
forward bookings. But overall, the mood was one of resignation that crises
were part of the tourism business and that recently-suffered ones, such as
SARS, had put ASEAN on a stronger footing to handle other potential killers.
Swiss operator TourAsia’s product manager, Marcel
Boeni, visited Luang Prabang before arriving in Vientiane and regretted to
note that hoteliers there had already informed him they were receiving some
group cancellations. But he said, “We remain committed to Asia, and
TourAsia will extend its brochure for the region, primarily ASEAN countries,
to 30 pages.”
Canadian Royal Scenic’s tour manager, Rosie Yu, said
bookings were still coming in for Vietnam and Cambodia. She noted that
during the SARS crisis last year, Canadians were reluctant to cancel their
plans to travel to Asia and waited for as long as they could before making a
final decision. “The thing is, no matter what, people want to go to
Asia.”
Swiss operator Jerrycan Voyages’ managing director,
Raymond Imperiali said the region is popular was because ASEAN countries are
diverse, hospitable and offer great value for money.
Kamala Bay Resort general manager, Jork Bosselar, added,
“Our partners remain committed to Asia as long as the World Health
Organization (WHO) does not start to issue advisories. While we have seen
forward bookings start to slow down, we have not received actual
cancellations yet.”
Antwerp Advanced Business Travel Services incentive
development manager, Freddy De Wit, said his company catered for MICE
(meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions), a sector which he said
was more sensitive to such issues. He said WHO should play a preventive role
by issuing statements that there was no reason not to visit the region, not
issue travel advisories as it did during the SARS crisis.
Japan’s vice-minister for international affairs, Hayao
Hora, said, “We don’t think the bird flu will have a great effect on
outbound tourism to the region. Japanese tourists traveled domestically in
2003 due to SARS but this year we should see a recovery to 2002 levels.”
Malaysian Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism, Datuk
Paduka Abdul Kadir bin Haji Sheikh Fadzir, said, “I feel we are going to
have these kinds of problems until doomsday. What’s more important is for
the media to put things in context and that we have the mechanisms in place
to prevent the spread of such crises.” (TTG Asia)
Lift-off for ITS Thailand
A new outbound travel event - International Travel Show
(ITS) Thailand - similar to the fairs organized by the travel agents’
associations of Malaysia and Singapore will kick off in Bangkok between
August 20 and 22. TTG Asia Media, the publisher of TTG Asia, is organizing
ITS.
The event will be staged at Bangkok’s IMPACT Convention
Center. TTG Asia Media’s managing director, Darren Ng said, “ITS
Thailand, an investment which costs around US$400,000, has the full support
of Thailand.”
The 10,000m2 event - able to house about 600 booths of
nine m2 - is targeted at the Thai domestic travel and outbound markets. ITS
Thailand will feature a center stage for performances and include a host of
consumer activities.
The first day of ITS Thailand will be open to the trade
and the weekend is expected to attract 100,000 consumers.
“For the first year, Thai suppliers will make up 60
percent of sellers and the rest will be from the region and elsewhere. In
the second year, we will target suppliers from Europe and the US,” Mr. Ng
added.
Mr. Ng said, “We are working with the airlines, hotels
and other suppliers to come up with specially priced packages so consumers
can shop and buy travel products at ITS Thailand. In our research, Thailand
emerged as a growing economy with an outbound market with good potential. We
saw the opportunity to fill a niche since Thailand does not have a major
consumer outbound event. The potential exhibitors we have spoken to are also
very supportive. For the inaugural event we are offering exhibitors a 30
percent discount and another 30 percent because of our 30th anniversary,
making it really attractive.” (TTG Asia)
Traveling to Asia? No need to chicken out
The World Health Organization (WHO) has assessed that bird
flu at this stage poses no realistic health threat to travelers visiting Asian
cities. There is no sign of the virus passing from human to human and the world
health body said H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu) can only be caught by direct
contact with contaminated live poultry.
Travelers are not at risk of catching bird flu by eating
cooked chicken or eggs. A PATA statement said the WHO had no plans to issue a
travel advisory.
WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said, “The World Health
Organization does not at this moment see bird flu as a serious public health
threat. This is not an urban problem. It has only been detected in farms and wet
market environments.”
Cordingley confirmed there was “no sign” that bird flu
was changing its genetic structure and becoming transmittable between humans.
There have been no known cases of health workers contracting bird flu from
patients.
Travel companies across Asia report business as usual with
record numbers of tourists traveling during the Lunar New Year period. PATA
President and CEO, Peter de Jong said, “To date, there has been no discernible
impact on travel bookings nor should there be. We are keen to ensure that the
traveling public gets the facts on this issue.”
The World Health Organization has detailed information about
bird flu at http://www.who.int/en (TTG Asia)
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