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Royal Cliff Beach Resort and PEACH receive “Award of Excellence”
at Thailand Tourism Awards 2004
At the 5th Thailand Tourism Awards 2004 presentation
ceremony recently held in Bangkok, the Royal Cliff Beach Resort and its
facility Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall (PEACH) were the proud
winners of the Award of Excellence under the Best Convention Hotel category
for the Eastern Region of Thailand.
 Minister
of tourism and sports, Sontaya Khunplome (left) presents the Award of
Excellence under the Best Convention Hotel category to managing director of
the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Panga Vathanakul.
Established by the Tourism Authority of Thailand in 1996
and held bi-annually, the Thailand Tourism Awards are aimed at both private
and public tourism-related organizations in order to encourage conservation
of the country’s natural and cultural resources and promote sustainable
tourism development. Moreover, the awards recognize those organizations for
their dedication and efforts in setting tourism standards in the areas of
management and environmental protection as well as arts and culture.
“We are particularly proud to have received this
prestigious award,” said MD of Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Panga Vathanakul,
as she accepted the award. “It is a kind of milestone for the Royal Cliff
Beach Resort and PEACH. For the last five years, ever since PEACH was
conceived, we have spared no effort in developing the resort into an
unparalleled venue for meetings and incentives groups. We see this award as
a symbol of recognition for our efforts. Of course, winning does not mean
that we can rest on our laurels – on the contrary, it gives us special
incentive to strive for further improvement in every area,” Panga said.
The Royal Cliff Beach Resort has long been the leader
among convention hotels in Thailand, renown for its high level of service
and environmental awareness.
The Royal Cliff Beach Resort was the first resort hotel in Thailand to
receive ISO 14001 certification and recently became the first convention
hotel in Thailand to receive both ISO 14001 and ISO 9001:2000 certification.
It has also won numerous awards, including CNN’s Ultimate Service Award
2004 for Asia, as well as the Environmental Impact Assessment Award, which
was presented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Future leaders at Impact
More than 100 students from seven universities in
Thailand participated in the 2nd Asia Pacific Future Leaders Forum held on
October 12 at Impact Convention Center in Bangkok. The forum was part of the
12th IT&CMA (Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings Asia) and 7th
CTW (Corporate Travel World) Asia-Pacific.
The tourism and hospitality students were from Chiang Mai
University, Dusit Thani College, International Hotel & Tourism Industry
Management School, Mahidol University, Naresuen University, Rangsit
University and Srinakharin Wirot University.
They attended a half-day workshop with presentations by
industry professionals followed by a visit to an industry exhibition. They
gained knowledge and insight of the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions
and exhibitions) industry. Each student received a certificate of
participation at the end of the forum.
The forum was organized by IMEX-Frankfurt, International
Conventions and Congresses Association, Thailand Convention & Exhibition
Bureau and TTG Asia. (TTG Asia)
Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya upgrades sales department
Andrew Khoo, GM of the Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya, announced
the recent appointment of Napasakorn Sabsomboon as director of sales and the
promotion of Surapat Vongprateep to assistant director of sales.
 Surapat
Vongprateeep
Napasakorn Sabsomboon holds a Bachelor’s degree from
the Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University. Her hotel career began with
several leading international and local chain hotels in Phuket where she
worked for more than 14 years in the front office, revenue management, PR
and sales & marketing; wining along the way Asia Pacific’s most
coveted award for “Best Practice in Revenue Management – Analytical
& Forecasting Skills”. Her last position prior to joining the Hard
Rock Hotel Pattaya was as director of sales in a local chain hotel in Phuket.
Surapat Vongprateeep earned his Bachelor’s degree in
hotel management from the Rungsit University, and furthered his studies at
the Westminster College, England, in hotel & catering management.
 Napasakorn
Sabsomboon
Surapat has had extensive overseas hotel training in
hotels of distinction such as the Salzburg Sheraton Hotel, Austria, the Pan
Pacific Hotel, Singapore and the Kensington Close Hotel, London. In
Thailand, his professional career began with the Dusit Thani Hotel, the
Regent Bangkok and the Westin Banyan Tree where he was the assistant sales
manager prior to joining the Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya in 2001 as the sales
manager and was subsequently promoted to senior sales manager and most
recently, as assistant director of sales.
Amadeus product road show visits Pattaya
Decha Chalermyart
Local travel and airline ticket agents last week attended
a product road show at the Hard Rock Hotel presented by Amadeus Southeast
Asia. The company introduced its new products to simplify the airline
booking and payment system.
Thai-Amadeus
representatives.
With tough competition in the travel industry, the race
to facilitate easier and faster information flow has become a major factor
in new innovations. Amadeus representatives introduced their latest software
package that enables agents and customers to make airline bookings and
payments online through the E-ticketing and t-payment system.
One travel agent gave his opinion on the product by
saying, “There are only five main systems for booking air tickets. With
this new system we can do away with the paper trail and all the customer
needs is their passport or ID number to check-in at the airport. It saves a
great deal of time and eventually the savings can be passed along to our
customers.”
The company also revealed many of their community
activities which focus on helping children as part of HM the Queen’s
birthday celebrations.
Following the product launch, the 100-plus travel agents were treated to
an evening party with food, song and dance.
Vietnam’s visa fiasco
The Vietnamese authorities suspended approval of
visas-on-arrival at Hanoi until October 15, giving little warning to
operators and causing considerable inconvenience for travelers arriving
without pre-approved visas.
The announcement of the suspension, which is due to
increased security measures for the Asia-Europe Meeting 2004 Summit, was
given as late as September 30, and many operators have had to scramble to
avoid customer cancellations.
President of Vietnam-based operator, Phoenix Voyages,
Edouard George, said the suddenness of the announcement had caused some
conflicts, and his company was required to reshuffle itineraries at the last
minute.
Indochina Services director public relations, Sarawan
Murray, said her company had to cover the extra charges for urgent visa
approvals from the Vietnamese embassy in Thailand for customers already
booked to arrive in Hanoi. She said, “The extra cost is a small problem
compared with the extra running around. We have had little time to make
alternate arrangements for some of our customers, but the embassy has been
very co-operative, and in no case have we had to cancel an itinerary.” (TTG
Asia)
Local tourist police welcome Russian tourists
Boonlua Chatree
Region 3 Tourist police welcomed 275 Russian tourists to
Thailand as they disembarked from their chartered plane at U-Tapao airport.
Pol. Col. Supapol Arunsit, Division 3 tourist police commander led officers
and tourist police volunteers in the welcoming committee and presented the
visitors with gifts. Following the formalities, the tour buses carrying the
visitors were given an escort to their hotels in Pattaya.
 Pol.
Col. Supapol Arunsit and his men say a Thai hello to passengers departing
the plane.
Pol. Col. Supapol revealed that the exercise was part of
their public relations campaign as Thailand’s high season draws closer.
The aim was to give visitors confidence they were safe traveling in and
around the region as well as to further promote Pattaya and the Eastern
Seaboard to the Russian tourism market.
Welcome
to Thailand.
The visitors, on a tour package from a Bangkok based operator will spend
two weeks relaxing and sightseeing in Pattaya and Thailand.
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