- HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
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Amari Watergate Hotel welcomes Bhutan’s minister
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Government urged to support tourism in the South
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Thaksin plans multi-billion baht budget for tourism
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Chiang Mai forecasts surge in tourist numbers after Christmas
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Air China goes public
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Pacific Airlines’ fate in the balance
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Amari Watergate Hotel welcomes Bhutan’s minister
The
management of Amari Watergate Hotel, led by Pierre Andre Pelletier, general
manager recently welcomed H.E. Sangay Hgedup, Minister of Agriculture from
Bhutan on his arrival to Thailand and during his stay at Amari Watergate
Hotel. Photo shows, from left: Alexander Frankel, resident manager; Pierre
Andre Pelletier; HE Sangay Hgedup; Dasho Tashi Dorji, Bhutanese Embassy
counselor; Nichaya Chaivisuth, the hotel’s director of public relations;
and Kullapranee Sawareephol, the hotel’s director of sales &
marketing.
Government urged to support tourism in the South
Tourism agencies in Thailand’s southern border region
have urged the government to provide substantial financial support to the
tourism industry in the South, which has been hard hit this year by
violent unrest in the region.
The government should provide interest-free loans to
hoteliers and tourist-related businesses in the country’s four southern
provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla, representatives of
the region’s tourism agencies told a seminar in Bangkok, organized by
the Tourism Authority of Thailand earlier this week. New market techniques
are needed to attract tourists.
The seminar’s participants suggested marketing tour
packages that would only expire in two year’s time. Local tourism
agencies in the region are ready to coordinate the sales of these advance
tour packages.
There were also appeals to the Thai media not to
exaggerate the violence in the South at the conference. The negative
coverage in the Thai media may influence the coverage in the Malaysian
media, according to the head of an umbrella group of tourist operators in
Songkhla, Nimit Chaijirathikul.
Two million Malaysians visit Thailand every year,
compared to 700,000 Thais visitors to Malaysia. (TNA)
Thaksin plans multi-billion baht budget for tourism
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has reiterated his
vow to attract 20 million foreign tourists a year to Thailand by 2008 and
is preparing to allocate 40 billion baht (US$1 billion) to make it happen.
He told reporters last week he was determined his
policy on tourism would succeed. “I want to achieve a target of 20
million visitors over the next four years because tourism generates more
than 600 billion baht in revenue. I am thinking about empowering each
governor to spend 100 million baht per 150,000 population,” he said,
adding this would mean his hometown Chiang Mai, for example, would receive
one billion baht.
Reaction from the industry was mixed, with some rubbing
their hands at the prospect of more cash while others expressed grave
reservations about Thailand’s preparedness to be subjected to such a
rapid increase in arrivals numbers. (TTG Asia)
Chiang Mai forecasts surge in tourist numbers after Christmas
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has predicted a
sharp rise in foreign tourists visiting the country’s northern province
of Chiang Mai in the post-Christmas holiday season.
Junphong Sannak, director of the TAT’s Chiang Mai
office, said that visitor numbers to the province had recently risen by
seven percent, but that this increase had been mainly fuelled by domestic
tourism. He also noted that domestic tourists were increasingly displaying
higher purchasing power than their foreign counterparts, with the province
earning estimated tourist revenue of over 100 million baht per day.
Nonetheless, he predicted that the province was likely
to see a surge in foreign visitors after Christmas, with foreigners
flocking to the province to celebrate New Year. (TNA)
Air China goes public
Air China is expected to bring in more than US$1.05
billion with its Hong Kong and London initial public offering (IPO). Air
China will sell 31 percent or 2.805 billion shares of the company for
US$0.3725 per share. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific will buy 905 million
shares in Air China paying US$337.5 million.
An industry analyst said, “Air China has since its
inception been the country’s best airline and demand for mainland
airline stock is very high. Oil prices and jet fuel prices have also
dropped recently, and historically airline shares do well when this
happens.”
In 2005 and 2006, it is expected that China’s airline
sector will grow by about 15 percent. The World Travel and Tourism Council
has projected that by 2020, some 100 million Chinese will be traveling
abroad each year (TTG Asia)
Pacific Airlines’ fate in the balance
Vietnam’s Pacific Airlines may be dissolved after
suffering continuous losses, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
recently announced.
The airline was established in December 1990 with seven
corporate shareholders, the largest being flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.
It offers domestic flights to some of Vietnam’s major cities, and
international flights to Taiwan and Hong Kong.
In the last few years, it suffered cumulative losses of
close to US$14 million. The airline’s management has been instructed to
submit a plan for a restructure or dissolution by the end of this month.
The director of a top international travel company said
the airline’s closure would have a negative impact on the already
over-crowded and under-serviced domestic routes in Vietnam. (TTG Asia)
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