Amari Watergate participates in fund raising effort to support slum communities
Fr.
Joseph H. Maier (2nd left) receives the donation at the foundation, as (from
left) Nitaya Pakkeayaka, PR and fundraiser for the Human Development
Foundation, Tongsak Sawatnatee, Pierre Andre Pelletier, and Nichaya
Chaivisuth, director of public relations at Amari Watergate Hotel look on.
Fr. Joseph H. Maier, director of the Human Department
Foundation recently received a donation from fund raising at an art
exhibition titled "Fascinating England", organized by Pierre Andre
Pelletier, general manager of Amari Watergate Hotel and Tongsak Sawatnatee,
artist at the Amari Watergate Hotel, to support the children and the
communities in the slums of Bangkok
Central Hotels & Resorts appoint
new GM at Central Samui Village
Central Hotels & Resorts appointed Christoph Spiess
as new general manager of Central Samui Village on Natien Beach in Koh
Samui.
A native of Switzerland, and having worked in the hotel
industry for 20 years, Spiess’ wealth of experience includes management
positions in various countries like Switzerland, USA, Saudi Arabia,
Philippines and of course Thailand, with leading hotels of the world as well
as large international hotel chains.
Christoph
Spiess
"I believe in exceeding guests’ expectations and
to ‘wow’ them by doing things different." said Spiess.
His last position before joining the Central Hotels &
Resort was as executive assistant manager of Siam City Hotel Bangkok.
Note: Central Samui Village has been selected as one of the two
"Unseen Paradise" resorts on Koh Samui, organized by the Tourism
Authority of Thailand, consisting of 100 individual exotic Thai-style villas
on 575 hectares of land on Natien Beach in southern Samui.
New mega rail-based transit system for Bangkok
The government is preparing to find 500 billion baht to
build a new rail-based mass transit system within the next six years, said
Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit. He said the mega project could
be financed either through a partial government support, or a loan scheme,
where the money from the Finance Ministry-backed Vayupak Fund could be used.
The network, when completed, will be integrated into the
existing underground train system, and the Tanayong system - where
passengers travel on all three systems and interchange freely using one
ticket. The three systems could save the country up to 30 billion baht in
petrol costs, said the minister. (TNA)
Thailand’s places of worship get upgrades to honor HM Queen
Over 800 places of worship across the country are to get
makeovers to honor the auspicious 72nd birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit on
12 August, a senior Interior Ministry official announced.
The Vice Minister for Interior Sermsak Karun said that the
ministry has ordered provinces nationwide to make improvements to temples,
mosques and churches to ensure that they provided peaceful and shady venues for
community activities. The ministry hopes that the beautification program will
not only instill a greater sense of community spirit, but will also foster
greater ties between communities and places of worship.
The plans are part of a wider project to repair and rebuild
876 community venues in each district across the country over a 60-day period
prior to12 August, when the country will celebrate the 72nd birthday of HM the
Queen. (TNA)
THAI implements fuel surcharge
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) is
to increase its fuel surcharge by six percent to offset skyrocketing oil prices.
Because of these rising costs, THAI will impose a 25 percent fuel surcharge on
all international flights.
Thailand’s flagship carrier will levy a fuel surcharge of
US$7.5 or about 300 baht per ticket on all Asian routes and Middle East routes.
On the intercontinental flights the extra cost will be US$15 or about 600 baht
per flight. The extra charges come into effect from June 15. (TNA)
AirAsia announces Penang Bangkok flights
AirAsia last week commenced services between Penang and
Bangkok. The inaugural flight from Bangkok landed at 12.40 p.m. at the Penang
International Airport. A welcome reception was organized by the Penang Tourism
Action Council and AirAsia to greet the first load of visitors from Bangkok.
YB Teng Chang Yeow, state executive councilor (Tourism
Development & Environment), and Tony Fernandes, AirAsia group chief
executive office, were seen greeting some 131 guests on board the inaugural
flight, including Tassapon Bijleveld, AirAsia chief executive officer from
Thailand, and Arak Chonlatanon, chairman e-business - Shin Corporation.
The new Penang-Bangkok flight is Thai AirAsia’s first
international route out of the island, and will be operated as a daily non stop
flight to Bangkok from 900 baht one way (excluding airport taxes and fees).
The launch of the service follows the delivery of a fourth
Boeing 737-300 for Thai AirAsia’s operations. With this new expansion, Thai
AirAsia now flies to eight destinations within Thailand and to six international
destinations from its hub at the Bangkok International Airport.
FD 720 will depart Bangkok daily at 10 a.m. and arrive in
Penang at 12:40 (local time). Flight FD 721 departs Penang daily at 13:25 (local
time) and arrives back in Bangkok at 14:05. It is a 1 hour 40 minute flight each
way.
With 5 million guests carried during its 2 1/2 years of
operations, AirAsia’s low fares have spurred many people to fly. Thai AirAsia
commenced operations from its hub at Bangkok International Airport in February
2004. Penang will be the 6th international destination operated by the airline.
AirAsia’s network in Thailand presently includes point to
point flights from its hub in Bangkok International Airport to Phuket, Hat Yai,
Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani (Vientiane, Laos), Chiang Rai, Nakhon
Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, Singapore, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala
Lumpur (and Macau beginning July 5).
Airlines to phase out paper tickets by 2007
Paper tickets will be a thing of the past if a resolution
passed at the 60th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM), taking place in Singapore
from June 6-8, is successfully implemented.
The meeting agreed on the target date of December 31, 2007 to
completely phase out paper tickets. IATA issues some 300 million such tickets
yearly, each costing US$9. Board of governors chairman, Isao Kaneko, said IATA
would help the industry reach the target date. The project is part of IATA’s
strategy to achieve greater cost efficiency for the aviation industry.
Other priorities in the plan to simplify the business and
reduce costs include encouraging higher usage of self-service kiosks, bar-codes
that can be printed by the passenger thus replacing the magnetic strip currently
found on paper tickets, implementing radio frequency identification baggage tags
to replace bar-coded tags – an initiative that is estimated will save the
industry US$350 million as a result of baggage mismanagement, and setting up an
automated interline system.
IATA’s director general and CEO, Giovanni, Bisignani called
for the industry to "shift our agendas from fire-fighting to building a new
industry structure." Some 600 airline heads and senior executives attended
the AGM. (TTG Asia)
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