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HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]: 

Amari Watergate Hotel welcomes Bhutan’s minister

Government urged to support tourism in the South

Thaksin plans multi-billion baht budget for tourism

Chiang Mai forecasts surge in tourist numbers after Christmas

Air China goes public

Pacific Airlines’ fate in the balance

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)