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Swedish tourism firm interested in joint promotion with TAT
The governor of the state-run Tourism Authority of
Thailand (TAT) said that a major Swedish tourism firm which now captures the
entire Scandinavian market is keen to enter in a tourism promotional
campaigns with the TAT.
Speaking on February 19, TAT Governor, Juthamas Siriwan,
said she held talks with John Lundgren, managing director of TUI Nordic Co.
which is responsible for the entire Scandinavian market.
The company is now exploring for new products for
tourists, and is interested in entering in a joint tourism promotional
campaign with TAT, she said, adding that she was confident that tourists
from Scandinavia would return to Thailand in the near future.
Juthamas said she also held talks with Swedish media and
leading tourist firms in Sweden. “Some 260 participants attended the
briefing, in which I told them that several attractive places in Thailand
were not affected by the December 26 tsunami, and that the Thai government
is now promoting new tourism destinations on the upper part of the
country’s southern region, which is part of the government’s plan to
promote coastal areas for tourism on a sustainable basis”, she disclosed.
(TNA)
Nok Air adds convenience with travel loan service
In a worldwide first, AEON shares convenience with Nok
Air with installment payment service on “AEON Super Package” Travel
Packages.
Nok Air, the truly Thai low fare airline, dedicated to
expanding the flying experience for all travelers, is making flying even
easier by collaborating with AEON Thana Sinsap in offering travelers the
“AEON Super Package”, providing innovative payment services with greater
convenience and ease of payment to travelers.
With the “AEON Super Package”, travelers can choose a
travel package to any of the 5 destinations that Nok Air serves, from
Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok, Udon Thani, Phuket and Hat Yai. The
package includes hotel accommodation, return airfare with Nok Air and
airport transfers. Payment can then be made with the AEON installment
payment.
Patee Sarasin, CEO of Nok Air, said, “Nok Air is very
pleased to be working with AEON Thana Sinsap in offering unique and useful
products such as these to travelers. It has always been Nok Air’s aim to
enable more Thais to travel and see the beauty of their country, to see
families that they haven’t seen in years, to allow Thais to travel long
distances quickly and comfortably, and to do all this at prices that are
really affordable. This collaboration with AEON gives us a very special
opportunity to do just that.”
Masao Mizuno, managing director, Aeon Thana Sinsap
(Thailand) Public Company Limited added, “As a partner, we are very
pleased to be working with Nok Air to offer new and valuable products to our
customers. We feel that the “AEON Super Package” can serve to further
stimulate the traveling habits of Thais, while promoting tourism within the
country. With over 2 million AEON members nationwide we are sure this will
be promoted by word of mouth, as well as through our normal channels of
advertising such as the posters, brochures, and our direct mail.”
For “AEON Super Package” AEON members can make
reservations for one of the Aeon Super Packages through the AEON call center
at 0-2664-0381-2 and 0-2664-0396-7, while non- AEON members can apply for
membership at the AEON call center. Payment can be made with the AEON
installment payment option or full payment can be made through the AEON
credit card. The packages are available through April 30, 2005.
Nok Air has 3 daily flights to Phuket, as well as daily
flights to Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, Hat Yai, and Phitsunulok, operating
Boeing 737-400s, each with a capacity of 149. The Nok Air planes stand out
with their dynamic style and colors, as they have the look of a real
“Nok” (Thai for bird).
Tourists in Pattani come to worship at Chinese goddess shrine
Local residents in Thailand’s southern border province
of Pattani are welcoming Thai and Malaysian tourists arriving to worship at
the province’s renowned shrine to a Chinese goddess.
The week-long celebration to worship the Lim Ko Niew
Goddess kicked off on Sunday. Local worshippers decorated the Leng Ju Kieng
Shrine, while souvenir sellers put up their stalls around the compound.
The Chinese goodness shrine is next to the Krue Se
Mosque, which was damaged last April when government soldiers stormed and
killed several suspected Muslim insurgents hiding inside.
Wae Umar Waedolah, the headman of Tanyong Lu Loh
Sub-district, where the mosque is located, told TNA that people of the two
different beliefs had lived together in harmony for decades. They have
always helped each other to care for their holy places.
‘’We don’t interfere with each other, but we
cooperate and lend each other a hand. Villagers also helped decorate the
Chinese shrine and surrounding buildings for the festival,’’ he said.
‘’There weren’t as many tourists as last year, but the atmosphere was
good,” he said. (TNA)
Andaman tourism picking up
December’s tsunami has already wiped 5 billion baht
from the Andaman tourism sector, but hotel occupancy rates are gradually
rising and could return to normal by the start of the upcoming tourism
season, according to Tourism Minister Sontaya Khunplome.
In an upbeat message designed to boost confidence in the
six provinces affected by the tsunami, the tourism minister was careful to
temper his optimism with figures showing a sharp decline in visitor numbers
over January, when 180,000 fewer tourists than expected visited Thailand.
Nonetheless, he said that February figures suggested a 12
percent rise in national hotel occupancy rates compared to the same period
last year, while charter flights from Europe and Asia to the Andaman island
of Phuket had pushed up occupancy rates in the province to 35-40 percent,
compared to only 10 percent in the immediate wake of the tsunami.
Although he conceded that the tsunami had wiped 5-6
billion baht off the tourism sector, he voiced confidence that the situation
was picking up, in part due to the government’s marketing offensive and
urgent attempts to rehabilitate the affected region. Noting that the tourism
sector had revived faster than expected, he said that the tourism situation
was likely to return to normal by the upcoming tourism high season. (TNA)
Accor set to score King Power deal
Accor Hotels Asia Pacific is in final discussions to be
appointed as the operator of a 400-room Novotel on a massive five-hectare
multipurpose site behind the Siam City Hotel in downtown Bangkok.
To be called the Novotel King Power Bangkok, the new
property is a key component of a development that also includes offices,
shops, a theatre for classical dance and a duty-free shop.
The development will also feature a new head office for
King Power Duty Free, the company that has leased the site - one of the
largest under development in Bangkok today - from Thailand’s Crown
Property Bureau.
The Novotel King Power is slated to open mid-2007 and is
the second new Novotel is to be announced by Accor this month. The other is
the 600-room Novotel Suvarnabhumi hotel which is in an advanced stage of
construction at Bangkok’s new airport. (TTG Asia)
Guinness Book records world’s most expensive elephant painting
Eight residents of Chiang Mai’s Mae Sa Elephant Camp
made a name for themselves on February 19 when they began painting a work
which won the unusual distinction of being the world’s most expensive
painting done by a group of elephants.
The painting, 12 meters long and two meters wide,
entitled ‘Cold Wind, Mist: Lanna Charm No. 1’, will sell for 1.5 million
baht to a foreign-based Thai woman named Phanit Warinsinanta.
Phanit explained her unusual purchase decision by talking
of her love of elephants, saying that she always visited the Mae Sa camp on
her annual visits to her homeland.
Although the painting is the most expensive of its kind
in the world, Phanit denied that the price was high. However, she has opted
not to keep the painting, but will, instead, hand it over to the government.
Saturday morning the elephant artists, supervised by 16
mahouts and watched by a crowd of Thai and international journalists, began
using their trunks to depict the sky in various shades of blue, before using
greens to represent the mountains.
Keen to exploit the tourism potential of the event, the
Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)
laid on a traditional northern-style market and cultural performances for
the onlookers.
\Witnessing the event was Kim Lacy from the Guinness Book
of Records, who said that she was impressed in the artist ability of the
pachyderms. Proceeds from the sale of the painting will go towards improving
the quality of life for elephants living in the camp.
Mae Sa camp has spent the last five years selecting and
training the most talented elephant artists to execute the painting. (TNA)
Tiger extends reach to Chiang Mai
Tiger Airways commenced a new Singapore-Chiang Mai
service on Friday, February 18. The Singapore low-cost carrier will be
operating the route on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays with an
Airbus A320 aircraft configured with 180 single-class seats.
TR 128 departs Singapore at 15.30 and arrives at Chiang
Mai International Airport at 17.30. TR 129 leaves Chiang Mai at 18.05 and
arrives in Singapore at 22.05.
Meanwhile, the airline is maintaining its daily service
to Phuket. A TR spokesman told TTG Daily News this morning the flight was
receiving a major boost from the special post-tsunami offer of 20,000
tickets for US$6.
“The promotion has attracted a lot of interest and is
helping to bring business back to Phuket,” the spokesman added.
The airline recently took delivery of two new A320s and
now has a total of four aircraft. A further eight aircraft are on order.
(TTG Asia)
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