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New executive team appointed at Amari Orchid Resort & Tower
Amari Orchid Resort & Tower, Pattaya has recently made some new
appointments to its executive team.
Makoo Techasopon has been appointed to the position of Deputy General
Manager. Makoo was formerly General Manager of Angkhang Nature Resort,
Doi Angkhang (Amari Associate Hotel) for more than 10 years and played
an instrumental role in driving and developing the resort into one of
the best and most beautiful resorts in northern Thailand.
 Makoo
Techasopon is the newly appointed Deputy General Manager of the Amari
Orchid Resort & Tower, Pattaya.
Meanwhile, Waipot Klinhom has been appointed as Executive Assistant
Manager – Food & Beverage. Prior to joining Amari, Pattaya, Waipot was
Director of F&B at Sofitel Silom Hotel, Bangkok, and Sofitel Riverside,
Chiang Mai, where he managed all F&B outlets and functions, leading a
team of more than 400.
Also in the new shake up, Simon Dell has been appointed Executive
Assistant Manager – Rooms. Before joining Amari, he was Director of
Rooms at Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, EAM (Opening Team) at Swissotel
Moscow, Rooms Division Manager at Intercontinental Berlin, Rooms
Director at Raffles Le Montreux Palace, and with over 10-years operating
experience he brings a wealth of knowledge, business acumen and skills
to his new position.
Alexander Parry is the new face at Mantra after being named Operations
Manager at the dynamic, stylish and seriously cool restaurant & bar.
Before joining Mantra, he was Assistant Manager - Rooms - at Amari Don
Muang Airport Hotel, Bangkok.
Dhaninrat Klinhom, a first-class honors degree holder from Chiang Mai
University, with 6 years of extensive experience in the hospitality
business, has been promoted to Director of Public Relations, Amari
Orchid Resort & Tower. Prior to this promotion, Dhaninrat was Director
of Training & Development at the same hotel.
TAT launches video contest and photo project to promote tourism
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has launched two new digital activities
to encourage tourists around the world to participate in the “Amazing Thailand”
campaign, and to attract more visitors to the Kingdom.
Tourists can win 200,000 baht of prizes by uploading video clips of their most
amazing experiences in Thailand in TAT’s amazing Experience Video Contest,
http://amazingex perience.tourismthailand.org. The aim is to inspire other
travelers to visit Thailand.
Meanwhile the Thailand Portfolio Project features uploaded photographs and
stories from journalists focused on the Amazing Thailand theme. Contributions
are ranked by the site’s visitors to generate a list of the most popular posts.
This seeks to encourage more users to upload their experiences.
Suraphon Svetasreni, Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications, Tourism
Authority of Thailand, says, “It is now very popular for tourists to share their
holiday experiences by uploading their travel pictures and videos on the
internet and on social media networking sites, such as YouTube.com and
Flickr.com. Many of these photos and video clips are really amazing and they
help to inspire other people to visit those destinations. TAT has realized the
massive potential that this channel provides for e-marketing, so it has
developed these two schemes to build stronger relationships with the
web-communities.
“Thailand Portfolio project encourages tourists to upload photos, video clips
and travel articles through these online communities by cooperating with
domestic and international photographers and tourism journalists. Within just
one month of TAT uploading the work of these experts to several social media
networking sites, many of the images were voted as the most popular.”
TAT has also organized the amazing Experience Video Contest, an online activity
to encourage domestic and international tourists to submit their video clips
(the length not exceeding three minutes). There is 200,000 baht worth of prizes
to be won, including a Sony Handycam: HDR-SR1, DCR-SR82, DCR-SR40, Sony Ericsson
Mobile Phone: K850i, iPod Nano 8 GB, two-night package at The Rock Hua Hin Beach
Resort & Spa and Baan Krating Resort & Spa, plus IMAX movie tickets from
Krungsri IMAX.
Video submission period is from 1st May 2008 – 30th June 2008 and the voting
period is from 1st May 2008 – 31st July 2008.
TAT will upload all submitted video clips on to social media networking sites
such as www.youtube.com, www. crackle.com in order to create an inspiration for
the online tourists around the world to visit Thailand.
TAT believes that the Thailand Portfolio project and the Amazing Experience
Video Contest will provide excellent first-hand tourism information to social
networking site users.
TAT expect that within one year these clips will be viewed by more than 100
million visitors, which will help promote tourism in Thailand and will let
people worldwide have a better understanding of Thailand.
Furthermore, tourists’ comments posted on the online social media networking
sites will help TAT to analyze and plan further e-marketing strategies and
introduce new products and services relating to tourism in Thailand. (TAT)
Jet Airways launches daily
Bangkok-Mumbai link
Jet Airways launched its inaugural Bangkok-Mumbai daily service on May 7 to
leverage the booming economic and tourism links between India and Thailand. The
number of travellers from India to Thailand is increasing by around 20 percent a
year and is expected to reach 600,000 in 2008.
Jet Airways, Asia’s fastest growing premium airline, has been operating in
Thailand since early 2007 and the launch of the daily Bangkok to Mumbai flights
will increase the airline’s services to 21 flights a week.
The airline already offers daily flights from Bangkok-Delhi and Bangkok-Kolkata.
To celebrate the new service to Mumbai, Jet Airways is offering an introductory
price of Baht 9,000 return.
The Mumbai flight also connects with London and Jet Airways is also offering an
introductory Bangkok-Mumbai-London flight for Baht 28,000. Both prices are for
economy tickets, are valid for the month of May and exclude taxes and
surcharges.
Boom in cruise ship
stopovers seen by 2009
Five major cruise line companies have notified the Tourism Authority of
Thailand that they plan to include Phuket and Laem Chabang in their regional
itineraries by the year 2009.
The feedback from Holland American, Seabourn Cruise Line, Star Clipper,
Oceania Cruises and Residen Sea was conveyed to representatives of the TAT
New York Office at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention held recently in
Miami, Florida.
The cruise-stops will generate over 5,000 tourists.
Seatrade is one of the world’s largest cruise industry events. The Thailand
booth at the event was visited by more than 150 companies seeking
information about Thai cruise facilities such as customs, ports, licenses,
beaches, hotels/accommodations, etc.
The TAT sees cruise-ship travellers as a high-end market group with high
spending power. At present, about 7,000 tourists visit Thailand aboard 12
cruise-ship stops per year.
Thai companies which handle cruise ships in Thailand include Sea Tours,
Destination Asia and Turismo Asia, among others. The major ports for cruise
business in Thailand are Laem Chabang, Bangkok (Klongtoey) and Phuket.
At this year’s Seatrade, there was general consensus that Asian waters hold
high potential for expansion of the cruise business, especially China and
India, as well as Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and
Indonesia.
According to the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) in 2007, the
numbers of worldwide cruise passengers totalled 12.6 million of which 10.6
million were tourists from North America. Their destination is usually the
Caribbean islands.
Other popular cruising regions are the Mediterranean Sea and Hawaii. But the
islands, ports and waters of Asia are seen as the next major growth areas.
This year, the TAT booth was supported by the Ports Authority of Thailand,
Marina Ports in Phuket and Chonburi, Board of Investment and one Thai
observer (Diethelm Travel). Visitors were given information on Thailand’s
policy on yachting and cruise business. (TAT)
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