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TAT opens ASEAN road show with Indochina travel mart
Sellers meet the buyers to exchange tourism
data to attract Indochinese tourists.
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
The Tourism Authority of Thailand kicked off its Southeast Asian road
show with a travel market at the Zign Hotel aimed at luring visitors to
Pattaya from Indochina.
TAT’s Eastern Seaboard Office sponsored the Oct. 2 fair with the goal of
boosting visitors from Vietnam and Indonesia in the last quarter of this
year. More than 30 foreign travel agencies attended and were given a
tour of the area afterward.
TAT Eastern Office Director Chamnong Junapiya said TAT is reaching out
to Southeast Asian markets to offset weak numbers from Pattaya’s
traditionally strong markets in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South
Korea.
“Indochinese tourists, especially those from Vietnam, are a group with a
lot of potential,” Chamnong said. “We’re doing a lot to publicize and
urge people to visit Pattaya.”
TAT Pattaya Office Director Niti Kongkrut said even with the extra
promotions Pattaya may not see traditional high season numbers from
Asia. The association hopes to remedy that by taking its promotional
tour around Southeast Asia over coming months.
Go green or else
Sharon Desker Shaw, TTG Asia
Go green or go home. The wake-up call came from a panelist at an IT&CMA
seminar in Bangkok last week who warned that growing militancy in
environmental and other non-profit movements would force the global MICE
sector to drop its wasteful ways.
Handpicked in the 1990s to work on a team to reform the UN, Lelei
TuiSamoa LeLaulu, said non-profit groups were proliferating worldwide.
And they would be scrutinizing companies to see whether or not their
gatherings were built on sound CSR and sustainability principles as they
“all wanted a piece of the pie” from an industry that was as much a
force for good as it was for its large carbon footprint.
“The industry has had since 1992 (the UN’s landmark Rio de Janeiro
conference on the environment) to get your act together and the feeling
in the left is ‘let’s go and get them’.”
Resentment from poor nations and communities bearing the brunt of
climate change - from Pacific island nations threatened by flooding or
Asian countries battered by fierce storms - was fuelling the militancy,
he said.
He also warned the industry that securing CSR/green credentials would
become increasingly difficult as accreditation groups such as Green
Globe were “going to check you at the door” on issues such as the extent
vendors source locally for materials.
LeLaulu’s fellow panelists, however, offered glimmers of hope that the
industry was awakening to the challenge. Robin Lokerman, Asia-Pacific
president of MCI, one of the world’s largest event and conference
organizers, said 40 percent of client requests for information documents
now enquired about suppliers’ CSR/green credentials. “This is coming
very quickly down the supply chain.”
More clients were also asking for CSR activities to be incorporated in
their programs, said Lokerman, because “companies were all looking to
leave a legacy” in host destinations, such as working with non-profits
such as Habitat for Humanity.
Anthony Wong, group MD of Asian Overland Services Malaysia, said the
company had seen demand rise for sustainable meetings, including a
request for an all-green event.
EU extends in-flight
liquids ban to 2012
The European Union will extend its ban on liquids in hand luggage until at least
2012.
EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said at a press conference last week
the ban would continue until technology that can tell the difference between
dangerous and non-threatening fluids became widely available.
The ban was imposed in 2006 after UK police uncovered a terrorist plot to
explode liquid explosives aboard planes in mid-flight above the Atlantic Ocean.
(TTG Asia)
2,000 Buddhist amulet
collectors expected to
attend Oct. 24-25 show
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome and folks at city hall
announce the upcoming
Amulet Contest, Collection Display and Amulet Conservation 2009.
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Pattaya officials are hoping a major Buddhist amulet show brings some
good luck to the tourist industry.
The 2009 Amulet Contest, sponsored by the city, Tourist Authority of Thailand
and Pattaya Amulet Club, will focus on amulet education, conservation and
collection and feature a collectors’ competition Oct. 24-25. Numchai Deevi,
president of Amulet Association Eastern Region 1, said it also will raise funds
to support scholarships for underprivileged students.
The show’s first activities will take place at Baan Sukhawadee on Sukhumvit Road
with the amulet contest taking place the second day at Pattaya School #2 from
8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said the event will be good for tourism and that after
it was announced the city already saw about 400 hotel rooms booked. He said he
expects 2,000 amulet collectors from across the country to attend.
For more information, contact Numchai at 081-922-8260, Duke Pattaya at
081-833-3779 or Phan Pattaya at 081-863-1317.
Amari rebrands
Thailand properties
Vimolrat Singnikorn
Putting a new face on its international image, Amari Resorts & Hotels
has re-branded four of its Thailand hotels, including renaming its local resort
and tower to Amari Orchid Pattaya.
 Management
and some staff display the newly renamed Amari Orchid Pattaya.
Amari Vice President of Human Resources Direk Thammarak and David Cumming,
general manager of the Pattaya hotel, rolled out the new name, logo and color
scheme at an Oct. 14 press conference.
Cumming said re-branding the Amari Orchid Resort & Tower to simply Amari Orchid
Pattaya gives the hotel a fresher and more modern image to international
visitors. Hotels in Bangkok, Phuket and Koh Samui also were given new names as
the Amari Watergate Bangkok, Amari Palm Reef Koh Samui and Amari Coral Beach
Phuket.
Thammarak said the Pattaya hotel is focusing on human development and improving
service. The first changes will be new uniforms with new departmental and
executive management to come later.
He noted that the hotel industry in Pattaya has been suffering from recession
and that this is just one of many marketing moves being made. He said Amari has
been impacted by the tourism slowdown, but that recent promotions have helped.
“I believe tourism in Pattaya is recovering. It will be back,” he said.
Amari, in business since 1965, currently operates 11 hotels in Asia with plans
to add 29 more by 2018.
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