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Skål International meets for dinner
Steering committee elected
Sandy Clark
The first official meeting to reactivate the Skål Club
Chiang Mai was held at the Amari Rincome Hotel (Penthouse) on March 31,
2005.
A Welcome Cocktail Reception, sponsored by the Amari GM
Wim Fagel was followed by dinner and some fruitful discussions and voting to
get the Skål Club Chiang Mai off the ground.
The
members and the new elected committee of Skål Chiang Mai are all smiles.
The committee to set up the application for the club
reactivation was confirmed as:
President: Sun Suebsaeng (Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Resort)
Secretary: Eleanor Hardy (The Chedi Chiangmai)
Treasurer: Michael Vogt (Chiangmai Mail)
Communications and PR: David Thomas (Wanna Tours)
Director: Marc Dumur (The Legend Resort Chiang Rai)
The reactivation is a popular move with Lilli Saxer of
Impulse Travel saying, “I am looking forward to being a part of a positive
development of Northern Thailand.” This sentiment was echoed by Anachalee
Kalmapihit, Operations Director of Maesa Elephant Camp, “As I was born in
Chiang Mai, I welcome the positive development and the reactivation of
Skål. It is very encouraging to see that determination pays off.” David
Hardcastle from Good Morning Chiang Mai Magazine said, “We all have one
thing in common here. We love Chiang Mai with all its faults but with an
active Skål Club we might put some gentle pressure and advise on
improvements to enhance the city for Chiang Mai residents and of course for
the tourists.” Duncan Jamieson, “Nowhere in the world will you find a
perfect spot but you have to make the best out of the resources you have and
I am sure with what we already have here in Chiang Mai, the new Skål Club
will hit it off in no time.”
Armin Schoch from Impulse Travel understands that Skål
is a fellowship group, not an activist group, but nevertheless Skål can be
instrumental in setting up a platform to be heard. “It also means business
through friendship and this is already our platform from where we should
start.”
The steering committee for the reactivated Skål
International Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand will meet again on the last
Thursday in April, (28), at the Rydges Amora.
With the Skål International World Congress being held in
Thailand in 2006, it will certainly be advantageous for Chiang Mai to get an
active club running before then.
Skål is a professional organization of tourism leaders around the world,
promoting global tourism and friendship. It is the only international group
uniting all branches of the travel and tourism industry. Its members, the
industry’s managers and executives, meet at local, national, regional and
international levels to discuss and pursue topics of common interest. If you
are interested in Skål’s activities, please send an e-mail to Eleanor
Hardy, gm@chedi-chiangmai.com
Night Safari, Singapore style
Main focus on preserving our environment for future generations
Marion Vogt
When was the last time you went to Singapore? Even if it
was only a year ago, it is high time to return to the city that never sleeps
and is constantly on the move. With convenient Budget Airline ‘Tiger
Airways’, leaving directly from Chiang Mai in the early evening (6.05
p.m.), Singapore is really just two and a half hours away. Tony Davis, CEO
of Tiger Airways told Chiangmai Mail that in the very near future,
there will even be daily return flights, compared to the current three times
weekly.
The
giraffes from equatorial Africa (Photo from STB)
As Singapore is such a vibrant and unique city we will
introduce some of the sights to you during the next couple of weeks. We will
start with something very much on the agenda of Northern citizens at the
moment: The Singapore Night Safari. The world’s first ‘Night Safari’
park is now in its 11 th year of
operation and just a half hour drive from the city’s centre. Over 1000
nocturnal creatures can be seen in their natural habitats. The discoveries
can be made on foot or on one of the trams that traverse the park in three
trails, the fishing cat trail, the leopard trail and the forest giant trial.
If it is not too hot and you prefer to walk first, make sure 2.8 km and one
hour brings you back in time not to miss the ‘Creature of the Night
show’, which features the unique skills of an exciting animal cast
line-up. Miss Sujathra, one of the trainers at the ‘Creatures of the
Night’ show, told me that every day is a new challenge as you can never
 Sujathra,
one of the trainers at the ‘Creatures of the Night’ show has worked with
the animals for the last four years. ‘Creatures of the night’ shows off
the otter’s intelligence, crab eating raccoons, and the amazing leaping
skills of pumas and much more.
predict wild animal behaviour, nor
can you predict the audience. We asked her what sets her work apart from
other jobs and she replied that working with wild animals teaches a lot of
respect and that every one of the four trainers emphasizes showing the
audience the expressions and natural behaviour of the animals in a
controlled environment rather than making it seem like a circus show. The
Night Safari park is also very proud of their mating program and throughout
the almost three hour jungle trip, show, and nature trail it was
continuously repeated that the most important things in our globalized world
are the three R’s - Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, as we still want our
grandchildren to see animals like tigers or giant ant eaters in real life,
rather than as an animal in a museum or in a fairytale book.
 Singapore
Night Safari was opened in May 1994 and covers 40 hectares.
I can say the trip to Singapore Night Safari is a highly recommended
excursion for everyone and we can only hope that Chiang Mai Night Safari
will live up to the expectations of those who have visited the Singapore
equivalent.
Cambodian tourism minister addresses GMS in Siem Reap
Reinhard Hohler
Siem Reap, home of the world heritage site of the Angkor
temple complex, was the venue to host the long-awaited Greater Mekong
Sub-region (GMS) tourism week, comprising the Second Sub-regional Workshop,
Tourism Working Group Meeting and the 10th Mekong Tourism Forum (MTF) on
March 22-27.
HE Lay Prohas, tourism minister of the Kingdom of
Cambodia, addressed the 180 delegates from 19 different countries and
considered this event as a historic occasion for tourism in the GMS to
develop the tourism industry in an organized fashion.
After the end of the 10 year period to hold MTF, there
will be the beginning of a new phase to be guided by the submitted GMS
Tourism Sector Strategy and Action Plan which a team of international
consultants has all been working on since November 2004. Anchored in the
draft report, over the past decade, all the GMS countries have been enjoying
a solid growth in visitor arrivals. If compared over the period of 2003,
Cambodia grew by 50 percent, Lao PDR by 37 percent, Thailand by 23 percent,
Vietnam by 20 percent, Yunnan and Myanmar, both by 10 percent.
Indeed, the GMS countries have diversities of tourism
potentials for international and intra-regional visitors to explore an area,
which is in cultural, natural and historical heritages. New in the strategy
is the addition of Guangxi Autonomous Region in China bordering Vietnam to
be developed besides Yunnan Province, because China as a whole is a GMS
country.
According to the First Sub-regional Workshop which took
place in Bangkok in February 2005, the focus will be on the following
subjects:
- Tourism Marketing and Promotion of the GMS,
- Development of tourism-related infrastructure,
- Human Resources Development,
- Management of natural, cultural and social impacts,
- Pro-poor tourism development,
- Private Sector Participation, and
- Across border travel facilitation.
The minister concluded that poverty alleviation should be
addressed in a comprehensive and systematic manner. This will be possible if
the respective countries band together and the National Tourism
Organizations (NTOs) closely work with the private sector and
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Poverty, and the issue of the
sustainability of the environment, culture and social institutions cannot be
solved unless the six GMS countries co-operate with one another. As
resources, human and financial, are limited and institutions are weak, there
is one compelling reason for sub-regional co-operation.
In summary, the minister ended by saying that tourism in his view is the
best way in which international relations, intra-regional co-operation,
friendship, trade, peace, security and all-round economic development can be
promoted.
Thailand exposed during eye candy event
But it’s going to cost 6.5 million USD
Jeffrey Studebaker
Thailand will enjoy worldwide media exposure when it
hosts the 2005 Miss Universe Pageant for three weeks, starting on May 12.
More than 10,000 fans and 1,000 international media
members are expected to follow the 88 contestants as they participate in
pageant events in more than 10 locations around the country, including
fashion shows at north-eastern historical sites, a charity fundraiser in the
south and a parade in Bangkok.
Major media coverage for Thailand will include a
nine-minute documentary promoting tourism, to be shown during the airing of
the pageant on May 30.
Former minister of tourism and sports, Sontaya Khunplome,
said the event was expected to provide a much-needed boost to Thailand’s
tourism industry. “Bringing the pageant to Thailand is one of the many
steps in rebuilding our economy and boosting our tourism. There is no better
time, for our people and our economy, for us to bring this worldwide event
to our country,” he said.
The government has invested US$6.5 million to be the
major sponsor of the DTC Group, the local organizer of the event.
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