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Chiang Rai attempting to boost tourist numbers after a re-think
Chiangmai Mail Reporters
Somkiart Chuenthirawong, president of Chiang Rai Travel Association and
consultant to the Regional Tourism Federation of Thailand disclosed that
Chiang Rai has recently seen tourist numbers fall.
To attempt to reverse this trend, a meeting was held with the eight Lanna
provinces, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Phrae, Nan, Mae Hong Son, Lampang
and Lamphun to work out how to develop tourism, and to create strategies to
improve Chiang Rai so it would be the center of the upper Mekong River basin
area tourism.
According to the strategies, old tourist venues will be improved, OTOP
Tourism Village concepts will be applied, service and personnel standards
will be developed, the ancient Chiang Saen City will be promoted as a world
heritage site and tourism destinations for specific groups of tourists will
be worked out. It is hoped that all these evolutionary strategies will
support Chiang Rai tourism to become livelier.
Thailand Grand Sale resurrected
Nopniwat Krailerg
In yet another ploy to stimulate tourism in the low season, the Thailand
Grand Sale concept has been resurrected. The program of offering discounts
is being instituted inn the main tourist destinations such as Chiang Mai,
Had Yai, Phuket, Pattaya, and Nakorn Ratchasima. Businesses joining this
program will present products which are priced 10-50 percent lower for Thai
and foreign tourists from June 16 – August 15, this year.
This latest Thailand Grand Sale was announced by Thongchai Wongrianthong,
Deputy Chiang Mai Governor; Pornthip Ornnoom, director of tourism business
investment department of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT); Sirirat
Thiangtham, marketing manager of Visa International Co., Ltd., and John D.
Thomson, Sales, Marketing, and after sales service director for the ASEAN
Region of Chevrolet Sales (Thailand).
It is hoped to promote Thailand as the shopping paradise. In Chiang Mai, the
Central Airport Plaza Department Store, business owners at Nimmanheminda
Road, Baan Thawai, Chang Klan, and about 400 shops are joining this program.
Tourists who enjoy the program do not only get 10-50 percent discount; those
who buy more than 500 baht worth by Visa card will get a chance to receive
special price travel package from hotels and airlines. They will also have
an opportunity to win one of 15 Chevrolet cars.
To be eligible, look for shops with the symbol “Thailand Grand Sale
2006”.
Cambodia goes for seaside airport
Cambodia has approved plans for an international airport
in the coastal city of Sihanoukville. The initiative is part of a plan to
propel tourism within the country.
Like Cambodia’s other smaller airports that were once part of an extensive
domestic network, the facility in Sihanoukville, 230 kilometers southwest of
Phnom Penh, is currently closed. The government however, hopes to reopen it
to domestic flights by the end of the year and later introduce international
routes.
Soy Sokhan, an official with the state for civil aviation, said that the
rebuilt airport would be able to facilitate direct flights from neighboring
countries, allowing visitors to head for the country’s beaches and also
have a quick link to the Angkor temple town of Siem Reap.
There are also future plans to reopen the airport in the north eastern town
of Kratie, near a stretch of the Mekong river home to endangered Irrawaddy
dolphins that Cambodia hopes to preserve as a tourist attraction.
Almost 1.5 million tourist arrivals were recorded in 2005, mostly from Asian
countries, and the hope is for three million annually by 2010. As per the
information available, last year, tourism earned Cambodia US$ 1 billion, of
which 15 percent went to the state and the rest to the private sector. (eTN
Asia)
Further delays expected for Airbus 380
AS many as 10 airlines including Singapore Airlines
(SIA), Qantas, Emirates, Lufthansa and Air France will be affected by
Airbus’ announcement of a further delay of up to seven months in the
A380’s delivery schedule.
This was blamed on “production ramp-up issues” and comes on top of a
six-month delay previously announced in late 2005. Airbus will now deliver
only nine aircraft in 2007 instead of the 20 to 25 originally scheduled and
the delivery shortfall will carry into 2008 and 2009.
It will impact plans by airlines to inject capacity on high-demand services
into airports that are faced with severe slot constraints. These include
airports in London, Tokyo, Sydney and Los Angeles.
By operating an A380 on one of its three daily services into Sydney or
London, SIA could offer an increase in capacity of up to 8.8 per cent
without utilising any additional slots - a valuable gain given the high
year-round demand on these routes and high fuel cost.
An SIA spokesperson told TTG Daily News: “We are disappointed with the
news of further delays but will work with Airbus to minimise the delays and
their impact.”
SIA still expects to receive its first A380 by the end of 2006 and this
latest delay will not impact on its “First to Fly the A380” status.
However it will probably defer SIA’s planned phased decommissioning of its
older Boeing 747-400s (TTG).
PB Air airline temporarily stops Mae Hong Son flights
Chiangmai Mail Reporters
PB Air has temporarily canceled flights on its Bangkok-Mae Hong Son route
from May 5 – October 26 due to lack demand.
However, PB Air in Mae Hong Son is still open for PB Air ticket reservation
for other operating flights. From October 26, PB Air will reinstate the
Bangkok-Mae Hong Son route, said a company spokesman.
Thai agents face industry-wide clean-up
Bangkok - Upon receiving numerous complaints in recent
months from agents and consumers concerning e-ticket fraud - wholesalers
acting as retail agents and airlines dealing directly with corporations -
the Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA) wants to “clean up” the
industry with regulations requiring outbound agents to get certified.
TTAA president, Anake Srishevachart, said the TTAA wanted to work with the
Tourism Authority of Thailand to set up the regulations to certify outbound
agents as well as solve unethical issues in the travel sector.
He said: “There are many outbound agents. Some are qualified and some are
not so qualified. We get so many complaints from agents and consumers. Some
agents are cheating. Some agents don’t have a licence. We must clean up
this problem.”
In a bid to halt malpractice, the TTAA plans to reinforce the registration
initiative by asking computer reservations system owners to co-operate by
disclosing distribution legacy system installation points.
The association said some agents were guilty of issuing e-tickets without
creating a genuine PNR.
The TTAA is also considering surveying members so it can set a standardised,
industry-wide service and consultancy fee in preparation for zero
commission. The service and consultancy fee would be modelled on the one in
place in Singapore.
TTAA vice-president, Charoen Wangananont, told members during the
associations’ recent monthly meeting even familiarisation trips would come
under scrutiny.
He said the association would scan people who wanted to participate in such
trips to ensure they were “travel business partners and not cousins or
friends”.
World Travel Service tours manager, Viraj Chimprasert, supported the TTAA
proposals. “At the moment it is very easy for anyone to become a travel
agent or tour operator because of the (lax) rules and regulations. When
these agents have no business, do you know what they do? They contact
wholesalers and other people and undercut them.
“What will happen in the end is the whole industry will plunge into
disarray. Now is the time to consider this (the TTAA’s proposals). We have
to screen people coming into the industry.” (TTG)
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