Myanmar rescinds VoA
BANGKOK, 24 August 2010 – BARELY four months after introducting a visa on arrival scheme, Myanmar will mothball the service 1 September, until after the 7 November elections.
The country’s military junta is tightening security in preparation for national elections the first in the country for 20 years.
Cancellation of the visa-on-arrival will hit the country’s tourism in the run up to the peak season that gets underway November when the southwest monsoon end.
Virgin Blue group add services to Phuket
BANGKOK, 20 August 2010 –Thailand remains high on the list of priorities for Australia’s Virgin Blue group, according to international inbound sales manager, Gordon Young.
The group has recently announced it will expand services to Phuket using two of its brands Pacific Blue and V Australia.
Pacific Blue added a third frequency yesterday, 19 August, to the two weekly services it operates to the Thai holiday island out of Perth in Western Australia.
Burma connection threatens USAID funding
WASHINGTON, 10 August 2010 ― USAID funding for a project that gave ASEAN a tourism website and campaign “Southeast Asia: Feel the Warmth” is under review following criticism that it may have a commercial value for Myanmar and break strict US sanctions.
A source in the US capital confirmed that “a review of the funding is going on to determine whether the project violates Burma sanctions, but a conclusion hasn’t been reached yet.”
Thailand’s first Tune Hotel will open in Pattaya
BANGKOK, 10 August 2010 – Tune Hotels.com will open its first hotel in Thailand’s Pattaya resort by February 2012, offering rates as low as US$3 a night for a bare-bone, no-frills room.
Two hotels under the same brand will follow in Bangkok and another in Hat Yai, South Thailand, probably by 2013.
All the hotels, with the exception of the Hat Yai property, will be built from scratch, according to a source close to the developer, Red Planet Hotels Company Limited, a subsidiary Evolution Capital PLC, listed on the Thai stock exchange. In Hat Yai, the company will restore an existing building.
Another PATA director departs
BANGKOK 15 July 2010 – Pacific Asia Travel Association and its director for board and foundation relations, Ratana Poopitakchatkaew, parted company 30 June.
She had worked with the association for 12 years joining as the first Thai staff member of PATA when it relocated its headquarters from San Francisco to Bangkok in 1998.
Relations were strained with the current management after former president and CEO Peter de Jong resigned in 2008.
Petty Pata antics over an Emeritus
BANGKOK, 9 July – Criticising the US immigration policies is nothing new, but when a former Pacific Asia Travel Association CEO and president, Lakshman Ratnapala, attempted it in his Travel Talk email despatch, recently, it raised eyebrows for entirely different reasons.
Veterans of PATA immediately were on the attack, not on behalf of Uncle Sam, but to take the former PATA CEO to task for awarding himself a lofty and honourable title.
Phuket: Messing about in boats
Phuket’s popularity was born on its beaches, but its future prosperity depends on how well it taps a variety of niche markets including international sports fixtures.
Sports tourism is already a winning formula for many of the island’s hotels and travel companies. Snoozing or soaking up the sun in a deckchair is an admirable pastime, but many of today’s travellers demand much more from a destination than chilling out on a beach.
Thai travel agent to sue IATA
BANGKOK, 2 July 2010 – A leading travel agency in Bangkok says it will sue IATA after it terminated the company’s passenger sales agency agreement for 21 days in June causing substantial financial losses.
Trans Global Corporation managing director and founder, Nathavut Lokasiriwat, accused IATA of arbitrarily closing his sales channel and destroying his company’s reputation when it falsely accused the agency of failing to pay Bt2 million for tickets in 2007.
Surreal Holidays splashes out
BANGKOK 25 June, 2010 – Surreal Holidays, a UK tourism specialising in up-market travel to Thailand, hosted a lavish bash in Bangkok last evening to launch its first programmes.
Active for just five months, the company is owned and managed by a Thai-UK citizen, Runci Weeden, who led a team of executives and invited media from the UK for the two-day launch.
Law firm called in over PATA loss
BANGKOK 22 June, 2010 – Pacific Asia Travel Association’s executive board has appointed a law firm to investigate responsibility for a US$63,000 loss incurred during its 2008 fiscal year.
PATA CEO, Greg Duffell, uncovered the loss shortly after he took over the top post, in early 2009, from former president and CEO, Peter de Jong.