Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort is the far north town’s only five-star resort and the affable general manager is showing me the landscaped gardens that merge with an infinity pool. From the vantage point of my bar stool the pool melts into river, a blurry placid line of water and beyond in the distance, hazy forested mountains complete the tranquil tapestry.

“Marketing the resort is inherently linked to Chiang Rai,” he explains. “First we introduce a fascinating new destination to customers who are looking for art and culture.

Justin Malcolm

“We sell the destination linking it to the benefits of a relaxing resort experience and are focusing on new markets  particularly in Asia. This is one of the few remaining provinces that can still deliver a genuine traditional Thai experience without a single compromise.”

2012 is a banner year for Chiang Rai as it celebrates the 750th anniversary of the city’s founding by King Mengrai the Great who ruled over the Lanna Kingdom in 1262.

Today, 26 January, city residents gathered at 0959 for the official 750th anniversary ceremony held at the foot of the revered king’s statue, a landmark for both visitors and residents alike.

In the evening around 600 residents, VIPs and representatives of the town’s communities and associations will gather for a gala dinner at the Mae Fah Luang Arts and Crafts Park.

Back at the Le Meridien, Mr Malcolm talks of other events that will not only underscore Chiang Rai’s claim to arts and crafts status, but also help to establish it as gateway to the Mekong Region.

Le Meridien with other riverside hotels are jointly hosting the Mekong Tourism Forum this June an event that will attract over 300 leading tourism executives from Thailand and its Mekong Region neighbours.

“Our challenge is to build international tourism,” says Mr Malcolm. “There are no international airlines serving Chiang Rai and this is something we have to work on seriously.”

There are reasons to be optimistic that airlines will show interest in the future following positive media cover in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Travellers from Singapore were among the top nationalities staying at the resort hotel in December mostly couples, in the 40 to 50s, seasoned travellers looking for something rewarding and relaxing.

The 159-room Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort fits that bill perfectly with its 26 rai of gardens on the banks of the River Kok, just a one –hour journey to the famous Golden Triangle and within minutes of historic temples and outstanding examples of Lanna art at its best.

It starts with the open lobby and the panoramic view of the gardens, the river and mountains on the far horizon. The views are similar from all room balconies.

If location makes a great hotel, go no further.

But Le Meridien in the style, layout and standard of service goes much further to deliver a holiday experience that both visitors and residents alike say is in a class of its own.

Ask the restaurant customers, the town’s business folk and expatriate residents, who have made this resort hotel their weekend dining retreat to enjoy an “amazing and affordable brunch.”

Word of mouth recommendations say it all and when critical well-travelled expatriate residents say this is the place to be seen  we have to admit they usually know what they are talking about.

“We have tried to be part of the community,” says the GM. “We deliberately priced our food and beverage to attract locals and this has paid off by giving us recognition for quality dining.”

Apart from a healthy Sunday brunch that would keep a rugby player satisfied, the hotel offers traditional Italian in its signature restaurant, Favola.

You will also feel equally at home at the hotel’s Latitude 19 lobby lounge that claims to be modern Lanna chic. In other words a place to relax, where you can browse through the library of books linked to Chiang Rai and its Lanna art.

I am sitting at the hotel’s poolside Chill Bar soaking up the view and weather. It’s a cool 20 degrees, well below what Bangkok properties create in their air-conditioned lobbies. But I am out in a garden surrounded by huge ancient trees that were there long before the environmentally sensitive architect got down to work.

On the sidelines the hotel’s efficient events team is setting out an evening cocktail reception for 40 media representatives from Bangkok here to help celebrate a new air service from Bangkok.

I muse over the future, recognising Chiang Rai’s day in the sunlight is approaching. There is a buzz in town as it prepares to celebrate its 750th anniversary. There is an emerging confidence too that the town is about to discover its true identity; a gateway to the Mekong Region for visitors looking for a quality, lifestyle holiday.

Le Meridien’s team hopes to play a role in reach that goal.

That comment at the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) annual convention here last week set the scene for a boisterous discussion amongst TAFI members on preparing for life after the “unending torture” of the IATA Agency Accreditation Programme.

Moderating one of the panel sessions, Kapil Kaul, CEO, subcontinent and Middle East, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, highlighted the myriad of changes occurring across a range of geopolitical, economic and industry sectors.

Citing the convention theme, “Addressing Change – Rebrand, Reposition, Reinvent,” Mr. Kaul told the agents: “Accepting change is no longer important. Now, accepting the challenge of change is what’s more important. We saw the change coming but addressing the challenge of that change was another matter.”

Mr. Kaul identified how the world and travel industry had changed over the last 10 years, in quite unexpected ways. After the Cold War, the United States became the undisputed global superpower. Now, he said, who would have thought that it would be facing the kind of problems it is.

The same applied to the European Union. “Ten years ago, Europe was a big dream. Now, that is no longer the case, to the extent where six to seven European countries are almost bankrupt.”

At the same time, everyone knew that China would be the superpower from a trade, geopolitical and strategic perspective. “The world knew that there would be a change in terms of geopolitical dynamics but nobody accepted the challenge of it.”

He said the same applied to airlines. Ten years ago, the game was all about Lufthansa, British Airways and the larger U.S. carriers. Now, he said, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways are changing the policy of aviation globally.

Legacy carriers also ignored how Low Cost Carriers would dominate the skies. In India, with its 100 million annual passengers, Jet Airways was once the dominant player but today it is the low-cost carrier, Indigo.

Mr. Kaul cited the downstream impact on the travel agents in India. He told them that the real issue is not about reinventing their business model but ensuring that it will be sustainable business model.

Kapil Kaul

Asserting that the IATA Agency Accreditation Programme no longer possess an equitable opportunity to its stakeholders, he said that it was even more important for IATA to reinvent itself, and not just the agency programme.

“When airlines talk of zero commission, they cannot talk about an agency programme which disorients the entire model of equitable remuneration.”

Like in numerous past TAFI conventions, relations between the Indian travel agents and airlines and suppliers dominated all the discussions. While aviation trends and changes in airline business practises such as zero-commission are threatening the agents’ business models, opportunities are emerging in new technologies and new destinations, both of which are queuing up to have the agents either as clients or marketing partners.

Indian agents are still a force to be reckoned with. Because internet penetration is low, India is still not largely a do-it-yourself travel economy. About 85% of airline bookings still come via travel agents. Although that is down from what 95% a few years ago, the volume of business being transacted through the IATA Billings & Settlement Plan has grown from US$6.4 billion in 2010 to an estimated US$6.6 billion this year.

This makes India the second largest BSP in the world, after China.

There are certain benefits that come with being an IATA agent, primarily the ability to access seats on 235 member IATA airlines and pay all of them through a single settlement window in the local currency. Agents also have to post only one bank guarantee as against the multiple guarantees they will have to post in case of dealing with several airlines.

However, TAFI President Ajay Prakash said that the past year has been a very, very trying one for TAFI, with a lot of energy, time and money being expended on the issue of airlines’ cutting agents’ commissions. “It’s not over yet, but the point is life has to go on. You cannot be hankering over that which you do not have.”

However, the agents feel they are being short shrifted; their role in contributing to the growth of the airline industry ignored.

Said TAFI Committee member Sampath Kumar, “Long gone are the days when Agents valued “IATA Accreditation” which had some meaning, respect and value.

“Today being an IATA Accredited Agent has just become a symbol of torture unending. The Agent has no time to devote in what he or she does best — marketing, bring value to the distribution chain and serving the end customer/passenger…which is the very reason for our existence.”

A report, entitled “Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle”, was released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) last week. Documenting stories of the “migrant worker misery which lies behind the gleaming towers of Gulf cities,” it calls on both the governments of the Gulf states as well as the companies now queuing up for the lucrative World Cup-related contracts to fulfil their responsibilities.

“Conditions for migrant workers in the Middle East are unacceptable,” ITUC general secretary, Sharan Burrow, is quoted as saying. “The World Cup is a time when the eyes of the world will be on Qatar and the other nations in this region. We will do everything to see that FIFA lives up to its responsibilities, that multinationals providing goods for the World Cup and their supply chains are actually respectful of workers’ rights.”

Says the report, “Dubai oozes glamour and bristles with superlatives: the world’s tallest building, most luxurious hotels and biggest shopping malls and vast artificial islands. In Doha, an ongoing building boom is poised to move up several gears as work kicks off on a massive infrastructure programme in preparation for the 2022 World Cup.

“What the tourists, sports fans and business travellers jetting in to the Gulf states may not see are the millions of migrant workers whose toil continues to build the new towers, shopping centres, hotels, stadiums and museums sprouting across these Arabian boomtowns.

“The army of men from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Somalia and a slew of other developing countries has been lured to the oil-rich nations of the Gulf on a promise of fat wages. Far from the air-conditioned malls and beachfront condos, they inhabit overcrowded barrack-like housing, in sprawling, dust-clogged, male-only suburbs like Dubai’s notorious Sonapur or the Industrial Area on the outskirts of Doha.

“Bussed home exhausted after long hours working in often blistering heat, the men are squeezed into up to ten to a room in company accommodation. Food is basic, sanitation often rudimentary and air-conditioning when it exists is sometimes ineffectual when summer temperatures soar over 40 Celsius. Many work at dangerous jobs with little or no health insurance.”

Based on interviews with many of the migrant workers, the report says they are willing to put up with the heat and harsh conditions for the chance to support their families with wages way beyond what they can earn at home.

However, it adds, “All too often, salaries are paid months overdue. Conned by unscrupulous recruitment agents, workers arrive in the Gulf to discover they are paid considerably less than they were promised back in their homelands, leaving the traumatised migrants struggling to pay off the debts they ran up to fund their passage to the Gulf let alone provide for their struggling families.”

It adds, “The migrants have few chances of escaping from abusive employers. A system known as Kafala binds foreign workers to the local companies that sponsored their travel to the Gulf nations. The workers need their employers’ authorisation to switch jobs, and companies frequently hold migrants’ passports to ensure they don’t leave the country before the end of their contacts.”

It notes that trade unions are effectively banned under the laws of the UAE and Qatar, so migrant workers have little chance to organise protest against their conditions.

The report says remedial steps are being taken, but much more needs to be done.

“Faced with international criticism, the governments in both Qatar and the UAE have taken steps to improve conditions for migrant labour. Both have introduced legislation to grant workers more flexibility to change jobs, although they reject talk of scrapping the Kafala sponsorship system altogether.

“Tighter rules have been brought in to control unscrupulous recruitment agencies, safety standards have been improved and workers have been granted extended statutory breaks from the blazing afternoon sun through three months of summer.

“The UAE’s Wages Protection System phased in since 2009 obliges companies to pay workers through electronic bank payments which can be monitored by the authorities. The move has been widely praised, but it has not stopped late payment of wages being the biggest complaint in the migrant hostels. The building of better housing for some has not prevented hundreds of thousands living in squalid conditions.”

The Qatari authorities say there will be improvements to migrant housing. A new Labourers’ City has been announced to house 53,000 workers at a cost of three billion Qatari Riyals ($US800 million). The project is designed to have cinemas, sports fields, mosques and landscaped gardens.

“The Emir’s influential wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser is said to be taking a personal interest in proposals to build new-style housing complexes with a social department in each compound and on-site counsellors to provide psychological support and skills training, so they are better equipped for the job market when they return to their homeland,” the report says.

It can be downloaded free here: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/VS_QatarEN_final.pdf

Published by Wellness Tourism Worldwide, a newly formed alliance of wellness and tourism related businesses, organizations and institutions, the research also forecasts that private health insurance will play a more important role in providing policies that cover wellness travel.

Entitled “The 4WR: Wellness for Whom, Where and What? Wellness Travel 2020,” the report was prepared by Xellum Ltd. (Hungary) with the support from Global Spa and Wellness (USA) and the cooperation of Hungarian National Tourism Plc.

It was an attempt to better segment the various emerging products and services globally and break them down into areas of specialisation by geographical region. It also seeks to identify the biggest opportunities in wellness tourism over the next 10 years by drawing up input from 140 experts representing stakeholders from wellness, tourism, spa and healthcare industries in over 50 countries.

The bottom-line objective is to help developers, managers and policy makers build on or develop individual competitive advantages and avoid costly common mistakes.

It says that although wellness tourism is, and expected to remain, one of the fastest growing forms of international and domestic tourism, there is one major risk: the globalization of standardized and uniform products and services. Today, the report says that the most popular wellness tourism services are: beauty treatments (89% of the respondents named it as popular or very popular); sport & fitness services (89%), leisure and recreational spas (85%), and spa & wellness resorts (83%, respectively). Yoga and meditation (60%) are also very well established and popular.

However, the report found that each individual region also had key products and services that were considered important assets for tourism. For example:

• In Africa, the natural environment and traditional spirituality received relatively high importance.

• In Southeast Asia, spirituality achieved the highest importance and the highest absolute rating among all the regions, while medical treatments and services as well as alternative treatments were also important. In the Far East, spirituality and complementary and alternative methods were rated as important assets.

• In Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, the natural environment and traditional and alternative treatments are important assets, whereas medical services/treatments have the lowest ratings.

• In Europe, nature and the environment are important in every region, particularly in southern Europe. natural healing assets are significant in western and central eastern Europe. Both non-invasive medical treatments (e.g. rehabilitation) and surgical services are important in every sub-region (except southern Europe).

• In the Middle-East, natural healing as well as traditional services, seem to be important, as are medical services.

• In North America both invasive and non-invasive medical services are considered to be the most important assets. Alternative treatments and the natural environment also enjoyed high ratings, and spiritual treatments appeared to be more important than in Europe.

• In Central and South America, the natural environment, the traditional and complementary treatments were important, and medical assets got low ratings in both regions (those results highlight the significant differences in terms of the availability of medical services for tourism purposes and for local needs).

Says the report, “The currently most important assets are very different from region to region, which could serve as sound foundation for international wellness tourism, if they were utilized in a competitive fashion since international wellness travellers typically look for special qualities and local experiences.”

Comparing current data with future trends, the supply of wellness tourism services will change significantly in the coming 10 years. According to the report, traditional, lifestyle defining approaches (e.g. yoga) will become widely accepted in wellness tourism services in North America and Northern Europe.

Wellness hotels and resort spas are already are and forecasted to remain the most popular wellness tourism product in several important continents and regions by 2020 including Africa, South America, Central America, Australia and New Zealand.

Spirituality remains dominant in Asia. In central and eastern Europe, therapeutic services and treatments are mainly based on the availability of natural assets (e.g. thermal waters) and will stay/or become the most important.

Products that will be available globally and will lose their differentiating qualities by 2020 include beauty treatments, massage of any kind, sauna of any kind, day-spas, and some spiritual practices (e.g. yoga or meditation).

It says there is a clear interest in the market to see new services and products that can differ from standardized services. The wellness tourism industry needs to better inform the market about the available assets and products, since many new products are not known and concepts are not yet generally accepted.

A free copy of the full report can be downloaded via www.travel-impact-newswire.com

The numbers are growing in line with significant improvements being made in infrastructure as well as the quality of supporting travel and transportation arrangements. Roads, airports and railway services are being upgraded.

Dozens of hotels have emerged to cater to Asian travel markets and this can be seen even in the names of the hotels. One of them in Bodhgaya is appropriately named Thai International.

The circuit incorporates various holy sites in Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Rajgir,

Varanasi, Nalanda, Lumbini, Kushinagar and Sravasti, all associated with places where the Buddha was born, preached, attained enlightenment and died.

Following the footsteps of the Lord Buddha, the sites in the tour are attracting several hundred people a day. Most of them appear to be Sri Lankans who also come in the low-season summer months to take advantage of the lower hotel deals and air-fares.

In the winter, from October to March, the regular traffic starts, including Thais and visitors from industrialised countries, both regular visitors and new convert Buddhist devotees. Late last month, my group alone included people from Mexico, Mauritius, Italy, Hong Kong, the UK, Canada and India.

Separately, two other large all-Thai groups were also travelling on the Mahaparinirvan Express, a special rail-journey organised by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, a division within the massive Indian railway system that caters to foreign visitors.

The train involves leasing the rolling stock from the railway enterprise. The price of roughly US$150 to US$160 per person per night is affordable to a middle-class market, and prevents the circuit from becoming too elitist.

Leading one of the groups was Nisco Travel managing director, Narierut Pantong, which specialises in Buddhist tours. She says that everything is getting better by the year; the roads, quality of hotels, food and the tour arrangements.

“When I started these tours several years ago, the toilets on the train were always in a mess, and the hotel food was terrible. Now the Indian Railways people have evaluated the feedback and taken positive steps,” she says.

Nalanda, site of what is claimed to be the world’s oldest university, has been cleaned up extensively, with security guards posted to stop graffiti scrawling, one of the biggest problems facing the sites.

The Thais are coming in droves, to the extent where the young urchins in one village near a holy spot can even now count in Thai. The entire area is dotted with numerous Thai temples and monasteries, which are well-maintained, thanks to the huge funds coming in via donations as well as purchases of souvenirs, amulets and Buddha images.

At one stop just before crossing the Indian border over to Nepal, a temple-cum-monastery also functions as a rest and refreshment stop. It is manned entirely by Thai monks.

In Sravasti, Uttar Pradesh state, where the Lord Buddha spent 25 monsoon seasons, a huge Buddha image and an 110-metre high stupa now under construction comes under the aegis of the World Peacefulness Foundation, whose chairman and patron is Maha Upasika Sitthipol Bankot.

The entire area of several thousand square metres began with the planting of 9,999 banyan trees, creating a natural forest and a fresh-water reservoir. A huge meditation centre houses six large halls of approximately 3,000 capacities each.

The area boasts several more such temples and monasteries of various Buddhist denominations from Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Tibet. Some are supported by governments but many are self-funded via donations and private sector contributions.

But there is a considerable way to go. Some hardship is a necessary part of being on a pilgrimage. The Buddha sought to keep the focus on human suffering and there is plenty of that in India, both in the villages as well as all along the roads and pathways.

The signage and waste disposal facilities are still poor. Civic sense remains a challenge. Garbage is strewn in many places, with plastic bottles even floating in the ponds within some of the sites. Beggars and vendors are waiting outside the holy spots, ready to swarm over the pilgrims.

Carrying capacity will soon become an issue. The temple area at Bodhgaya, the site of Buddha’s enlightenment, can barely cope with the numbers and will soon come under more pressure as the hundreds of daily visitors soon become thousands.

Indeed, Bodhgaya is expected to see much improvement following a change of government in Bihar state, one of the country’s most impoverished thanks to the corrupt former administration.

Navigating this itinerary requires being under the care of a good tour management system so that the devotees can remain focused on their primary purpose for being there.

The Mahaparinirvan express itself is now undergoing ISO certification. Other states are also looking at starting up similar rail journeys. With us for part of the tour was the head of Punjab Tourism, which sees considerable potential for a rail trip through the Sikh holy spots, starting with Amritsar, home of the famous Golden Temple.

University professors, experts in water management, agree that the volume of flood water backed up on the edge of northern suburbs far exceeds the carrying capacity of the Chao Phraya River or  the city’s extensive canals system.

Flood water is being diverted east through suburbs, but sluice gates at Min Buri and Nong Chok are damaged and this has caused seepage back to the Sam Sen Canal that runs southwest towards the city’s Prakanong district to eventually connect with the river.

It suggests there will be back flow from water diverted east and the situation will be further aggravated by a maze of canals running north to south that also feed into Sam Sen canal from northern suburbs that are under water.

Even if the strategy to divert water east to Mini Buri and Nong Chok districts takes the pressure off northern suburbs within a week or two it will deposit a substantial volume of run-off water in Lat Krabang a district just north of the sprawling Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

It could cause flooding on the motorway between the city and the airport, Rama 9 Road  and on Motorway 7 east towards Pattaya. If water dumped in Lat Krabang backs up and cannot be pumped out to the sea fast enough residential and industrial districts near the airport could suffer extensive flooding.

Suvarnabhumi Airport is surrounded by a 3.5 metre high dyke and drainage canals covering 23 km that experts say are quite adequate to keep the airport dry.

The only unknown factor is sabotage. Residents in flooded communities are often so frustrated they will break down dykes and barriers to ensure their neighbours share the same fate.

So far the army and police have failed to prevent these acts of lawlessness.

Communities in northern suburbs punctured the barrier along Prapa Canal in 13 places last night allowing putrid, black flood water to pour into the canal that supplies raw water to the city’s tap water treatment plant. It took most of the morning to stop the leaks.

Over 10 million residents rely on the plant for their tap water including thousands of hotels that cater to tourists in the inner city. If water quality is compromised through reckless sabotage, public health will suffer.

There have been similar examples of sabotage across the city where villagers broke sluice gates to ease flooding in their areas causing other areas that were dry to flood.

Villagers sabotaged dykes at the southern end of Muang Ake, last week, a vast housing estate and home to Rangsit University,  considered a vital barrier to keep water out of Don Meuang district. The area is now under 2.5 metres of water. Subsequently floods overflowed into Don Mueang Airport cutting off Viphavadi Rangsit Highway and  are now threatening Lard Phrao.

If a similar scenarios play out in the southeast suburbs, the international gateway airport could be at risk requiring the army to step in to keep the airport functioning normally.

Authorities are not addressing these fears during TV discussions, but the maps they display show the direction that the floods will take. This suggests the eastern area, an extension of Rama 9, could be a risk within seven to 10 days.

During the TV chat shows, university professors also show the water is being diverted east through areas that are slightly higher than the central and northern districts. This slight difference in elevation slows the flow rate and in turns causes some back flow through connecting canals that link with low-lying downtown districts. If this continues  water diverted east and the flow from northern suburbs could merge to inundate downtown districts.

From the northern suburbs the flood water is flowing south along Phaholyothin and Viphavadi Rangsit roads, despite efforts to divert the water elsewhere. Over the next few days it will reach south of Lad Prao to areas around the head offices of Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways International.

A week later it could seep into Din Daeng and from there slowly progress to Phya Thai, Pathum Wan, Bang Rak, Sathorn and Yan Nawa districts.

If it was left unimpeded that would be the fastest route to the river and the sea.

The charts and discussions  indicate  that most canals were designed to deal with rain water and transverse the city suburbs east to west flowing to the river. There are a vast number of smaller canals lined up in a north-to-south direction that flow into these main drainage canals. Very few canals were actually designed to deal with flood water or divert water  to the east and west to avoid the city itself. When the canals were dug 0ver 100 years ago they were designed as transport channels linking district. They were not conceived as  floodways to the sea

Based on the city’s waterway limitations, it is unlikely that the authorities can guarantee the commercial districts will escape flooding of between 20 and 50 cm over the next 10 days.

Travel agents need to be aware that  the  floods travel slow almost at a snail’s pace and that can be deceiving. Flood water will ultimately bubble up through drains at the low-lying areas of the city through an archaic network of canals. The sheer volume will stop traffic and disable shops and roadside residences.

Hotels in Bangkok will suffer a drop in business just as hotels in Phuket suffered after the tsunami. This is a slow tsunami creeping up on residents, but delivering the same chaos and disruption. There are fewer fatalities, but the damage is still substantial and over time stressful to those affected.

It is true visitors can spend time in inner Bangkok and enjoy a surreal experience that suggests nothing is amiss. For thousands of residents who live in more than half of the city’s districts  they face very different and stressful decisions. They will need to evacuate from homes. They will not be able to commute to their offices even if they remain open and they don’t know how long it will take before they can go back and rebuild their lives.

Tourists will just need to worry about the hotel’s back-up electricity supply and whether they can board a bus or train to reach the airport in time.

Travel agents should recommend that guests stay in hotels that are equipped with back-up electricity and can provide full service. Boutique hotels and guest houses will close if the water enters their street-level lobbies, forcing them to turn off electricity.

There is no need to panic. The floods give you days of warning, but if the drains are percolating then that is a  sign that the water will rise over the next two days and possible disrupt traffic in your area.

Once the water reaches 50 cm on a city road, small cars and commuter vans are seriously hampered. Buses will run and the BTS will function normally.

Travel agents are correctly recommending that there is no immediate risk for visitors at inner city locations. If visitors booked with a travel agent, they will be notified if the situation deteriorates and evacuated to other destinations. They are very capable at dealing with these emergencies having had plenty of practice in the last three years.

Independent travellers do not have the travel agency  luxury to fall back on so they need to be cautious. Some of the advice going around is almost criminal and naïve. Organisations such as the Pacific Asia Travel Association issue self- serving statements based on its commercial and political interests. Sadly they are not trustworthy or based what is happening on the ground.

PATA talks about normality and localised flooding claiming the city is functioning without missing a heart beat.

See: www.thailandtourismupdate.com

What  travel agents need to know is that there are real risks, but they are manageable through their local travel partners who know what action to take to ensure holidays are not spoiled.

If you can choose to be somewhere else on holiday make your travel base in Pattaya just 90 km east of Suvarnabhumi Airport. From here you can connect with the overland routes that miss the flooded provinces. There are also flights to Samui and Phuket from Pattaya.

Hua Hin is a fine base as long as the highways to the west remain open.

Phuket , Krabi and Samui in the south are fine options, too. Phuket has airline services to Chiang Mai and Singapore. It has the potential to be a gateway for airlines to serve destinations in the North and Northeast. This capacity needs to be developed in earnest. Tourism in Thailand is too Bangkok-centric. There should be three or four viable international gateway airports around Thailand rather than a single overrated one in Bangkok.

If this is your first visit to Thailand and you must see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace then the good news is that despite some river overflow the iconic heritage sites are open.

If you are a repeat visitor, then take this flood as the cue to really explore Thailand.

TTR Weekly recommends a trip to North Thailand as this is the cool season and the best time of the year to go North. Bangkok is not Thailand. It is not the commercial heart of the nation even if the Prime Minister says so. The commercial heart was the thousands of factories in the provinces that are underwater not the paper pushers that sit in high-rise towers in Silom Road and take long lunch breaks to check out their golf supplies.

Bangkok will suffer floods like the rest of the central plains province and the blame lies with governments and politicians who have pocketed the budgets, built their mansions and failed in their responsibilities to manage this nation on behalf of the electorate. Not one of them is worth a vote.

If they had been doing their job properly Bangkok would now have its floodways and green belts taking the water safely to sea. They had 20 years to build them and failed to take up the challenge that was clearly outlined some 15 years ago by His Majesty the King. (See the YouTube video).

Now we are all paying the price for years of neglect at the hands of corrupt politicians who have taken us to the cleaners, or this time flushed us out of homes and business.

Speaking at a session on business and trade associations during the ITB Asia trade show here last week, the Indian Academy of Aesthetic & Cosmetic Dentistry secretary, Ajay Kakar, said his appeal for transparency on major internal operations issues such as finances had initially met with stiff resistance from the directors but is now “winning rave reviews.”

It is also attracting the attention of India’s 22 other medical associations who are seeing the advantages of moving away from a culture of minimum disclosure, cronyism and personal gain.

The 50-year-old Mumbai resident spoke on the topic of “Communicating the Value” of industry associations to their memberships. The issues he raised will sound all too familiar in other travel industry groupings facing similar challenges.

The UN World Tourism Organisation has enhanced transparency by posting the entire documentation of the recent General Assembly on the website. UNWTO secretary- general, Taleb Rifai made it a cornerstone of his election platform two years ago, and to a significant extent, he has delivered.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association nearly came undone over this issue and former CEO Greg Duffell worked to fix it. However, its new Strategic Focus document, based on the theme “Building the Business,” does not once mention the words, “transparency”, “accountability” or “trust”, indicating that the new CEO, Martin Craigs, will have his work cut out for him when he takes office next month.

Dr Kakar made it clear that transparency in managing the internal operations of an association was as important as delivering services to members.

He said that communicating value is not just delivering a standard message; it is about identifying what one perceives to be valuable.

“It is tailoring a specific, targeted message to a targeted audience member” in a personalised and customised manner, with real information on specific deliverables.

In a subsequent interview, he emphasised that he was speaking only about Indian medical associations, most of whom “are just totally non-transparent.” This was quite obvious during his 14-year membership of the IACD. “We were not getting membership retention or attracting new members. We were losing their trust.”

In 2007, after being elected as IACD secretary, he launched the push for more transparency, telling the directors that if the 10 of them could have access to the finances, “why shouldn’t the remaining 900?”

Insisting that the key issue was about earning membership trust, he said it took him four board meetings to overcome the opposition and convince the directors that this was good for them, the members and the association at large.

“It meant complete transparency. I took a lot of flak from the existing members. But now everybody wants it. Transparency was a big winner.”

Dr Kakar said in 2007, he submitted and won a bid to hold the 2009 International Academy of Periodontology convention in Agra, the first time it had convened in India.

“I knew that part of the reason why the convention had not been held in India earlier was a suspicion amongst the IAP selection committee members about what would happen to the money from registration fees, and so on.”

In terms of pure tourism product, he said, India was unmatched. “We have the best hotels in the world so that’s not an issue. If Indians want to bring more international association business to the country, they will have to convert the way they do business.

“I think it’s a good model even for government to work. If the politicians and government officials improve their transparency, it will solve the corruption problem in India.”

He said politicians are notorious for going off on “study trips”, usually with family in tow.

The approach is the same as treating a medical condition, Dr Kakar said. “When the medication is dispensed, the results will be seen later down. It’s not like presenting a gift at a wedding which creates happiness immediately.”

He said the key to retaining association membership was to be consistent, develop a relationship, keep things simple and make all communications personal.

For example, he said, some members said they were fed up with signing annual membership renewal cheques. “So we started longer-term memberships. That made things simpler, and members were happy to renew.”

On many sensitive issues, he said that letters announcing the changes were signed by the board and not by him personally to indicate that this was not a personal decision, but had the directors’ approval.

All these changes are spreading, he said, resorting to another medical term. “It could well become a pandemic.” The association will stay the course. His term will expire this year after which he will become president-elect.

Of course, we didn’t and I suspect that TV news editors,  if they had their way, would have us all lolling aimlessly on sofas back home glued to the box twenty-four seven rather than travelling and posting our snapshots on Facebook.

They do warn us every 15 minutes or so; “don’t go away we will be straight back with….”

But occasionally we see the TV media up close on location. They are now loitering around Klong (canal) Rangsit  bridge obviously waiting for the sand bag barrier to burst.

There is no other reason to be there, unless the cameras are covering the life and times of canal fishermen. It’s not a landmark bridge and the view is tacky, what with all rusty tin roof shacks anchored to a slither of land now covered in dirty brown water.

So the TV crews are there to watch us lose our sandbags. As the well-being of my household, three dogs and budgie depends on the barrier staying firm, I view the TV crews with a degree of malice.

Now, the shoe is on the other foot. We are in the gold fish bowl and someone is going to thrust a microphone under my nose and ask me if I am enjoying my Thailand holiday.

Standing on a canal bridge is not exactly text book stuff on how to cover a flood close up. TV crews usually prefer a puddle so the TV audience is left in no doubt that they witnessing a flood.

They got a ticking off from a government spokesperson after two days of puddle shots, but as the week progressed there was not much dry land north of Bangkok left to place a camera tripod anyway. Back to the puddle shots.

Despite the battery of cameras, the sand bags are holding and North Bangkok, just 2 km south, is reasonable dry, because like so many other provinces Pathum Thani is now soaking up the floods.

Muang Ake, my home turf, stretches 4 km along the banks of Rangsit canal that connects with the  Chao Phraya River to the west and extends a good 90 km east to Nakhon Nakyok with supporting canals feeding into the River Bang Pakong.

On the strategic Klong Rangsit bridge, an army colonel explains: “If we don’t keep the water at bay at Klong Rangsit it will flow through Don Mueang inundating the northern districts of the capital within a day.”

To the north vast areas of Pathum Thani and neighbouring Ayutthaya province are water logged. Over 1,000 factories have closed in this province alone. Possibly 300,000 workers will have to wait months to get back to work.

If you live in these flooded areas the only question you want answered is: “When will my house dry out enough for me to return home?”

No one has the answer to this vital, but simple question. We are dealing with nature – run off from the north, rain storms, high tides in the Gulf of Thailand and vast areas of land that need to shed water that has settled across the provinces adjacent to Bangkok.

Apart from dropping sandbags on the banks of canals we are pretty helpless. But it won’t be for the lack of trying.

Nightly for the last two weeks hundreds of Rangsit University students turn out to fill sandbags. There is almost a carnival spirit at the base camp inside Muang Ake housing estate. Another base at the foot of the bridge is where thousands of sandbags are despatched to build up the 4 km long barrier. Slowly the barrier rises in height to around 175 cm and 2 metres wide at its base. It gives us a 50 cm clearance from the water level.

There is a battle unfolding on to save homes and keep the water at bay. If they win, Bangkok sails through the crisis relatively safe and these volunteers will be justly proud of their efforts.

Just a couple of kilometres from that scene, I board a 29 bus and take the Bt18 trip to Mor Chit to connect with the BTS skytrain.

There is flood water near Future Park and on the side of the highway to Zeer Square and the Royal Air Force base. But once the bus passes the boundary marker between Pathum Thani province and Bangkok, the road is remarkably dry all the way to Mor Chit. From the vantage point of the bus window, I can see the height of the water in the roadside drainage channels; a good 50 centimetres below normal.

Watching the news can be very stressful. The camera is brutal. It  just stares at someone in their misery without a word of comfort.

They capture your neighbours crying. I can imagine what the villagers of Bang Pa-in are suffering without the TV crew thrusting a microphone under their noses.

I have friends in Bang Pa-in. They sell noodles and coffee at my favourite cycle stop on the rural road between Bang Pa-in and Ayutthaya. Another runs a small roadside shop on one of the suburb’s most picturesque lanes next to Prem Canal, 10 km north of Rangsit canal. They always give me a cheery wave calling out; “how are you doing Khun Don” as I cycle past. Their shop is under water, their livelihood washed away for the months to come.

Another friend along the road to Ayutthaya is a university professor of art who hangs some of his valuable paintings in his roadside coffee shop, a spot where hundreds of weekend cyclists gather on a typical weekend.

There’s the guy who repairs punctures at Bt10 a pop in Ayutthaya town and they are so good you can continue using the tube for another year. His shop is under water. I wonder if he will have the strength to reopen his business.

As international news zeros in on the crisis, there are telephone calls from Tokyo and London asking if we are safe. They have seen the chaotic scenes on TV screens and wonder if we still have our heads above water.

Travel agents worry, too, about sending their clients to a destination that could land them in costly litigation or compensation claims beyond what their insurance will covers.

They want a simple answer. Can their clients visit Thailand.

The army colonel on the bridge jokes: “Sure tourists are safe, but they should bring a boat.”

He points at the measure that sticks out of the canal bed. It reads 35 cm.

We are 15 cm below the red alert zone. It’s looking good today,” he adds, but he is not saying he has it licked, not just yet. Perhaps in a week will have that answer.

There is a mountain of sandbags waiting to be dropped into place to the raise the barrier yet again and there are plans to extend the barrier far to the east.

It’s reassuring. No one is taking chances this time and no one is making silly statements. There is a sense of urgency.

In my 43 years living here I have come to understand that when Thais are serious about a task, they get it done. Perhaps at the last minute, but they dig deep and harness resources in a manner that never ceases to amaze onlookers.

Perhaps that explains how more than 1,000 ships, an odd mix of fishing trawlers, naval gunboats and pleasure cruisers sailed to the mouth of rivers yesterday to start their “Push Water” effort.

Over 800 vessels are now moored in line at the estuary of the Chao Phraya River propellers working overtime at anchor thrusting a huge volume of water down stream towards the sea.

Another 100 boats are anchored at the Ta Chin River west of Bangkok and around 200 on the Bang Pakong River 60 km east of the capital all attempting to speed up the flow of water. Together they should increase the flow by around 15%.

So what’s the bottom line this week? It’s the same as last week. Thailand’s tourist destinations are open. It’s October so it rains. Bangkok may suffer the inconvenience of flooding, mostly near the river, but nothing that will stall this vibrant city’s tempo or cause a risk to visitors. There is not a single reason I can think of why a visitor should postpone  their trip.

Fulfilling one of the key pledges made by the Secretary-General Dr Taleb Rifai upon his election to the post two years ago, the UNWTO posted its entire set of meeting documents on line for full public view.

The public now has unrestricted access to full, unedited information on the world’s apex tourism body, including its detailed finances, membership status, projects, activities, staffing and much more.

Taleb Rifai

The documents show in clear detail the entire structure of the UNWTO, who sits on its various bodies and committees, its financial situation, and what is being done to make it more efficient and focused.

One of the most critical documents on the list is “A reform process for a more relevant UNWTO”, a detailed 32-page document that sets out how the organisation is reinventing itself to meet membership needs in the context of a rapidly changing global and industry scenario.

This warts-and-all white paper is a readymade blueprint for other international travel industry organisations facing a similar exercise. Making this publicly available alone will save them millions of dollars in consultancy fees as they go down a similar path.

Attended mostly by tourism ministers from around the world, the UN WTO general assembly is largely a housekeeping exercise, intended to approve finances and budgets, elect officers to and hear reports from the various boards and committees, comment on future plans, etc.

The secretary-general also reports on the progress made on implementing the plans approved at the last general assembly in Kazakhstan in 2009. From a legal and administrative standpoint, all this can be quite a cumbersome exercise, just like in any publicly-funded institution.

But making the documents public allows whoever is interested to better understand the process, get involved in it and get access to free reports, such as the UNWTO’s long-term forecast, Tourism Towards 2030. All the election processes and rules are also clearly demarcated and transparent.

One key document is a report on the UNWTO’s financial situation. This is usually a well-scrutinised document, especially as many government members are demanding value for money, more transparency and more return on investment as part of what has become an ongoing review of their membership in international associations and organisations.

Another key document reporting on payment of dues shows that 23 countries still owe the UNWTO 7.85 million Euro. Various plans have been formulated to get them to pay up within a fixed but phased out period of time.

Paradoxically, one cost-cutting exercise involves cutting back on staff travel.

Says the report: “Efforts are being made to reduce the number and the cost of trips by Secretariat staff to the strict minimum, and to abide by the established rules regarding travel in business class for trips of 9 hours or more.

“The Secretary-General, on his part, will no longer use first class travel and his special travel allowance has been reduced by 50%.

“However, in order to effectively implement this policy, it is also necessary for Member States to reduce their requirements regarding official visits by UNWTO staff to their countries, keeping such requests for when it is absolutely necessary.

“Increased use of video conferencing is being increasingly used to communicate with other UN agencies and this practice will also be encouraged in the communications with governments.”

Perhaps the most critical document is a White Paper on the reform of the UNWTO. This sets out a clear agenda of the issues to be tackled and a roadmap for implementation.

Says the paper, “There is a consensus that the UNWTO requires some fundamental changes in the way it operates, including the thematic areas in which it works, its structure, its management and also in the way it interacts with the member states, external entities and non-governmental stakeholders in the tourism sector.

Furthermore, there is a “generalised opinion that member states should recover the sense of ownership in the organisation, by means of greater participation in the definition of priority areas and fulfilling a more active role in all its organs and technical committees.”

The White Paper essentially says that because the UNWTO cannot do everything by itself, it can do a lot more by forging stronger partnerships with other organisations, especially within the UN system.

Making a clear reference to the need for “additional, innovative funding sources,” the White Paper also recognises that most of the activities must be targeted at the least developed countries in order to help them maximise the economic returns and job creation potential of tourism.

Another key document is for modernising the UNWTO website to make it an important tool for delivering membership services, keeping the public abreast with its various activities, interacting with users, providing promotional opportunities for the various national tourism organisations, discussion forums and sharing statistical data.

This year all the working documents were sent in electronic format and the delegations were left to print out whatever they wanted. There was no paper distribution by the secretariat itself.

They have a battle on their hands. TV channels worldwide present an image of a nation under water. Maps of Thailand are painted red suggesting the entire country is a disaster area. Predictably it triggers the panic button and scribes who pen travel advisories scribble away like there is no tomorrow.

The bulk of advisories are relatively mild with just three (Japan, Spain and the US) suggesting travellers postpone trips. Mild or not they are pressing a panic button that raises doubts about Thailand’s ability to host travellers safely.

Safety should never be in doubt as all of Thailand’s major tourist destinations are flood- free with the exception of  Lopburi and Ayutthaya that attract mainly day-trippers from Bangkok.

flooding in Autthaya

Actually, less than 5% of all international visitors to Ayutthaya bother to stay overnight. It is even less in Lopburi where the average length of stay is counted in hours from the early morning train’s arrival to the afternoon when the next train bound for Chiang Mai makes a short stop.

The popular Around Thailand overland tours have already been diverted to miss the flooded towns.

Of all the visitors to Thailand just 15% head north mostly on flights to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai two destinations that are enjoying bright blue cloudless skies and not a hint of floods.

The remaining 85%  head for beach resorts, or the bar land of Bangkok and believe me none of those spots are in danger of serious  flooding.

Someone hit the panic button on Bangkok earlier in the week. Can we blame the media? Or did government agencies take their crisis management instructions too seriously  advising residents to take specific  precautions linked to colour-coded text book recommendations?

Whatever, there was a dash to the super market to stock up on instant noodles and bottled water, while thousands of cars disappeared off the streets of the capital to be moth-balled for the weekend  in high-rise car parks across the city or any other place a few metres higher than street level.

But is Bangkok heading for ducking in dirty river water?  It is very unlikely that a single tourist will be inconvenienced even if the city floods. This is not a tsunami threat, although for  towns north of Bangkok  felt it was very close.

If the capital floods it will have a dreadful impact on the country’s tourism performance, but take a deep breath, Bangkok is going to be just fine. My bet is that tourism will scrape through to enjoy its best year since the yellow shirts closed airports in 2008.

We know we have a silly minister of tourism, but as much as I hate to say so, he is right this time; tourism is safe as long as Bangkok stays dry.

Actually, October is performing right on cue. It has always been a dreadful month to tour Thailand.  We like to call it the green season, but October always reminds us  this is a tropical grey, not green, monsoon season that will always go out with a blast.  This year we have a triple whammy — the usual  heavy rains and high seasonal tides have been  joined by massive run-off from northern dams that has caused the worst flooding in 50 years mostly in the central plains and lower north provinces.

I am trying not to panic. but every morning I look at the height of the water in the canal next to my house. I live in Muang Ake just 2 km north of the city boundary on the edge of Klong Rangsit, now a red alert zone. It looks more like a war zone, possibly because the Prime Minister said this was where the water had to stop. The army turned up the next morning with their heavy equipment, pumps and earth movers  to pack 500,000 sandbags  along a battle-line barrier stretching nearly 4 km along the south side of this important canal, a gateway to Bangkok. They are holding the water back and if it goes over the edge then my house is under 2.5 m of water along with Rangsit University and thousands of other households bordering Don Mueang district.

Occasionally we get daft advice. Residents were told to move  to higher ground. I couldn’t find any high terrain this side of Khao Yai National Park, 150 km to the east . So like everyone else I opted to drive my car to a high-rise parking lot in Bangkok. Those who panicked earlier got free parking at Don Mueang Airport. The rest of us had to make do with bridges, flyovers or grass patches in the centre of highways.

But we are still the lucky ones. The roads in Muang Ake are  dry and the army stands between us and the water sending a reassuring message to thousands of residents and university students who daily bag more sand to raise the barrier by metre, or so, to keep the creeping Chao Phraya water out and away from Bangkok.

A crisis brings out the best in Thais. They dig deep to tap their community spirit and get to work. People are friendly, chatting more than usual as they work around the clock to keep the water at bay. So should you visit Thailand now?

Bangkok

Sure, I have lived here 43 years and while I have never seen a flood on this scale before, I will bet my last baht that Bangkok will remain safe for tourists.

It is possible over the next week that some areas of the capital will be flooded, but not to the extent that central plains towns suffered.

TTR Weekly was asked by a reader on our website whether they should continue with their plans to visit Bangkok.

What’s the problem? You will stay in high-rise hotels, travel on the BTS sky train and the only flooding you are likely to encounter is a spill over on streets close to Chao Phraya River and major canals.

Of course, people are panicky, the situation is critical; homes and lives have been lost.  Thousands could be made homeless over the next week. But that does not change the fact that life goes on and tourists will enjoy the same hospitality at all destinations in the country.

As for tourism, October is a  damp, dreary, rainy month to visit Thailand at the best of times. Why we think it can be promoted is beyond me. It is one of those months when you get our your Thailand map and ponder over travel plans for the cool season November through to February. That’s a superb time to visit Thailand; absolute magic.

So while my travel plans to go north cycling from the capital to Chiang Ra are on hold for now. I have no doubt at all that I will out on my touring cycle exploring this wonderful country when the cool breezes blow in November.

It one of the finest months to travel in Thailand.  Blue skies, cool season weather  and travel opportunities across Thailand whatever takes your fancy. If you don’t have an umbrella and welligogs then wait a couple of more weeks for the cool season to kick-in around the time the country’s celebrates Loy Krathong. Then go for it. That’s  my game plan.