Local touches work for wellness

LONDON, 14 November 2011: Spiritual & Holistic Services are set to be the most important assets and demand components of the health and wellness sector in the Far East and South East Asia by 2020, according to a research report distributed at the World Travel Market 2011 here last week.

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.

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India’s religious tourism takes off

Bodhgaya/Lumbini, 9 November 2011 – Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims from Thailand and worldwide are flocking to the holy sites in North India and Nepal in what is becoming one of the travel industry’s biggest growth sectors; religious tourism.

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.

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Bangkok’s crisis not over by far

BANGKOK 3 November 2011 – Floods will continue to advance on inner Bangkok and water diverted to the eastern suburbs will reach areas in Lat Krabang just north of Suvarnabhumi Airport within seven to 10 days.

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.

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Transparency comes first

SINGAPORE, 25 October 2011 – The Secretary of an Indian dental association says that transparency is a critical factor in both earning membership trust as well as in winning bids for international conventions to visit a host country.

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.

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Soaking up the stress

BANGKOK, 17 October – It is all about snapshots, or quick takes in the world of TV media. The camera lens is about the size of those silly postcards we sent to relatives that always ended with the fib; “wish you were here”.

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.

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UNWTO demos transparency

BANGKOK, 17 October 2011 – The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) ended its 19th biennial General Assembly in Seoul last week by setting new standards of transparency and accountability for the entire travel industry and its myriad of membership-based associations.

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. Read more

Someone hit the panic button

BANGKOK, 13 October 2011 – Thailand’s Foreign Ministry has instructed embassies, worldwide, to concentrate on delivering accurate updates on the flood situation after 21 nations posted travel advisories earlier in the week.

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. Read more

Indonesia showcases travel wares

BANGKOK,  10 October 2011 – The Indonesian city of Lampung, gateway to the famous volcano of Krakatau, will be hosting this year’s Tourism Indonesia Mart & Expo (TIME), the country’s annual travel mart, between 11 to 14 October 2011.

TIME is the equivalent of the Thailand Travel Mart. Now in its 17th year, the event is organised by the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board (ITPB), a private-sector body, and supported by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, Provincial Government of Lampung and the national associations for hotels, tour operators and conventions.

The Jakarta-based company Titan Convex is the event organiser. Read more

London Heathrow loses hub appeal

BANGKOK, 3 October 2001 – London’s Heathrow airport is losing its European hub status to Frankfurt and Paris and it will need to boost connections with cities in Asia and numerous other “emerging market” countries if it hopes to narrow the gap, according to an economic research paper published on 30 September.

The report by Frontier Economics, entitled “Connecting for Growth”, claims that Britain “risks being cut off from global growth” and becoming “a less competitive place to do business”. It cites Manila, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Pune as examples of cities from where it is either underserved or not served at all as compared to Paris and Frankfurt.

The report says that a lack of direct flights to emerging markets may already be costing the UK £1.2bn a year as trade goes to better-connected competitors. This figure could rise to £1.6bn by 2021 – equivalent to one-third of the UK’s current balance of trade deficit. The net present value of this missed opportunity to the UK economy over the next 10 years totals £14bn at a conservative estimate. Read more

Bizarre rule burdens Palestinian tourism

BANGKOK, 26 September 2011 — The Palestinian bid for statehood has opened the way for the international travel and tourism industry to demand the right to visit Palestine without undergoing the humiliating and intrusive process of applying for a visa at an Israeli embassy.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine has forced millions of people all over the world, especially Christian pilgrims seeking to visit Bethlehem and Muslims seeking to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, to seek a visa from a country they may not want to visit in order to visit a country they most certainly want to visit.

By any standards of international relations, this should be unacceptable. Due to the wave of global support emerging for an independent Palestine, the people of all the countries backing the Palestinian bid are now well placed to demand that their governments take all necessary diplomatic steps to remove this bizarre requirement.

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