His departure is part of a restructuring of Thailand’s oldest privately-owned travel company that began in 2010 and has resulted in what the CEO, John Watson, describes as “right sizing,” company-wide.

In the events division it began with some redundancies leading up to Mr Barrett’s negotiated departure. Some of the group’s satellite offices in Thailand were closed or outsourced.

Barrett David

Mr Barrett in a breezy single-page statement refers to a departure package that “enabled me to leave on good terms and on a high note.”

“I swanned out of the Diethelm offices 25 January,” he writes, noting the events business was severely impacted in recent years by political turmoil and a global financial crisis.

“Programmes were shelved, or budgets trimmed and with competition hot our heels we were unable to sustain the business model in the former format given the economic realities,” he explains.

However he notes in his farewell statement that while there was radical surgery to Diethelm Events, the company’s events business in Malaysia was unaffected and continues to do very good business.

On life with Diethelm Travel, Mr Barrett says: “I consider myself blessed; it was an awesome ride and thanks to Diethelm for giving me the opportunity to launch its events division.”

Mr Barrett leaves with a handsome severance package, too, that will give him time to check out job offers at his leisure.

On life beyond Diethelm Travel he hints of a career shift possibly to an international hotel chain to head up its events related marketing.

He intends to capitalise on a trend that sees hotel groups strengthening events marketing in-house to enable them to go direct to the market rather than working through traditional DMCs.

Mr Barrett believes he has something to offer a hotel group ready to embark on a direct business plan after two decades working for DMCs.

“I have a desire to jump fence and move from DMC to hotel,” he explains. “But I am taking my time to explore options.”

He will handle some event-related projects by the end of March on a private basis.

This round of Smart Saver fares remains valid until 31 March for booking and travel ex-Bangkok.

Based on the lowest regular online fares, discounts on business class fares are between 7% and 33%. They are available for 14 Asian destinations as well as Los Angeles.

The biggest discount is to Los Angeles service at 33%, resulting in a business fare of Bt115,345 followed by Shanghai and Beijing; 28% to give passengers a  Bt33,230 fare to both cities.

Business fares to Tokyo, Japan are discounted by 7%  to Bt55,870. To its home base, Hong Kong, Cathay cuts the fare 26% to Bt20,765.

Other business fares to key destinations are: Bt16,350 to Singapore; Bt37,755 to Seoul and Bt25,270 to Mumbai.

In economy class, five cities in North America are also eligible – San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Vancouver and Toronto.

Discounts range from 8% up to 33%.

Seoul gets the deepest discount, 33% down to Bt17,085 while Mumbai, only -8% to Bt11,870.

Hong Kong economy fare is also cut by 26% to Bt9,530.

Economy fares to other key destinations are: Bt8,410 to Singapore; Bt18,915 to Tokyo; Bt14,600 to Shanghai; Bt12,845 to Delhi; Bt39,445 to Los Angeles; Bt41,605 to new York and Bt41,115 to Vancouver.

All fares include taxes and surcharges and are subject to change due to currency fluctuation and offered on limited seats.

Identified as MICE 101 it will help prepare students for the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community 2015.

TCEB president, Akapol Sorasuchart, said MICE 101 will introduce students to corporate meetings, incentive activities, international conventions and international exhibitions and trade show management.

Akapol Sorasuchart

“Education is a critical to meet the competitive challenges of a liberalised market in 2015,” he said at the launch of the project earlier this week.

The course breaks down into three areas: Overview of Thailand’s MICE industry; event management; and a wrap up of side issues impacting on the industry.”

The curriculum also covers industry ethnics and governance.

The curriculum will be piloted at four universities for the new academic year 2012. They are: Mahidol University International College; Prince of Songkhla University; Ban Somdej Chaopraya Rajabhat University and Siam University.

It will form part of the first and second year foundation course for undergraduates.

Education plays a pivotal role in TCEB projects this year.

They include:

• A MICE Working Committee to build skills in Thailand’s MICE sector;

• Develop a research report on the implications of AEC on the MICE sector;

• Organise workshops in cooperation with event players in Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hat Yai, Khon Kaen, Phitsanulok and Ubon Ratchathani;

• Focus on professional training.

Located in Ludhiana, Punjab region, the hotel is the group’s first property featuring 127 rooms. It is due to open in the second half of 2012.

“This project will mark the entry of the Amari brand into India and it is a very significant milestone for us,” noted ONYX Hospitality Group president and chief executive officer, Peter Henley.

“Ludhiana is a thriving city and we look forward to working with Apna Punjab Resorts Ltd,” he added.

Apna Punjab Resorts owner, Agyapaul Singh, commented: “As a brand new development and the first upscale all-suite hotel in the Punjab, Amari Ludhiana aims to be a leading venue for grand occassions,” Mr Singh added.

Located on Canal Road, a major bypass road in the city and in terms of area, Amari Ludhiana will be the largest hotel in the Punjab.

The property will also offer significant banquet facilities and be able to accommodate events for up to 2,000 people as well as parking for 250 cars inside the complex, It will also have a spa, gymnasium and retail spaces.

He claimed hotels that failed to register and comply with the nation’s hospitality laws were a potential hazards and also deterred genuine investment in the industry.

He was speaking at a joint THA and Association of Thai Travel Agents meeting on Monday.

Mr Surapong noted that in Bangkok alone there were over 300 hotels in Bangkok selling rooms openly through booking sites. They failed to comply with the law that requires them to register with the Department of Provincial Administration under the Ministry of Interior.

“The association has conducted an investigation on Bangkok hotels and we discovered 532 hotels, representing 84,534 rooms, were active on the internet,” said Mr Surapong. “We checked this with the registrar at the Department of Provincial Administration and 353 hotels with 34,803 rooms had failed to register,” he added.

He claimed registration had a direct impact on quality of services, security, fire hazard checks and other requirements related to safety.

Thailand attracted 19 million tourist arrivals, up 19.84% from 15.5 million in 2010.

The THA report pointed out that the increase in tourist arrivals did not correspond with the percentage increase in overall hotel occupancy in Thailand last year, which increased by 12.45 points (from 52.65% to 59.21%).

An STR Global survey showed hotel yields in the country improved marginally with Phuket outperforming other destinations. However improvements were estimated to be less than 3%.

“The increase in tourist arrivals did not deliver improvements for hotels,” said Mr Surapong. “We have to assume more travellers are staying in unregistered hotels.”

He claimed tourist safety was at risk as the law had no control over these properties.

If there are health related accidents or a failure in hygiene it hurts the reputation of all hotels in Thailand, but in most cases the culprits are not even registered,” he added.

He pointed that apartments that open for daily rentals made the competition unfair.

“They do not pay the hotel tax Bt80 per room per year and they adopt a non-hotel system for calculating other taxes based on monthly revenue rather than daily.”

Thailand’s room supply exceeds market demand across the country confirmed by a national average for occupancy below 70%.

“Competition in Bangkok pushes down the average room rate to US$97, the second lowest in the Asia/ Pacific region,” he explained.

According to the data provided by the Department of Provincial Administration under the Ministry of Interior, Thailand has 6,057 hotels and 285,923 rooms registered. Bangkok has 329 hotels, Chonburi 334 hotels and Surat Thani 492 hotels. No data was provided on key destinations like Phuket, Krabi and Mae Hong Son.

Currently THA has 709 hotel member hotels with 126,283 rooms.

Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Tourism Promotion Division deputy head, Nguyen Bao Anh, said promotions will focus on South Korea, the United Kingdom, India and Ukraine.

“Tourist arrivals from those four countries remained small, last year, but the growth rate was promising.”

Air links between Ho Chi Minh City and these markets have opened and that has prompted interest in promotions.

“The UK market is expanding since the national airline started a London flight last December,” he said.

Mr Anh added: “A similar route from Ukrainian has now started and services to India will be launched this July, also on Vietnam Airlines in partnership with Jet Airways.”

Trips for journalists and travel agency staff from the four markets will kick off the effort.

In the South Korean market, foreign tour operators will be invited to try river tours from the city and check out investment opportunities particularly joint ventures.

Last year, there were 3.5 million international tourist arrivals increasing 12.9% against 2010.

The city’s revenue from tourism was estimated at VND49 trillion (US$2.33 billion) improving 19.5% year-on-year. Of that revenue, VND29 trillion came from restaurants and hotels, while VND12 trillion derived from travelling services.

The top 10 markets for HCMC were: the United States; Japan; Taiwan; South Korea; Australia; China; Malaysia; Singapore; France and Canada.

Saudi Arabia

Mr Gokongwei cited Saudi Arabia as an example, where only 165,000 passengers flew direct nonstop flights from Manila (Civil Aeronautics Board 2010 data), compared to 293,000 Filipinos travelling to Saudi Arabia in the same year. This means that nearly half of Filipinos who flew to Saudi Arabia in 2010 had to take multiple flights to get to their destination. With Cebu’s lon- haul operations, the budget airline will provide more affordable, direct flight options to Filipinos overseas, a population estimated to be 11 million worldwide. Since its inception in 1996, Cebu Pacific has offered short-haul flights for Filipinos working and residing overseas. Passenger traffic to and from Hong Kong, where the Filipino population is high, grew by 88% since CEB started operating flights from Manila in 2001. With the current fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft, the airline cannot operate long-haul flights. The carrier needs a new fleet,  possibly A330s that can fly 11- hour routes. The carrier plans to lease up to eight the aircraft.

In response to constant travel industry criticism that its data lacked credibility, TTR Weekly forwarded questions to a Department of Tourism official who asked not to be identified.

Officially, the department declined to be drawn into a debate on data collection.

The department official confirmed that all of its data is derived from Immigration Bureau statistics collected at over 30 border checkpoints across the country.

The ministry does not collect independent data.

Data collected from the immigration bureau at Suvarnabhumi Airport represents 60% to 70% of all arrivals.

Addressing specific complaints on reliability of data, the official said the process was no different than was employed by all member countriess of the UNWTO.

“We follow the UNWTO procedures and condition based on the criteria that the foreign tourist passing through a border checkpoint is not coming to work in Thailand or is categorised as a resident.”

The source confirmed that the data does not include UN officials, ambassadors, and airline cabin attendants and flight crews.

The Department of Tourism has hired Excellent Business Management Company Limited to process the raw data from the Immigration Bureau. It collates the percentages, market and nationality breakdown.

In an on-going programme, teams hired by the department interview a sampling of 2% of each nationality identified in the tourist arrival data. Interviews are conducted at the Airport of Thailand’s six airports including Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Phuket, and Mae Fah Luang-Chiang Rai. Interviews are done at tourist attractions to collect behaviour, length of stay, and spending per head information.

From these interviews , the department arrives at estimate on revenue for tourism in Thailand.

The interview method is also used to estimate Thai outbound trends at those airports and border check points to collect its tourism movement information.

On the domestic front Thai tourists are interviewed at tourist attractions in 77 provinces based on the criteria that the person interviewed comes from another province.

In an on the record interview, the Department of Tourism director general, Supol Sripan, said Bt30 million will be spent ( overall budget Bt2,624 million) to tighten up and build depth into statistical collection.

“The project focuses on collecting tourist expenditure, number of tourist at accommodation facilities and building data on average room prices,”

Mr Supol added: “This data should benefit tour operators to build a tourism marketing plan or promotions.”

It will take three years to get to that point.

In 2008, the Department of Tourism took over the tourist data from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

However, criticism of the department’s figures has been constant. On this website, readers have blogged data stories challenging the accuracy of national statistics on tourism. The Ministry of Tourism has so far declined comment.

TAT assumed sole ownership of the debt-ridden operator Thailand Privilege Card company, last year, under a directive from the previous government, but it needs the current government to sign off on the decision to close the company.

Thailand Privilege Card was established to manage the Thailand Elite Card, which was supposed to be an exclusive lifetime benefit card, priced at Bt1 million, for multi-millionaires visiting Thailand.

TAT governor, Surapol Svetasreni, confirmed once the Thai government grants approval it will take 90 days to start the closure process.

“TAT will present a plan to the Cabinet this March and start staff  lay-off within 90 days after approval. Only 10 staff are involved in TPC.”

But it might not be that easy. The TAT governor hinted that if cardholders sued the company closure may be delayed to September 2014. If not it will close no later than April 2013.

TAT estimates the closure will cost Bt190 million excluding compensation to cardholders, which could exceed Bt2.5 billion when other business-related damages are accessed.

The estimates will interest lawyers representing any disgruntled card members as it gives a benchmark on what they can expect in an out-of-court settlement.

TPC assets will be sold to pay off debts.

The company has a registered capital of Bt500 million, but has just Bt53 million in cash and monthly expenses averaging Bt7 million, down from Bt10 million in 2008.

Thailand Elite Card project was launched by the former Thaksin Shinawatra government in 2003. It was dismal failures from the word go and the only tangible benefits were a fast-track to a five-year visa and the right to buy land, which was later rescinded.

Discounts at resorts, spa and golf course and other perks have little value as better deals were available in the commercial market.

The government at the time claimed there were 2,566 members, mainly Koreans, Japanese, and Taiwanese who were attracted by the land purchase facility included membership.

Even today the Thailand Elite Card the main  company product has a spacious meet-and-greet service office at Suvarnabhumi Airport in a prime location close to the Tourist Police. Around five staff dressed in traditional Thai costume stay at the office, although there appears to be no apparent reason for their presence.

Thai Travel Agents Association reports the four-day show will have 1,110 registered booths mainly promoting travel deals and holidays to the consumer market.

They represent hotels, tour operators, national tourism office, airlines, car rentals and tourist attractions.

“It will be a good indicator of the Thai economy after last year’s flood crisis,” said TTAA president Charoen Wangananon. “We expect the show will attract around 800,000 visitors  and generate an estimated Bt1.3 billion.”

Japan continues for the second year as the signature destination with 40 booths booked under the Japan National Tourism Organisation.

“But this year we will add a second highlighted destination, India which has 10 booths with a theme of following the trail of the Buddha,” the TTAA president explained.

The proportion of this year show will be 55%  for domestic tourism and 45%  outbound tourism.

When asked what was new at the fair this year, Mr Charoen identified the national tourist office from Uzbekistan and Disneyland Hong Kong which is introducing Toy Story Land to the market.

Sponsors to the show remain the same; Krungthai Card PLC, Association of Domestic Travel, Thai Amadeus and ThaiVivat Insurance PCL.

KTC says card spending during the fair could reach Bt300 million. It is also more optimistic on attendance estimating 1 million visitors.

Last February the show generated revenue of Bt1.2 billion.

Last year, TTAA confirmed it would host TITF twice annually; the first show in the traditional timeslot of February and a new edition in August (dates to be confirmed).

TTAA has over 1,000 members mostly related to Thailand’s outbound travel sector that generates about 5 million overseas trips a year.