Pegasus names VP

BANGKOK, 9 September 2011 – Pegasus Solutions announced, Wednesday, the appointment of Rachel Grier as its new vice president of business development Asia Pacific.

Ms Grier will work on sales for Utell® Hotels & Resorts representation service, as well as building business for Pegasus’ RezView® NG central reservations system (CRS).

Prior to joining Pegasus, she held senior roles with Intercontinental Hotels Group, across Asia and the Middle East. Read more

JALPAK makes a comeback

BANGKOK, 1 August 2011 – Following the closure of the outbound travel agency, JALPAK Tour and Travel Thailand, last June, JALPAK’s management announced last Friday the company would make a comeback with a new  enterprise to be named TEM PAK.

The initial news was released last week through the Thai-language daily, Than Settakit.

TEM PAK (TEM- Travel Experience Maximizer) will be set up in a new office close to the Silom Road business district in downtown Bangkok. Read more

ASEAN works on tourism work standards

BANGKOK, 27 June 2011 – Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports is working on a standard tourism curriculum in the lead up to what is called ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangements on Tourism Professionals in order to prepare for the introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community 2015.

The standardised curriculum is an initiative to ensure the country’s tourism professionals can compete for jobs when the job market opens in 2015, according to ministry’s permanent secretary, Sombat Kuruphan.

The tourism curriculum is an agreement that accepts the qualifications of tourism professionals throughout ASEAN member countries and will ultimately allow them to work in any of the member countries almost with the freedom attained in the EU. Read more

Technology and the travel agent

SINGAPORE, 31 May 2011 — Technology continues to be the driving force in the travel industry determining how travel agencies do business and how travellers source and book travel, the latest Abacus International poll states.

Celebrating its 23rd year serving travel agencies in Asia, the company explores the journey of “technology’s impact on the Asian travel industry claiming it has constantly forced travel agencies to reinvent themselves to gain a competitive edge.

“Since air travel began, technology has provided the solid foundation on which travel agents build and develop their businesses. It is central to how they operate and communicate; and with today’s increasingly tech savvy travellers, it is the number one priority that helps them gain a competitive advantage.” stated Abacus International president and CEO Robert Bailey. “Globally, the travel industry is spending billions of dollars on technology, and Asia accounts for about a third of this.”

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Thai agents enjoy better business

BANGKOK, 8 April 2011- Association of Thai Travel Agents’ members handled 827,797 international tourists at Suvarnabhumi Airport during the first quarter of 2011 representing an increase of 11.07% over 745,270 visits during the same period last year.

ATTA released its latest data, earlier this week, which is based on fees member agencies pay the airport to provide a meet-and-greet service for international clients.

The top tourist market for ATTA agents was Russia providing 174,040 trips. It represented an 84.21% increase over 94,480 trips during the same period last year.

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Tour company forced to share

BANGKOK, 8 April 2011 – A tour operator agreed to share transfers for passengers disembarking from a cruise ship at Phuket after taxi drivers blockaded the port exit, last Wednesday.

Sea Tours, the company hired by the cruise ship Silver Spirit confirmed it had agreed to allow independent taxi drivers to provide transport for 50% of all the passengers who had bought  half-day sightseeing tours.

Trouble broke out last Wednesday morning, when furious taxi drivers blocked the port exit with their cars. They delayed the start of a half-day sightseeing tour that was pre-sold to cruise passengers.

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Travelport improves networking tool

Hong Kong, 17 March 2011 – Travelport launched an improved networking site, Wednesday, called Travelport, Opinions for travel agents resident in Asia.

The free online networking tool connects 7,600 travel industry members, worldwide, who have already signed up.

The tool will allow agents to create and search hotel reviews and post questions to destination experts around the world as well as access hotel related media including 110,000 images and 2,500 videos.

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Trips to Japan dry up

BANGKOK, 17 March 2011 – Thai travellers are cancelling trips causing unprecedented losses for local travel agents estimated at around Bt3.5 billion.

Travel Agents Association president, Charoen Wangananont, reported Wednesday leisure travel bookings had been cancelled outright, mainly due to fears of radiation leaks after a nuclear plant was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami.

Northeast Japan was hit by a massive earthquake and a tsunami, Friday, 11 March. Up until today, authorities estimate the disaster killed 5,178 residents, while 8,606 are still reported missing.

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Exotissimo rethinks BKK branches

BANGKOK, 10 March 2011 – Exotissimo Travel announced, Thursday it has closed its Bangkok branch office on Nanglinchi road in Chongnonsee sub district .

The closure will be effective on Friday 11 March, according to the company’s statement that said the company would open a new brand office at a different location in the city.

Nanglinchi branch’s business-on-hand and its team will move to the new branch office to be located on Sathorn road and due to open 1 July.

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Agents enjoy a better February

BANGKOK, 4 March 2011 -  Association of Thai Travel Agents’ members handled 288,211 international tourists at Suvarnabhumi Airport in February representing an increase of 6.85% from 269,742 visits during the same month last year, according to association data.

The top tourist supplier was China providing 59,417 trips. It represented a 15.25% increase from 51,554 trips over the same month last year.

The second top market was Russia with 54,507 trips, up 79.98% from 30,285 trips. It ranked in  third place during the same month last year. Korea was the third top market with 23,120 trips representing an increase of 26.20% from 18,320 trips.

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