BANGKOK, 12 April 2021: Songkran Festival a national holiday in Thailand, but being a Buddhist New Year festival, it is also celebrated albeit under different names across mainland Southeast Asia.
In Laos, it is known...
SINGAPORE, 26 March 2021: The Covid-19 pandemic is stretching into its second year with no signs of letting up any time soon, but travel and hospitality companies across Southeast Asia are demanding borders reopen quickly to give...
BANGKOK, 23 March 2021: The annual Thailand Tourism Forum still managed to live up to its billing as the country’s New Year curtain-raiser even if it convened on Monday three months late.
Now in...
YANGON, 4 March 2021: A hotelier responds to our recent op-ed, adding insights on the need for due diligence to ensure international travel and hospitality companies partner with people in Myanmar who want to make their country...
CHIANG RAI, 1 March 2021: We shouldn't get a bad taste from drinking beer, but it's a likely outcome after discovering Myanmar's famous beer brands top-up the ill-gotten coffers of a military junta.
I...
CHIANG RAI, 3 February 2021: Thailand's Minister of Tourism is lobbying hard to allow vaccinated tourists to visit the country without a 14-day quarantine.
He talks about getting the measure approved by April or...
BANGKOK, 21 January 2021: The media rush to get a story
first is strewn with potholes in Thailand as illustrated by the latest gaffe by
a high ranking immigration officer.
A highly respected news channel, Khao...
BANGKOK, 20 January 2020: Thailand’s National Tourism Policy Board says a proposal to tax tourists THB300 when they enter the country will be used to rebuild tourism confidence.
Travel companies disagree. They believe the...
SINGAPORE, 15 January 2021: I get messages all the time from folk who can see tomorrow and far beyond. Another one dropped into my email box this morning. Between the lines, you sense the urgency of a...
SINGAPORE, 13 January 2021: We are coming to terms with
travel discomfort as we pass the first annual milestone of the Covid-19 blight.
My daughter calls to tell me she is boarding one of Singapore's...