Bangkok emergency decree hurts

Tourism associations have demanded that the state of emergency be withdrawn.

Atta president, Apichart Sankary, said: “We have seen a loss during low season because of the economic decline, Euro 2008, and the Olympic Games in China. Now the statement of emergency and the travel warnings will trigger a continued drop that could go into the high season, from October to March, if the situation lingers until the end of September. Tourists from Europe, Russia and Scandinavia will disappear.”

He said the government’s 2008 tourism target of Bt600,000 million and 15.48 million arrivals from the international market would be impossible to achieve.

The industry has estimated a loss of 20% to 30% a day in tourist numbers, which would mean a decline of Bt300 to Bt450 million a day off the average Bt1,500 million earned daily by the tourism industry.

Thailand Windsurfing Championship

Windsurfing Association of Thailand is organising the Thailand Windsurfing Championship 2008 Event 2 at Jomtien Beach Pattaya, 26 to 28 September.

About 50 windsurfers are expected to compete. They will vie for the highest scores in order to qualify for a bigger event of Thailand Windsurfing Championship 2008 to be held in November.

The event is co-organised by Windsurfing Association of Thailand and Pattaya City. For more information, tel: 02 396 2520

Fish nible treatment in a Thai Spa

What has become popular in Japan over last year has now found its way to Thailand:

Fish that nibble play a role in providing a treatment to clean up debris on hands and feet. The new treatment session are all part of the Fishmania experience introduced for the first time in Pattaya.

Fishmania, a new concept natural therapy spa, employs tiny fish with sharp teeth that nibble away at dead skin. The shop offering this gruesome treatment opened 11 August.

Fishmania managing director, Arphiradee Boonsom, said: “Our spa has a homely atmosphere, different from other spas. Guests require tranquility when they receive a treatment. Here, they can chat while having a fish therapy.”

She got the idea for a fish nibbling therapy when travelling to several countries where fish spas are popular such as in the US, Korea, Japan, and Singapore. Therefore, she decided to establish the first in Pattaya to see if it would prove popular.

At present, the target customers are mostly international visitors, mainly Russians, who are introduced to it by travel agents. Now as the grand opening takes place this month, more walk-in guests will come to use this service.

As for group therapy, the spa can accommodate 10 to 12 people at a time. Full time therapy takes 50 minutes, of which 20 minutes is for fish therapy and 30 minutes is for standard treatments.

Fish therapy originated from the fish called Garra Rufa or Doctor Fish in the river basins of Turkey. The idea is for the fish to nib the affected and dead skin areas in order to let the healthy skin grow. However, the fish works in this spa is called Siam Doctor Fish due to Thailand’s import policy and the export restriction enforced in Turkey.

“After I consulted with the Department of Fisheries, they suggested a near relative fish species to the Doctor Fish that can be found in the waterfalls in Thailand. We carefully researched this so it does not harm guests. Some fish becomes violent when it dwells in a limited space. Finally, we found Siam Doctor Fish which works like Garra Rufa and has a gentle disposition,” she explained.

Visitors can choose whether they want to receive a group therapy in the public pool with 1,000 fish or private therapy in a bath with around 200 to 300 fish. A 50 minute treatment package is available for walk-in guest at Bt1,200 (feet) and Bt900 (hands).

For more information and reservation, tel: 089 936 0272.

Prices climb as fuel crisis worsens

Air travel is definitely getting more expensive. Unfortunately, as long as Oil price keeps soaring to new records highs, there's not much we can do about it and hope that prices fall again in future. This has become a real serious issue and lots of travelers have to consider their travel plans for upcoming high season.

This month several international airlines’ offices in Bangkok have announced an increase in fuel surcharges:

• Singapore Airlines will adjust its fuel surcharge from US$75 to US$110 per sector for Bangkok-Tokyo; Singapore to Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo and Tokyo-Los Angeles starting 30 July.

• Philippines Airlines is raising its fuel surcharge en route Bangkok-Manila from US$65 to US$85, effective from 28 July.

• El Al Israel Airlines increased its surcharge US$50 per sector to US$227 for economy class and US$252 for business class, effective from 15 July.

• Austrian Airlines went up 6 euro to 106 euro per sector for long-haul flights while short-haul travel climbed 3 euro to 35 euro.

• From 10 July, China Eastern Airlines increased to CNY550 per sector for Southeast Asian and Southern Asian destinations and CNY1,100 per sector to Europe, America, Australia, Africa and Middle East.

• Air France/KLM charge 139 euro per sector for long-haul travel and 39 euro per sector for intra Europe flights from 10 July.

• Myanmar Airways International now charges Bangkok-Yangon at US$30 per sector.

• One Two Go Airlines climbed from Bt750 to Bt850 per sector, effective from 5 July.

Arrival numbers to Vietnam on rise

Tourist arrivals to Vietnam are rising and numbers of tourists visiting Vietnam continue to grow steadily......read more:

2.5mil. foreigners arrived in Vietnam in first half of 2008. An estimated of 450,000 foreign visitors came to Vietnam in June, an increase of 34 percent on year, raising the total figure for the first six months this year to 2.5 million, said the Governmental website portal.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the total tourism turnover in the first six months of this year reached an estimated 37 trillion VND, fulfilling 60.7 percent of the yearly target.

The foreign tourists mainly come from China, Switzerland, Finland, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Malaysia, Norway, Germany, and the UK. The most notable increase has been in the number of visitors from China which has risen sharply.

The number of tourist traveling by sea to Nha Trang, Danang, and Quang Ninh and by road from Thailand to Central provinces through Lao Bao and Cau Treo international border gates surged.

The recent campaign to promote Ha Long Bay across the world has shown signs of success with nearly 213,300 tourists, including 130,500 foreign tourists, visiting the area in June alone.

(Source: CPV)

Cambodia tourism moves into mainstream

Interesting piece of news from Phnom Penh Post. Cambodia's tourism is definitely on way up and way to go for many travelers ready to explore something different....

Tuk-tuks take tourists on a tour of the Angkor temples complex in Siem Reap province. More than half of all visitors to Cambodia visit Angkor during their stay.

Helicopters buzz over Sihanoukville and the nearby islands off the southern coast, carrying development prospectors hungry for a slice of the pie. Meanwhile, construction by private developers is underway to convert the abandoned French colonial Bokor hill station into a $1 billion luxury resort.

Less than a decade and a half ago, local headlines about tourists may have mentioned the three Western backpackers kidnapped and eventually executed by the Khmer Rouge.
“Ten years ago on the forefront of visitors’ minds was Khmer Rouge, civil war, landmines. Now it’s Angkor Wat and beaches,” says Gordon Sharpless, who runs the Tales of Asia travel website and owns a guesthouse in Siem Reap.

“Back then, even in Phnom Penh you always had to ask a guesthouse if their electricity and water were working,” he says.
Travel writers and guesthouse owners acknowledge that some thrill-seekers still visit Cambodia in search of a wild-west atmosphere, but they say that breed is fading as mainstream tourists flood in.

A record more than two million tourists arrived in Cambodia in 2007, up 20 percent from 2006. Meanwhile industry earnings grew more than a third to $1.4 billion and are expected to hit $2.2 billion by 2010.

The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) estimates annual international visitor arrivals will reach 2.4 million in 2008. After that, the projections are for 2.9 million in 2009 and 3.35 million in 2010.

In the past six years the volume of Cambodians traveling domestically has more than tripled.

The total number of international visitors was only one million in 2004 – a figure the MoT expects to be nearly doubled by tourism to Siem Reap alone by 2010.

Hotel and guesthouse numbers in Cambodia more than tripled in the past ten years, contributing to the sector’s employment numbers – 280,000 last year and expected to rise almost 100,000 more by the decade’s end.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/20080307190/-Special-Supplements/Tourism-moves-into-mainstream.html

"Her Own Way: Thailand - The Woman's Paradise"

Thailand a woman's paradise? - who would have thought, but read on as Tourism Authority of Thailand is targeting in a new online marketing campaign women travelers.

Her Own Way: Thailand — The Woman's Paradise captures all the specific women's products and requirements in Thailand, including golf, shopping, spa and beauty, accommodation with special facilities for women, and more. These travel products are brought together with the best exclusive deals customized only for the project. The exclusive deals are ensured to be the least expensive in comparison to any other promotions in the country. According to TAT, the targets are women travelers from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East.

In addition, the mini site contains insightful information for women on selecting accommodation, where to shop, personal safety, and many other issues pertinent to helping female travelers to enjoy safe and cost effective stays in Thailand. Apart from that, there is an E-Game for female users with an exciting prize worth US$1,000.

Beyond the above, several e-marketing activities are carried out to emphasize and promote the campaign. The activities include banner advertisement and e-mail sponsorship with female community websites. An even more splendid activity is the database partnership with Thai Airways to launch exclusive deals through the airlines' Royal Orchid Plus female members' database.

TAT will be targeting one million impressions through the Her Own Way focused group marketing campaign, with the aim of attracting more women travelers to the Kingdom as well as designating Thailand as a top-of-mind destination for women travelers.

The micro-site specializes in specific grouped female products with the intention of influencing more women travelers to choose Thailand as their holiday destination.

http://HerOwnWay.TourismThailand.org

Vietnam tourism is booming!

Came across this piece of news below which is once again confirming that people are visiting Vietnam further, even tough inflation rate is now at staggering 25%. It will be interesting to see if this trend will continue also next year once hotels have increased their room rates by this margin, which will make Vietnam compared to their neighbouring countries a pretty expensive place to visit.

Tourists to Vietnam, international arrivals in Vietnam rose 16.6 percent to 2.1 million in the first five months of the year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said.

Chinese visitors continue to take the lead with 352,000 arrivals, rising by 54 percent, followed by 114,000 Filipinos, up by 42 percent. Thailand ranks third with 87,600 visitors, up by 32 percent. Swiss, Finnish and Hong Kong tourists came in small groups but were big spenders during their travels throughout the country, the GSO reported. GSO said world-heritage site Halong Bay remains the most popular destination for international tourists and cited visits by cruises bringing more than 4,000 foreign holidaymakers on April 29 alone. Currently hotels in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and central Nha Trang city have 80 percent of their rooms occupied.

(Source: VNA, URL: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/travel/2008/05/785754/)

Cambodia to boost tourism with direct flights

Here are some good news for travelers going to Cambodia:

Cambodia will seek to increase direct flights from China and the EU nations in its efforts to boost its booming tourism industry, which is a mainstay of Cambodia’s economy.

The country announced a 17 percent increase in tourist arrivals to about 400,000 during the first two months of this year. The EU, one of Cambodia’s target markets, is under tapped due to a lack of direct flights. Currently there are direct charter flights from Finland and Italy. However Cambodia would like to see growth from these markets to reach 60 percent of its tourist arrivals by air and to do that the Kingdom has to put itself on the map.