The revolution in information technology has transformed the travel and tourism industry, and is now well placed to push forward into a new domain – making travel products and services more user-friendly for the world’s estimated 650 million people with disabilities.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) last week released a toolkit designed to help do just that. The toolkit will provide information and communication technology (ICT) developers in the travel and tourism industry with a great resource to join this global effort.

In addition to opening up a new travel customer base, it will also enable the industry to increase the number of people with disabilities it employs.

The Toolkit was released at the Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility for People with Disabilities, organised by the ITU along with local, global and private-sector partners. Hosted and supported by ICT ministry, the forum drew 140 participants including people with different type of disabilities from more than 20 countries.

Travel by people with disabilities is expected to be one of the fastest-growing industry segments in the years to come. For those wishing to get a head-start, the forum provided a wealth of information. All the presentations have been posted along with the toolkit at E-AccessibilityToolkit.org.

As the toolkit is new, many key elements are still blank. However, the best starting point is the case study link with its numerous examples of individuals and companies that have done a lot of work and are willing to share their experiences and technologies.

“In the knowledge-driven information age and society, it is a high time to design and implement ICT inclusive policy to provide digital opportunities to people with disabilities,” said Dr Eun-Ju Kim, head of the ITU Regional Office in Bangkok.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 10% of the world’s population or 650 million peoples have some type of disability. Many encounter barriers using ICT products and services.

“The number is increasing every year due to various factors such as war, destruction, unhealthy living conditions, or the absence of knowledge about disability, its causes, prevention and treatment, in addition to the ageing societies especially in the developed economies like Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea and so on,” said Dr Kim.

Many existing websites and mobile phones were not designed with principles of accessibility in the beginning, he said. “The most obvious example is web accessibility. It … costs dramatically less to implement web accessibility at the design stage than to retrofit it later.”

He stressed that ICT accessibility and affordability for the disabled can yield major socio-economic benefits. ICT allows people born with disabilities to gain employment, which in return offers empowerment in the information society. It also helps those who become disabled during their lives to continue to work while contributing to society.

ICT is also useful for older people, who lose dexterity or use of senses, Dr Kim added. “Thus, ICT will continue to support the socio-economic needs of a growing number of persons [with] different forms of disabilities in the years to come, which can be a potential future market for the industry to prepare.”

Prof Prasit Prapinmongkolkarn, a commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission, told the meeting that the NTC in collaboration with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Nectec) had recently concluded a study on measures for providing telecommunication services for people with disabilities and the elderly in Thailand.

The study shows that although different disabilities have different needs, some common requirements are found in such areas as: design and standards, availability, accessibility, affordability, quality, emergency services, accessibility, and special services such as relay service, messaging, and closed captioning.

The NTC and Nectec are now developing a plan for telecom relay services that will benefit 200,000 people with hearing and speech impairments. The plan is expected to be completed before the end of this year.

ICT access fortravel and tourism industry

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Source: Bangkok Post

THAI plans non-stop flights to BrisbaneThai Airways International will inaugurate non-stop flights between Bangkok and Brisbane on Oct 25 to substitute the existing services that go southward to Sydney first before stopping at Brisbane.

The change is meant to cash in on the growing traffic between the Thai capital and Queensland’s capital and is part of the flag carrier’s bid to enhance its Australian profile in its next traffic programme.

THAI will offer five turnaround non-stop flights from Bangkok to Brisbane using Boeing B777-200 aircraft with 309 seats, according to THAI executives.

The airline will continue to operate triple daily non-stop services between Sydney and Bangkok through the winter schedule that ends on March 27 next year, using a combined fleet of Airbus A340-600s with 267 seats and B777-200s.

Likewise, THAI will keep its twice-daily flights between Bangkok and Melbourne using B777-300s, capable of carrying 364 and 388 passengers depending on the seat configurations of an aircraft.

THAI’s Bangkok-Perth service will continue at five flights a week, using Airbus A330-300s with 305 seats.

There will be no change in its Bangkok-Auckland service with the continuation of five non-stop flights a week being operated by B777-200.

Aside from the amendment for its Brisbane service, the national carrier is taking a conservative approach in planning the capacity for Australian/New Zealand networks rather than boosting capacity as it would normally do in the winter period when air travel demand is stronger.

THAI does not expect a marked increase in demand any time soon given the impact of the recession and lingering concern about H1N1 influenza.

THAI plans direct flights to Brisbane

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Source: The Nation

The economy is well on the road to recovery, with key industries expanding in the second quarter and confidence returning to manufacturing, the state planning agency said yesterday.

“The economy has rebounded from a sharp drop in the first quarter of the year [when it shrivelled 7.1 per cent on year],” said Ampon Kittiampon, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).

Construction and financial services were among the best performers, he said.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter improved 2.3 per cent from the first quarter, but was still 4.9 per cent behind the same quarter last year.

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) reported a rise in confidence in manufacturing, from 83.5 points in June to 89 in July in the monthly survey released yesterday.

The brighter outlook was attributed to the comeback in the global economy.

However, Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the US financial crisis, said the chances of a double-dip recession are increasing because of risks related to ending global monetary and fiscal stimulus.

The global economy will bottom out in the second half, Roubini wrote in a Financial Times commentary, but the recession in the US, the UK and some European countries will not be “formally over” before the end of the year.

The recovery has also started in nations such as China, France, Germany, Australia and Japan, he said.

“There are risks associated with exit strategies from the massive monetary and fiscal easing,” Roubini wrote. “Policy-makers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

So far, governments around the world have pledged US$2 trillion (Bt69 trillion) in stimulus measures amid the worst worldwide recession since the Great Depression.

There could be a combined risk of recession and deflation if governments raise taxes, cut spending and mop up excess liquidity in their systems to reduce fiscal deficits, Roubini added.

The NESDB said the pace of recovery here would be gradual as it predicts a full-year GDP contraction of 3-3.5 per cent, slightly worse than its previous estimate of a shrinkage of 2.5-3.5 per cent.

“I believe the economy would not slide more than 3.5 per cent, better than the predictions of some analysts who have forecast a 4-per-cent contraction,” Ampon said.

The economy is expected to grow in the fourth quarter after a smaller backslide in the third quarter, he said.

Green shoots are showing up in construction and financial intermediation, which expanded 2.5 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively year on year.

Public investment contributed to the resurgence in construction after it dipped 7.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter.

A rise in life insurance and a moderate gain in bank service charges fuelled accelerating growth in financial intermediation from 4 per cent between January and March.

FTI chairman Santi Vilassakdanont said export-oriented manufacturers have had their optimism restored after orders poured in for such key products as electronics, automobiles, textiles and garments.

“Our confidence had dropped sharply and stayed below 100 points since the 2006 coup. With the positive factors, we believe that confidence in some industries may rise over 100 points over the next six months,” he said.

Kan Trakulhoon, president and CEO of Siam Cement Group, the country’s largest industrial conglomerate, said the overall economy appears to be gaining traction and most businesses should report better results in 2009 than the previous year. “I am confident because demand in many businesses, including petrochemical, cement and paper, has risen. However, the recovery will be fast or slow, depending on each business’ situation,” he said.

Thai economy: recovery in sight – NESDB

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Source: Bangkok Post

About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

A similar situation exists in other prime tourism destinations in provinces such as Chiang Mai and Rayong.

Local officials and legal experts have helped clear the way for foreign investors to take control of the country’s rice farms and property in resort provinces, according to research on foreign land ownership by the Thailand Research Fund.

TRF called a seminar on the research findings yesterday attended by economics and legal scholars.

There recently has been speculation that foreign businessmen, particularly from the Middle East, were snapping up rice fields in the central plains and elsewhere through proxy local companies.

Transnational business consortiums were said to be holding the land through Thai nominees, which is against the law.

Some farmers are leasing land they previously owned but have since sold to the foreigners’ proxy firms, observers said.

Siriporn Sajjanont, from the economics faculty at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University and a member of the research team, said the study showed many kinds of property had been bought by foreigners through Thai nominees.

“About 90% of land along the coastline in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees,” she said.

Foreign investment capital was essential for developing Phuket and Samui, as Thais do not have enough money to invest themselves, Ms Siriporn said.

The coastal areas most sought after by foreign investors were Pattaya in Chon Buri, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui in Surat Thani, Phuket and Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan.

In Chiang Mai, foreigners had used legal loopholes to exceed the limit on sales of condominium units, Ms Siriporn said.

There was evidence they hold the property through Thai nominees by marrying Thais. In some cases, Thai women were asked to register the foreigners’ property in their own names.

The study found similar problems in Rayong involving foreign landholdings through Thai nominees with foreigners marrying Thais.

In some land lease cases, the period of leasehold was unusually long, Ms Siriporn said. The study found that some lease contracts stated the leasehold was “for life”.

Land ownership by foreigners had been made possible by their Thai lawyers who had found legal loopholes to clear the way for foreigners to take control, the research found.

Village heads also had acted as land brokers to arrange sales of state land given to local people so they could make a living, the panellists said.

Village heads were close to residents and knew which prime land was available.

Some legal entities had been set up with 51% of shares held by Thais, although those Thais turned out to be mere legal advisers for foreigners and had no power to run the legal entities, Ms Siriporn said.

“We also found the same people had set up many entities,” she said.

Some entities’ regulations on shareholding structures allowed foreign shareholders more power than Thais in running those entities.

Col Surin Pikulthong, president of the Community Organisations Development Institute, said he had received information that Hmong people in the US had provided financial support for Hmong in Nan province to buy land and grow rice for shipment to the US.

Silaporn Buasai, vice-president of the institute, said she had heard that investors from Taiwan had bought land here for growing oranges to be sold in Taiwan.

Wichian Phuanglamjiak, vice-president of the Thai Rice Growers’ Association, said rice farmers held additional information on land grabs by foreign investors.

He said the problem had remained unaddressed for too long and no state agency had taken the matter seriously.

Mr Wichian said farmers were pinning their hopes on the Department of Special Investigation to pursue the matter.

DSI investigator Pakorn Sucheevakul on Saturday said the agency was investigating four Thai companies in Ayutthaya which own rice farms of almost 10,000 rai.

Malee Antasin, 59, a farmer in Ayutthaya’s Bang Ban district, said businessmen had bought many plots in her village since 1995.

She said she had felt “besieged” and pressured to sell her rice plot as her land had been enclosed by other plots owned by those investors. She was now taking the matter to court.

Foreigners ‘own 90% of Phuket beach land’

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Source: tatnews.org

Two major events are to be held in Bangkok at the end of September 2009 to capitalise on the global popularity of Thai cuisine, boost exports of Thai agricultural products and help visitors enjoy a higher quality of culinary experience across the vast range of dining options in the kingdom.

The two major food events “Amazing Taste of Thailand” and “Thailand Brand” will be held concurrently between 24-28 September, 2009, jointly organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Department of Export Promotion, Thai Hotels Association, Association of Domestic Travel, and Thai Restaurant Association.

Mrs Juthaporn Rerngronasa, the TAT’s Deputy Governor for Marketing Communications said, “Promotion of Thai cuisine is one of the TAT’s top-most priorities because it builds bridges between travel and tourism, the country’s largest service industry, with agriculture, the largest overall industry.”

Thai cuisine is popular all over the world because it is nutritious, delicious, and inexpensive. There are hundreds of thousands of Thai restaurants located just about everywhere, ranging from elegant up-market outlets to fast-food take-aways.

Many are set up by Thai entrepreneurs, Thai wives of expatriates, former students and other Thai expatriates living abroad.

In addition to the fact that many thousands of visitors come to Thailand to learn how to cook Thai dishes, food and beverage consumption is an important component of visitor expenditure in Thailand. In 2007, visitors to Thailand spent an average of 4,120.95 Baht per person per day, of which 731.10 Baht or 17.74% was on food and beverage.

“Amazing Taste of Thailand” will be held on 25-27 September, 2009, at CentralWorld Bangkok. It will include exhibitions of Thai cuisine and food products from all four regions of Thailand, and provide opportunities for trade visitors to do business.

It will feature demonstrations of Thai food products nationwide and cooking classes by chefs from all four regions who will create their special dishes, including main courses and desserts. There will be also contests of Thai food decoration, famous menus of movie stars and celebrities, entertainment activities, and Thai cultural shows.

The other event is “Thailand Brand” which will be held between 24-28 September, 2009, in Bangkok and other main tourist destinations in Thailand.

This event is aimed at chefs and owners of Thai restaurants abroad and media who will be taken on a culinary tour of Thai tourist destinations in all five regions to interact with local restaurant owners, chefs and companies involved in the production and distribution of Thai agricultural products.

They will provide tips on how to operate overseas Thai restaurants and better market Thai ingredients and food products abroad. In turn, they will be briefed on ways to better utilise their Thai restaurants as marketing channels to attract more visitors and create higher awareness about Thai tourism attractions.

About 500 participants will join this campaign, including owners, managers, chefs of overseas Thai restaurants, famous chefs from many parts of the world, and food critics and writers.

All have been carefully selected by overseas TAT offices and will also participate in the “Amazing Taste of Thailand” event.

Bid to capitalise on tourism marketing power of Thai cuisine

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Source: Bangkok Post

Average occupancy at Bangkok’s high-end hotels will remain anaemic at about 50% to 60% for the next two years, says Jones Lang Lasalle Hotels.

Bangkok has registered the most significant decline in average hotel occupancies across Asia, with the five-star segment contracting by 33.3% year-on-year in the first half.

The global hotel investment services firm forecast occupancy rates at the city’s four- and five-star hotels of between the low-50% and low-60% range over the next two years. Any recovery relies entirely on their being sufficient numbers of visitors to absorb new hotel supply.

About 7,154 new international standard hotel rooms, representing an 11.2% increase in the Bangkok’s total room supply, will come online within 2011. Of the total, 50.7% is in the four-star segment, with the remaining supply evenly spread between three and five-star categories, said JLL.

Weak international arrivals and an oversupply of rooms will create a very challenging environment from now until 2012, said the firm.

Hotel developers will focus more on internationally branded and managed three-star limited service hotels, said Andrew Langdon, senior vice-president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in Thailand.

Average year-to-date occupancy rates for the five-star segment was 46.5%, down 23.4% year-on-year. Average daily rate (ADR) declined by 9.8% year-on-year, to 5,175 baht per room per night, with revenue per available room (RevPar) was down 39.7% to 2,430 baht.

Four-star hotel average occupancy dropped to 50.8%, down by 20.5% year-on-year, with ADR contracting by 10.5% to 2,729 baht per room per night, with RevPar falling by 36.2% to 1,387 baht.

Bangkok has registered the biggest decline in hotel occupancy in Asia, for the year up to June. The five-star segment contracted by 33.3% and the four-star by 28.8%. However, the decline in local average room rates appears to have eased when compared to the 20% and larger drops witnessed in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Beijing and Shanghai.

The combination of ongoing domestic political uncertainty, the strengthening Thai baht and the global downturn has contributed to the 21.2% year-on-year decline of Bangkok’s international visitor arrivals.

The company projected hotel financing from Thai banks will remain challenging due to stricter lending criteria. However, a number of Thai groups have started investing in attractively-priced hotel properties outside of Thailand over the past 12 months. The firm expects this trend to continue into the second half.

Hotel slump in Thailand may last two years

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The collapse of civilisation will bring us a saner world, says Paul Kingsnorth. No, counters George Monbiot – we can’t let billions perish.

Source: The Guardian

Dear George

On the desk in front of me is a set of graphs. The horizontal axis of each represents the years 1750 to 2000. The graphs show, variously, population levels, CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, exploitation of fisheries, destruction of tropical forests, paper consumption, number of motor vehicles, water use, the rate of species extinction and the totality of the human economy’s gross domestic product.

What grips me about these graphs (and graphs don’t usually grip me) is that though they all show very different things, they have an almost identical shape. A line begins on the left of the page, rising gradually as it moves to the right. Then, in the last inch or so – around 1950 – it veers steeply upwards, like a pilot banking after a cliff has suddenly appeared from what he thought was an empty bank of cloud.

The root cause of all these trends is the same: a rapacious human economy bringing the world swiftly to the brink of chaos. We know this; some of us even attempt to stop it happening. Yet all of these trends continue to get rapidly worse, and there is no sign of that changing soon. What these graphs make clear better than anything else is the cold reality: there is a serious crash on the way.

Yet very few of us are prepared to look honestly at the message this reality is screaming at us: that the civilisation we are a part of is hitting the buffers at full speed, and it is too late to stop it. Instead, most of us – and I include in this generalisation much of the mainstream environmental movement – are still wedded to a vision of the future as an upgraded version of the present. We still believe in “progress”, as lazily defined by western liberalism. We still believe that we will be able to continue living more or less the same comfortable lives (albeit with more windfarms and better lightbulbs) if we can only embrace “sustainable development” rapidly enough; and that we can then extend it to the extra 3 billion people who will shortly join us on this already gasping planet.

I think this is simply denial. The writing is on the wall for industrial society, and no amount of ethical shopping or determined protesting is going to change that now. Take a civilisation built on the myth of human exceptionalism and a deeply embedded cultural attitude to “nature”; add a blind belief in technological and material progress; then fuel the whole thing with a power source that is discovered to be disastrously destructive only after we have used it to inflate our numbers and appetites beyond the point of no return. What do you get? We are starting to find out.

We need to get real. Climate change is teetering on the point of no return while our leaders bang the drum for more growth. The economic system we rely upon cannot be tamed without collapsing, for it relies upon that growth to function. And who wants it tamed anyway? Most people in the rich world won’t be giving up their cars or holidays without a fight.

Some people – perhaps you – believe that these things should not be said, even if true, because saying them will deprive people of “hope”, and without hope there will be no chance of “saving the planet”. But false hope is worse than no hope at all. As for saving the planet – what we are really trying to save, as we scrabble around planting turbines on mountains and shouting at ministers, is not the planet but our attachment to the western material culture, which we cannot imagine living without.

The challenge is not how to shore up a crumbling empire with wave machines and global summits, but to start thinking about how we are going to live through its fall, and what we can learn from its collapse.

All the best, Paul

Dear Paul

Like you I have become ever gloomier about our chances of avoiding the crash you predict. For the past few years I have been almost professionally optimistic, exhorting people to keep fighting, knowing that to say there is no hope is to make it so. I still have some faith in our ability to make rational decisions based on evidence. But it is waning.

If it has taken governments this long even to start discussing reform of the common fisheries policy – if they refuse even to make contingency plans for peak oil – what hope is there of working towards a steady-state economy, let alone the voluntary economic contraction ultimately required to avoid either the climate crash or the depletion of crucial resources?

The interesting question, and the one that probably divides us, is this: to what extent should we welcome the likely collapse of industrial civilisation? Or more precisely: to what extent do we believe that some good may come of it?

I detect in your writings, and in the conversations we have had, an attraction towards – almost a yearning for – this apocalypse, a sense that you see it as a cleansing fire that will rid the world of a diseased society. If this is your view, I do not share it. I’m sure we can agree that the immediate consequences of collapse would be hideous: the breakdown of the systems that keep most of us alive; mass starvation; war. These alone surely give us sufficient reason to fight on, however faint our chances appear. But even if we were somehow able to put this out of our minds, I believe that what is likely to come out on the other side will be worse than our current settlement.

Here are three observations: 1 Our species (unlike most of its members) is tough and resilient; 2 When civilisations collapse, psychopaths take over; 3 We seldom learn from others’ mistakes.

From the first observation, this follows: even if you are hardened to the fate of humans, you can surely see that our species will not become extinct without causing the extinction of almost all others. However hard we fall, we will recover sufficiently to land another hammer blow on the biosphere. We will continue to do so until there is so little left that even Homo sapiens can no longer survive. This is the ecological destiny of a species possessed of outstanding intelligence, opposable thumbs and an ability to interpret and exploit almost every possible resource – in the absence of political restraint.

From the second and third observations, this follows: instead of gathering as free collectives of happy householders, survivors of this collapse will be subject to the will of people seeking to monopolise remaining resources. This will is likely to be imposed through violence. Political accountability will be a distant memory. The chances of conserving any resource in these circumstances are approximately zero. The human and ecological consequences of the first global collapse are likely to persist for many generations, perhaps for our species’ remaining time on earth. To imagine that good could come of the involuntary failure of industrial civilisation is also to succumb to denial. The answer to your question – what will we learn from this collapse? – is nothing.

This is why, despite everything, I fight on. I am not fighting to sustain economic growth. I am fighting to prevent both initial collapse and the repeated catastrophe that follows. However faint the hopes of engineering a soft landing – an ordered and structured downsizing of the global economy – might be, we must keep this possibility alive. Perhaps we are both in denial: I, because I think the fight is still worth having; you, because you think it isn’t.

With my best wishes, George

Dear George

You say that you detect in my writing a yearning for apocalypse. I detect in yours a paralysing fear.

You have convinced yourself that there are only two possible futures available to humanity. One we might call Liberal Capitalist Democracy 2.0. Clearly your preferred option, this is much like the world we live in now, only with fossil fuels replaced by solar panels; governments and corporations held to account by active citizens; and growth somehow cast aside in favour of a “steady state economy”.

The other we might call McCarthy world, from Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road – which is set in an impossibly hideous post-apocalyptic world, where everything is dead but humans, who are reduced to eating children. Not long ago you suggested in a column that such a future could await us if we didn’t continue “the fight”.

Your letter continues mining this Hobbesian vein. We have to “fight on” because without modern industrial civilisation the psychopaths will take over, and there will be “mass starvation and war”. Leaving aside the fact that psychopaths seem to be running the show already, and millions are suffering today from starvation and war, I think this is a false choice. We both come from a western, Christian culture with a deep apocalyptic tradition. You seem to find it hard to see beyond it. But I am not “yearning” for some archetypal End of Days, because that’s not what we face.

We face what John Michael Greer, in his book of the same name, calls a “long descent”: a series of ongoing crises brought about by the factors I talked of in my first letter that will bring an end to the all-consuming culture we have imposed upon the Earth. I’m sure “some good will come” from this, for that culture is a weapon of planetary mass destruction.

Our civilisation will not survive in anything like its present form, but we can at least aim for a managed retreat to a saner world. Your alternative – to hold on to nurse for fear of finding something worse – is in any case a century too late. When empires begin to fall, they build their own momentum. But what comes next doesn’t have to be McCarthyworld. Fear is a poor guide to the future.

All the best, Paul

Dear Paul

If I have understood you correctly, you are proposing to do nothing to prevent the likely collapse of industrial civilisation. You believe that instead of trying to replace fossil fuels with other energy sources, we should let the system slide. You go on to say that we should not fear this outcome.

How many people do you believe the world could support without either fossil fuels or an equivalent investment in alternative energy? How many would survive without modern industrial civilisation? Two billion? One billion? Under your vision several billion perish. And you tell me we have nothing to fear.

I find it hard to understand how you could be unaffected by this prospect. I accused you of denial before; this looks more like disavowal. I hear a perverse echo in your writing of the philosophies that most offend you: your macho assertion that we have nothing to fear from collapse mirrors the macho assertion that we have nothing to fear from endless growth. Both positions betray a refusal to engage with physical reality.

Your disavowal is informed by a misunderstanding. You maintain that modern industrial civilisation “is a weapon of planetary mass destruction”. Anyone apprised of the palaeolithic massacre of the African and Eurasian megafauna, or the extermination of the great beasts of the Americas, or the massive carbon pulse produced by deforestation in the Neolithic must be able to see that the weapon of planetary mass destruction is not the current culture, but humankind.

You would purge the planet of industrial civilisation, at the cost of billions of lives, only to discover that you have not invoked “a saner world” but just another phase of destruction.

Strange as it seems, a de-fanged, steady-state version of the current settlement might offer the best prospect humankind has ever had of avoiding collapse. For the first time in our history we are well-informed about the extent and causes of our ecological crises, know what should be done to avert them, and have the global means – if only the political will were present – of preventing them. Faced with your alternative – sit back and watch billions die – Liberal Democracy 2.0 looks like a pretty good option.

With my best wishes, George

Dear George

Macho, moi? You’ve been using the word “fight” at a Dick Cheney-like rate. Now my lack of fighting spirit sees me accused of complicity in mass death. This seems a fairly macho accusation.

Perhaps the heart of our disagreement can be found in a single sentence in your last letter: “You are proposing to do nothing to prevent the likely collapse of industrial civilisation.” This invites a question: what do you think I could do? What do you think you can do?

You’ve suggested several times that the hideous death of billions is the only alternative to a retooled status quo. Even if I accepted this loaded claim, which seems designed to make me look like a heartless fascist, it would get us nowhere because a retooled status quo is a fantasy and even you are close to admitting it. Rather than “do nothing” in response, I’d suggest we get some perspective on the root cause of this crisis – not human beings but the cultures within which they operate.

Civilisations live and die by their founding myths. Our myths tell us that humanity is separate from something called “nature”, which is a “resource” for our use. They tell us there are no limits to human abilities, and that technology, science and our ineffable wisdom can fix everything. Above all, they tell us that we are in control. This craving for control underpins your approach. If we can just persaude the politicians to do A, B and C swiftly enough, then we will be saved. But what climate change shows us is that we are not in control, either of the biosphere or of the machine which is destroying it. Accepting that fact is our biggest challenge.

I think our task is to negotiate the coming descent as best we can, while creating new myths that put humanity in its proper place. Recently I co-founded a new initiative, the Dark Mountain Project, which aims to help do that. It won’t save the world, but it might help us think about how to live through a hard century. You’d be welcome to join us.

Very best, Paul

Dear Paul

Yes, the words I use are fierce, but yours are strangely neutral. I note that you have failed to answer my question about how many people the world could support without modern forms of energy and the systems they sustain, but 2 billion is surely the optimistic extreme. You describe this mass cull as “a long descent” or a “retreat to a saner world”. Have you ever considered a job in the Ministry of Defence press office?

I draw the trifling issue of a few billion fatalities to your attention not to make you look like a heartless fascist but because it’s a reality with which you refuse to engage. You don’t see it because to do so would be to accept the need for action. But of course you aren’t doing nothing. You propose to stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, and, er … “get some perspective on the root cause of this crisis”. Fine: we could all do with some perspective. But without action – informed, focused and immediate – the crisis will happen. I agree that the chances of success are small. But they are non-existent if we give up before we have started. You mock this impulse as a “craving for control”. I see it as an attempt at survival.

What could you do? You know the answer as well as I do. Join up, protest, propose, create. It’s messy, endless and uncertain of success. Perhaps you see yourself as above this futility, but it’s all we’ve got and all we’ve ever had. And sometimes it works.

The curious outcome of this debate is that while I began as the optimist and you the pessimist, our roles have reversed. You appear to believe that though it is impossible to tame the global economy, it is possible to change our founding myths, some of which predate industrial civilisation by several thousand years. You also believe that good can come of a collapse that deprives most of the population of its means of survival. This strikes me as something more than optimism: a millenarian fantasy, perhaps, of Redemption after the Fall. Perhaps it is the perfect foil to my apocalyptic vision.

With my best wishes, George

Is there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse?

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Source: Bangkok Post

The Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) expects the exhibition industry will generate revenue of at least 12 billion baht next year due to the improving economy and consumer confidence.

This year, the industry is projected to attract 100,000 visitors to 200 events and generate revenue between 7.5 billion to 10 billion baht if the economy picks up later this year.

Supawan Teerarat, the TCEB exhibition director and acting president, said it has further adjusted its marketing strategy for a higher level of integration and marketing coverage. The new plan provides stronger support for business professionals in the exhibition industry.

It also plans to expand in the Asian market, particularly China, India, Japan and Korea, because it sees room to grow in these short-haul markets under current economic conditions.

The TCEB will continue extensive roadshow activities that emphasise business matching to open up new markets for Thai entrepreneurs to meet potential trade partners. Online networking and digital database will be incorporated into the overall strategic plan, said Ms Supawan.

She added that a recent survey among exhibition figures found that 60% relied on online for information, direct marketing, event promotion and business operation. Only 30% relied exclusively on conventional sources of information.

The TCEB is therefore confident its online strategy is a cost-effective means to reach its global targets. It also plans to co-operate with the private sector and other government agencies in order to drive long-term sustainable growth in the exhibition industry.

The bureau has formed alliances with three strategic partners, including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), the Department of Export Promotion and the Thai Exhibition Association to drive industry growth and competitiveness.

According to BMA Deputy Governor Taya Teepsuwan, the collaboration between the TCEB and the BMA on the Bangkok Exhibition City of Asean campaign will help to spur the exhibition business. In fact, the BMA has ambitious plans to develop Bangkok into a Green MegaCity that can meet this demand, combining convenience and aesthetic considerations in an urban setting.

Ms Taya said the BMA also planned to promote the tourism industry under the Bangkok Smiles campaigns consisting of dining, healthiness, tourism and hospitality.

The BMA set a budget of around 200 million baht for these activities next year, up from 150 million this year. Because of negative factors, it revised its prediction for international tourist arrivals from 11 million to eight million this year while 26 million Thai tourists are expected this year. The BMA projects tourism will generate at least 260 billion baht of country revenue this year.
TCEB sees B12bn in 2010 revenue

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Source: Bangkok Post

The Tourism and Sports Ministry has been instructed by the prime minister to work out short-term promotions and establish a national agenda to support the industry, which is expected to recover late this year as the global economic outlook improves.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva may conduct overseas roadshows himself to promote Thailand.

Public relations activities will be carried out through local media in selected countries, with help from Tourism Authority of Thailand offices in 20 locations.

“We can’t hope for a miracle that will revive tourism because it’s impossible. What we must do is to help each other and the government will help good operators survive and move forward when the economy recovers,” said Mr Abhisit.

The government has already introduced policies to spur tourism. It extended a waiver of visa fees for tourists until mid-2010 and extended a loan programme for small and medium-sized tourism operators until September 2010.

The government has also extended life insurance for tourists until March next year.

Tourist arrivals dropped 15% to 5.6 million for the first five months of this year, according to government figures.

But last month, arrivals were down just 9% – a good sign for the industry.

“If we can attract tourists back in the last two months, which are the high season, I believe tourist arrivals this year will be close to the figure of last year, about 14 million,” said Mr Abhisit.

This outlook is disputed by the private sector, which forecasts fewer than 12 million arrivals this year.

The Tourism and Sports Ministry will hold public hearings nationwide before finalising a national agenda for tourism, which is likely to include developing tourist destinations.

Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa plans to prioritise 2,160 tourist destinations in Thailand, while focusing on the Asian market, particularly China and Japan. “China needs information about tour packages for three, five and 10 days. The ministry is co-operating with relevant agencies like the TAT and the Thai Hotels Association to meet Chinese inquiries,” he said.

But the prime minister admits the country needs to improve in many areas, especially management. The government must also improve its work processes and efficiency.

Tourism in Thailand: short-term rescue sought

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Source: The Observer

The caption on this story pointed out that in August there was a 145% uplift in travellers to Thailand because of Britain’s lusy summer rains.

If you have not yet booked this year’s foreign summer holiday, you may be too late, according to travel companies.

The Met Office’s recent admission that Britain’s forecast “barbecue summer” had vanished amid a month of almost constant downpours caused a surge of up to 40% in last-minute bookings.

Travel experts have now warned that companies have almost “run out” of last-minute deals. “There were 10% fewer deals around this year anyway, because companies anticipated less business thanks to the recession and so cut their capacity,” said Ian Bradley from the Association of Independent Tour Operators (Aito).

“But the moment the Met Office revised its forecast and said there was going to be wet weather until September, all those people planning a ’staycation’ panicked and started booking last-minute deals. Most of the best deals are now gone,” he said. “There’s going to be a moment when there is literally nothing left and we’re fairly close to that point now.”

Travel agents have been inundated with requests for late deals. Expedia.co.uk said it has seen a sharp rise in bookings to long-haul destinations, with inquiries about Thailand up 165% and Hong Kong up 122%.

Cheapflights.co.uk said that searches on its website were up by 10% on last July, with a spike of 23% on rainy days last week. The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), whose 1,350 members provide 90% of the foreign package holidays sold in the UK, reported increases in business of up to 40%.

The turnaround has astonished travel agents. Last month foreign holiday sales were down 10% on last year, a fall in trade blamed on a combination of the recession, a weak pound and the Met Office’s long-range forecast of a summer of unusually warm, dry weather, with heatwaves of up to 29.4C (85F).

Demand for foreign holidays tailed off dramatically after the forecast. But after the Met Office’s turnaround, the 500,000 holidays that were left are now almost all gone.

“We sold 45 million holidays last year and were running well down on that until last month,” said Sean Tipton, a spokesman for Abta. “We’ve gone from there being more late deals than usual, with tour operators struggling to fill capacity, to there being almost nothing at all.”

Craig Brownsell, from Co-operative Travel, said that bookings had “gone crazy” in the past few weeks, with around 10% more holidays booked last weekend than the same time last year. “If you haven’t already booked your summer holiday, you will struggle,” he said. “We have very little left for August. We believe many people put off booking a summer holiday, believing early reports predicting a blazing summer would mean they could stay at home and enjoy the sunshine,” he said.

The most popular destinations so far this year are to countries outside the eurozone, such as Turkey, which are cheaper for British holidaymakers, and to Spain and the Mediterranean islands.

Those forced to holiday at home should not despair. Last week the Met Office again revised its forecast, saying that the wettest July on record could make way for warm and sunny weather to come.

Forecasters said that the outlook for the next few days was sunny and warm, with high pressure finally pushing away the front that has caused so much misery. The widely promised long, hot summer under azure skies is unlikely to make a late showing, however. Instead, those having a “staycation” will experience hot and humid weather, with heavy showers and storms.

Barry Gromett, a Met Office spokesman, said the short-range forecast is looking “much more promising.” He said: “Don’t give up on the barbecue summer yet. Obviously we cannot be 100% sure, but the short-range forecast is looking good.”

The warmest weather is likely to be in south-east England but, Gromett warned, that could mean more showers. The west would be cooler but sunnier. But England’s gain could be Scotland’s loss as the colder, wetter weather is pushed north.

Holiday deals abroad vanish in rush for British to flee rain

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