Source: Bangkok Post

The Tourism Authority of Thailand is preparing to promote Thailand as a meditation destination to appeal to Buddhism enthusiasts abroad.

“As a Buddhist country, Thailand is one the world’s significant Buddhist centres where interested foreigners could study Buddhism and meditation,” said Kulpramote Wannalert, director of the TAT’s attractions promotion division. “We see it as imperative to implement tourism packages for foreigners who are interested in Buddhism and meditation.”

According to a TAT survey, Thailand currently has more than 1,000 meditation centres and there are about 35 centres operated by the monasteries ready to offer meditation lessons.

As part of the promotion, the TAT plans to distribute 1,000 to 2,000 copies of guidebooks and CD-Roms on meditation in Thailand to its overseas offices for use as a marketing tool.

The information would also be published on the TAT’s website.

In addition, the agency plans to organise late this year a familiarisation trip for 50 to 100 members of the foreign media and tour operators from Asia, Europe and the United States to give them a first-hand look at Thailand’s meditation facilities.

Joanna Cook, a Dhamma practice expert at Cambridge University in England, said Thailand had potential to become the centre for meditation given its hundreds of monasteries and meditation centres, interesting culture and beautiful tourism products.

She said the number of westerners interested in Buddhism and meditation was steadily rising, especially during a time of economic hardships and social tensions.

<tag>Meditation hub planned for Thailand</tag>

Source: Bangkok Post

Foreign bookings up as tensions subside

Tourism activity on Koh Samui is expected to revive next year with expectations that Asian visitors in particular will stage a comeback as they perceive improved political stability in Thailand, say industry executives on the island.

Visitor numbers from the Middle East and Russia are also expected to rise because of stepped-up advertising and attractive tourism packages to be offered by operators, said Senee Phuwasetthaworn, president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui.

According to Mr Senee, four charter flights with 150 seats each from China Southern Airlines are scheduled to fly to Surat Thani starting from Wednesday.

The airline is using the Surat Thani provincial airport instead of the one on Samui, which is owned by Bangkok Airways and charges high landing fees.

“This reflects a new hope for operators as it will be the first time there is a charter flight from China to Surat Thani,” he said.

Mr Senee said operators were seeing increased hotel room reservations from Germany, Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia for January, the busiest month of the high tourism season.

The association forecasts Samui will draw 1.1 million foreign visitors next year, with revenue of 12-13 billion baht.

“The projection is based on the prospect that we do not have any more political clashes,” said Mr Senee.

This year, the association projects foreign visitors to Samui will drop 40% from 2008 to one million, with spending totalling 11 billion baht, a drop of more than 20% from 2008, largely reflecting heavy discounts on room rates.

Because tourism has been so sluggish in light of the global recession and concerns about political strife in Thailand, Samui’s hotel operators have cut room prices by as much as 30-40% this year to attract visitors.

In a bid to stay competitive and increase the quality of tourism, local operators recently agreed to develop Samui as a “green island”, said Mr Senee.

The government has also set aside a budget of 900 million baht from its 1.4-trillion-baht stimulus programme to build and upgrade roads on the island.

Koh Samui operators see some signs of revival

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Source: Bangkok Post

Tourism business operators expect the sector to bounce back by between 3 and 7 per cent in the fourth quarter, reducing contraction to 10 to 15 per cent this year, director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thanawat Polwichai, reported on Tuesday.

The centre recently surveyed 400 tourism related businesses to assess the situation.

Businesses believed sales in the third quarter of the year would fall by 16.3 per cent, on average, but would improve in the fourth quarter, Mr Thanawat said.

A substantial expansion in the tourism sector would be clearly seen in the first quarter of 2010.

“Most business operators said major risk factors that hurt their business are the domestic economic recession and global financial crisis, swine flu, and the fluctuation in global oil prices,” he said.

They felt political uncertainty had a minimal impact on the sector, as anti-government demonstrations ended peacefully and were not prolonged.

The university’s forecasting centre projected the country would have about 14 million foreign visitors this year, a 10 to 15 per cent decline on last year. The sector’s income was expected at 420 to 450 billion baht, a substantial drop from 500 billion baht reported last year.

Mr Thanawat warned that tourism recovery in the fourth quarter would be fragile, but the flow of money from  the government’s Thai Khem Kaeng (Strong Thailand) economic stimulus scheme would help strengthen the sector.

“Their liquidity problem has gradually eased after the government directed state-owned financial institutions to provide more loans to the tourism sector,” he said.

The percentage of restaurants facing cash shortages had fallen from 77.6 per cent to only 53.8 per cent at present.

Mr Thanawat suggested the government do more to publicise its new “creative economy” policy, to provide a clearer understanding for the private sector.

Most businessmen knew nothing about it and had no idea how they could benefit from it, he said.

UTCC: Tourism down 10-15% this year

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Source: Bangkok Post

Thai tourism operators are hoping that the Pata Travel Mart 2009 in Hangzhou, China, next week will improve business in the coming high season.

Pata Travel Mart 2009, due to be held from Sept 22-25, is the Asia-Pacific region’s most important and influential tourism networking event with about 600 sellers from 38 markets and 306 buyers from 51 countries.

Last year, Pata Travel Mart 2008 in India generated US$850,000 in sales.

Natapong Jantavetsiri, group director of sales and marketing at Centara Hotels & Resorts, said the company expects this event to help open new markets such as China for Centara Group.

“We need to expand our business in short-haul markets because the long-haul ones, especially Europe, have declined due to the recession. China is another important market for us because its economy is still growing amid the global downturn,” he said.

Centara expects the number of Chinese guests to increase by at least 10% this year.

“Actually, this is a good opportunity for us to promote our hotels – especially the new one in Pattaya – for the coming high season.

“Advance bookings for this winter are not back to normal. Tourists, particularly Europeans, may make a decision at the last minute, so we need new markets like China to fill up our rooms,” he added.

Suparerk Thongsuk, deputy managing director of Fair House Villa & Spa at Samui, said his hotel hoped to open short-haul markets to compensate for a decline in European tourists.

“We are a small resort in Samui. In the past, we depended on only the European market. When the economic problems in the United States and Europe hurt Thai tourism, we realised that we need to diversify our market to short-haul destinations,” he said.

Last year, Chinese tourist arrivals to Southeast Asia grew by 8% to reach 4.2 million, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata).

Singapore was the top destination in Southeast Asia for Chinese visitors with more than 1 million arrivals. Thailand came third with 700,000 Chinese visitors – down from 1 million in previous years due to local political problems, which allowed Malaysia to move up to the second spot.

Pata increased its forecast for international tourists to Thailand to a drop of only 1% from 2008, after earlier predicting an 8% slide, to hit the government target of 14 million, with a recovery starting near the year-end.

The association projects international arrivals will rise 2% next year.

Short-haul tourists targeted

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Source: Bangkok Post

Thailand and Asean this month will affirm their opposition to phasing out the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 and creating new commitments to replace the existing accord on greenhouse gas emission reductions.

At the same time, Thailand does not want to set emission reduction targets despite calls from industrialised countries for developing nations to make such commitment, says the Office of Climate Change Co-ordination.

“Thailand, as the leader of Southeast Asian nations, will make our stance clear that we are against the phasing out of Kyoto Protocol once it expires in 2012. And we do not want to see any new commitment be created to replace the Kyoto,” said Areewattana Tummakird, the director of the office at the National Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning.

“There are attempts from developed countries to see developing countries share the commitment. But Thailand and our peers in Asean – like other developing nations – do not want to have that legally binding.”

The Kyoto Protocol, which took effect in 2005, was ratified by industrialised countries to cut their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% from 1990 levels, with varied national limitations.

Thailand will host the Bangkok Climate Change Talks from Sept 28 to Oct 9 as the last major global negotiations before the Copenhagen talks to be held in December.

Thailand emits an estimated 344 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year.

Mrs Areewattana said Thailand also had yet to decide whether to support a sectoral approach to emissions reduction, which is expected to be a major topic in Copenhagen.

The sectoral approach involves organised action by key producers in specific industry sectors and their host governments to address emissions from their products and processes.

“The sectoral approach still draws huge debate and for Thailand, we have not come up with clear decision about our stance on the issue,” she said.

“In the short term, it should create some positive impacts in terms of relocation of heavily polluting industries to Thailand but in the long term, we will not be able to avoid the suffering of growing environmental impacts.”

Industries such as steel, petrochemical,s cement, paper and power generation are the primary targets of the sectoral approach.

“Thai manufacturers in those sectors have been aware of possible negative impacts (of a sectoral approach). But I think it will need some time to take effect,” Mrs Areewattana said.

Thailand leads Asean drive to keep Kyoto Protocol alive

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Source: Bangkok Post

Passing through security screening at Suvarnabhumi Airport will become speedier and more convenient while overall safety will improve under a new system, according to Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT).

The centralised security screening (CSS) system introduced on Monday is expected to expedite the passenger flow by four to five times compared with the previous arrangement.

The concept envisages clustering various checkpoints situated in several sites into one station with many security lanes, X-ray machines, metal detectors and bomb-detection equipment right after the passport control.

The CSS has halved the number of passenger security screening points to six – three at departure halls, two at international transit areas and one at the domestic-international transit point. It replaces the old system of checkpoints located at 12 concourses that were situated after the duty-free areas and near the boarding gates.

Suvarnabhumi airport general manager Nirandra Theeranartsin said the CSS would help passengers to better manage their time before boarding, instead of being subject to uncertainties as to how long screening would take.

“Having passed through the immigration and security first, passengers would have peace of mind and know how much time they can spend before entering the boarding gate,” he said.

The system will also help reduce flight delays resulting from unexpectedly long queues at passenger security screening points because passengers may spend too much time at the duty-free area, he added.

The airport’s two busiest CSS stations on the departure halls on the fourth floor of the terminal – west and east – each have six X-ray machines and metal detector arches. Each X-ray machine is manned by six inspectors.

The two main CSS stations can handle 2,000 passengers per hour.

However, passengers of some airlines are still subject to secondary screening before entering the boarding gates in compliance with the carriers’ own security standards. They include El Al Israel Airlines, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Qantas Airways, British Airways, Kuwait Airways and Indian carriers.

AoT has spent 10 million baht on the CSS stations including the installation of new surveillance cameras.

The basic security protocols including restrictions on the amount of liquids, gels and aerosol containers a passenger can carry in hand baggage remain unchanged.

Also unchanged are requirements for passengers to put their coats, jackets, belts, mobile phones, watches and metals through X-ray machines.

But passengers may be asked to take their shoes off to be scanned by X-ray machines, an added security step that was put in place as part of the introduction of CSS.

Thailand’s airport security speedier but still safe

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Source: Bangkok Post

Thailand’s tourism industry will soon edge out of crisis thanks to government policies and strong collaboration with the private sector, says Finance Minister Finance Korn Chatikavanij.

Domestic travel will be a key driver, while the international market will revive when the global economy improves, he said yesterday.

Both the government and the private sector must focus on the domestic market. The “Thai-Teaw-Thai” campaign is a key strategy, he said.

The 16th Thai-Teaw-Thai fair, featuring 750 local travel operators, is being held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center until Sunday.

“This event will generate more than 400 million baht in revenue with 300,000 visitors over four days. I think the Thai-Teaw-Thai project is the best way to attract local tourists and I believe that Thai people have shifted to travel locally more to help the country,” he said.

Panic over H1N1 flu will diminish as people now know more about the virus and how to prevent it. But political factors would damage tourism if conflict degenerated into violence, he said.

The government’s efforts to help the sector include a loan package for small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

The 10% excise duty on spa businesses may be waived. Spas are currently grouped with massage parlours but the private sector hopes a duty exemption will help operators and protect more than 10,000 jobs. From October 2008 to May 2009, the Excise Department collected 110 million baht in duties from massage businesses.

SME Bank spokesman Vichaya Vitheethum said the bank already approved 2.098 billion baht in loans to 1,237 operators in tourism-related business, and released 1.2 billion baht to 646 operators.

The approved applicants include 217 operators seeking 633 million baht from the Thai Hotels Association, 481 restaurants for 563 million baht, 204 members of the Association of Thai Travel Agents for 438 million baht, and 335 members of the Tourism Council of Thailand for 463 million baht.

“There are 117 members of the Thai Hotels Association that have already received total loans of 365 million baht, not three as the association’s president has stated,” he said.

The bank also approved 2.041 billion baht for more than 100 tourism firms.

Thailand’s tourism industry will soon edge out of crisis

Technorati Tags: Thailand’s tourism industry will soon edge out of crisis

Source: Bangkok Post

The Federation of Thai Tourism Industries supports the government’s use of the International Security Act as it could prevent unrest and generate confidence among foreign tourists, federation chairman Kongkris Hiranyakit said on Tuesday afternoon.

The enactment of the security law during the recent meeting of Asean economic ministers in Phuket had helped boost the number of foreign tourists visiting the resort island, he said. It showed that use of the security law had a positive result, not a negative effect, Mr Kongkris said.

“The federation backs the security law’s imposition in Dusit district as it believes the law will not have any negative impact on tourism,” the chairman said.

He believed if the red-shirts threatened to hold a mass rally again the government would certainly again invoke the security act.

He called on all parties to peacefully end the political conflict, to use the parliamentary system to settle problems and not to lead their mobs on to the streets.

“If a demonstration escalates to violence it will severely hurt tourism related industries. All parties should cease political activities that could lead to violence to allow the government to resolve the economic problems,” Mr Kongkris said.

The country had lost its competitiveness as a tourism destination due to the political turmoil, which had driven Chinese, Japanese and South Korean tourists to other countries such as the Philippines.

The country’s rate of tourism expansion shrank about 17 per cent over the first half of the year due to the impacts of the seizure of Suvarnabhumi airport by the yellow-shirt demonstrators late last year and the Songkran riots by red-shirt protesters.

However, the federation expected the tourism sector would pick up in the second half of the year, he said.

He expected the tourism growth rate would shrink by only 14 per cent in the third quarter of the year, less than an earlier projection of 20 per cent. The growth rate was expected to turn to plus 10 per cent in the fourth quarter due to the improvement in the world’s economy and the drop in domestic political tension.

The tourism sector was expected to fully recover next year, he said.

Tourism federation of Thailand backs use of ISA

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