Thailand Seeks Tourist Return With Free Agent Tour

[george]

Thailand seeks tourist return with free agent tour

BANGKOK: -- Thailand, struggling to bring tourists back to its Andaman Sea beaches where hundreds were killed by the December tsunami, will fly 1,400 travel agents and reporters there free next month, officials said on Tuesday.

They said the cabinet approved the tour to Phuket, one of Asia's premier beach resorts before the Dec. 26 tsunami struck and now suffering occupation rates of around 15 percent at the height of the main season, and the nearby province of Krabi.

"We want to tell the whole world that we are now ready to host visitors again," Jutamas Siriwan, head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said after the cabinet approved a 3.85 billion baht ($100 million) tourism plan.

Thailand hoped the massive PR campaign would lure at least two million visitors to the country during the low season from April to September and help revive the industry, which accounts for 6 percent of gross national product, in the area, she said.

"We hope they will help us cleanse the media coverage of the damage aired worldwide during the tsunami."

Tourist arrivals at Bangkok airport in January dropped 22 percent to below 630,000 from a year earlier after the tsunami killed 5,395 people on Thailand's Andaman Sea coast and left another 2,933 listed as missing.

The $100 million plan also included 790 million baht for a domestic marketing promotion, 800 million baht for rehabilitation of two tsunami-hit beaches on Phuket and 1 billion baht to build a tsunami museum.

The government said before the tsunami it aimed to attract 13.4 million this year, up from 11.8 million in 2004 and 10.05 million in 2003. It has not changed the target. ($1=38.20 Baht)

--Reuters 2005-02-22

[Digger]

1 billion baht for a museum What on earth are they planning to do for that kind of money.

[sriracha john]

spend spend spend.... burning up the Treasury money, aren't they?

[george]

TAT to lead global journalist contingent to tsunami-damaged provinces

BANGKOK: -- The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will lead around 1,000 tourism operators and journalists from 40 nations to Phuket and Krabi next month in a bid to boost tourism in the wake of the December tsunami, the authority’s deputy governor revealed today.

Mrs. Pornsiri Manohan, deputy TAT governor for foreign marketing, said that invitees would descend on Thailand on 3 March for the five-day visit, organized by the TAT in conjunction with Thai Airways and the Tourism Council of Thailand.

The ‘mega fam trip’, as it had been dubbed, will see the 1,000-strong crowd taken to visit some of the region’s most important tourism destinations in order to demonstrate the speed of the post-tsunami restoration work.

It is hoped that the trip will serve to remind the world that the tourism industry in the Andaman region is ready to welcome back visitors, and that the vast majority of destinations have now been restored to normal.

“From January onwards the TAT has been leading operators and journalists to the tsunami-affected region, but we have been taking them on a country-by-country basis, for instance 100 from Japan, 17 from the UK, 50 from Russia, 18 from Scandinavia and 65 from China”. Mrs. Pornsiri said.

“But this time they will be coming en masse, with Thai Airways issuing 1,000 free tickets”.

Although most of the region’s destinations have now been restored largely to their pre-tsunami state, many tourists are still reluctant to visit a region where over 5,000 people were killed when tidal waves struck on 26 December.

--TNA 2005-02-23

[Rinrada]

Lets hope they dont want to buy a beer in the afternoon between 2 and 5 pm or go out after 12 oclock at night.