(free) Thai Flights & Hotel

[Cheeky Farang]

Thailand will pay for flights and hotel rooms for families

of foreign tsunami victims who want to attend anniversary

memorials, the prime minister says. Thaksin Shinawatra

said he would make the same offer for those injured in the

disaster on 26 December 2004.

About 5,500 people were killed in Thailand. Nearly half were

foreigners. The authorities have said they will organise services

to mark the first anniversary in Phuket, Khao Lak and Krabi - the

three worst-hit areas. "The 26th of December will be a day of

mourning," the prime minister said. Invitations Mr Thaksin told

reporters the government had the names and addresses of the

victims' families and would send them invitations. The travel

package would be offered to immediate relatives, he said.

He did not say how much the pledge would cost. It was not clear

if families of Thai victims would also get free flights and accommodation.

Thai officials have said it could take three years to identify everyone

killed in the country during the tsunami. The head of the victim

identification centre said last month that 1,600 bodies had still not

been identified. He said the process might take longer than originally

expected, because many victims were illegal immigrants, whose

families were afraid to come forward.

http://goasia.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite...fic/4226748.stm

[Neeranam]

It was not clear

if families of Thai victims would also get free flights and accommodation.

It wasn't clear because they have absolutely no intention of doing it, it's to promote tourism in Thailand!

[sriracha john]

A GLITCH IN THAKSIN'S PLAN

Phuket hoteliers are sceptical they will be able to find enough rooms for the 10,000 guests the Thai government plans to invite to attend a tsunami memorial service on December 26 free of charge, news reports said Wednesday.

The Thai government plans to send out letters later this month offering free two-day trips to Phuket and Phang Nga provinces in southern Thailand to one relative of the 2,400 foreigners who died in last year's tsunami and to another 7,000 foreign tourists who were injured in the disaster to attend a memorial ceremony on December 26 to 27.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed that the government will pay for the airplane tickets and accommodation in a three star hotel for the invitees, although details on the magnanimous gesture remain fuzzy, especially among hoteliers in Phuket.

"The period between Christmas and the New Year is when tourists start coming back, and the hotels have an allotment system with travel agents who have already booked many rooms," Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) President Pattanapong Aikwanich told the Phuket Gazette.

Pattanapong also pointed out that Phuket island has only 27,000 hotels rooms, and only a fraction of these are "three star".

"Even if such a large number of rooms could be found, the hotels have no guarantee that the guests would actually turn up and stay in them," said Pattanapong. "We need to discuss this further, with both the government and the travel agencies."

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

October 5, 2005

[LivinLOS]

and the reason why the rooms are hard to find is..

11,000 hotel rooms for tsunami relatives ‘difficult to find’

PHUKET: (Gazette/The Nation) The Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) is unsure whether its member hotels will be able to provide the 11,000 hotel rooms requested by the government to accommodate family members of tsunami victims expected to attend the first-year memorial services in December.

The official number of tsunami dead in Phuket was 279, with 620 reported missing. The disaster claimed the lives of some 5,400 people in Thailand, with about 3,000 more reported missing.

Under the plan, one relative of each victim – as many as 2,400 people, but 3,000 less than the official death toll and another 3,000 less than those posted as missing – and around 7,000 people injured in the disaster would be invited to stay as “guests of the government” in rooms at hotels classified as “3-stars or higher".

The guests will be offered free return air tickets and two nights’ – December 26 and 27 – accommodation. The government will, reportedly, reimburse the hotels but the amount of the reimbursement and other details were still being decided by Cabinet, said PTA President Pattanapong Aikwanich.

Many rooms will also be made available for visiting dignitaries, including three heads of state, four presidents, 30 ministers and 64 other VIPs.

The island has a total of about 27,000 rooms altogether, but the number of rooms in the 3-star and up category is only a fraction of that.

K. Pattanapong said it might be difficult to find the required number of rooms as the anniversary comes at a time when occupancy begins to peak.

“The period between Christmas and the New Year is when tourists start coming back, and the hotels have an allotment system with travel agents who have already booked many rooms,” he said.

“Even if such a large number of rooms could found, the hotels have no guarantee that the guests would actually turn up and stay in them. The PTA can only ask for cooperation from its member hotels and the travel agencies with which they do business, and cannot force them to do anything,” he added.

“We need to discuss this further, with both the government and the travel agencies,” he said.

Brought to you by:

The Phuket Gazette

18:17 local time (GMT +7)

Seems pretty obvious that the words are there and they wish to block book a major amount of space for high season but no one is sure, who, how, or when it would get paid for and at what rates..

[sriracha john]

However, it's crystal-clear what Kiattikhun Chartprasert, foreign ministry deputy spokesman, promised:

"The letter will tell them what we will pay for, which includes the price of the air ticket, accommodation for two nights and three days, including food, from December 25-27. The Thai government will take care of them," Kiattikhun said.