PHUKET (eTN) - Southern Thailand’s gem, the island of Phuket, looks further to diversify its product to attract a wider range of travelers. Many visitors to the island know exclusively the "brash" side of Phuket at Patong, the island’s entertainment center. However, miles away from this center of endless fun activities, there is another Phuket of discerning luxury. This is rather that aspect that the Tourism Authority of Thailand wants now to promote. With a clear target: to turn Phuket as Thailand’s trendiest destination for wedding groups.
Phuket is already the second largest resort in the Kingdom in terms of international tourists (2.43 million in 2008) and for the total number of rooms in commercial accommodation (37,800 units in 2008). The international airport offers over 6 million seats in air capacity, including 2.5 million on international flights.
“International air access to Phuket has improved tremendously since 2008. We have seen an increasing number of flights to Singapore but also to Tokyo. We have also new destinations being now linked to Phuket such as Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, and from October, Qatar Airways. We even get now regular charters from Iran with over 30 flights during the high season,” explained a representative from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in the Southern Province.
With the further development of luxury properties, such as the Westin Siray Bay (it opened officially in early August), the Impiana Private Villas Kata Noi (officially opened at the end of July), and the Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa (opened in May), Phuket looks effectively as an ideal venue for a wedding, which can be high-profile or just simply romantic. These luxury hotels pool together their resources with another 15 properties on the island to lure wedding and honeymoon groups. TAT has published two books to help wedding planners: memorable weddings in Thailand and Thailand Pool Villas – a favorite for honeymoon couples - are precious guides to plan a wedding.
“We see tremendous potential for wedding[s] today. Although we still get western wedding demand, we increasingly look at welcoming Indian and Chinese,” said Robert J. Lohrmann, vice president and sales manager of the JW Marriott Phuket.
Indian travelers are increasingly discovering Phuket as a wedding destination thanks to its relative proximity to India and its cheaper prices to organize a wedding. “These Indian weddings obey to extremely strict rules and customs with very specific needs. It takes on average six to eight months to plan and can cost up to THB 100 million (US$3.2 million) but it brings big business to us,” added Mr. Lohrmann. Japanese and Korean markets, however, look more into honeymoon travel rather than wedding celebrations. “Japanese continue to favor a traditional wedding ceremony in Japan,” said TAT.
"The southern island could become even more attractive to Indian tourists if direct flights were established. However, they are no such plans for the time being according to TAT. Other countries with strong potential for wedding tourism are Russia and Australia, while the demand gets softer from Western Europe due to the world recession in 2009. For honeymooners and wedding groups, Phuket is the perfect getaway as we have all kinds of products: five-star resorts, boutique hotels, and private pool villas. And all of them offer pristine private beaches where it is easy to organize a ceremony or even a reception,” highlighted Kutchada Boonrawd, marketing communication manager at the Renaissance Phuket Resort & Spa.
It seems that Phuket’s efforts to attract more travelers come at the right time. The island is, in fact, profiting from the political turmoil earlier in the year in Bangkok. Many travelers seem to have now switched their travel plan from Bangkok and its surroundings (including Pattaya or Hua Hin) to southern destinations. This explains the sudden increase in interest for international airlines to propose direct flights to Phuket. This trend could have also a positive aspect for the airport. It might force the authorities to speed up the construction of a new international passengers’ terminal. The project – in planning for over a decade - has been constantly delayed over the years.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
THAILAND TRAVEL MART 2010 Thailand looks to balance its tourism strategy - eTurboNews.com
BANGKOK (eTN)- Originally the Thailand Travel Mart was scheduled in June, like every year. But political turmoils in April and May forced to postpone the event to September. TTM took then place on September 9 and 10 and it has been a blessing in disguise. The belated hosting served to see if Thailand is now recovering from a turbulent year. “ This TTM ediion is part of our recovery program. And we are so far very satisfied with the outcome of the show which recorded some 335 buyers from 50 countries. We have invited many emerging inbound markets to participate such as Argentina, Mexico, Portugal, Poland or Kazakhstan”, explained at TTM traditional press conference Suraphon Svetasreni, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Mr Svetasreni has some good reasons to be relatively optimist. Once again, Thailand is bouncing back from a gloomy time, and it bounces back quicker than expected. “Many of us predicted that the market would take six to twelve months to recover. We started to see business back after only six weeks following May events,” tells Chanin Donavanik, CEO of Dusit International (see an exclusive interview with eTN early next week). Mr. Svetasreni indicated that international arrivals to Thailand finally grew by 13.8% from January to July totalling 8.7 million travelers. All markets are recovering strongly except the Americas up by only 1.6% during the same period. Thailand experienced especially a jump in arrivals from the Middle East and South Asia.
“It is a good performance even if we had expected originally a better outcome for the year 2010. Until March, tourist arrivals were growing by 20% on average and all indicators then pointed out to a futher growth in this range for the next months. However, we saw a drop from 20% to 25% in April and May due to political instability. We believe that Thailand will be able to welcome again at least 14 million international tourists in 2010 bringing some US$ 16.5 billion in revenues”, he explains. For 2011, TAT estimates that the country would see over 15.5 million travelers.
For TAT Governor, this rapid recovery is due to the many strong assets of Thailand’s tourism: “The sense of service and welcome of our people, the charm of our Thai culture and Thai way of life bring a strong feeling to many visitors. This emotional connection of travelers to our country is an asset that we will use in our marketing campaign”, he says.
The new marketing campaign is all in balancing trends to speed up tourism’s recovery. Mr. Svetasreni has then developed with his team a marketing strategy including three key dimensions to tourism: the economy, the environment and the society. The well-known emblematic “Amazing Thailand” will be retained for 2011 marketing campaigns and will be underlined with a new slogan “Always Amazes You”. The slogan will reinforce then the emotional value of the country’s brand but also highlights all the assets offered by Thailand to its visitors, from its numerous attractions, sense of welcome to amazing good value offers. However, Mr Svetasreni will also give more emphasis to promote the country to domestic travelers. “We can then reduce the dependence to international markets which are easier affected by events such as recession or natural disasters,” he adds. Of course, political instability would also take its toll on international travelers decisions to come to the Kingdom. International markets identified with a promising potential for Thailand are Eastern Europe, the CIS and North Africa. Thematic activities will also be fostered such as Golf, diving, wellness or luxury wedding and honeymoon. Sustainable tourism as well as eco tourism will be then promoted during the off peak season to turn Thailand into a year-round destination.
Positioning Thailand as a premium luxury destination for honeymooners or medical treatment will help to slowly move away from the period of heavily discounts which were made available following March and April political violences. “Discounting hotel rates is just good for a short time to bring back confidence into our destination. But it is not a long-term solution,” estimates Mr Svetasreni.
The growth of tourism will however only be successful if the country truly embarked into a quality sustainable tourism. “For the first 50 years of Thai tourism, our development largely focused on maximizing economic benefits. However, the next 50 years will require an equivalent focus on minimising the ecological impact of tourism”, adds Mr Svetasreni. Initiatives such as Community-Based tourism or Green tourism have been launched with new awareness campaigns to come over the next months.
Building up an environment-friendly tourism product is probably one of the biggest challenges that Thailand faces. For decades, business practices and political decisions have been closely linked to corruption, most of the time to the detriment of environment protection. However, Mr Svetasreni perceives some positive changes. “ A new way of thinking is emerging and it is very different of what we used to see in the past", he says. “I see more and more investors or public administrations looking at the environmental impact or at the green issue, often under the pressure from local people, foreign visitors and also the media, prompt to point out issues. It is a good and necessary evolution”, adds the Governor.
Mr Svetasreni has some good reasons to be relatively optimist. Once again, Thailand is bouncing back from a gloomy time, and it bounces back quicker than expected. “Many of us predicted that the market would take six to twelve months to recover. We started to see business back after only six weeks following May events,” tells Chanin Donavanik, CEO of Dusit International (see an exclusive interview with eTN early next week). Mr. Svetasreni indicated that international arrivals to Thailand finally grew by 13.8% from January to July totalling 8.7 million travelers. All markets are recovering strongly except the Americas up by only 1.6% during the same period. Thailand experienced especially a jump in arrivals from the Middle East and South Asia.
“It is a good performance even if we had expected originally a better outcome for the year 2010. Until March, tourist arrivals were growing by 20% on average and all indicators then pointed out to a futher growth in this range for the next months. However, we saw a drop from 20% to 25% in April and May due to political instability. We believe that Thailand will be able to welcome again at least 14 million international tourists in 2010 bringing some US$ 16.5 billion in revenues”, he explains. For 2011, TAT estimates that the country would see over 15.5 million travelers.
For TAT Governor, this rapid recovery is due to the many strong assets of Thailand’s tourism: “The sense of service and welcome of our people, the charm of our Thai culture and Thai way of life bring a strong feeling to many visitors. This emotional connection of travelers to our country is an asset that we will use in our marketing campaign”, he says.
The new marketing campaign is all in balancing trends to speed up tourism’s recovery. Mr. Svetasreni has then developed with his team a marketing strategy including three key dimensions to tourism: the economy, the environment and the society. The well-known emblematic “Amazing Thailand” will be retained for 2011 marketing campaigns and will be underlined with a new slogan “Always Amazes You”. The slogan will reinforce then the emotional value of the country’s brand but also highlights all the assets offered by Thailand to its visitors, from its numerous attractions, sense of welcome to amazing good value offers. However, Mr Svetasreni will also give more emphasis to promote the country to domestic travelers. “We can then reduce the dependence to international markets which are easier affected by events such as recession or natural disasters,” he adds. Of course, political instability would also take its toll on international travelers decisions to come to the Kingdom. International markets identified with a promising potential for Thailand are Eastern Europe, the CIS and North Africa. Thematic activities will also be fostered such as Golf, diving, wellness or luxury wedding and honeymoon. Sustainable tourism as well as eco tourism will be then promoted during the off peak season to turn Thailand into a year-round destination.
Positioning Thailand as a premium luxury destination for honeymooners or medical treatment will help to slowly move away from the period of heavily discounts which were made available following March and April political violences. “Discounting hotel rates is just good for a short time to bring back confidence into our destination. But it is not a long-term solution,” estimates Mr Svetasreni.
The growth of tourism will however only be successful if the country truly embarked into a quality sustainable tourism. “For the first 50 years of Thai tourism, our development largely focused on maximizing economic benefits. However, the next 50 years will require an equivalent focus on minimising the ecological impact of tourism”, adds Mr Svetasreni. Initiatives such as Community-Based tourism or Green tourism have been launched with new awareness campaigns to come over the next months.
Building up an environment-friendly tourism product is probably one of the biggest challenges that Thailand faces. For decades, business practices and political decisions have been closely linked to corruption, most of the time to the detriment of environment protection. However, Mr Svetasreni perceives some positive changes. “ A new way of thinking is emerging and it is very different of what we used to see in the past", he says. “I see more and more investors or public administrations looking at the environmental impact or at the green issue, often under the pressure from local people, foreign visitors and also the media, prompt to point out issues. It is a good and necessary evolution”, adds the Governor.
Travel Agents Association Of India Meets In Phuket Thailand tourism seduces India - eTurboNews.com
Travel Agents Association Of India Meets In Phuket Thailand tourism seduces India - eTurboNews.com
PHUKET (eTN) - The growth of India's economy has been accompanied by the emergence of an new middle class in the country. Some 40 to 50 million people strong, this middle class is now the target of all countries around the world. “Following the partition of India in 1947, people during decades only thought of saving money for better days. However, the empowerment of an affluent young generation has dramatically changed consumption habits. Younger Indians want now to spend their mone,y and travel is definitely part of this consumption boom,” explained Phuket Rajji Rai, president of TAAI, Travel Agents Association of India, the oldest body of this type on the subcontinent.
Between September 23 and 27, some 1,200 Indian nationals (800 TAAI members, 300 spouses and accompanying people, and 100 VIPs) met in Phuket, Southern Thailand, to discuss the evolution of India’s travel industry. But also to (re)discover the Kingdom’s number one resort destination, an opportunity that Thailand did not want to miss. “We see huge potential for development for the Indian market. We found as a good sign that this year the market continues to grow despite the political troubles we experienced earlier in the year. This is indeed a promising sign for the future. We currently receive over 650,000 Indian travelers annually, but we are confident to reach very soon one million Indian visitors,” said Suraphon Svetasreni, governor of TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand), who specifically flew from Bangkok on Saturday to greet TAAI members.
According to the governor, TAT and its partners in Phuket invested some 8 million Baht [US$260,000] to help organize the event. "It is worth the investment as we welcomed 1,200 people for five days. And both TAAI and TAT see high potential in youth tourism, health tourism, weddings, and honeymoons, as well as golf. Weddings are a huge business in India as between 200 and 500 people can come up to a week and can spend up to US$500,000. So far in the first half of the year, we already organized 50 large wedding ceremonies, translating into some 10,000 visitors,” described Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT director in New Delhi. For Mr. Svetasreni, there is also a good potential for destinations such as Krabi, Nakhon Sri Tammarat, or Songkhla province to attract more Indian travelers.
For Rajji Rai, any destination hosting TAAI’s annual meeting has seen in return a growth in arrivals from India. “Imagine over 2,500 of our members promoting your destination all around the country. We organized our annual meeting last year in Dubai, which then experienced in return a growth of 8 percent in total Indian arrivals. This was quite an achievement in a year of recession!” explained Mr. Rai. “I can predict that numbers will continue to grow. Thailand is an ideal long weekend destination for Indian travelers and is increasingly popular due to this wonderful sense of service of Thai people, who know what the sense of hospitality is,” he added.
TAAI is not only just about a conference. Thailand can also expect a strong interest in India’s tourism business, which could invest massively into Thailand. According to TAAI, chains like luxury hotel chains such as Leela or Taj are to set foot into the country; the same with airline leaders who are looking to expand their business into Thailand. Kingfisher, Jet Airways, or low-fare airline, Spicejet, representatives could soon add more flights, especially those serving Phuket. This could, at least, be the most visible consequence of TAAI's presence on the southern resort island. "Phuket lacks flight connections to India and this should be an absolute priority if TAT wants to attract more travelers from India to the South,” told Rajji Rai. This wish might turn into reality very quickly.
PHUKET (eTN) - The growth of India's economy has been accompanied by the emergence of an new middle class in the country. Some 40 to 50 million people strong, this middle class is now the target of all countries around the world. “Following the partition of India in 1947, people during decades only thought of saving money for better days. However, the empowerment of an affluent young generation has dramatically changed consumption habits. Younger Indians want now to spend their mone,y and travel is definitely part of this consumption boom,” explained Phuket Rajji Rai, president of TAAI, Travel Agents Association of India, the oldest body of this type on the subcontinent.
Between September 23 and 27, some 1,200 Indian nationals (800 TAAI members, 300 spouses and accompanying people, and 100 VIPs) met in Phuket, Southern Thailand, to discuss the evolution of India’s travel industry. But also to (re)discover the Kingdom’s number one resort destination, an opportunity that Thailand did not want to miss. “We see huge potential for development for the Indian market. We found as a good sign that this year the market continues to grow despite the political troubles we experienced earlier in the year. This is indeed a promising sign for the future. We currently receive over 650,000 Indian travelers annually, but we are confident to reach very soon one million Indian visitors,” said Suraphon Svetasreni, governor of TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand), who specifically flew from Bangkok on Saturday to greet TAAI members.
According to the governor, TAT and its partners in Phuket invested some 8 million Baht [US$260,000] to help organize the event. "It is worth the investment as we welcomed 1,200 people for five days. And both TAAI and TAT see high potential in youth tourism, health tourism, weddings, and honeymoons, as well as golf. Weddings are a huge business in India as between 200 and 500 people can come up to a week and can spend up to US$500,000. So far in the first half of the year, we already organized 50 large wedding ceremonies, translating into some 10,000 visitors,” described Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, TAT director in New Delhi. For Mr. Svetasreni, there is also a good potential for destinations such as Krabi, Nakhon Sri Tammarat, or Songkhla province to attract more Indian travelers.
For Rajji Rai, any destination hosting TAAI’s annual meeting has seen in return a growth in arrivals from India. “Imagine over 2,500 of our members promoting your destination all around the country. We organized our annual meeting last year in Dubai, which then experienced in return a growth of 8 percent in total Indian arrivals. This was quite an achievement in a year of recession!” explained Mr. Rai. “I can predict that numbers will continue to grow. Thailand is an ideal long weekend destination for Indian travelers and is increasingly popular due to this wonderful sense of service of Thai people, who know what the sense of hospitality is,” he added.
TAAI is not only just about a conference. Thailand can also expect a strong interest in India’s tourism business, which could invest massively into Thailand. According to TAAI, chains like luxury hotel chains such as Leela or Taj are to set foot into the country; the same with airline leaders who are looking to expand their business into Thailand. Kingfisher, Jet Airways, or low-fare airline, Spicejet, representatives could soon add more flights, especially those serving Phuket. This could, at least, be the most visible consequence of TAAI's presence on the southern resort island. "Phuket lacks flight connections to India and this should be an absolute priority if TAT wants to attract more travelers from India to the South,” told Rajji Rai. This wish might turn into reality very quickly.
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Metro | Timeout
Recent measures of globalisation have allowed for an intensity of distribution, creating a shared database of ideas, images and location. Yet, they have also strengthened the flow and distribution of iconography from which has developed a visual vernacular and an international language with readings regulated by reference and ethics. Amrita Sher-Gill (1913-1941) was perhaps the first modern artist who employed cross-cultural references in her works. Besides Paris, the ongoing exhibition, brings together the work of 18 artists of Indian origin who currently live and work in Paris. It offers a chance to investigate the language they have developed, its metaphysical resolve and the intensity of the connection that stretches between France and India. It also marks a necessity to address art history and to examine the long and historical art relationships shared between Europe and India. Sacred Modernities (Participants: Narayanan Akkitham, Sujata Bajaj, Anju Chaudhuri, Rajendra Dhawan, Lakshmi Dutt, Bhawani Katoch, S.H. Raza, Inderjeet Sahdev and Viswanandan Velu), the first section of the show, displays a range of making and mark-making that have restrained varieties and hues but are continual visitations to specific notations on abstract and symbolic forms that allude to various philosophical speculations. The works in Celestial Bodies (Participants: Sakti Burman, Maya Burman, Madhu Mangal Basu, Utpal Chakraborty, Debesh Goswami, Gadadhar Ojha, Sharmila Roy, Nitin Shroff and Jiwan Singh) display the development of a terse language that borrows and haunts the Indo-European traditions. Curator: Shaheen Merali.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)