IN AN attempt to lessen the blow to tourism that Thailand’s political unrest has had over the last few months, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) will temporarily waive visa fees for Chinese and Taiwanese tourists.

The exemption will be effective from August 1 to October 31. At present, the visa entry fee is 1,000 baht (US$31) for both Chinese and Taiwanese tourists.

Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told TTG Asia e-Daily that the scheme will accelerate the recovery traffic from China.

“We are already seeing a recovery in the Chinese market but it is still quite slow and hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Although Chinese FITs and businessmen are still visiting Thailand, group tours have been the most affected during this period.”

While Sisdivachr does not expect Chinese inbound figures to pick up immediately, he is confident that the initiative will spur Chinese outbound traffic to Thailand in Q4 since the exemption period coincides with China’s Golden Week from October 1-7.

“When Chinese traffic to Thailand picks up, it is likely to drive inbound figures to Malaysia and Singapore too, especially since Chinese package tours love to combine the three countries together,” he added.

The move has garnered a warm reception from inbound tour operators in the country.

Wacharaporn Phiewkaow, managing director of Discovery Holidays, said: “This exemption will make Thailand package prices cheaper and definitely make it easier for those who are still hesitant to travel to Thailand to decide.

“We expect this to push up our Chinese inbound business by at least 20 per cent, and it’s likely to be more effective in raising tourism revenue than just domestic tourism alone,” she remarked. “It would be even better if visas are entirely waived for Chinese tourists.”

Dependent on the results of the move, NCPO may consider extending the visa fee exemption period, Sisdivachr said.

Arrivals from China and Taiwan to Thailand plunged sharply in 1H2014 due to recent political unrest in the country.

Although Chinese inbound numbers to Thailand suffered a 23.4 per cent year-on-year drop during this period, the market stills makes up 16 per cent or 1.9 million of overall arrivals, according to the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

Likewise, Taiwanese arrivals fell 32.3 year-on-year to 174,061 during this period.

INDIA has come up with a new five-year strategy to rejuvenate the Buddhist heritage circuit across the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, announced India’s state minister for culture and tourism.

Minister Shripad Naik said at a press conference yesterday: “Our focus is to transform this Buddhist circuit from a collection of sites to a holistic tourism experience that appeals to various traveller segments.”

The plan, produced in collaboration with World Bank Group affiliate International Finance Corporation, includes the improvement of infrastructure, connectivity, hotels, roadside amenities and other tourist facilities to the tune of US$200 million, which will be raised through public-private partnership.

Specific Buddhist tourism sites to benefit from the plan are: Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Vaishali (Bihar), Sarnath, Kushinagar, Sravasti and Kaushambi (Uttar Pradesh).

However, Lajpat Rai, president of Lotus Trans Travel, noted: “In order to attract the private investment needed to create a favourable business environment, the state governments should consider rationalising the tax system for the Buddhist circuit tourism apart from easing the present licence system for hotels.”

India last week unveiled an ambitious Rs10 billion (US$166 million) budget to to develop India as a more attractive tourism destination including improving air access, airport construction in second- and third-tier cities, introducing e-visas at nine airports by end-2014, developing heritage sites and creating five themed tourist circuits (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 11, 2014).

PAN Pacific Hotels Group is adding extra resources into the China market with the opening of a new global sales office in Beijing, its second in the country after Shanghai.

Leading the new office is Charles Cheng, who will take up the role of director, global sales, Beijing. He will be responsible for managing key clients in Northern China and expanding the market through bookings for all the group’s properties.

Cheng brings close to 20 years of industry sales experience in China and was most recently director, global sales, Northern China at Langham Hospitality Group.

The new Beijing office will support the group’s growing portfolio in China that saw the addition of four Pan Pacific hotels over the past year – Pan Pacific Xiamen, Pan Pacific Suzhou, Pan Pacific Ningbo and Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Ningbo.

Pan Pacific Hotel and Serviced Suite Tianjin will debut with 319 rooms later this year. Chengdu and Zhuhai properties are also in the pipeline.

Kevin Croley, senior vice president, marketing & sales, Pan Pacific Hotels Group, said: “The opening of our new global sales office in Beijing and Charles’s appointment mark the latest in the group’s recent chain of developments in China, made in strategic response to the global importance and vast potential of the country’s domestic and outbound travel market.

“As a top Chinese city, Beijing is central to China’s tourism developments and represents a key source market for the group’s properties within and outside of the country. Our new Beijing global sales office, helmed by an experienced and capable Chinese sales veteran, will put the group in a more advantageous position to expand our customer reach and strengthen our foothold in this critical growth market,” he added.

THE tragic end to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 after it went down in Ukrainian airspace has shocked the world, and authorities are scrambling to ascertain if and who had shot down the aircraft as it flew the ICAO-approved route.

MH17 departed Amsterdam at 12.15 local time and the Boeing 777-operated flight was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 06.10 this morning, but MAS was notified by Ukrainian Air Traffic Control that the latter had lost contact with the aircraft at 14.15 GMT time, when the flight was approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

The smouldering remains of the aircraft were found near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, say international media reports. There are no known survivors.

Onboard were 298 people, including three infants and 15 crew members. The nationalities of 41 passengers remain unverified as of this morning. Confirmed on board were 154 Dutch passengers, 43 Malaysians including the crew of 15, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine from the UK, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and a Canadian.

In a release early this morning, MAS confirmed that the aircraft did not send a distress call, and ICAO had declared the route taken by MH17 as safe for travel. IATA had also stated that the airspace in question was not subject to restrictions.

MAS has since announced that all its European flights will be diverted to alternative routes.

The Malaysian flag carrier said it is “in the process of notifying the next-of-kin of the passengers and crew” and that “our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilise its full support to provide all possible care to the next-of-kin”.

Said Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in a statement today: “At this early stage, however, Malaysia is unable to verify the cause of this tragedy. But we must – and we will – find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone can be left unturned. If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice.”

Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists are trading blame for the tragic incident. Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has pledged a thorough and independent investigation in collaboration with Malaysian officials and will negotiated with the pro-Russian rebels to establish a humanitarian corridor to the crash site.

The International Business Times reports that the separatist rebels have agreed to a three-day ceasefire.

The catastrophe cements 2014 as an unfortunate year for MAS, coming four months after MAS flight MH370 went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 10, 2014).

TTG Asia Media continues to convert glittering journalistic prose to gold as it celebrates its 40^th year in the travel and tourism industry, winning for the fourth time the PATA Gold Award for Travel Journalism – Industry Business Article.

Earning the accolade is Team on board, the TTGmice cover story for November 2013 that looks at the rise of Asian meetings on cruise ships and investigates cruise operators’ claims that teambuilding and networking are more effective at sea than on land.

The article was written by TTG’s senior editor Raini Hamdi with inputs from Paige Lee Pei Qi, S Puvaneswary, Mimi Hudoyo, Shekhar Niyogi, Rosa Ocampo and Prudence Lui.

This is the fourth time TTGmice has been conferred the Gold Award for Travel Journalism – Industry Business Article, having also won in 2009, 2011 and 2013.

The awards luncheon and presentation will take place at Diamond Island City Hall, Phnom Penh on September 19 during the PATA Travel Mart and PATA Executive Board and Board Meeting.

Martin J Craigs, CEO of PATA, said: “On behalf of PATA, I would like to extend our warmest congratulations to all 2014 Grand and Gold Award winners. We are pleased to recognise their achievements at the PATA Gold Awards Luncheon and Presentation, and look forward to celebrating their accomplishments at the PATA Travel Mart in Phnom Penh.”

TYPHOON Rammasun sped through Manila for three hours yesterday, stripping the capital city of power and tragically taking 20 lives, while shutting down flight operations for the morning.

Airlines took quickly to social media platforms on Tuesday and Wednesday to announce flight cancellations.

Cebu Pacific Air cancelled international flights to Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok and Osaka, as well as a host of domestic flights.

Likewise Philippine Airlines announced on Tuesday that it was scrapping international flights to destinations including Riyadh, Fukuoka, Bangkok, Seoul, Los Angeles, Toronto, among others, and many domestic services.

According to Inquirer.net, the news website of the Philippines’ most-read daily The Philippine Daily Inquirer, airport operations at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) were grounded between 07.00 to 10.40 yesterday while the typhoon passed.

The eye of the typhoon locally known as Glenda passed through the south of the city, bringing winds at up to 120kph and gusts of up to 165kph, said the Inquirer.net article.

Aircraft parked at NAIA were not spared either. A Singapore Airlines aircraft hit an air bridge, breaking its left wing, while a Malaysian Airlines airplane’s right fuselage was damaged when it rammed into service stairs at the terminal, blown by strong typhoon winds.