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Thai tourists invade Japan for cheap thanks to a fantastic exchange rate
DestinationsThe Thai baht’s biggest quarterly gain against the yen since 1998 was enough reason for Kornkarun Cheewatrakoolpong, a 32-year-old economics lecturer in Bangkok, to change her honeymoon destination to Japan from Italy. “It’s more affordable,” Kornkarun said in an interview from her home in the capital on April 17, after returning from a business trip [...]
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Taiwan ramps up its tourism efforts, starting in Thailand
DestinationsLike many countries, Taiwan is aggressively promoting tourism again despite the global economic recession. Thailand is an interesting market for Taiwan because the number of Thai visitors is expected to grow by at least 10% this year. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau forecasts the number of Thai tourists visiting Taiwan will be 107,483 this year, up [...]
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New Thai tourism minister pledges to make tourist safety a priority
DestinationsSomsak Pureesrisak, the new tourism and sports minister, says tourist safety will take priority under his watch. “If Thailand is not a safe destination in the eyes of foreign tourists, it is useless to invest hundreds of billions of baht to promote Thai tourism,” he told a group of reporters as he marked his first [...]
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Korea tensions could impact Thailand tourism
DestinationsTrade officials are closely monitoring rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, amid concern the crisis could affect Thai trade with Seoul and Pyongyang. Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the International Trade Promotion Department, said Tuesday the department expected no short-term effect because of the tense situation. But she said a close watch would be maintained by [...]
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Phuket Chief of Police admits tourism crime is too high in Thailand
DestinationsThe chief of police in Phuket, Thailand, has asked for help to reduce the number of serious crimes against visitors in the popular beach resort. While announcing new crime figures for the island, police chief Maj-Gen Chote Chawanwiwat called for 5,000 more officers to help protect tourists from what local news sites describe as “mafia-style” [...]
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Thai tour operators push government to sniff out illegal Russian competitors
DestinationsLocal tourism operators in Phuket are unhappy with competition posed by Russian rivals. They have asked the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to investigate if the foreign competitors are operating illegally through Thai proxies. Pol Lt Col Nimit Promma, an officer of the DSI’s Bureau of Special Crime 3, said the DSI was looking into [...]
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Round-the-world travel bloggers killed in Thailand road accident
DestinationsA British couple’s round-the-world cycling odyssey ended in tragedy when both of them were killed in a road accident in Thailand. Peter Root and Mary Thompson, who had been chronicling their journey in a blog, died Wednesday when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok, Thai police said Monday. [...]
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Thais don’t like to travel in their own country because it is too crowded
DestinationsThais do not travel much in their country because the sites they want to visit are too crowded, while tourism operators prefer to welcome foreigners, according to a government poll. The poll found the top five provinces Thais would not revisit are Chon Buri (Bang Saen and Pattaya), Bangkok (Dusit Zoo, Siam Center and department [...]
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Thailand expects double-digit jump in Chinese New Year revelers this week
TransportAnother surge in air passenger traffic is taking place at Thai airports as Lunar New Year revellers, especially from China, start scrambling to the country this week. The number of passengers passing through Thailand’s six major airports during the holiday season, running from today until Feb 18, is expected to jump 21% over last year’s [...]
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Saturday Night Live mocks solo male tourists to Thailand because, well, you know
DestinationsPoor Rosetta Stone. The language learning service that’s changed the game for the business in ways that Bertlitz would rather not think about was a target of Saturday Night Live this weekend. In a segment dedicated to independent learners proudly sharing why they’re studying a foreign language online, writers focused on a few … let’s [...]
