The annual travel awards by TripAdvisor have placed Bangkok at number 18 in the table of the planet’s favourite holiday destinations. TripAdvisor released its Travellers’ Choice 2015 awards earlier this week. The Thai capital climbed two places in the Top 25 Global Destinations category when compared with 2014.
The director of the airport serving the Vietnamese town of Nha Trang says a second terminal will be built to ease passenger congestion. Phan Le Hoan said the current facilities at Cam Ranh Airport are stretched to breaking point and infrastructure cannot cope with a recent surge in annual passenger numbers.
The Thai national tourism bureau has scheduled a bicycle rally for early next month in the seaside resort of Cha-am. The event will comprise a series of cycle races from a central base at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park near the town.
The CEO of AirAsia has announced that Langkawi Island will be its newest international hub airport. Tony Fernandes told reporters at a press briefing late last week that the plan was to base five aircraft at the Malaysian island’s airport.
Siem Reap’s newest luxury resort is offering discounts at its onsite eatery to mark the grand opening last month. The promotion at the Sarai Resort’s restaurant runs through until 30 April 2015 and gives patrons a hefty discount of 25 per cent off the prices of all dishes and beverages.
A grand groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled to mark the start of construction at an airport that will serve Halong Bay and its environs. Quang Ninh provincial officials and the Sun Group from South Korea will officially mark their auspicious collaboration with the ceremony this coming Friday, 27 March.
Authorities in Bagan have banned all heavy vehicles from passing through a gateway which is more than 1,000 years old. The administration team in charge of the ancient temple complex in the Myanmar city says heavy traffic passing through Tharapa Gate has damaged both the structure and its foundations.
The Malaysian government has released details of a plan to set up a new airline that will fly to regional destinations in the south and east of the country. On Tuesday, prime-minister Najib Razaka and deputy transport minister Aziz Kaprawi both attended the Langkawi Island Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition where the latter gave details about the plan.
Three men have been imprisoned in Myanmar for posting up an image of Buddha with a set of headphones on a Facebook ad. Two Myanmar nationals and one New Zealander each received two-year sentences at a court in Yangon on Tuesday for their roles in posting up the picture on the VGastro Bar’s webpage.
Leading travel review website Skytrax has named Suvarnabhumi Airport as one of the best facilities for its size in the world. Thailand’s principal air gateway came fifth in Skytrax’s annual ranking in the genre of airports with throughputs of between 40 and 50 million passengers a year.
A new Cambodian bus operator has inaugurated luxury services on two routes out of Phnom Penh. City Link Transportation inaugurated routes to Siem Reap and Sihanoukville earlier this month which offer passengers amenities such as massaging seats and seat-back entertainment monitors.
Leading global accommodation website Agoda has named a sleepy town in eastern Thailand as one of its burgeoning hotspots. For the past five years, Agoda has compiled a list of fresh destinations and the Isaan town of Buri Ram has made the grade for the 2015 edition.
Bangkok municipal authorities have instigated a plan to improve a pedestrian route linking two downtown parks. The city’s current assistant-governor says the route linking Lumpini and Benjakiti parks will be upgraded to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
The Southeast Asian arm of Absolute Hotel Services Group is in the process of adding a new property in Vietnam to its portfolio. On 1 April, Eastin Grand Hotels will assume management and branding duties of the Eastin Grand Hotel Saigon.
Provincial authorities in Ranong have released news of a project to upgrade a fishing-boat jetty so that it can accommodate tourist vessels. The governor of the southern Thai province, Suriyan Kanchanasilp, says work on the jetty at Tonson in Ngao Sub-district has already begun and the facility will soon be suitable for international visitors to use.
The South Korean national airline has announced it is to increase its flight frequencies to Nha Trang. A statement released by Korean Air at the end of last week said it would offer four flights a week to the Vietnamese seaside town with effect from 29 April 2015.
Municipal authorities in Luang Prabang will be staging a cultural extravaganza this year to mark the listing of the Laos town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The celebrations will take place between 7 and 9 December and mark the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO designation.
Thailand’s Transport Ministry has taken the first steps in a scheme that will see public transport operators in Bangkok share the same ticketing system. A director with the ministry, Phadet Praditphet, says the initial phase of the project will see the ticket systems of the BTS Skytrain network and the Expressways Authority of Thailand integrated.
The CEO of Kenya Airways has announced the airline will inaugurate a direct service to the Vietnamese capital city. Mbuvi Ngunze says the thrice weekly service from Nairobi to Hanoi will launch on 30 March 2015.
Squadrons of Thai military personnel have been draughted in to help fight the seasonal smog currently covering Chiang Mai. Both the army and the air force have been assisting by sending aircraft up to spray water to disperse the haze.