A visitor centre at Kanchanaburi’s principal WWII cemetery was officially opened yesterday. Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) vice chairman Sir Joseph French led Thai and foreign dignitaries at the auspicious ceremony at Don-Rak Cemetery.
Myanmar’s Tourism Ministry says it plans to promote Inle Lake as the country’s new up-and-coming holiday destination. Minister Htay Aung told media representatives that the ministry had already fine-tuned its management plan for the mountain region around the lake in Kayah State.
Thai carrier Nok Air has announced it will increase flight frequencies on a number of its domestic routes. The budget airline says it plans to add flights on eight different routes from its hub at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok.
A faction of Thai tour leaders has lodged a petition asking for punitive action to be taken over Chinese guides working illegally in Thailand. Around 40 members of the Mandarin Tour Guide Club gathered at the headquarters of the Thai Immigration Police and held up banners asking the bureau to clamp down on unlicensed guides.
Budget airline THAI Smile has re-affirmed its intentions of operating out of both of Bangkok’s public airports. After a meeting of the carrier’s board of directors, a spokesperson stated that its flights would continue to operate out of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports.
Thailand’s government has given the green light for the construction of an extra runway at the country’s chief international airport. Deputy prime-minister Prajin Juntong told media sources that increasing Suvarnabhumi Airport’s runways from two to three was all part of the master-plan to raise the facility’s annual passenger capacity.
Provinces in Northern Thailand are preparing to celebrate the end of the three-month Buddhist period of Lent. Wan Awk Pansa falls on Wednesday 8 October and will be marked with visits to local temples and general merriment as Buddhists who abstained from alcohol and other vices symbolically start up where they left off.
The governor of Laos’s northwestern Bokeo Province has announced that plans to construct an international airport here have been given the green light. Khammane Souvileunt said the site for the airport in Tonpheung District had already been surveyed and that the new airport would provide a central hub for flights to countries in this region of Southeast Asia.
A good number of the historic monuments and buildings in the Vietnamese city of Hue have been given a spruce up. The director of Hue’s restoration project told media representatives that work on 132 sights at the royal citadel and temples was now complete and they were now the epitome of their former glory.
Indian low cost carrier SpiceJet has relaunched flight routes to Thailand six months after abruptly cancelling services. The airline began operating daily fights between the East Indian city of Kolkata and Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport late last week.
Thailand’s tourism bureau has just announced the NASA Space Exhibition is coming to Bangkok in December. The two-month-long space extravaganza will be held at the Central Plaza Ladprao’s convention centre and the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s governor says this is the first time this kind of event has ever been staged in Southeast Asia.
The head ranger at a popular southern Thai national marine park has declared the park is now open to tourists again. Wikrant Thuaduang said the re-opening of Laem Son National Marine Park was effective from yesterday, the 1 October 2014.
A survey of Chinese visitors has revealed that Thailand is their most popular destination for the forthcoming autumn holidays. Figures collated by researchers show Chinese searched for holidays in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui and these were among their top 10 choices.
A Thai research agency has estimated Phuket will see a record number of tourists for 2014. Analysts with the KResearch Centre say they expect visitor arrivals to top the 13 million mark by the year end.
Figures just released by Thailand’s Tourism Ministry show that the nation remains a firm favourite for the on-location filming of movies, documentaries and advertising commercials. The ministry’s film bureau says that in the eight-month period from January to August 2014, international producers staged 384 on-location shoots in Thailand.
Thai airport officials say taxi-booths at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport are ready for use. An unnamed Airports of Thailand (AoT) spokesperson told media reporters the booths and queue management system have been tested and are ready for operations.
Mongolia’s national airline has just launched a new route linking Ulaanbaatar and Singapore. The president of MIAT Mongolian Airlines, Gungaa Jargalsaikhan, accompanied an entourage of dignitaries on the route’s maiden flight last week.
Thailand’s transport ministry says the cost of travelling in Bangkok by taxi and on its underground rail network is likely to rise. Government minister Prajin Juntong said that fares were supposed to increase on the Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT) on 2 October, but this has been put back to the start of the New Year.
Thai Airways has released a statement saying weight allowances for passengers’ checked luggage on its flights have been increased. Suraphon Israngura na Ayuthya, the Thai national carrier’s vice president, said passengers flying in all cabin classes would now be allowed an extra 10kgs of baggage.
A Thai tourism organisation says it would like the temporary free visas measure for Chinese visitors to be extended. The private-sector Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) says waiving the visa fee has encouraged Chinese nationals to sample Thailand’s abundant delights and should be extended beyond the 8 November cut-off date.