TRAVEL TITBITS
KARNJANA KARNJANATAWE
Hotels, airlines and tour operators in Asia have been urged to set carbon reduction targets following the action of those in the tourism industry in Europe.
The message was conveyed during the "Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) CEO Challenge 2008: Confronting Climate Change" meeting held at the Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre last week.
Awareness among consumers can be a major drive, according to Marriott Lodging International president and managing director Edwin Fuller. He said consumers in Europe demand that they want to know the environmental programme of a hotel before booking, while the European Union has threatened to ban airlines which do not offset their emissions. These can be applied to the tourism industry in Asia, despite a lack of incentives or environmental policy initiatives on the part of governments.
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation, the tourism industry accounted for about five percent of global emission last year. It predicted that growth of the industry could increase carbon emissions by 150 percent in the next 30 years.
"The tourism industry, for its own sake, will have to adapt," Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rajendra Pachauri said in a pre-recorded video shown at the seminar attended by 230 delegates from the Asia-Pacific region.
"I would appeal to you and urge you to take steps so that you are seen not as the problem but part of the solution," he noted.
Meanwhile, the Pata meeting also announced that it will invest in two sustainable tourism projects; the Thai Royal Project, which is a sustainable development initiative in northern Thailand, and the non-profit organisation Atmosfair, which manages carbon-reducing projects worldwide.
Joint bank-airline card
Krungthai Card (KTC) and Thai Airways have introduced what is their first joint credit card for Thai consumers.
The card comes with four Royal Orchid Plus choices; Visa Infinite, Visa Platinum, Titanium MasterCard and JCB. It carries no charge nor an annual fee, and reward points can be earned with every 20 baht spent, without a time limit on mileage claim. Other privileges include special offers from KTC's travel partners such as Dtac, hotels and car rental companies. KTC expects 100,000 applicants to sign up during the first 12 months.
For more information, visit the web site http://www.ktc.co.th.
Non-stop to Macau
Bangkok Airways will fly non-stop daily to Macau starting July 4 using its new twin-engined 120-seater Airbus 319 on the route. It's the third airline after Thai AirAsia and Air Macau to offer direct flights on the route.
Bangkok Airways CEO Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth said the flights would meet the demand of Thai tourists keen to visit the oldest and last European colony in China.
A statistics of the Macau Government Tourist Office in Bangkok shows that arrivals from Thailand have jumped in the past few years, leaping from 57,876 visitors in 2005 to 140,749 in 2007.
Only in the first quarter of this year, the number of Thais travelling there was 55,834, which is 81.26 percent increase when compared to the first quarter of 2007. Overall, the number of Thais visiting Macau in 2008 is excpected to rise 40 percent from last year.
Dive expo May 15-18
The 5th Thailand Travel and Dive Expo is scheduled May 15-18 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.
There will be 85 booths selling cameras, diving, fishing and climbing gear while tour agents, resorts and hotels will be offering attractive travel and holiday packages.
Running parallel to the expo is the 5th Thailand Bouldering Competition during which adventure buffs are required to climb a five-metre-high boulder without the help of any equipment. A safety mattress will be placed at the foot of the boulder as a precautionary measure.
If you have any comments or news to share, mail to karnjanak@bangkokpost.co.th.
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