Category Archives: Tourism/ travel industry

Thailand authorities dismiss chlorpyrifos as cause of Chiang Mai hotel tourist deaths

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The Downtown Inn, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo: Supplied

Thailand public health authorities have dismissed claims made by New Zealand 60 Minutes that the widely-used chemical agent chlorpyrifos is behind the deaths of a number of tourists at the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai earlier this year. The New Zealand current affairs program, supported by United Nations scientist Dr. Ron McDowall, made the claim in an episode titled To Die For, in which Dr. McDowall said he believed the dead Chiang Mai tourists had been “killed by an overzealous sprayer who’s been acting on the instructions of the hotel owner to deal with bed bugs,” Dr. McDowall said he had consulted with other experts in New Zealand and Italy and all agreed the likely cause of death of the … Continue reading →

Chiang Mai tourist death hotel mystery remains – governor slams foreign media report

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Chiang Mai Provincial Governor; Mom Luang Panadda Diskul slammed foreign media reports

This story was updated at 10:25am May 15, 2011. Additional/ edited text in green type. Mystery still surrounds the deaths of six foreign tourists and a Thai national tourist guide who stayed at The Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai earlier this year, with Provincial Governor ML Panadda Disakul criticising foreign media for exaggerating news that the Dow Chemical Co. chlorpyrifos was found in the room of dead New Zealand woman Sarah Carter. Mr. Panadda also dismissed claims made by a New Zealand-based United Nations scientist, who told New Zealand’s 60 Minutes program last Sunday that in his opinion Ms. Carter had been “killed by an overzealous [insecticide] sprayer”, saying there is no medical proof. On the 60 Minutes report Dr. … Continue reading →

Pattaya Bed races aid city’s poor

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Boystown Pattaya entry mirrored a theme from the stage play and movie Grease

The third annual Pattaya International Bed Races were held yesterday, January 30, 2011 with thousands of local and international holiday makers enjoying the spectacle along the beachfront of one of Thailand’s most recognized tourist destinations. Organised by the Pattaya chapter of Rotary International with the support of the Pattaya City Hall and Tourism Authority of Thailand, the annual Pattaya International Bed Races have become synonymous in Pattaya with the last Sunday of January, with foreign and Thai-owned local businesses straining to raise funds for the locally underprivileged. Local media baron and senior Pattaya Rotarian, Niels Colov, said that though the number of entrants was slightly down on last year because of the economy, he was optimistic that supporting leisure and … Continue reading →

Thailand tourism industry prioritised to lead 2009 recovery as economy shrinks 5%

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Tourists to Thailand have dropped dramatically since the seizure of airports last year by the Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD)

Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has targeted the Thailand tourism industry as a priority for reviving the Thai economy in 2009  in a speech to members of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council (Nesac). In his policies for solving economic and social problems speech, Mr Abhisit said the government needed to boost Thailand’s economy via tourism, with diversified campaigns aimed at attracting more tourists. He said since the yellow shirt Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seizure of Suvarnabhumi Airort last year that had standard hundreds of thousands of international tourists to Thailand there had been a drastic cut in the number of foreign tourists to Thailand. The highlighting of Thailand’s tourism industry as being vital to the economic revival … Continue reading →

Page rank and green dots no substitute for $$

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Thai handicrafts such as these delicate soap carvings in Chiang Mai

It occasionally comes as somewhat of a surprise that when some people discover the term “search engine optimization” (SEO) that all rationale and logic to what otherwise might be a sound business strategy flies out the window in pursuit of little green dots in page rank graphs, or search engine results page (Serp) position. Now don’t get me wrong, page rank and where a website appears in organic search results is important if a site is to attract web traffic and if the internet is going to be an effective marketing tool for the products and/or services a company offers. However, if too much attention is spent on these factors the risk is that the overall aim – that of … Continue reading →

Thailand losses its smile

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Tourism sector businesses are being sold-up as Thai tourism figures plummet.

Widely know as the Land of Smiles, or simply LOS, these days there are very few people smiling in Thailand as the ongoing political turmoil deteriorates by the day. From the northern city of Chiang Mai to the southern holiday island of Phuket, tour operators and owners of businesses in the tourism sector are already writing off this years peak season and calculating whether their reserves will last through to next year. Since the “anti-government” “Yellow Shirt” PAD protesters seized Bangkok’s Government House in August, tourism arrivals have stalled to the point that the country will be lucky to achieve the 14.6 million foreign visitors it attracted in 2007. Tourism in Thailand accounts for more than six per cent of … Continue reading →

Thailand tourism chief believes deadly clashes will not significantly affect tourism

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The head of Thailand’s tourism promotion authority has predicted the bloody and violent clashes between police and anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters last Monday (Oct. 7, 2008) will have an insignificant effect on the country’s tourism.

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