Thailand has welcomed the 21 millionth visitor at Suvarnabhumi airport.
Yuthasak Supasorn, fourth left, congratulates Joshua McGahern.
The country is on track towards achieving 28.8 million visitors this year, up from 24.7 million visitors a year before, said the newly appointed Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) head Yuthasak Supasorn.
The lucky visitor was Joshua McGahern from Australia who flew from Perth. Under the "Millionth Visitor" campaign of TAT, McGahern received two economy-class and round-trip tickets from Thai Airways International, a hotel voucher for a five-night stay, a mobile phone with 3G sim and seven-day internet usage from True. The Airports of Thailand also offered an airport limousine ride to his booked hotel in Bangkok.
In addition, Thailand will introduce a new multiple entry tourist visa (METV) on Nov 13.
The new type of visa will allow tourists to be able visit the Kingdom with unlimited entry during the six-month period. Each stay must not be more than 60 days. The visa is open to every nationality and must be applied for at Thai embassy or consulate in their countries before arrival, according to the announcement by the Department of Consular Affairs.
At present, Thailand offers visa on arrival to tourists who will be able to stay not more than 30 days. If they apply for a tourist visa before their arrival into Thailand, the tourists will be able to stay for 60 days and the fee for the single-entry visa is 1,000 baht. The tourist visa may be extended twice, each time for an additional 30 days and the fee is 1,900 baht for each extension.
For the METV, the fee is 5,000 baht.
The new visa will facilitate business travellers to visit Thailand more often for their weekend vacations, according to Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul.
New Chinese visa application centre
The Chinese embassy has moved the visa application service from its Consular Sector to the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre on New Petchaburi Road.
The aim is to cope with the increasing number of applications and to facilitate all applicants efficiently, according to the embassy's statement.
As of Sept 29, the centre, which is a commercial service organisation, is now responsible for accepting and processing the applications for Chinese visa and documents' legalisation. The centre does not participate in the assessment and approval of Chinese visas.
The Consular Section of the Chinese embassy is still responsible for examining and approving visa applications and documents' legalisation and has the right to require additional documents and an interview of the applicants if needed.
For the applicants holding diplomatic passports, official (service) passports or ordinary passport holders applying for diplomatic, official, courtesy visa, or foreigners applying for Hong Kong and Macau visa, they still need to submit the applications directly to the Consular Section of the Chinese embassy.
The Chinese Visa Application Service Centre is located on the fifth floor of Thanapoom Tower, not far from the headquarters of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Those who need to apply for a Chinese visa, must do so online at www.visaforchina.org.
Guidebook for Muslim travellers
Jeju Tourism Association in South Korea has launched a 12-page travel guidebook for Muslim travellers.
"We worked with HalalTrip.com [an online travel platform] to put together this guide so that Muslim visitors to Jeju Island can now enjoy all what we have to offer," said the association president Young Jin Kim.
Titled Experience Jeju Island, A Traveller's Haven, the guidebook which is available in the English language offers information on attractions such as the dormant Hallasan Volcano, caves and fields of blossoming fragrant flowers, places to dine, places to pray and mosques within the island.
The e-guide is available at www.halaltrip.com.
Airline updates
Qantas Group has launched the FlyPink campaign to support breast cancer awareness and raise funds for research.
Starting today until the end of October, some of the airline pilots will swap out their normal gold epaulettes for pink epaulettes. The airline's campaign was started by Capt Susan McHaffie, whose aunt was diagnosed and beat breast cancer. Joining the airline in 2013, the captain was inspired by the National Breast Cancer Foundation and will fly a pink QantasLink aircraft to raise funds and awareness for the foundation.
"Together with Qantas, it is my goal to raise A$20,000 (725,000 baht) for breast cancer research," said Capt McHaffie.
To show support, visit www.flypink.net.
Hotel updates
Anantara Hotels, Resorts Spas has signed an agreement with Elephant Parade, a social enterprise that runs the world's largest art exhibition of decorated elephant statues, to host an open air art exhibition of 88 elephant statues in Bangkok.
Each elephant will be 1.5m high and brightly coloured by hand. The first art exhibition will be organised at Parc Paragon at Siam Paragon from Dec 1-18, followed by Asiatique from Dec 20 to Jan 11 and will end at Lumpini Park from Jan 15-29 next year.
The first major Elephant Parade was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2007, and extended to other cities including London, Amsterdam, Milan and Hong Kong.
The exhibition was originally created after founder Marc Spits and his son Mike visited the Friends of the Asian Elephant hospital which treats sick and injured elephants in Lampang. They saw Mosha, a baby elephant who lost her leg after stepping on a landmine when only seven months old, being the first elephant to receive a prosthetic limb. Mosha is always featured in each Elephant Parade exposition and will have a specially Thai-themed painted prosthetic leg for the Bangkok Parade.
The event also aims to raise funds for the world's biggest campaign for giving support to elephants.
In February next year a selection of elephant statues from the parade will be auctioned off at a charity gala dinner at the Anantara Siam Bangkok, with the proceeds going to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation which will use the funds to support a number of programmes that benefit elephants in Thailand including Wildlife Alliance, Freeland, WildAid, Think Elephants and Thai Elephant Therapy Project.
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