October 2003

Important Travel Information

Hotels & Restaurants

VIETNAM ·

• New resort opens in Hoi An. Vinh Hung Ltd. has opened a new Vinh Hung Resort in Hoi An, in addition to the existing Vinh Hung 1, 2, and 3 hotels. Built in traditional Vietnamese style, the resort has 82 rooms and is located on the Hoai River.
• New hotel in Halong. A Vietnamese owned hotel, Mithrin Hotel, will officially open for business in October. A four-star property with 70 guest rooms and 18 suites, the Mithrin Hotel offers swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, gym and broadband internet access. For more information, please contact your sales manager.
• Saigon Prince Hotel been renamed. From October 2003, Saigon Prince Hotel will be renamed Duxton Hotel Saigon.
• Rex hotel under renovation. Rex Hotel is undergoing extensive renovations, beginning from August and expected to finish in 2004. By December, the hotel will have completed renovation of rooms in the East Wing. In January, they plan to begin construction of a new building in front of the Ho Chi Minh people's committee. This area will include 70 deluxe bedrooms, a 1000-seat meeting hall, two car parks, a supermart and a sports complex.
• Renovations in Victoria Phan Thiet Hotel. The lobby lounge in the main building and around the entrance of Victoria Phan Thiet Hotel is currently under renovation, expected to be finished by 15 October 2003. The hotel is providing all guests with a bottle of sparkling wine and fruit basket during the renovation period.
• Blackout dates for Rex Hotel. From 1 - 16 December 2003, Rex hotel is fully booked for the 22nd SEA Games.

CAMBODIA

• New resort. Kirirom Resort is a new resort near Kirirom National Park just 109 km away from Phnom Penh. The resort is built in a bungalow/camping style with options for fishing, boating, horse-riding, tennis, sauna and fitness in a natural setting. The rooms are well equipped with air condition, satellite colour TV, bathroom with shower and includes a free pass to the park. For more information, please contact your sales manager.

MYANMAR ·

• Sandoway Resort: New villas. Sandoway Resort has now finished the construction on 18 new villas. The villas are located next to the existing bungalows on a 250 meter long stretch of white sand beach. Most are located directly on the beachfront, with some on the second row providing limited sea view.

THAILAND

• BANGKOK
  The German hotel chain Kempinski has been chosen by Siam Paragon Development to manage its five-star hotel, scheduled to open in 2005, at the 12-billion baht (US$286 million) Siam Paragon complex currently under construction. The hotel will be constructed on a 29-acre plot of land next to Siam Centre shopping complex, replacing the demolished Siam InterContinental Hotel. Please be informed that The newly renovated swimming pool of Menam Riverside Hotel is complete as well as the its newly Coconut Terrace Restaurant at the poolside ambience.

• CHIANG MAI
  Westin Chiangmai will be rebranded the Sheraton Chiangmai Hotel in November. The property is in the midst of a US$1.5 million renovation programme, which includes a refurbishment of the rooms and renovating the coffee shop.

• CHIANG RAI
  The Legend Chiang Rai postpones its opening to 15December'2003.

• PHUKET
  Hilton International and PPC Holdings have announced an agreement for Hilton to manage the Phuket Arcadia beach Resort, which will be rebranded the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa from 1Oct'2004. The resort will undergo a 'multi-million dollar rebranding programme', including guest rooms and improvements to food and beverage outlets and meeting rooms.

• BEST Western Hotels (BWH) has signed up two hotels in Phuket and is in advanced negotiations for three other properties in Thailand. The Phuket signings add another 379 rooms to the BWH Thailand portfolio.
• The 180-room Phuket Ocean Resort at Karon Beach will be rebranded Best Western Phuket Ocean Resort by November while a new 199-room property on Bang Tao beach, Best Western Premier Bang Tao Resort and Spa, is scheduled to open on October 1.
• The Paradise Koh Yao postponed its opening to 17January'2004.

• KOH SAMUI
  Chaweng Regent Beach Resort. Renovation on various areas as follows:-
  Pool : To begin on 20Sep'03, for 30 days. Noise factor would be a short-lived affair of approximately four days during the removal of the tiles that would be chiselled off manually.
• Spa : The gym will be relocated to the current massage rooms and the present gym will be converted into a wet massage area comprising of hydrotherapy basins, whirl-pools and jacuzzis. The first floor would comprise of body, foot and facial massage rooms, meditation and spiritual exercise rooms; along with a health counter. Rejuvenation works will also commence on 20Sep'03 and will take 60 days to complete.
  In spite of the above captioned works, services to clients will not be disrupted nor minimised, as four bungalows will be converted into massage facilities and the second pool will still be in operation. The clients will be allocated far from renovation area. The restricted working hours will be from 09.00 - 17.00 hours daily.

Travel

• TG flights to Luang Prabang. Effective from 29 November, Thai Airways will start a direct flight from Bangkok to Luang Prabang. It will operate thrice-weekly (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays) using the ATR 72 aircraft, which can accommodate 66 passengers. For more information, please contact your sales manager.
• Mekong World Heritage flights. Bangkok Airways has decided to operate the Mekong World Heritage flights only in the winter, due to weather conditions affecting flights during the summer. This change will begin from summer 2004. From 1 October 2003, the flight will operate thrice-weekly and from 1 December 2003 it will be increased to five flights a week. For further information, please contact your sales manager.
• THAI Airways International (THAI) will operate flights to Koh Samui starting in October.
  THAI is proposing to operate two flights a day using a Boeing 737-400, but because of payload restrictions on Samui's runway, they would only fly 100 passengers per flight, and no cargo.
• THAI Airways International (THAI) is offering five new routes in its winter schedule from October until the end of March 2004. All the five new routes include either Phuket or Chiang Mai, reflecting the carrier's compliance with government policy to make these two destinations major hubs in their own right.
• Three flights a week on the Sydney-Melbourne-Bangkok route will now stop at Phuket before flying on to Bangkok. A Boeing 747-400 with 390 seats will be used instead of the MD-11. Three flights a week will be pulled from the Osaka-Bangkok non-stop service and will instead route through Phuket utilising an A300-600. New routes using the northern hub include Tokyo-Chiang Mai-Bangkok, thrice weekly using a Boeing 777-200; and Taipei-Hong Kong-Chiang Mai-Bangkok, also three times weekly.
• Chiang Mai-Rangoon is the fifth new route. This is timed to connect with incoming flights from Japan and will operate four times a week using one of the carrier's two ATR 72 aircraft.

MYANMAR

• Bagan airfield announcement. Myanmar's Department of Civil Aviation has informed us that Nyaung U Airport (Bagan) will be closed daily after 2.00 pm, from 20 September 2003 until further notice. The airlines are currently appealing to extend the opening hours to 5.00 PM We will keep you informed of any new developments through this newsletter and newsflashes.

THAILAND

• Bangkok's new international airport, Suvarnabumi, setup for an official operational date - September 29, 2005. The New Bangkok International Airport company said it will be completed by December 2004. When ready, the airport can handle 45 million passengers, up from the original 30-40 million.
  It has a capacity for 112 flights per hour. All flights, including domestic, charter and cargo, will shift to the new airport which is about 30 km from Bangkok. There are plans to build a direct rail network similar to that in Hong Kong. The current airport at Don Muang would be closed and could be developed into a trade and convention centre.
• Also adding to the slew of infrastructural developments taking shape in Bangkok is Bangkok's second mass transit rail system. Complementing the elevated Skytrain, the subway is on track for a test run on April 13 next year in preparation for an official opening on August 12, the Queen's birthday. The underground rail system will run from the city's main railway station, Hua Lamphong, under two major thoroughfares linking the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre with several hotels, shopping centres and business districts.
• Trilateral Highway Project
  The work has been started to build a Trilateral Highway Project to link Thailand and Myanmar with India whose Prime Minister is considering establishing a rail-link to connect New Delhi and Hanoi.

VIETNAM

• No visa requirement for Indonesian nationals. Effective from October, Indonesian tourists no longer need a visa to enter Vietnam. Thus this adds to the already existing list of 3 nationalities, Thais, Filipinos and Malaysians in not needing visas to visit the country. For more information, please contact your sales manager.
• Central Highlands airport reopens. The Buon Ma Thuot airport in Central Highlands of Dac Lac province has reopened after three months of upgrading. The airport upgrading included the expansion of the landing ground and two runways and installation of lighting equipment.

Social

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