Good News for Phuket

[ancientmariner]

Bangkok Post
29 January 2005


Chinatown festival to draw 200,000


NONDHANADA INTARAKOMALYASUT

The annual festival in Bangkok's Chinatown to celebrate the Chinese New Year is expected to attract at least 200,000 visitors to the area and generate 400 million baht in revenue.

Most of the visitors to the Chinatown Festival 2005, to take place from Feb 9-10, will come from China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Despite the setback in the tourism industry following the tsunami in southern Thailand, the festival this year is likely to attract at least the same number of visitors as last year as it marks the 50th birthday of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and the 30th anniversary of Chinese-Thai diplomatic relations, according to Santichai Euachongprasit, the deputy governor for marketing, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

The celebration, which is co-organised by the TAT, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Samphanthawong District Community, will be held on a grander scale than in the past. It will feature four stages for spectacular shows performed by local artists and more than 170 performers from China.

The TAT will pay about half of the 15-million-baht organising cost with private sponsors handling the rest..

Visitors to the festival will be able to enter a a draw for prizes including a car, airline tickets and mobile phones.

After the festival, on Feb 11-12, the Chinese performers will go to Phuket.

Mr Santichai said China Central Television (CCTV) would broadcast the show in China, a move that would help reassure tourists about the safety and security of the southern Andaman coast as part of the TAT's marketing plan to rebuild tourists' confidence.

Sonthaya Khunpluem, the Tourism and Sports minister said that during the Chinese New Year, some 1.28 million local and foreign tourists are expected to travel within Thailand, an increase from 1.2 million in the same period last year.

In January, the number of overseas visitors fell by 17% compared to the same period last year. The figure is projected to increase by 7-8% in February, helped by foreign visitors coming to Thailand to celebrate Chinese New Year.

[Coolhand]

That's great, I plan to be in Phuket when they are!

[ancientmariner]

Now that I've reread the news article and it dawn on me that it's actually about Bangkok. But the below article is about Phuket:

Phuket to organize ‘nostalgic’ Chinese New Year

PHUKET, Jan 27 (TNA) – Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket is to organize old fashioned-style Chinese New Year celebrations in its first major effort to attract tourists after last month’s tsunamis, the Deputy Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Santichai Euachongprasit, announced today.

Mr. Santichai said that the celebrations running from 8-11 February would include an impressive line-up of events, including shows by over 170 performers flown especially from China.

Phuket, dubbed the ‘Pearl of the Andaman’, hit international media headlines last month when the massive waves slammed into its coastline, causing billions of baht worth of damage and leading to the loss of thousands of live.

The Chinese New Year celebrations will be seen as a benchmark of the island’s ability to put its tourism sector back on track.

Mr. Santichai noted that tourists from countries, including Korea, Sweden and Singapore, were already beginning to return to the island, and expressed confidence that the New Year celebrations would help the island return to normal.

The first day of the celebrations will see religious ceremonies performed by Chinese monks, and statues of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy will be taken out for the public to worship.

The remaining days will include an exhibition on the history of Phuket, with its unique Sino-Portuguese architecture, a light and sound show and performances from artists invited by the TAT from China’s Hokkien Province. (TNA)--E006

[stevem]

And the US Navy is dropping a couple of ships in late February.