A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective and reports from national and international media.

wcjb.co.uk Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest, has indicated that she is no longer opposed to tourism. She is now saying that the sector can be encouraged, so long as it is part of private and not government enterprise, and that it might actually help draw more attention to the oppression of the Burmese people. She made her views known through a member of her political party, the National League for Democracy. In 2002, when interviewed by the BBC, she commented: ''We have not yet come to the point where we encourage people to come to Burma as tourists.'' News of her change in position is being welcomed by the tourism industry, but has left campaigners against the military dictatorship unmoved.


nytimes.com The global tourism industry is taking a nosedive despite the peak summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. Travelers are taking shorter vacations, if they go at all, and spending less. Hotel occupancy rates during the first half of the year are down in Europe, the US, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region compared with last year, according to data compiled by STR Global, a market forecaster. A report published in June by the World Tourism Organisation, a UN agency that studies and promotes tourism, predicted that the industry would decline by four percent to six percent over all during 2009. Those figures were revised downward because of the global recession and the H1N1 virus.

Associated Press Tourism officials in Las Vegas plan to hire a terrorist intelligence analyst in part to assure conventioneers that they will be safer in Las Vegas than if they meet in other cities. The board of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority approved funding for the next three years for the position. The analyst will work under Las Vegas police in the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Fusion Center.

straitstimes.com Adventurous individuals can soar above Sentosa next year with the opening of the Singapore island's first skydiving simulator. The first such attraction of its kind will give people a chance to try the sport, safely. Visitors will ''fly'' in the iFly Singapore, a five-storey (17m) and 5m-wide wind tunnel - one of the largest in the world - right outside Sentosa's Beach Station. Inside the tunnel, winds will blow at up to 274 km/h. Flying in at about $25 million, the attraction is expected to bring more than 100,000 visitors and generate more than $15 million a year.

Associated Press Rescue mission or diplomatic risk? While the sight of a freed American prisoner landing on home soil is a celebrated victory, recent high-profile diplomatic rescues in North Korea and Burma can also complicate US diplomacy. The release of an American from Burma after a visit there by Senator Jim Webb follows a similar rescue of two journalists by former President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang. Both gained their public goal - the freedom of US captives. But both also nudged open a diplomatic door that could either invite welcome change or slam shut on President Obama's emerging foreign policy.

wsj.com North Korea agreed to restart family reunions and tourism by South Korean citizens at an enclave on the country's east coast, state media said, in a move that could ease tensions with the South and revive what had been a steady income stream for the impoverished country Last week, the North released a South Korean worker that it had held for more than four months, and Pyongyang seems intent on engaging with the outside world after nearly a year of mounting tensions.

bloomberg.com North Korean overtures to resume tourism and family reunions with South Korea may be a sign that sanctions are pressuring Kim Jong Il's regime to alter its behavior, the US envoy working on enforcing the measures said. If this is a signal that UN sanctions are forcing the North to reconsider its belligerent actions and return to diplomacy, ''it would be welcome, and the door is open,'' Ambassador Philip Goldberg said.

aljazeera.net More than 30,000 supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister, have handed in a petition at Bangkok's Grand Palace seeking a royal pardon for his 2008 corruption conviction. Officials from the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, also known as the Red Shirts, said they had collected at least 3.5 million signatures in support of Thaksin, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006 and fled abroad last August to escape a two-year jail term.

informationweek.com A federal grand jury has indicted Albert Gonzales, 28, of Miami, Florida, for allegedly hacking into computers belonging to retail and financial companies and stealing more than 130 million credit and debit cards. Gonzales and two unidentified co-conspirators located in or near Russia, are charged with conducting injection attacks on corporate computer networks. The US Department of Justice says the indictment represents the largest data breach indictment in the US.

bernama.com The people of Indonesia, numbering 230 million, celebrated the Independence Day nationwide with various activities including flag-raising, parades and telematches like climbing slippery pinang trees and catching ducks. Meanwhile, Indonesians working in Kuala Lumpur expressed the hope that the republic would enjoy peace from the economic and political stability. Latif Supri, 44, a contractor who has been working in Malaysia for 25 years, said that this year's celebration meant so much for the people, especially when they had been deluged with problems, including terrorism.

theage.com.au The army no longer rules. The economy is no longer broken. Indonesia, for so long under the heel of dictators, is now what one analyst calls '''the best functioning democracy in South-East Asia'''. A decade ago president B. J. Habibie unexpectedly ended the dictatorship to allow free speech, a free press, independent courts and free elections. While China, Singapore and Malaysia remain in the grip of ruling elites that won't let power out of their grasp, Indonesia has become a country where people can say what they like without having to check who's listening.

pr-usa.net The World Medical Health Tourism Conference: A New Way Forward in 2009 has added a list of exciting new speakers. In addition, a great opportunity has emerged for doctors, medical tourism operators, insurance companies and the likes. Delegates will have the chance to not only meet with executives from both world famous medical facilities in Phuket - the Bangkok Hospital Phuket and Phuket International Hospital - but also have the chance to do in-depth onsite inspections and attend workshops in both hospitals' premises.

thailand-business-news.com With an estimated 45 million uninsured Americans, some 500,000 trekked overseas last year for medical treatment, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. Asian hospitals in Thailand, India and Singapore have long been swarmed by medical tourists are now gaining reputations for big-ticket procedures including heart surgery, knee and back operations. But the US health care industry has been largely immune to overseas competition - just one reason behind soaring costs.

telegraph.co.uk A total of 2486 divers were involved in a mass dive record attempt off the coast of North Sulawesi, the Guinness adjudicator Lucia Sinigagliesi told AFP. ''This event was amazing and well-organised and made possible because of the people who came and participated,'' she said, after confirming that the group had broken the record for ''Most People Scuba Diving Simultaneously''. The challenge was part of the Sail Bunaken 2009 maritime event as part of efforts to establish the Sulawesi town of Manado as a world-class tourist destination.

timesonline.co.uk A British pilot hailed as ''an aviation entrepreneur'' was killed when his prototype plane crashed during take-off on a test flight in Malaysia. Michael Robert Dacre, 53, was flying a Jetpod aircraft, developed by his own British-based company, Avcen, when it came down at an airstrip in Taiping. The plane is being developed to take off and land over short distances and cruise at low levels at 500km/h. It would need only 125 metres to take off or land, allowing runways to be built close to the centre of cities, and would be quiet enough to not be noticeable above city traffic.

smh.com.au There has been much talk of the Hydropolis (hydropolis.com) underwater luxury resort in Dubai and the Poseidon (poseidonresorts.com) in Fiji, both originally marketed to open this year. The Poseidon, which will have 24 suites built 12 metres under the water, set in a coral lagoon teeming with wildlife, has set back the opening date to next year. The Hydropolis is a proposed 220-room resort in the Persian Gulf complete with, wait for it, a cosmetic surgery clinic - the theory being that underwater is the best place to hide while those scars heal. Dubai Tourism says the resort is still at concept stage but will open eventually.

guardian.co.uk The British Foreign Office - and its Australian equivalent - may currently warn against all but essential travel there (so travel insurance may be invalidated) but that hasn't stopped hardcore explorers putting Timor Leste on their gap-year itineraries. All that matters to them is discovering the footprint-free beach, the place that's just like Thailand before the guidebooks. East Timor ticks all the boxes for the extreme traveller, and earns maximum bragging points for those travellers' tales exchanges. There is barely any tourism. No luxury hotels, golf courses or malls - not even the travellers' huts and hippy markets elsewhere on the backpacker circuit. Yet those few adventurous souls who come here will find a very special place - empty beaches, spectacular diving, sleepy fishing villages, mountains like Nepal's, wooden-hut villages, forests and monstrous rock formations.

jaunted.com Gentle, quiet Laos exceeds all expectations, from its limestone mountains to meandering rivers and ethnic minority villagers whose outfits are so intricate and lovely they could pass as a winter collection at Fashion Week. And Laos' appeal comes without the drawbacks of traveling through its neighbor countries - Vietnam has too many tourists, double goes for Thailand, and the charm of Cambodia's underdevelopment and unpaved roads wears thin after a 12-hour minibus ride with 18 butts to 10 seats.


Tsunami Dead Drowning in a Wave of Apathy
Photo Album Thailand is among 40 nations doing nothing to preserve the memory of the unidentified dead who perished on Phuket and along the Andaman coast in the tsunami.
Tsunami Dead Drowning in a Wave of Apathy

Dane Drowns at Karon: Call for Safety in the Sea
Latest Latest drowning victim on Phuket is a Danish man who died on Sunday at Karon, scene of a succession of drownings this ''Summer.'' An Australian expert offers answers.
Dane Drowns at Karon: Call for Safety in the Sea

Forgery? Accused Tourist Says 'I Was Fooled'
Latest A British tourist accused of trying to exchange forged pound notes has told Phuket police that the notes were given to him by a bank before he came on holiday.
Forgery? Accused Tourist Says 'I Was Fooled'

Five-Star Phuket Affair Ends in Tragedy: Two Die
Latest A murder suicide at a five star island resort close to Phuket leaves colleagues in shock at a love story with a tragic ending. It's the latest in a spate of violence in the region.
Five-Star Phuket Affair Ends in Tragedy: Two Die

Phuket 'Preferred to Bangkok' says Air Centre
Latest New V Australia flights to Phuket may be a sign the island is growing as a hub at the expense of Bangkok, reports a survey by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Phuket 'Preferred to Bangkok' says Air Centre

Phuket 'Needs Lease Changes, End to Corruption'
Latest A property industry leader says the structure of leases in Thailand should be extended to encourage buyers, and corruption on Phuket needs to be fought and beaten.
Phuket 'Needs Lease Changes, End to Corruption'

Phuket Drownings Rile Fans of World's No.4 Beach
Latest Karon rates No. 4 on a world list of ''Top 10 Beach Holidays for Families'' but it's also right up there when it comes to drownings, too. A critic lashes Phuket's lifeguard system.
Phuket Drownings Rile Fans of World's No.4 Beach


MediaWATCH: Melbourne-Phuket Flights Coming
News Digest Virgin Blue aims long haul; Japanese economy grows; Call for China to act on Burma; Indonesia probes email threats; how to drop rates sensibly; Singapore shaken.
MediaWATCH: Melbourne-Phuket Flights Coming