asiatraveltips.com Subject to government approval, airberlin will launch a new route between Abu Dhabi and Phuket, offering a daily year-round service to the popular island. The first daily non-stop flight from the Middle East to Phuket is an exciting development for leisure travellers across the Middle East and Europe.
PHUKET: A daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media.
Phuket Update Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha is due to join a Phuket resort road show to Taiwan today to try to entice back tourists who have yet to return to Phuket in great numbers after being reluctant to return to Phuket following the 2004 tsunami.
traveltrends.biz The boom in international travel by Australians continued through 2011 with a 9.6pc surge, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Fastest growing major destinations were Indonesia (11.9pc over 2010), USA (12.8pc), Thailand (15.7pc), China (22.5pc) and India (11.4pc).
TNN Maldives, the island nation of luxury resorts, erupted into a coup-like political crisis, resulting in the resignation of Mohammed Nasheed, the island's first democratically elected president. Vice-president Mohammed Waheed Hassan was sworn in later in the day, and he has pledged to form a national unity government until polls in 2013.
telegraph.co.uk Mr. Nasheed realised he had no option but to resign, an official said. "The other choice is a brutal crackdown," the official said. "We've lost control of the police and there have been some army defections."
herald-sub.com.au Anxious travellers, including Valentine's Day honeymooners, have cancelled their Maldives holiday plans in the wake of street protests. [Phuket is one alternative.] Tourism accounts for 60 percent of foreign currency earnings.
wsj.com The hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit the island each year generally bypass Male, the overcrowded capital where young people are underemployed and heroin addiction has become a problem.
bloomberg Qantas has taken one of its Airbus SAS A380 passenger jets out of service for as long as a week after discovering cracks in wing parts, the airline said.
bbc.co.uk In the decade to 2010, motorcycles made up just one per cent of road traffic in Britain, but their riders accounted for 21 percent of all fatalities.
guardian.co.uk Romania's prime minister and his cabinet have resigned after weeks of sometimes violent protests over widespread corruption and austerity measures.
Associated Press Singapore visitor arrivals rose to 13.2 million, up 13 percent from 2010, the Tourism Board said in a statement. Two casino resorts have helped attract visitors since 2010, particularly from neighboring Asian countries.
theborneopost.com The Casino Regulatory Authority of Singapore has fined casino operators a total of $S385,000 for breaching social safeguard requirements. The Marina Bay Sands had let in 14 Singapore citizens and permanent residents without valid entry levies, while Resorts World Sentosa let in five.
reuters Ian Paisley's wife and family maintained a bedside vigil as the firebrand Protestant minister, one of Northern Ireland's most prominent political figures, remained in a serious condition in hospital, aged 85.
edp24.co.uk Florence Green, the world's last surviving first world war veteran has died, closing the book on the war to end all wars almost 100 years after it began. She was 17 when she joined the Women's Royal Air Force in the late summer of 1918.
bangkokpost.com Barnabe Baudu, a 27-year-old project manager from France, has been to Phi Phi a couple times since his boss, opened a hotel on the island two years ago. Once Mr Baudu found out how expensive electricity is on the island, he seized on the opportunity to bring his company's experience in green energy to Thailand.
opp.org.uk Singapore's leading residential property developers are increasingly gloomy about the outlook for the city's 2012 real estate market, with some analysts predicting that prices could fall by as much as 10 percent.
guardian.co.uk Page 3 of the Sun is an innocent staple of British life whose daily pictures of topless models celebrate natural beauty, the editor of the Murdoch-owned tabloid told a newspaper phone hacking inquiry.
media release PHUKET, Thailand - HotelTravel.com added 113 new hotel partners in 64 cities worldwide during January, as its global partner portfolio continues to dramatically increase on a month-to-month basis.
smh.com.au Former women's tennis great Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, winner of four Grand Slam titles, says her parents have drained her of her $55 million wealth and left her struggling to pay off her debts. She no longer speaks to her parents and her two brothers - Emilio and Javier - also former tennis professionals.
guardian.co.uk The jury trying Spurs manager Harry Redknapp and former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric on charges of tax evasion was sent home after almost four hours of deliberations. The judge summed up: ''This case is not about football but about some allegations of tax fraud.''
clubcall.com British tennis duo Heather Watson and Laura Robson both made early exits from the Pattaya Open with first-round defeats.
February 23-26 10th Thai International Travel Fair, Bangkok
February 24-25 Phuket Blues Festival, Laguna Phuket
March 29-April 1 Phuket International Boat Show, Royal Phuket Marina
April Opening of Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, three waterfront gardens that will dwarf Kew in London and provide ''green lungs'' for the city.
May 5 Krabi celebrates the province's 140th anniversary
May 26-June 5 National Youth Games, Phuket
November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket
