PHUKET has something to look forward to - a charter flight from Paris carrying Miss France contestants and French media representatives.
The flight is planned for November, according to Suwalai Pinpradab, the departing regional director for TAT who is taking a new posting in Frankfurt, Germany.
She hopes the November flight will be the start of a better connection with French travellers.
A total of 22,617 French came to Phuket in the first quarter of 2008.
Give or take the long-haul aviation crisis, France is a recovering market, with a 20 percent increase in numbers to 79,291 in 2007. In 2004, pre-tsunami, 86,375 French visitors came to Phuket.
The figure in 2003 was even higher, at 109,218. Back then, the Swedes were leading a boom in arrivals from Europe and Scandinavia.
PHUKET'S contribution from tourism to Thailand's national coffers in 2007 amounted to 90 billion baht, up from 80 billion baht the previous year, Khun Suwalai says.
(The return to Phuket from the national government coffers was a working budget of about 160 million baht and the possibility that some big infrastructure projects might be funded. The Governor had asked for 300 million baht.)
Phuket's MICE market continues to grow, Khun Suwalai says.
Investment is increasing because of Phuket's good essential security and improved air access through 2007. But good management is needed to ensure that local people prosper, she says.
Language studies and boat building skills are two essentials where improvement was needed, Khun Suwalai says.
* Phuketwan has been told that flights to and from Bangkok are much more difficult to book and are more expensive now that Nok Air and One-Two-Go no longer fly the Phuket-Bangkok route.
One reader said the prices of tickets online for Air Asia appeared to have risen alarmingly.
Phuketwan's scoop report of July 25. One week later, Nok Air confirmed the report:
Nok Air Cuts Bangkok Flights, Sacks Staff
Phuketwan, first media outlet with a comprehensive report on One-Two-Go:
DCA Report Lashes One Two Go on Safety
The flight is planned for November, according to Suwalai Pinpradab, the departing regional director for TAT who is taking a new posting in Frankfurt, Germany.
She hopes the November flight will be the start of a better connection with French travellers.
A total of 22,617 French came to Phuket in the first quarter of 2008.
Give or take the long-haul aviation crisis, France is a recovering market, with a 20 percent increase in numbers to 79,291 in 2007. In 2004, pre-tsunami, 86,375 French visitors came to Phuket.
The figure in 2003 was even higher, at 109,218. Back then, the Swedes were leading a boom in arrivals from Europe and Scandinavia.
PHUKET'S contribution from tourism to Thailand's national coffers in 2007 amounted to 90 billion baht, up from 80 billion baht the previous year, Khun Suwalai says.
(The return to Phuket from the national government coffers was a working budget of about 160 million baht and the possibility that some big infrastructure projects might be funded. The Governor had asked for 300 million baht.)
Phuket's MICE market continues to grow, Khun Suwalai says.
Investment is increasing because of Phuket's good essential security and improved air access through 2007. But good management is needed to ensure that local people prosper, she says.
Language studies and boat building skills are two essentials where improvement was needed, Khun Suwalai says.
* Phuketwan has been told that flights to and from Bangkok are much more difficult to book and are more expensive now that Nok Air and One-Two-Go no longer fly the Phuket-Bangkok route.
One reader said the prices of tickets online for Air Asia appeared to have risen alarmingly.
Phuketwan's scoop report of July 25. One week later, Nok Air confirmed the report:
Nok Air Cuts Bangkok Flights, Sacks Staff
Phuketwan, first media outlet with a comprehensive report on One-Two-Go:
DCA Report Lashes One Two Go on Safety
