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Six Senses Hideaway Con Dao set to open in December

How to Live in a Different Country for a Short Time

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Dear Travel Weekly readers!

Welcome to the 32 Issues of Travel Weekly!

First of all, on behalf of all the members at Travel Weekly Magazine I would like to say thank you very much for supporting and sharing with us your ideas since the early days of our magazine.

Born to bring our readers useful and up-to-date information about Travel Busi-ness in Vietnam and around the world to your desktop every Thursday, today, Travel Weekly becomes a part of your daily works for all travel executive as well as travel lovers those who cares about the tourism industry.

We understand that saving a tree is the responsibility for everyone who inter-ested in the environmental disaster as what the Business Travel operators call “Responsible Travel”, therefore, towards the eco-friendly environment, Travel Weekly call our each issue is Eco-Friendly Magazine because we design and “print” and/or publish our magazine in PDF format which allows us to send you immediately via e-mail as well as distribute our magazine to global read-ers. Moreover, at our website, there is even a better way to read our magazine without download which let you choose the first read and then deciding to keep it on your computer for store or further review.

We do hope that everything we do is just to give you everything in travel news for your works and your care. We are looking forward to receive your supports and share with us in the coming time. Thank you for travelling with us!

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http://www.itehcmc.com/

06. Czech Cultural events to be held in Hanoi

02. Hanoi plans to let off fireworks on National Day

VIETNAM NEWS

04. Golfplan breaks ground on Saigon resort 18

03. Local tourists to opt for budget tours

08. Human resources look for qualified workers

10 culture and customs of Spanish to know

when travelling & living in Spain 36 - 37Spanish culture is widely known for Flamenco music and dance, bullfights, fantastic beaches and lots of sunshine. But what is Spain known for? It has much more to offer than that. It is - and has been for thousands of years, one of the cultural centers of Europe. Live in and experience your emotion.

Con Dao Six Senses Hideaway is a new luxury real estate development and spa in Vietnam. Located 180km off the Southeast coast of Vietnam in a dramatic archi-pelago of 14 islets, Con Dao offers spectacular views, protected tropical forests and pristine beaches and stunning coral reefs. Six Senses will welcome its first guests in December.


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Let’s say your parents have decided to take you abroad for a year, maybe because they have a sabbatical or maybe just for “fun”. To an adult, it may seem like the perfect opportunity for you to learn a new language and make new friends but it’s a whole different story! What about the whole part where you have to LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE?

How to Live in a Dif-ferent Country for a

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11. Travel expo expresses heritage sites and river tourism

12 . Vietnam Hotel Expo 2010 delayed until December

15. Key programs for the capital’s grand anniversary

16. Hanoi sprints last days to its an-niversary

1,000 YEARS OF THANG LONG - HANOI

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

18. Bangkok Airport Rail Link begins full commercial operations

19. Hong Kong sees visitor arrivals up

21. Australia lures more Chinese tourists to Gold Coast

22. Hawaii welcomes visitor arrivals growth

24. WTM introduces Technology & Online Travel Theatre

28. Indonesia to build 14 new airports

29. Korean Air enhances Skypass loyalty scheme

AVIATION NEWS

30. Garuda Indonesia launches direct flights to Tokyo

31. LOT Polish Airline launches Hanoi - Warszawa direct route

32. Chile’s LAN and Brazil’s TAM launch LATAM Airlines

40 - 41. Medical Tourism ~ Solution for Healthcare

42 - 44. Vegetarian Festival - For Health and Environment

DO YOU KNOW

DESTINATIONS

BUSINESS ADVICE

MEDICAL TOURISM

VIETNAM NEWS

Thursday 26.08.2010 www.travelweekly.com.vn

US$1,8 billion invested in Eco-tourism project

A vegetarian festival themed “For Health and the Environment” will be held in HCM City from 26-29 Au-gust, attracting the participation of famous vegetarian restaurants in the city and nearby localities. Nearly 100 dishes will be introduced at 80 pavilions during the festival. The event aims to raise public awareness of the benefits of eating vegetarian food and is expected to be held annually on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month towards the Vu Lan festival to show children’s gratitude to their parents.

Hanoi will organise firework displays in four locations on 2nd September to celebrate the 65th anniversary of National Day.

According to Vice Director of the municipal Culture, Sports and Tourism Department Nguyen Khac Loi, high-range fire-works will be set off by Hoan Kiem Lake (Hoan Kiem District), Thong Nhat Park (Hai Ba Trung District), Ly Tu Trong monu-ment (Tay Ho district) and Van Quan Lake (Ha Dong District).

To celebrate the August Revolution (19th August) and National Day as well as to mark 30 days ahead of the 1,000th anniver-sary of Thang Long-Hanoi, many cultural activities will take place in the centre of the city and 29 Districts.

Thirsty Thursday, Southeast Asia’s biggest tourism industry networking event, returns to HCMC on 16 September 2010.

Following a successful first event at the New World Hotel in May, September’s Thirsty Thursday will take place at one of Vietnam’s newest and most stylish venues, Roof Garden Saigon at Kumho Plaza (next to Intercontinental Saigon), and is sure to attract a big crowd from the city’s tourism & hospi-tality industry.

The event, organised by Saigon Tourism Industry Networking Group and Travel Daily Asia, features complimentary beer provided by Tiger Beer, complimentary wine provided by The Warehouse, and free snacks/soft drinks provided by the venue and sponsored by TRG International/eHotel Alliance. There will also be a lucky draw with prizes donated by Life Resorts, Victoria Hotels, Bhaya Cruises, Duxton Hotel, Petit Fute, The Boathouse and Come & Go Vietnam.

Entrance is free of charge to anyone working in the tourism & hospitality industry, while non-tourism guests can enter for a nominal VND100,000 fee.

For more information, please contact Tim Russell on [email protected] , telephone 0903 393723.

Eurowindow Nha Trang Investment and Tourism Joint Stock Co broke ground on the Ocean Window Spa and Resort. The 34.2-ha project has VND1 trillion (US$51.28 million) in investment capital. It will include a five-star hotel, spa, restaurant and bar, shopping centre, events’ centre, sports centre and beaches. The resort, in central Khanh Hoa Province, is expected open for business in 2013.

Tour operator Asian Trails Co will organise tours for more than 300 MICE (meetings, incentives, con-ventions and exhibitions) organis-ers from Germany who want to look over Vietnamese destinations. The group, which will be here on 4-10 September, will visit Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, and HCM City. Bui Viet Thuy Tien, managing direc-tor of Asian Trails, said Germany and Belgium are the company’s biggest customers for MICE tour-ism to Vietnam.

Polaris Kty Vietnam has recently broken ground for a large Eco-tourist project in Ky Thinh Com-mune, Ha Tinh. The Eco-tourist project, named Tau Voi Tourist and Services Resort, drawing US$1,8 billion in investment. Under the schedule, parts of the project will be operational in 2011, while other sub-projects will be wrapped up in December 2016.

HCM City hosts vegetarian festival

Work starts on Ocean Window development

German tour operators explore MICE

2

Hanoi plans to let off fireworks on National Day

Thirsty Thursday comes to HCMC

Kumho Plaza, HCMC


According to a survey released that the number of local people making plans for vacations this year has increased strongly, but they tend to spend less on travel.

Nearly 64,5% of the respondents in the survey said they and their families made frequent trips every year, compared to over 54% of last year’s similar survey.

While more people are travelling this year, they tend to spend less on travel, as more people bought budget tours and fewer people agreed to pay a higher cost, ac-cording to the survey. It showed that 19,9% of the respondents agreed to spend more than VND10 million per trip, down from 20,2% of 2009, and 46,3% of the respondents agreed to spend VND5-10 million per trip compared to over 57,4% in last year’s survey.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people willing to pay VND2-5 mil-

lion per trip increased from 22.3% of last year to 33.8% in this year’s survey.

The budget-saving trend is clearer with 24% of respondents saying the most uncomfortable thing in travel is the additional charges from service providers, followed by complaints about the unprofes-sional service from tour guides and food quality.

Despite the price-conscious trend, travellers still choose well-established brands rather than comparing prices. More than 52% of respondents said they selected tours from the trustworthy brands while only nearly 17% of travellers saw prices as a decisive factor.

The survey had been performed with people from 18 to 64 years old, who were divided into differ-ent income categories, from VND3 million to VND5 million per month, from VND5.1 million to VND8 mil-

lion, then under VND3 million and over VND8 million.

Up to 43% of respondents searched for travel information on the internet, while 40% obtained it from friends or relatives, accord-ing to the survey. The marketing method via leaflets and advertis-ing is less influential on customers as only nearly 9.3% of the people looked for travel information by this way.

As for domestic destinations, local travellers still preferred familiar places such as Halong Bay, Phu Quoc, Nha Trang, Hanoi, and Phan Thiet.

The survey handed out the Viet-nam Favorite Trademark Awards 2010 to 61 companies, including travel firms, hotels, restaurants, re-sorts, supermarkets, banks, insur-ance service providers, and other consumer service providers.

VIETNAM NEWS 3

Hanoi plans to let off fireworks on National Day

Local tourists to opt for budget tours

“Tourist tend to spend less on travel, as more people bought budget tours and fewer people agreed to pay a higher cost”, accord-ing to a survey released by the local newspaper Sai Gon Times.

VIETNAM NEWS


4

Golfplan breaks ground on Saigon resort 18


VIETNAM NEWS 5

The course architects at Golfplan have stepped up construction of 18 resort holes here in the Vietnamese capital.

Jeong San Vina Golf Club takes up unique residence on an island in the Saigon River, directly between the city’s expatriate dis-trict and its new international airport.

The course at Jeong San Vina GC will stretch out along a man-made waterfront that Golfplan will outfit with a 50-meter natural buffer and overarching tropical garden landscape. The golf will serve as anchor to a high-rise condominium and hotel development overlooking course, river and city.

“The plan is for Jeong San Vina to be very high-end but still very accessible resort facility, which is just what the golf culture in Vietnam needs,” said Golfplan partner David Dale, who expects the course to open for play in late 2011. “When the hotel component is finished, it will function as an urban golf resort, and there’s nothing like that in Ho Chi Minh City today.”

Dale and the Korean development consor-tium backing this project, Taekwang Vina Industrial Co. Ltd., have been poised to begin course construction in earnest for better than a year, but a series of factors had slowed matters until this spring. Most important, the bridge linking the island with the mainland - Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2, just north of downtown - was not com-pleted until March 2010.

In reality, Jeong San Vina’s progress was additionally complicated by the extraordi-nary engineering efforts the site requires. According to Dale, more than 1.5 million cubic meters of fill were required to build up the site and in some ways “create” the waterfront landscape.

“All of this sand was dredged from the Saigon River north of our island, then trans-ported by boat and pumped onto the site in watery slurry, which is spread around the property by a network of giant piping,” Dale explained. “It’s a pretty impressive process. There were some 20 cubic meters of fill per boatload. Do the math. When you do, you can understand why it’s taken two years to complete the reclamation.”

Spreading the fill around this site, in the context of golf construction and shaping, is nearly as complicated as getting it there.

According to Dale, because of the very high water table, no more than 4 meters of fill are allowed anywhere on the site, lest that spot recede. “This is not the sort of project that can be improvised in the field,” Dale said. “The grades of our architectural drawings must be extraordinarily precise, and each green site will be supported by pilings to support and reinforce elevations that will exceed the 4-meter limit.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Golfplan is the firm that dredged Singapore Har-bor to create the man-made acreage that under-girds the famed Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club.

“At Sentosa, we were reclaiming mangrove swamps and a portion of Singapore Harbor, but the exercises there - and here at Jeong San Vina - are comparable,” Dale said. “We took a similar approach at Oulu Golfklubb in Finland, home of Nokia and one of the northernmost golf courses in the world. There, we reclaimed peat bogs and used a geo-tech style sheeting to create a floating pad to support the sand fill on 27 holes. There is no need for geo-tech sheeting in Ho Chi Minh City but you can see we’re pretty darned experienced in engineering these types of courses.”

Jeong San Vina will play 6,595 meters from the championship tees and feature a diverse mixture of bunkering, from enormous, sandy waste areas that tie into greenside hazards, to the free-standing bunkers that dictate strategy in the fairways and off the tee.

“It’s a beautiful finishing flourish, not unlike what we created at the Serapong Course, or what Pete Dye created at the TPC Sawgrass in Florida,” said Dale. “But the beauty and compelling strategy of the golf holes must work in the context of practical environmental matters. The wetlands at Jeong San Vina, for example, were created so that when the river rises to its highest point, water will be accepted onto the course site and into this network of wetlands. It’s a very attractive, totally golf-centric form of stormwater retention capability.

“What’s more, our lakes are set higher than the wetlands. When the lakes overflow, they release into the wetland network.”

Golfplan breaks ground on Saigon resort 18

VIETNAM NEWS


The Hanoi Children Palace will join the Prague Arts Troupe from the Czech Re-public to host a series of events to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

The ten-day programme which will last on 10 October will include a painting ex-hibition, a water puppetry, a concert and a Czech traditional gastronomic festival.

Le Quang Tuan, Vice Director of the

Palace expressed the hope that follow-ing the programme, his palace would cooperate with its Czech counterparts to organise exchanges between the two countries’ children to enhance mutual un-derstanding and assistance.

The Czech friends have helped built the palace which has become a major centre for cultural and sports activities for Ha-noian children.

Travel agencies reported that inbound and outbound short-day tours during the holiday of 2nd September are attracting 75% of visitors and the number of tourists during this special holiday is expected to increase by 15% in comparison with the same period last year. Destinations are Hong Kong (China), Ma-laysia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Cambodia and Taiwan.Ms. Doan Thanh Tra, a representative from the Saigontourist, said that the com-pany introduced 35 inbound tours and 12 outbound tours, departing on 30th August and the company expects to attract 2,500 tourists. Nearly 1,000 tourists have to date registered for tours to Thailand, Singa-pore, Cambodia and Hong Kong (China).Meanwhile, inbound tours to Sa Pa lures more tourists than tours to the sea due to stormy weather during that time, accord-ing to Ms. Duong Mai Lan, the head of the Vietravel Hanoi Market Development Re-search Department.Ms. Lan added that the number of tourists is expected to rise thanks to various pro-motion tours in August such as “Thousand years of Thang Long-Hanoi” (a discount of 30%) or tours to Thailand and China (15 to 20% discount).

According to the Vietnam National Admin-istration of Tourism (VNAT) said nearly 140 contestants from 26 provinces and cities na-tionwide will join a contest to select best hotel receptionists in the tourism sector.

The event, which will be held from 12nd -15th September in Hanoi, is part of activities to cel-ebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and National Tourism Year-Hanoi 2010. It aims to honour outstanding receptionists who have contributed to improving the quality of tourism services.

The qualifying rounds, which include profes-sional skills and foreign languages, will take place in Hanoi from 12nd - 14th September. The top ten contestants will go on to enter the final round scheduled for 15th September.

Czech Cultural events to be held in HanoiCzech Cultural events to be held in Hanoi

Best hotel receptionists contest to be held

More tourists choose short-day tours

6


VIETNAM NEWS 7

Six Senses Con Dao, the first luxury resort on the famous Con Dao Is-land in the southern province of Ba

Ria-Vung Tau will welcome its first guests in December.

The spectacular Con Dao archipelago of islands is located to the south-east of Viet-nam. The largest and most beautiful, Con Dao Island, hosts the Six Senses Hide-away Con Dao along a one-kilometre, white sand beach surrounded by dramatic mountain landscapes. The remote setting and preserved natural landscape provides an extraordinary sense of seclusion, creat-ing an ideal place to escape, relax and live close to the natural elements.

The five-star resort boasts “ultra-contem-porary architecture designed to enhance the natural beauty of the site”. All mate-rials and resources have been locally chosen, and from sustainable sources, the resort developers say.

The resort has 50 villas, each with its own private infinity pool and unobstructed views of the East Sea with a total capacity

of 200 guests. Each villa has both space and privacy along with indoor and out-door bathrooms.

Accommodations and Rates

Six Senses Hideaway Con Dao presents elegantly designed modern accommoda-tions offering generous personal space with lush tropical mangrove vegetation and breathtaking views. There are 35 vil-las with Private Pools plus 16 Residential Villas, each with two Private Pools. Styles range from single-level to duplexes and offer one, two and three bedrooms, many with indoor-outdoor bathrooms and sev-eral with personal spa suite salas.

Dining and Refreshments

The arrival and main guest area of Six Senses Hideaway Con Dao recreates a fishing village and local market, and features truly Redefining Experiences concepts. At the Fishery, guests view the whole preparation process of local sea-food to be served in the restaurant. The Vietnamese Coffee Shop is furnished with

traditional low-sitting chairs and tables, while at the Deli, guests have the option to grab a bite to go.

Six Senses Spa

The uniquely designed Six Senses Spa provides a truly relaxing and revitalizing experience presenting some of Vietnam’s specialty treatments, such as cupping, together with an extensive menu of tradi-tional and signature treatments. Skilled therapists create sensory journeys for guests with a range of holistic wellness programmes and pampering therapies using products made only from natural ingredients and at one with ecological responsibility.

How to get there

Con Son Island, which hosts the Six Senses Hideaway, is around 230-kilome-tres, or 145-miles, from Ho Chi Minh City and is served by Co Ong Airport. It can be reached by the resort’s private airplane, 45-minutes from Ho Chi Minh City.


Six Senses Hideaway, Con Dao Island

VIETNAM NEWS


Hum

an resources look for q

ualified

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Furama Resort Da Nang


VIETNAM NEWS 9

Nowadays, tourism industry needs more high-qual-ification staffs to meet the increasingly demand of hotels and resort, however, it’s really difficult to find a excellent trained manpower.

In order to solve this fact, investors focus on train-ing a labour force and retain qualified workers, un-fortunately, they faced limited supply - a problem for the travel industry throughout the central coast region.

Resorts are looking for qualified workers

According to Tran Thi Canh, Human Resouces (HR) Manager of Nam Hai Resort said the key positions are held by people who once worked for Furama, the first five star resort in the central region, or for other resorts or hotels in HCM City or Hanoi.

Canh said that before long in the central region, more posh resorts will be put into operation by big name chains. She expects competition in the labour market to become very stiff, and many key staff to jump to other jobs.

Anticipating this, Nam Hai and other top resorts and hotels are reconsidering their labour force policies. They are recruiting assistants to key staff in anticipa-tion of possible defections and improving benefits and promotion opportunities. And the managers of restaurants, hotels and luxury resorts in the central region all express worry about their chances of re-cruiting ordinary staff in the next several years.

The central region is especially short of top manag-ers. Big resorts and hotels in Da Nang City and adja-cent Quang Nam province are raiding workers from other resorts and hotels by offering attractive wages and job promotion opportunities.

The director of a travel firm said that said that one new complex has been looking for a general direc-

tor for many months, but no candidate has turned up. A whole team of managers has to come from Taiwan to run another resort that has just opened in Da Nang.

Whether supply’s and demand’s regulations solve the problem or not?

Huynh Tan Vinh, General Director of the Bac My An Furama Resort, is chairman of the Da Nang Tourism Association. He says Da Nang is now the “promised land” for tourism development.

The Da Nang Planning and Investment Department, by the end of June 2010, counted 55 tourism projects registered in the city, with US$2,8 billion dollars in capitalization. It is expected that Da Nang will gain another 45 more projects in 2010-2012, two-thirds of them along the coast from Son Tra to Dien Ngoc. In the next three years, four and five star beach hotels alone will need 8000 workers.Unskilled workers are abundant, while qualified and trained workers are scarce.

According to Vinh, students graduated by local schools meet only ten percent of the demand. Most study to become receptionists or tour guides, while few are trained to become cooks, chambermaids or security guards.

Vitours chief Cao Tri Dung says the central region lacks tour guides that can work with tourists from new markets like South Korea, Thailand and Spain.At the Huong Giang Travel Agency, Nguyen Hang Quy says 40 percent of his clients are from Thailand, but he’s unable to find tour guides who can speak Thai.

Tourism sector firms seem to have lost faith in the market to meet their needs. Many urge that local authorities ‘should apply suitable policies’ to attract highly qualified workers from HCM City and Hanoi.

Furama Resort Da Nang


VIETNAM NEWSVIETNAM NEWS10

Vietnamese cultural showcase to open in RoK A Vietnamese cultural showcase scheduled to open at the end of August in the Republic of Korea’s (RoK) National Folk Museum in Seoul to promote the country’s many different cultures.

The ‘Welcome to Vietnam’ showcase and another on Mongolian culture (Senbeno Mongolia) are the first two items launched this year in the RoK, where almost 1,2 millions foreigners live.

With this programme, children in the RoK will be able to find out more about the country’s range of diverse cultures, which will help to stamp out cul-tural problems in the country.

Through the showcase, the visitors will have chanc-es to find out about Vietnam’s history, its language, environment, cuisine, customs, religions, musical instruments and traditional games by examining the plentiful and vivid documents and artefacts.

At present, there are over 90,000 Vietnamese peo-ple living and working in the RoK, the second larg-est foreign community after China including 35,000 Vietnamese brides married to Korean men.


Sixteen artists, eight from Vietnam and eight from Japan, have collaborated for an art show at HCMC’s Museum of Fine Arts.

“2010 Japan & Vietnam Contemporary Art Ex-hibition 8+8” displays work from La Nhu Lan, Lam Triet, Nguyen Minh Phuong, Tran Trung Tin, Hua Thanh Binh, Tran Van Thao, Nguyen Thanh Mai and Khai Doan and Takata Yoshiki, Hiratsuka Ryoichi, Tatsukuhama Yohichiro, Takashima Yoshiyuki, Kudo Mashide, Miwa Aki, Hashimoto Kenji and Suganuma Minoru.

Takata Yoshiki’s art installation is a small room with a chair, a fan and some thin white thin curtains with landscapes projected on them. He took the photos in small villages in Indonesia and France and said the fan repre-

sents the wind in Indonesia.

Female artist Miwa Aki uses green. Light green describes the spring wind in Japan and dark green describes the twilight.

Another female artist, Thanh Mai, paints old women’s faces and cats.

Tran Thi Huynh Nga, owner of Blue Space Contemporary Arts Center, the organizer of the show, said the collaboration had been really positive and there would be more to come.

The exhibition starts from 20th - 29th August at 97A Pho Duc Chinh Street, District 1, HCMC.

The annual International Travel Expo scheduled for 30th September to 2nd Oc-tober in HCMC’s District 7 will highlight river tourism and health tourism in the city as well as the world heritage sites in the country.

Nguyen Bao Anh, Deputy Head of the Tour-ism Promotion Division under HCMC’s De-partment of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told that the organizing committee would set up booths to promote above-mentioned products and tourist sites alongside the booths of tourism service providers.

The event at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center will also incorporate a conference to promote destinations of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with a focus on river tourism with an aim to link up the river routes of the three countries.

Under the title “Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam - Three Countries, One Destination,” the travel expo will feature a tourism exhibi-tion, meetings between travel buyers and sellers, free-show tours and seminars. The expo will also include the ASEAN Tourism Investment Forum.

The event organizers are the city’s Tour-ism Department, IIR Exhibitions Pte Ltd and VINEAX.

Anh said 266 tourism service buyers from 43 countries put their names down to join the travel expo. Up to now, 62 exhibitors have booked booths at the expo, includ-ing tourism service providers and provin-cial tourism promotion departments from Binh Thuan, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, and foreign tour-ism promotion departments of India, Cam-

bodia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Anh said the organizing committee would continue to receive registrations of exhibitors.

In addition, five international media agen-cies named Travel News Weekly/Travel World (China); MICE in Asia (Malaysia), Travel for Life (Russia) and CNN Trav-eler (America) have registered to join the expo.

The city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is asking international airlines like Vietnam Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Turkish Airlines to support guests and organize familiariza-tion trips during the event.

Japan & Vietnam Contemporary Art Exhibition on display in Vietnam

Travel expo expresses heritage sites and river tourism

VIETNAM NEWS 11

Museum of Fine Art, HCMC

http://itehcmc.com/2010/


VIETNAM NEWS12

Because of the special reasons and as per requests of key exhibitors, the Organis-ing Board of Vietnam Hotel Expo 2010 has decided to delay the event until 6-8 Decem-ber 2010 instead of 22-24 September at the Hanoi National Convention Centre.

This year the event is held alongside the third annual Tourism and Camping Asia Ex-position, allowing travellers an even greater

opportunity beyond simply exploring all that there is regarding hotels and tourism.

Organized by the GFC International Fair and Communication Company Ltd., the Viet-nam Hotel Expo is specifically organized for the international hospitality community, showcasing such vendors as bakery and confectionery equipment manufacturers and suppliers; products including bar and coffee

Eight northwestern provinces; include Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Ha Giang, Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien and Lai Chau; held a seminar in Sa Pa town on August 18 to dis-cuss measures to build tourism trademarks and products.

The focus of the seminar was on expand-ing tourism in connection with culture and environmental protection in remote areas in the lead-up to sustainable development, hunger elimination and poverty reduction.

Under the plan, the provinces reached consensus on mechanisms and policy for the management and development of tour-

ism products that conform to the current regulations and demands of each locality.

The localities also agreed to promote co-operation in investment projects for boosting community and cultural tourism in mountainous and remote areas to support sustainable development, environmental protection, hunger elimination and poverty reduction.

They will focus on creating typical and unique tourism products for each ethnic group to attract more visitors and enhance co-operation in tourism events to exploit the region’s potential.

Also under the plan, twenty-two travel agents from the eight provinces will be provided training to improve 13 tourism skills.

A slogan and logo design contest for each locality will be launched to create a brand for the whole region and improve the ad-vertising of tourism.

The action plan is part of the ‘Tourism Development in the Northeast Region’ proj-ect, sponsored by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the Euro-pean Union.

bar and coffee equipment and supplies, display and shop fitting equipment, vari-ous food service equipment, furnishings and fixtures, guest amenity services and information on hospitality systems. Visitors range from hotel and resort management to golf club managers, restaurant owners, food importers and wholesalers, caterers, management of supermarkets and grocery stores, not to mention private investors.

For further information, please feel free to contact:Vietnam Hotel ExpoAdd: Room 404, 4th Floor, IBC Building, 35 - 37 Trang Thi Str., Hoan Kiem Dist., Ha-noi, VietnamTel: +84 462753439Fax: +84 462753246Event website: www.vietnamhotelexpo.comOrganizer’s website: www.gfcexpo.com

Vietnam Hotel Expo 2010 delayed until DecemberVietnam Hotel Expo 2010 delayed until December

Northeastern provinces join hands in building tourism trademarks

Illustrated picture

VIETNAM NEWS


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Every citizen in the capital takes respon-sibility for preserving and promoting Ha-noi’s 1000-year history and culture, de-clared Politburo member Pham Quang Nghi at the Thang Long –Hanoi Culture Festival held at the Hanoi Friendship Cul-ture Palace.

The festival was held on the 5-year re-view of Programme No. 08 of the Hanoi Party Committee on ‘Developing Culture and Creating an Image of Elegant and Civilized Hanoians in Anticipating of the 1000th Anniversary of Thang Long-Ha-noi’ and to honour the traditional cultural beauty of Hanoians.

Addressing the ceremony, Politburo member Nghi, who is also Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, stressed that Hanoi’s cultural traditions are a priceless treasure not only for Hanoians but also the entire population. He urged all sectors and the public to raise their awareness

of the culture’s significance and use it as the spiritual foundation, target and driving force of the country’s socio-economic de-velopment.

Also at the festival, outstanding collectives and individuals were presented with cer-tificates of merit for their contributions to the campaigns ‘The Whole Nation Unites to Build up a Cultural Lifestyle’ and the ‘Day for Poor People’. They shared their experiences lessons learnt from the cam-paigns in their localities.

The programme also featured various per-formances of music and dance, a dragon dance, a drum dance and ‘Bai Bong’ tra-ditional dance performed by folk artists form Thanh Tri and Phu Xuyen districts.

The event was held jointly by the Party Committee, the People’s Council, the People’s Committee and the Fatherland Front of Hanoi.

Over the past 35 years, President Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum has welcomed more than 40 million visitors, including 7 million foreigner visitors from many different coun-tries and territories as well as international organizations.

The mausoleum was inaugurated on 29th August 1975. It has become a place for generations of Vietnamese to converge feelings and beliefs with Uncle Ho – the national liberation heroine and a world cul-tural activist.

Implementing the renewal policy initiated

and led by our party, the national economy increased, people’s lives were improved. More and more people from localities na-tionwide went to President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum to pay tribute to Uncle Ho.About ten thousand people per day visit President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum dur-ing days-off, festivals, his birthday and the anniversary of his death.

It is also a place where important activi-ties of the party and state, meetings and parades take place. Political and cultural activities are also usually held here.

Thang Long - Hanoi Culture Festival promotes the Hanoi’s cultural values

President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum draws huge visitors

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days to come

Historical relics of Hoa Lo prison and the traditions of Thang Long - Hanoi

Artisans donate bells, drums and gongs to Hanoi’s millennial celebration

The Relics Management Board under the Hanoi City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched a contest to study the historical relics of Hoa Lo prison and the traditions of Thang Long – Hanoi on 18th August.The contest has three main components, including studying about Thang Long – Hanoi, about the Hoa Lo prison and eloquence about the 1000-year culture capital, Hoa Lo relics and heroes who have sac-rificed their lives for the national liberation, drawing the participation of over 70 young people from different agencies such as the Military

Joint Stock Bank and the Vietnam Nature Museum.30 multiple choice questions about Hoa Lo relics helped young peo-ple understand more about patriotism and serving the struggle of communist soldiers. The contest aimed to educate the revolutionary and patriotic tradition of the older generations, and improve people’s awareness of pre-serving and promoting values of historical and revolutionary relics in the capital.

As approved by the Hanoi People’s Com-mittee and the Preservation Center of Co Loa – Hanoi ancient capital relic, to wel-come 1,000 years of Thang Long – Hanoi and to welcome Thang Long Royal Cita-del’s recognition as World Cultural Heri-tage by UNESCO, the Handicraft Asso-ciation of Hanoi trade villages will donate bells, drums and gongs to the Thang Long Royal Citadel. According to the organizing committee, the large drum, with a diameter of 2,35 meters and a width of 3 meters, made by artisan Pham Chi Tinh in Doi Tam drum village in Doi Son Commune, Duy Tien District, Ha Nam Province, is expected to be com-pleted on 15 September to be available in the Thang Long – Hanoi handicraft villages and streets festival. The copper gong with a diameter of 2.01 meters and the copper bell weighing 3,000-3,500 tons and having a width of 3,050 me-ters and a diameter of 1,650 meters is made by artisan Nguyen Tan Thinh, the director of the Phu My Loc joint-stock company. The bell will be cast from 12-18 September before being presented to the Kinh Thien Palace in the Thang Long royal citadel on 25 September.


1,000 years of Thang Long - Hanoi

days to come

Key programs for the capital’s grand anniversary

1,000 Hanoi enterprises to be announced in late September

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, Head of the National Steering Committee of the celebration of 1,000 years of Thang Long – Hanoi, told that the preparations for the celebration must focus on three important programs, these are the opening ceremony on 1 October, the meeting and parade on the morning of 10 October and the art and cultural performance on the evening of 10 October. He instructed the Hanoi People’s Committee to closely coordinate with relevant agencies

to well organize the 10-day grand anniversa-ry which consists of 30 cultural activities and festivals to solemnly show people’s affection and gratitude to ancestors, and highlight tra-ditional historical and revolutionary values of the Vietnamese nation. The art performance is expected to be last for 100 minutes. It will finish with a 20-30 min-ute firework performance. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the meeting and parade on October 10 will be prepared by the Ministry of Culture, Sports

and Tourism, together with the Hanoi Peo-ple’s Committee and relevant agencies. During the meeting, while the national an-them is being sung, 21 gun shots will be fired at the Hanoi Flag Tower Stadium. The Dep-uty Prime Minister specified that no gong, drum or horn sound should be used during the meeting, VGP reported. The three large programs are expected to be rehearsed in late September.

1,000 typical enterprises, 1,000 typical businessmen and 1,000 typical products of Hanoi will be awarded on 24th Septem-ber 2010 to welcome the great festival of the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi. This is the main content of a program named: “Thang Long – Hanoi Intelligence”, co-organized by the Vietnam Associa-tion of Young Scientists and Engineers (VAYSE), the Vietnam Intellectual Property Association (VIPA), and the Vietnam Culture and Information Ltd., Co. The 1,000 typical businessmen are young businessmen who are brave and innovative in their work or who are excellent leaders that lead their teams to overcome difficulties in the economic crisis period, contributing to promoting the coun-try’s socio-economic development. On September 18th, the organizing board of the program: “Thang Long – Hanoi Intelligence” will select 100 young intel-lectuals of Hanoi to welcome the special event of Thang Long – Hanoi.

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VIETNAM NEWS


days to come



Giant embroidered picture on display

Hanoi sprints last days to its anniversary

An enormous embroidered piece named “Coi xua” (Old Origins) to mark the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long Hanoi will be on display at the Viet Xo (Vietnam-Russia) Friendship Cultural Palace at 91 Tran Hung Dao Street from 25th – 29th August.This is an opportunity for Hanoians and visitors to see the giant embroidered piece made by hundreds of artisans from the Coi Xua Handicraft and Export Co in Van Lam craft village in the northern province of Ninh Binh to express their love for the capi-tal city. The 5.5 by 31 meter embroidery, weighing 1.5 tons, was begun in 2009 and has used nearly 170 square meters of Italian wool and around 250 kilograms of thread. The picture contains images of the ancient capital Hoa Lu and important historic landmarks in the dynasties of Dinh, Tien Le and Ly. The pic-ture also features the establishment of the state of Dai Co Viet; Hoa Lu capital’s land-scape including two temples worshipping two kings Dinh Tien Hoang and Le Dai Hanh; and the typical traits of the capital’s terrain. The last part is the royal decree by King Ly Cong Uan to move the capital to Thang Long. .The embroidery is proposed to the Bui Xuan Phai entitled “For the love of Hanoi 2010”.

The Hanoi People’s Committee on 20 August launched an emulative campaign in the last days to the 1,000th founding anniversary of Thang Long - Ha-noi. Vice Chairperson of the municipal People’s Com-mittee Ngo Thi Thanh Hang said: “Celebrating the 1,000th founding anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi not only means to construct grandiose buildings but more fundamentally and profoundly to make the so-ciety more beautiful, to beautify each and every per-son’s soul, awareness and behavior.” At the campaign launching ceremony, Municipal Party Committee Secretary Pham Quang Nghi asked agencies and people to raise awareness of emula-tive movements and popularize cultural, sports and tourism activities.The campaign is part of the Thang Long–Hanoi Cul-tural Festival and the sum-up of the Municipal Party Committee’s Program 08 on cultural development.

Cội xưa


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INTERNATIONAL NEWS


18

Newsweek revealed ‘Best Coun-tries’ list for 2010, measuring the world’s nations based on five fac-tors: education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism & political environment. In the Asia Pacific region, Australia was the highest rank, coming 4th in the global list. Japan was 9th followed by New Zea-land (13th), South Korea (15th) and Singapore (20th). Thailand ranked 58th, one place ahead of China. Fin-land was rated as the world’s ‘Best Country’, followed by Switzerland and Sweden. The USA was 11th.

Total passenger movements at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) increased to 8.31 million in the second quarter of 2010, up 16,6% from the 7,13 million pas-sengers it catered for in the same period last year. International pas-sengers accounted for 68.8% of the total throughput.

The Airport Link connecting downtown Bangkok and Suvarn-abhumi airport began its first day of commercial services on 23 August after four-year delay, with trains now running from 6am to midnight.

Two services will be offered. The first is the 15-minute Express service between Suvarnabhumi Airport and Bangkok’s city centre, priced at THB150 (US$4.69), with a promotional fare of THB100 (US$3.12) offered until year-end. The second is the 30-minute City Line commuter trip, priced between THB15 (US$0.46) and THB45 (US$1.40) for each station stop, but for the meantime, with a promotional fare pegged at a flat fee of THB15 also until year-end.

The Makkasan Station is the designated City Air Terminal. Phaya Thai Station, close to the Victory Monument – favourite site of mass civilian rallies – is the last stop on the route.

The City Line will make eight stops across the capital, start-ing at Phaya Thai, before heading to the airport. The trains take 30 minutes from Phaya Thai to Suvarnabhumi. Passengers using the City Line pay a flat rate of 15 baht for a trip during the promotion period. Fares will range from 15 baht to 45 baht, depending on the distance travelled, after Jan 1, 2011.

Teething problems have been noted, however, including the lack of a downward escalator connecting the BTS Phaya Thai skytrain station and the Phaya Thai airport rail link station as well as the absence of a single commuter ticket combining the services of the airport rail link, BTS and MRT (subway). This means a traveller has to buy tickets separately at each inter-change.

The Indonesian island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara will again host the annual Tourism Indonesia Mart and Expo (TIME) (Pasar Wisata Indonesia) from October 12 to 15.

Chairman of TIME 2010’s Steering Committee, Meity Robot, said TIME promotes Lombok and West Nusa Tenggara to the international market and speeds the development and improvement of infrastructure, tourism facilities and tourism attractions in the region.

A new international airport is expected to be operational later this year, and this development is expected to attract more tourist arrivals to the island and speed improvements to infra-structure such as new hotels and tourism attractions.

To be held at Santosa Villa & Resort Lombok, TIME is aimed at promoting Indonesia as a tourist destination in international markets and at the same time raising the country’s image as a global travel destination and be expected to attract 150 inter-national buyers and 150 sellers from all over Indonesia.

The show attracted 127 buyers from 25 countries and 250 sellers from 15 provinces last year. Robot said the number of buyers attending TIME for seven consecutive years has been relatively steady.

Beijing’s famous Forbidden City is planning to open more areas to the public. Authorities will open 70% of the once strictly off-limits imperial palace to tourists, up from just 30% currently. The Beijing Morning Post reported the Head of the Adminis-tration of Cultural Heritage, Shan Jixiang, as saying that the newly-opened areas could see visitor numbers rise by 30,000 per day, to around 130,000.

Expedia.com has announced that a first batch of 300-plus Hilton World-wide properties using ‘LightStay’ will be added to the Expedia.com Green Hotel programme. LightStay is Hilton’s sustainability measure-ment system, which calculates and analyses the environmental impact of its properties. It is currently be-ing rolled-out and will be in place at Hilton’s entire portfolio by 31 December 2011.

Australia named in world’s top ‘Best Countries’

KLIA passenger traffic climbs 16.6% in Q2 Lombok looks forward

to hosting TIME 2010 Lombok looks forward to hosting TIME 2010

Bangkok Airport Rail Link begins full commercial operations

Forbidden City to open more areas to public

Hilton Worldwide joins Expedia’s Green Hotel scheme


INTERNATIONAL NEWSINTERNATIONAL NEWS 19

Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in July 2010 reached the highest ever single-month level at 3,136,794, a robust increase of 31,9% year-on-year. For the first seven months of this year, total visitor arrivals amounted to 19,992,810, representing a 24,4%-rise compared to the same period last year.

The arrivals base for comparison this July is relatively lower, given that visitor arriv-als in the same month last year were im-pacted by the human swine flu pandemic. The gain in visitor arrivals in July 2010 is still strongly encouraging; with arrivals surpassing the July 2008 figure by 15,8%.The growth in overall arrivals in July was led by Mainland China, with more than 2 million visitor arrivals. The figure was not only 40% more than in last July, but was also the highest monthly figure for

the market. This significant growth could be attributed to the fact that summer is a popular travel season among Mainland visitors. In addition, the implementation of measures under the Individual Visit Scheme in Shenzhen has made it easier for Shenzhen residents to visit Hong Kong.

Among other short-haul markets, South and Southeast Asia achieved nearly 40% increase in arrivals, as there were greater travel sentiments resulting from the improved economic conditions and increased flight capacity. Taiwan also recorded growth of 10,4%, a sign that the effect of direct cross-strait flights is stabilising.

Meanwhile, visitor arrivals from the long-haul markets also grew steadily. Overall arrivals from these markets in July went

up by 10,6% compared to the same month last year. As for the emerging markets, Russia, the Middle East and India reg-istered growth of 86%, 47,5% and 44.9% respectively, as propelled by such factors as economic recovery and more frequent flights.

In July 2010, overnight visitors exceeded 1,82 million. The figure represented 58.3% of all visitors to Hong Kong and was 35,7% more than in July 2009. The increase was contributed by the rise in overnight visitors from most market regions, espe-cially short-haul markets, such as Taiwan (+46,1%), Mainland China (+44,9%) and South and Southeast Asia (+42,7%).Cumulatively, between January and July this year, overnight visitors amounted to 11,3 million, or 56,6% of all visitors to Hong Kong, a year-on-year increase of 23,3%.

Hong Kong sees visitor arrivals up

www.brandsavvy.com.vn

INTERNATIONAL NEWS


The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has confirmed that the Thailand Travel Mart Plus Amazing Gateway to the Greater Mekong Subregion (TTM+ 2010) will be held from 8-10 September 2010, at the IMPACT Convention Centre (Hall 9), Muang Thong Thani in Bangkok.

The most important development this year

is the changing mix of buyers. For the first time, buyers from India will head the list.

341 buyers from 49 countries registered to participate in the event including India (70 buyers), followed by the United State (26), the UK (24), Russia (22) and South Korea (16). TAT will invite new buyers from Bra-zil, Mexico, UAE, Turkey, Lithuania, and

Kazakhstan to test the tourism products of Thailand.

TAT has also sought to ensure quality buyers by requiring them to pay a nominal registration fee of USD 200. A number of buyers invited from the domestic Thai market will be charged USD 50 for regis-tration.

The buyers will meet 428 registered sellers from various business categories such as hotels and resorts, tour operators and travel agents, eco and adventure, wellness and spa, airlines, entertainment/theme parks/culture products, golf cours-es, associations, other travel services and the Greater Mekong Subregion/ NTOs.

Suraphon Svetasreni, Governor, TAT said, “This year’s TTM Plus is important for us because it comes as part of our recov-ery programme from the recent political unrest.

It is also part of our strategy to diversify the sources of visitor arrivals and expose Thailand and the GMS region to new buyers from countries and regions which could deliver promising results in the future.”

20

India to head buyers list at Thailand Travel Mart 2010 Plus

http://www1.messe-berlin.de/vip8_1/website/Internet/Internet/www.itb-asia/englisch/index.html

INTERNATIONAL NEWS


21INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The Chinese tourism market on the Gold Coast can double in three years if local businesses can pro-vide a more ‘Chinese-friendly’ service.

Last year, 106,000 Chinese tourists spent over AU$60 million on the Gold Coast, exhibiting growth of 15 percent for the tourism hot spot, compared to Chinese visitation to Australia which grew by a rela-tively subdued 2,8 percent over the same period.

Gold Coast Tourism (GCT) said it was not alone in recognising the business and tourism potential of China and was one of the few Australian travel agents preparing the local industry to maximise the opportunity.

As parts of its preparations, GCT will bring together dozens of front-line tourism staff for a workshop on Chinese Culture and Customer Service, to heighten cultural intelligence of Chinese social customs and nuances. This builds on the recent Chinese Culture and Business workshop attended by 30 staff from various Gold Coast businesses seeking to better their trade relationships with China.

“It is one thing to increase Chinese visitor numbers, it is another thing to develop a prosperous and sus-tainable market,” GCT Marketing Manager - China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, John Chan said.

“We need to break down barriers between Gold Coast businesses and our Chinese visitors and tourism distribution partners. Our ability to raise the Gold Coast’s profile in China and attract a larger quantity and quality of Chinese tourists is as much about Gold Coast businesses being able to effec-tively engage the market as it is about destination brand marketing.

“If Gold Coast Tourism can help foster an aware-ness and appreciation amongst local tourism busi-nesses for how best to interact with both Chinese tourism businesses and consumers, then without doubt we have a far greater chance of achieving more lasting and sustainable tourism growth for the Gold Coast.”

The Gold Coast has achieved greater growth than most areas in Australia because of targeted cam-paigns at specific cities in China. Aspects of the workshops include educating key players that:

• Chinese people focus on building a sincere rela-tionship before negotiating business deals.

• How to say ‘hello’ in Chinese, because they ap-preciate efforts made to communicate in their lan-guage.

• Mutual respect must be established before do-ing business.

Australia lures more Chinese tourists to Gold Coast

Australia lures more Chinese tourists to Gold Coast

INTERNATIONAL NEWS


22

welcomes visitor arrivals growth


INTERNATIONAL NEWS 23

Hawaii said aloha to 625,522 visitors in June 2010, a 13,6 percent up over June 2009 and testament to the industry’s recovery from recent events which had dampened travel to the region.

Elvis and the Brady Bunch have been there (though perhaps not together) as has any sitcom worth its set budget, but Hawaii, like other US destinations, suffered visi-tor declines due to the recent economic downturn and last year’s H1N1 epidemic, which it is now showing signs of besting.

According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the efforts of Hawaii’s tourism industry to boost arrivals during the recession “have been successful”.

“Our focused efforts to increase travel demand to Hawaii in our major market areas are paying off with increases in arrivals from US West, US East, Canada, and Japan,” Hawaii Tourism Authority chief executive Mike McCartney told Bloomberg.

Oahu recorded the strongest June growth at 18,3 per cent over June 2009, followed by the Big Island with 8,9 per cent, Maui with 5,9 percent and Kauai with 5,8 percent increases.

“Although we still have a ways to go to make up for what has been lost during these challenging economic times, our visitor industry is on the right path and there is reason for increased confidence in Hawaii’s economic recovery,” Hawaii Tourism Authority spokesperson Marsha Wienert told the newspaper.

Ms Wienert said higher per person per day spending and higher overall visitor ex-penditure in June was a sign the industry was strong.

For the first half of 2010, total tourist expenditure in the state climbed to USD5,3 bil-lion, a 7,8 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

International tourism to Hawaii continued to grow by 33,5 percent, led by a 47,8 per-cent increase in Japanese visitors.

“It is also encouraging to continue to welcome more visitors from developing tour-ism markets in Asia, specifically Korea, China and Taiwan,” Ms Weinert said.

welcomes visitor arrivals growth

INTERNATIONAL NEWS


24

World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, is expanding its technology seminar programme for 2010 with the introduction of a presentation theatre on the exhibition floor within the technology and online travel section.

It’s the first time a conference venue has been positioned on the World Travel Market exhibition floor in the event’s 31 year history.

The new Technology and Online Travel Theatre at WTM is an exclusive platform for exhibitors to promote their products and services in 45 minute slots to technology and online travel buyers (member of WTM’s Meridian Club), other exhibitors and visitors.

Leading social media site TripAdvisor and travel industry website de-sign and development company ZOLV are two technology also signed up to the Technology and Online Travel Theatre.

The 80-seat theatre is part of a much expanded technology and online travel conference and events programme which also includes presenta-tions from British Airways, lastminute.com, Tui Travel, Google, Yahoo! and WAYN on a range of topics including social media and mobile.

World Travel Market Exhibition Director Simon Press said: “The new Technology and Online Travel Theatre is a great initiative to help ex-hibitors communicate the benefits of their products and services to the global travel and tourism industry.

“World Travel Market is a leader in innovation in the exhibition industry, and I’m delighted to be launching such an innovation to the travel and tourism industry in 2010.”

WTM introduces Technology & Online Travel Theatre

World Trade Market 2009 - Excel London

INTERNATIONAL NEWS


25

The Singapore economy has seen a boost in foreign visitor spending during the days leading to the opening day of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, according to spending data from Visa. More than US$8,3 million was spent by international visitors to Singapore on Visa-branded payment cards on the Opening Day of the Singa-pore 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

The money spent by visitors on their Visa Credit, Debit and Prepaid cards on 14 August 2010, showed an increase of nearly 50 percent over the same day in 2009.

In the lead up and first two days of the Games (11-15 August 2010), more than US$42,5 million was spent by international visitors to Sin-gapore on Visa-branded payment cards. This is a 45 percent increase from the same period in 2009.

Top contributors to visitor spending in Singapore as measured by spending on Visa-branded payment cards were:

1. USA2. Indonesia3. Malaysia4. Australia5. Japan6. UK7. China8. Hong Kong, China9. India10. Thailand

Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok is pleased to announce a charity concert in aid of the “Friends of Ratchaprasong Fund” on Thurs-day, 2nd September 2010.

H.E. Admiral M.L. Usni Pramoj, Privy Councillor and accom-plished musician, began composing his first String Quartet last April when the nation was facing its most serious turmoil in recent years. As work on the music progressed, a story emerged almost of its own volition.

The first movement portrays rural life, whereas the second move-ment portrays the red shirt tide of demonstrators sweeping over Bangkok and occupying key areas of the city. The third move-ment expresses an outpouring of grief, from all sides, for the hurt inflicted upon the nation, while the fourth and last movement does not tell a story, but instead, projects the hope that Thais will find a fair resolution, come together to rebuild the nation so that normalcy shall be restored, to be once again united in peace.

The evening starts at 7:00 pm with a cocktail reception in the Pimarnman Room followed by the performance of the String Quartet after which a four-course set menu will be served.

H.E. Admiral M.L. Usni Pramoj will be on the viola, with Tasana Nagavajara on the first violin and Siripong Tiptan on the second violin, with Kittikhun Sodprasert on the cello.

With the support of the members of the Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association, tickets are being sold for Baht 3,500 net per person.

Singapore visitor spending surged during Youth Olympic Games

Four Seasons Hotel Bangkokto Host Charity Concert

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS


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INTERNATIONAL NEWS


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AVIATION NEWS


28

Minister of Transportation Freddy Numberi has given an opportunity to the private sector to develop 14 new airports the government will build starting in 2011.According to local media reports, the country’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told that the government has earmarked IDR198 billion (US$22 million) from the 2011 budget for the construction of 14 new airports, and the reconstruction of 18 existing hubs.

Indonesia’s Minister of Transportation, Freddy Num-beri, added that “if the private sector wants to join, just go ahead.”

According to a Jakarta Post report, Numberi said that the new developments would include a second air-port in Bali and a hub for West Nusa Tenggara. “In West Nusa Tenggara it is still in process. In Bali we will build another one as the Ngurah Rai airport has already been in over capacity,” the minister was quot-ed saying by tempointeraktif.com. This appeared to conflict with another statement issued by the Ministry of Transportation, however, which listed the 14 new airport sites, without mentioning Bali. The new loca-tions were named as Eastern Seram (Maluku), Bone (Sulawesi), Enggano (Bengkulu), Muara Bungo (Jam-bi), Muara Teweh (Central Kalimantan), Morowali (Central Sulawesi), Saumlaki Baru (Maluku), Sinak Baru (West Papua), Tojo Una-Una (Central Sulawesi), Tual Baru (Maluku), Wagete Baru (West Papua), Wa-isai Raja Ampat (West Papua), Nam Niwel and Suma-rorong (West Sulawesi).

The airports will mostly cater for small aircraft to boost domestic air traffic across the archipelago.

The budget carrier Jetstar Pacific will sell cheap tickets for flights between three big cities, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang City, from 7th September to 27th October on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi.

Accordingly, each ticket for the Hanoi - Dan-

ang route or Ho Chi Minh City – Danang route will cost from VND 300,000, while tickets for flights between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City cost from VND 600,000.

Cheap tickets will be available on the Jetstar Pacific’s website from 9am to 5pm on August 20th, and can be paid for online by credit

cards, such as Visa, Master Card, Amex, and JCB, and by domestic debit cards, such as Connect 24 (Vietcombank), E- Partner (Viet-inbank), and VIB.The air carrier often launches promotional programs for passengers at special events every year.

Indonesia to build 14 new airports

Jetstar Pacific launches cheap tickets for domestic flights


AVIATION NEWS 29

Korean Air has made several changes to its frequent flyer programme, includ-ing extending the expiry date for earned miles to ten years, and allowing miles to be redeemed against lounge passes and excess baggage.Under the new terms mileage earned af-ter July 1, 2008 will be valid for ten years (up from the current five years), and any mileage earned before this date now has lifetime validity.In addition the carrier has increased the number of seats available for award trav-el, and a new online system has been in-troduced allowing Skypass to check the availability of award seats at koreanair.com.The airline says it will also gradually add new ways of redeeming miles, on ser-vices including excess baggage allow-

ance, airport lounge access, and KAL limousine transport and will increase the selection of redemption travel, accom-modation and tour packages available.Korean Air is also enhancing its Skypass Family Plan, allowing miles to be shared with wider family members including siblings, parents-in-law, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law.Finally the carrier is increasing the valid-ity of award tickets to one year (up from the current six months), and will also al-low members to earn miles of additional seats purchased for musical instruments or for convenience reasons.Korean Air says the changes will gradu-ally become effective as system updates are completed.

Siem Reap International Airport will have two per cent more week-ly flights in the coming October 2010-March 2011 winter timetable, mainly from regional destinations such as China, South Korea and Singapore.SilkAir’s additional flight will bring its services from Singapore to nine a week.China Southern Airlines will increase its Canton-Siem Reap services from two to five weekly flights. Meanwhile, Yunnan Airlines has re-quested for slots for daily flights between Kunming and Siem Reap.Asiana Airlines will up its Incheon-Siem Reap flights to six a week, from the previous four. Korean Air will have 17 flights a week through

eight additional services – one from Pusan and seven from Incheon. Airport operator Société Concessionnaire des Aéroports (SCA) has held two fam trips this year for South Korean agents and media. A similar fam will be held in Japan next week to spur interest in char-ter or regular flights into SCA’s three airports in Cambodia, including Phnom Penh International Airport and Sihanoukville Airport.Etienne Lefort , Airport Manager said Siem Reap Airport International, in particular, will receive more charter flights in the winter season. This month alone, the airport will have hosted 60 charters from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

Korean Air enhances Skypass loyalty scheme

Siem Reap receives more flights in the winter

AVIATION NEWS


30

Tiger Airways begins daily flights between Singapore and Manila’s Ninoy Aquino Interna-tional Airport (NAIA) from 31st October 2010.The low-cost carrier already flies nine times a week from Singapore to Clark’s Diosdado Macapagal International Air-port (DMIA), a 90-minute drive from Metro Manila.The new service has a depar-ture time from Singapore of 1710 and an arrival time in Ma-nila of 2040. Return flights will depart at 2110 and arrive in Sin-gapore at 0040. An Airbus A320 will be used on the route.Frequency will increase from December 1 to twice a day, except on Tuesdays and Sun-

days.Promotional rates are available from now till August 25, starting from S$55 (US$40) for travel between October 31 and July 31, 2011.Earlier, Tiger Airways strength-ened moves to expand in the region, tying up recently with THAI Airways to form a new budget carrier Thai Tiger.In another development, the Philippine Civil Aeronautics Board awarded Philippine car-riers, Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines, Cebu Pacific, Zest Air, more capacity to operate to Singapore, following the sign-ing of more bilateral agree-ments between Singapore and the Philippines.

Garuda Indonesia will launch direct Jakarta-Tokyo services from 31 August 2010.

The carrier already flies from Denpasar, Bali to Tokyo daily, to Nagoya three times a week and to Osaka five times a week.GA884 will depart from Jakarta at 2350 and arrive in Tokyo at 0900. Return flight GA885 leaves Tokyo at 1200 and arrives in Jakarta at 1745. An Airbus A330-200 with a capacity of 222 passengers, 36 in Business class and 186 in Economy class, will be used on the route.

The aircraft features Garuda’s refreshed cabin products, which in-cludes a 180-degree fully flat bed seat in Business class, touchscreen LCD monitors in all classes, a state-of-the-art flight entertainment sys-tem with Audio and Video On Demand (AVOD), which offers a choice of 25 films, 250 audio tracks and 25 video games.Travellers from Japan can also take advantage of onboard visa-on-arrival services.

Tiger Airways expands its network to Manila

Garuda Indonesia launches direct flights to Tokyo


AVIATION NEWS 31

The LOT Polish Airlines will open a new Hanoi-War-saw direct flight route starting on 15th November 2010.The Chief Representative of LOT in Vietnam, Krzysz-tof Kolodziej, said that the Hanoi – Warszawa is the latest among 10 flights the airlines will operate in 2010. LOT is proud to be the unique carrier connect-ing Warszawa and Hanoi on the occasion of the great festival of the 1,000 anniversary of Thang Long – Ha-noi.” The Hanoi – Warszawa route will have three flights a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The flights on the return route will be on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday each week.. LOT will use aircraft Boe-ing 767-300 with the capacity of 225 economy seats and 18 business seats. LOT started selling tickets for direct flights from Ha-noi to Warszawa as well to other destinations in the carrier’s flight network. Round-trip tickets for flights from Hanoi to Warszawa and Europe start at a price of USD380, excluding VAT and other charges. The price is as half as that of other carriers. LOT is one of the oldest carriers in the world and is now the member of the Star Alliance. In 2010, the carrier will be the first European carrier operating aircraft Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

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AVIATION NEWS


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T wo of South America’s biggest airlines, Chile’s LAN and Brazil’s TAM, an-

nounced they planned to merge to create Latin America’s largest carrier.The new parent group would be called LATAM Airlines but the separate TAM and LAN logos would be maintained on aircraft in each country, the airlines said in a joint statement.Regulatory authorities and shareholders would have to give their approval to the deal, which was outlined in a memorandum of un-derstanding.If the marriage goes ahead, the new airline would have combined revenues of more than eight billion dollars, and fly passengers to 115 destinations in 23 countries. It would have a combined workforce of 40,000 em-ployees and a total fleet of 241 aircraft.The companies said they believed the merg-er could save the new LATAM airline 400 mil-lion dollars.Sao Paulo-based TAM is Brazil’s biggest air-line, controlling 43 per cent of the domestic market in Latin America’s biggest economy.LAN, which also has operations in Peru and Argentina, is one of the biggest airlines in Latin America, with a strong network of in-ternational routes which generate more rev-enue per passenger than domestic flights.According to the trade review Air Transport World, TAM carried 29 million passengers last year, most of them inside Brazil, whose population of 190 million is Latin America’s biggest. LANAirlines carried 15 million pas-sengers.TAM’s revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), an industry measure, was 42.4 million to LAN’s 30 million.LAN, however, had a 2009 operating profit of 435 million dollars on 3.7 billion dollars of revenue, compared with TAM’s 98 million dollars on 4.9 billion dollars. TAM is a member of the Star Alliance airline cooperation group while LAN is part of One-world.Simone Luciano, a spokeswoman for Brazil-ian investment bank BTG Pactual, told AFP her bank participated in the merger negotia-tions.Under the deal, TAM shareholders would get 0.90 LATAM shares per TAM share. TAM would be delisted from the Sao Paulo exchange, which would instead offer Brazil-ian Depositary Receipts for the new LATAM Airlines.The New York stock exchange would offer American Depositary Receipts for the new company. Depositary receipts are the paper equivalent of shares for companies on for-eign exchanges.Last year, LAN had revenues of 3.7 billion dollars while TAM took in 4.9 billion dollars.

Chile’s LAN and Brazil’s TAM launch LATAM Airlines


AVIATION NEWS 33

AVIATION NEWS


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S tar Alliance partners Lufthansa German Airlines and Singapore Airlines are joining forces to of-

fer luxury travel combining scheduled flights and private jets to and within Europe.

Passengers originating from Australia can now com-bine their Singapore Airlines travel to Europe with Lufthansa Private Jet services, connecting them to over 1000 more airports in Europe and the Russian Federation. The collaboration provides passengers with travel service and access to even the remotest parts of the European continent, while saving time on the ground and in the air.Subhas Menon, Singapore Airlines Regional Vice President South West Pacific, said: “With this joint product that combines premium service with flex-ibility, customers now enjoy the option to travel in top-notch comfort from Australia all the way to not only the popular European gateways but also to the less served European cities.”

After arriving at Singapore Airlines’ European desti-nations, passengers can continue board a Lufthansa Private Jet and travel within Europe according to their own timetable. Kai Peters, General Manager Lufthansa Australia said: “The premium traveller is increasingly demanding more convenient travel and the ultimate in service. This exclusive partner-ship is a response to customers demand for a pre-mium package tailored to their needs.”A dedicated Private Jet Event Manager provides a tailor-made solution to individual customer require-ments and ensures that the entire journey is coor-dinated from start to finish – including limousine services, baggage transfers, customer’s individual wishes for catering and in-flight entertainment, ac-cess to high-quality lounges, and hassle-free pass-port and customs controls.Lufthansa Private Jet can be booked at a fixed price based solely on distance flown starting from 6,900 euros (A$9,900) regardless of the number of travel-lers, subject to available seating capacity.

Private jet luxury for Singapore passengers

AVIATION NEWS


35

Qantas Group Ltd will in-crease capacity across its domestic route network by 9.6 per cent over the next nine months, including new routes for Qantas and Jetstar.

Qantas chief executive offi-cer Alan Joyce said the group would increase capacity by more than 66,000 seats per week in response to the re-covering domestic market. The capacity will be intro-duced over the next nine months and will see about 65 additional return services for Qantas and around 120 for Jetstar, including a 30 per cent increase in the low-cost car-rier’s capacity to Cairns next year.Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said seven additional aircraft would be added to the Qantas network this finan-cial year, including a Boeing 767-300 last month on Sydney-

Perth.He said an A330-300 would be added from January, with a further five B737-800s being progressively added to the domestic network from March next year.Mr Joyce said Jetstar would also add new routes and in-crease services to key leisure destinations as it increased domestic capacity by up to 30 per cent this financial year.These included new services in Perth and Launceston an-nounced last week and the additional 25 Cairns return services from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane detailed today.The Qantas boss said the two brands ensured the group was able to respond to oppor-tunities and changing market conditions and now operated jointly on more than 20 routes across Australia.

Qantas to boost domestic capacity

DO YOU KNOW


36

10 culture and customs of Spanish to know when travelling & living in Spain (part 1)

DO YOU KNOW


The people of Spain have a slower, more relaxed lifestyle than many other people in the world, but this is because they work hard enough to reward themselves with such lei-sure. Spain is a modern country, but many traditions from ancient times still hold. With its culture and cus-toms, Spanish has developed out of the country’s unique history and regional differences. From food to music to sport, many traditions flourish across the Iberian Penin-sula, though unique aspects of each area in the country, from Andalusia to Catalonia, can be found as well.

1 Family Roles

The extended family is just as impor-tant as the nuclear family for many Spanish people. Family provides social and financial support, though it is less common now for Spanish people to enter into the family busi-ness than it was in the past. Current-ly, birth rates are low in Spain, and family ties have loosened slightly.

2 Religion

The majority of Spanish people practice Roman Catholicism, with 94 percent of the population consid-ering themselves to be Roman Cath-olic. Many Spanish holidays have religious ties. Holy Week is marked by processions throughout Spain, with many of the participants walk-ing barefoot while wearing pointed black hats as penance.

3 Holidays

Christmas is a major celebration in Spain, celebrated in three parts---Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Three Kings Day. Before the festivities of Christmas take place, the state government holds a lot-tery known as El Gordo, or the fat one, in which thousands of winners are announced each year. During Christmas time, Spanish people vis-it church often, and midnight mass on Christmas is very popular.

The festival of San Fermin is

known worldwide as the running of the bulls. This festival, beginning in Pamplona on July 6th each year, has a history that has been lost over the years. The bull-running is held on July 7th, then each morning until July 14th. Visitors can stay behind fences along the route, or they can join in the run.

4 Equal Rights

Spain formerly operated under a male-dominated culture known as machismo. More recently, Spain has become more equalized, with wom-en present in higher educational in-stitutions as well as the workplace. Spain also has more equal rights for homosexuals, including legalized gay marriage.

5 Cuisine

You can find jamon ser-rano and j a m o n i b e r i c o , di f ferent styles of dry-cured S p a n i s h h a m , hanging in s t o r e s throughout the county and en- joyed by all Span iards . Across the country, typical dishes include pa- ella, a rice dish with a variety of other ingredients; tortilla es- panola, an egg om- elette with fried po- t a t o e s ; and gaz- pacho, a cold, to - ma-t o -

based vegetable soup. And of course you

6 Food, Drink and Nightlife

Spanish people enjoy a type of food known as tapas, which are small appetizer portions. Many Spanish people hop from tapas bar to tapas bar during an evening. A night out often begins with el paseo, which is a walk through the main streets of a city. Spanish people enjoy coffee and bottled water. Seafood plays a large part in Spanish dishes, as well as Serrano ham.

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BUSINESS ADVICE


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Let’s say your parents have decided to take you abroad for a year, maybe because they have a sabbatical, or maybe just for “fun”. To an adult, it may seem like the perfect opportunity for you to learn a new language and make new friends, but you its a whole different story! What about the friends you’re leaving behind? What about the whole part where you have to LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE?

2, Evaluate other people: There are always some kids who want to be the first to know the new kid, to veto them or accept them. It’s usually the popular ones. The great thing about a new school is that they don’t know the first thing about you! So, watch them, and either laugh at them (this always helps in a pinch) or mold to them. They are actually usually nicer to you than the other kids.

3, Beware of the opposite sex, especially if you’re a girl and especially in France: They can get pretty crude, and don’t take no for an answer. Just brush them off if you need to. Getting flustered does NOT help.

6, Enjoy yourself: Reminisce about your old home, but don’t dis the new one. It’s got its quirks, sure, but mostly its an okay place. As long as you work with everyone around you, you’ll catch on faster than you had EVER imagined.

5, Talk: Talk. Talk. Talk. Not just with teachers when they ask you a ques-tion, but with all the kids, whether you like them or not. They will be so busy trying to understand you that they won’t notice how weird you speak. And if anyone makes fun of how you talk, other people will get mad at them, seeing how much you try.

4, Use lots of sign language: Point at things and make funny fac-es. If you can make people laugh while making them understand, you get even more points!

1, Stay calm or freak out ahead of time: But when that fateful day arrives, the first day in a foreign school, act as if this is what you do ev-eryday. Scream and pound your fists in your head and curse the heck out of everyone, in your head, but play it cool. Remember, everyone around you is wondering how they would react to this situation, and it impresses them to see you so collected.

How to Live in a Different Country for a Short TimeBy: Anonymous, Richard, Lizzi the Fizz, Travis Derouin

BUSINESS ADVICE


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Tips

• Speak as often as you can, but whats even more im-portant is reading. If you have a study period, and you can go to the library, go. Read a comic book. Read a fairy tale. It doesn’t matter, just read. When you read, your mind doesn’t stumble over the words; it just goes a little slower, unlike your mouth. Its the best practice you could possibly hope for.

• Ask for help. If there is a word you forget or don’t un-derstand, ask a friend to help you understand. Mime it out if you have to. And don’t worry you will make friends very quickly.

Warnings

• Never cry in school, except maybe on the last day when you have to say goodbye and its incredibly hard. All your friends will cry too.

• Don’t complain. People will immediately look over all your good qualities and see just the complaining, which is not attractive, especially in someone who has so many reasons to complain.

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I t’s too early in the implementat ion phase to predict the specif ic ways health reform wil l impact the medical tourism industr y. However, the health care problems that spurred the growth of

medical tourism in the f irst place wil l not be solved by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). In fact , many problems, such as high costs, are l ikely to increase under the legislat ion. Lucki ly, medical tourism can help solve these concerns.

In the US health care system, there are few incentives to control health care spending and hold down costs. Under the reforms recently signed into law, nearly every-one’s incentives will become worse, not better — especially patients’.The cornerstone of health reform is an individual mandate that requires virtually all U.S. residents to have health coverage. This certainly will do nothing to control costs. Indeed, because of the third-party payment system (employer-sponsored plans, insurers and government), every time a patient in the United States spends a dollar on health care, only 12 cents comes out of his own pocket, on average. This means patients have an incentive to con-sume health care until its value to them is worth only 12 cents on the dollar.

During his campaign, then-candidate Ba-rack Obama’s health advisors said they could save the average American house-hold $2,500 a year through such reforms as coordinated care, preventive care, evi-denced-based care, pay-for-performance care, electronic medical records and a slew of similar ideas. The Congressio-nal Budget Office responded that these reforms will only save about 1 percent of what President Obama’s team projected, and maybe nothing at all. Basically, you cannot expect to change the practice of medicine by merely telling doctors (and hospitals) to practice medicine in a pre-determined way with top-down reforms. Almost nowhere in the health care sys-tem are providers competing for patients based on price. Since they are not com-peting on price, they have no interest in reducing the cost of care. The PPACA does nothing to change this fact.

Perverse Incentives

Failure to Control Costs

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What This Means for Medical TourismDespite lower cost, the quality of health care abroad can be high. For example, foreign doctors are often trained or board certified in the United States. More than 300 hospitals abroad are accredited by the Joint Commission International — the arm of the organization that ac-credits American hospitals participating in Medicare. Some foreign hospitals are owned, managed or affiliated with prestigious American universities or health care systems, including the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins and Harvard International. The best foreign hospitals not only post quality data (such as their case-adjusted mortality rates), they compare their rates to those at the best U.S. hospitals. There are even medical travel bureaus that help patients find high quality care to meet their needs.On a recent trip to Guatemala City, Guatemala I toured a facility run by Grupo Hospitalario, a private hospital chain. The CEO of the facil-ity was a Cornell University MBA. Most of the doctors who practice there are U.S. trained, and most are board certified. They have all the latest equipment and can do just about anything an American hospi-tal can do. For starters, the hospital we visited looks like a modern hotel — rooms come with a TV, minibar, Internet hookup and 24-hour room service. And the price is right: a private room is $55 a day (a suite is $85).Almost all medical services cost a fraction of what they would in the United States. Whereas MRI scans in the United States range, say, from $500 to $1,500, the Guatemalan equivalent costs $240 (daytime) or $100 (evening). Gastric bypass surgery, a popular procedure for American patients, costs $8,000 in Guatemala, compared to $25,000 in the United States.Currently, only 10 percent of their patients are foreign and only 2 per-cent to 3 percent are American, but as the U.S. health care system be-comes increasingly dysfunctional, a low-cost, high-quality alternative like Grupo Hospitalario could become a hotspot for individuals trying to escape suffocating medical expenses.

Medical Tourism Offers a SolutionEstimates vary, but more than a half million Americans travel outside the United States for health care every year, and the number is grow-ing. Americans are finding package prices that include airfare and hotel rooms for one-third, one-fourth or even one-fifth of what they would pay in the United States. Virtually every major U.S. insurer is actively studying how to enter this international market.Traditionally, uninsured patients were the ones who traveled abroad in search of lower cost, high-quality health care. However, beginning in 2014, all businesses with more than 50 workers will be required to offer employee coverage or pay a per-worker fine. With no cost con-trol provisions in the PPACA, health plans will have to find out-of-the-box solutions to the ever-rising cost of medical care. Increasingly, runaway costs will force employer-sponsored plans to offer workers the opportunity to travel abroad for some medical procedures in re-turn for a share of the savings.

Bottom LineI have no confidence the health reform legislation will solve our health care problems. But I do have a lot of confidence that entrepreneurs can. As entrepreneurs develop the medical tourism industry, it will become commonplace for employers to help workers find a high-quality health care provider abroad, saving both the employer and employee money. Domestic hospitals and clinics will recognize their lost business and begin to compete for patients on the basis of price.

MEDICAL TOURISM 41

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