Travel and Tourism Industry News

Several upscale hotels around Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection, where the red-shirted protesters have been based for more than a month, decided to close from Tuesday until April 25 for safety reasons. The hotels included Grand Hyatt Erawan, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Centara Grand. All guests living in these hotels were asked to check out before noon. [...]

Australia’s largest travel insurance provider said on Monday the company expected claims relating to the volcanic ash cloud over Europe to top more than 8 million Australian dollars (About US$ 7.35 million). Cover-More Travel Insurance Australia chief executive David Ferguson said travelers who purchased their policy before April 16 will be covered. “With the magnitude [...]

The Philippine Department of Tourism (PDOT) has assured that the Philippines remains on a business as usual mode, despite the killing of some 46 individuals in the Southern province of Maguindanao. Despite the alarm caused by the incident, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano assured stakeholders of the tourism industry that the Philippines remains an ideal destination [...]

Indonesia Earthquake Update : An earthquake with magnitude of 7.6 jolted West Sumatra province at Sumatra island on Wednesday, with no tsunami warning was issued, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. The quake struck at 17:16 Jakarta time (1216 GMT) with epicenter at 57 km southwest of Pariaman and at 71 km. under sea bed, an [...]

The World Health Organization declared the influenza A H1N1 a level 6 pandemic due to its vast geographical expansion. However, this virus is actually being well-controlled in Guatemala. According to the Department of Health and Human Services in Guatemala, the country only has 458 confirmed cases of H1N1 (0.004% of its 11,237,196 total population). Despite [...]

The Indonesian culture and tourism department in cooperation with other government organizations has set up a crisis center dealing with the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton bomb explosions in the Mega Kuningan area, South Jakarta, Friday morning. “We formed the crisis center quickly today at 10.00 a.m. local time to respond to the bombing case,” [...]

The spread of Swine Flu which is also known as influenza type A (H1N1) will definitely affect tourism this year if the government fails to contain the pandemic in an appropriate manner, according to a leading economist. Anusorn Tamajai, dean of the Rangsit University’s economics faculty, admitted the spread of the new virus strain was [...]