New Zealand’s international tourism showcase Trenz started in Christchurch yesterday with at least some overseas buyers looking for something new from local operators.
Trenz (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand) has drawn more than 1600 international and domestic industry delegates, and some media.
Some 450 travel and tourism companies are exhibiting their wares.
Among the buyers attending the conference, which has been organised by the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand, was Swai Hapoo-riwat of Thai company Majestic Travel International.
Mr Hapoo-riwat’s firm organises air travel, tours and activities for more than 2000 Thai tourists to New Zealand each year and he is looking for something new at TRENZ.
He’s been to New Zealand on business several times.
More: stuff.co.nz
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THE Tourism Act is up for an amendment to give more powers to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to rein in 'errant' tourism operators, it has emerged.
Tourism authorities told StandardBusiness last week that operators were taking advantage of the laxity in the legislation and were reneging in supplying ZTA with statistics on a monthly basis. Operators have to supply the tourism promotion body with statistics on the 15th of each month.
At a Tourism Statistics workshop last week ZTA said that a paltry 20% of operators were releasing information required by the authority to compile statistical information on time. ZTA
IF foreign travel correlates with economic well-being, the Japanese are feeling better about themselves.
That ought to be cheering Australian inbound tourism operators, too. But, actually, there's anxiety about Australia's second most valuable offshore market, worth an estimated $2.05 billion last year.
The numbers, though better than they have been, suggest Japanese travellers are just not as enthralled by the great southern land as they once were.
In the first quarter of this year, Japanese travel to Australia grew 5 per cent on the same period of 2004. But, overall, Japanese travel increased 15 per cent and China, Korea, Hawaii and
The Pakistan government has lifted a foreign travel ban on the victim of a high profile gang rape, Mukhtar Mai.
But Ms Mai has told the BBC that because her passport has been confiscated, the move is meaningless.
The ban has prevented Ms Mai from taking up an invitation from human rights group Amnesty International to travel to the United States.
Officials had said she had to stay in Pakistan until court cases around the rape were resolved.
But critics said the move was a ploy intended to protect Pakistan's international image.
More: news.bbc.co.uk
Thai tourism operators need to differentiate their products in order to maintain their competitiveness in Southeast Asia as Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and Laos are rising as strong competitors in the region, experts warned yesterday.
Thailand could lose ground to neighbouring countries if it does not offer any new tourist destinations, said John Koldowski, the director of the Strategic Intelligence Centre at the Bangkok-based Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata).
Speaking at a seminar held by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Mr Koldowski said that besides developing differentiated tourism products, Thailand also needed to reconsider its tourism development focus, whether it is revenue,
HIGH-STREET travel agents have been warned to change - or become extinct - as fewer holidaymakers opt to use their services for booking annual trips abroad.
Up to 50% of independent holidaymakers, those who book hotels, flights and other arrangements separately, are snubbing high street travel agents and booking breaks on the internet or via phone calls to tour operators.
The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) yesterday said operators must begin to specialise in areas like cruises or adventure holidays if they are to survive.
And although around 80% of us still use high-street operators for package deals, this too is changing
