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Hotel priskrig i Bangkok 5 stjernet hotel til under 100kr:

Published on Apr 12, 2003


The Peninsula Bangkok and other establishments offer unprecedented deals
to boost domestic tourism as foreign demand plummets

In a once-in-a-lifetime offer, Thais will be able to stay overnight at
the five-star Peninsula Bangkok for just Bt500.

Charoen Wangananont, president of the Domestic Travel Association, said
the hotel's rate of Bt500 a night was "unprecedented in the history of
the Thai hotel industry".

The Peninsula Bangkok Hotel, which overlooks the Chao Phya River and is
opposite the Oriental Hotel, is one of many hotels joining the "Unseen
Price" campaign run by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

The Peninsula Bangkok normally charges an average US$260 (Bt10,920) a
night.

The hotel price-cutting campaign launched yesterday at the TAT's
headquarters aims to attract local tourists to offset the sharp drop in
foreign tourist arrivals.

The campaign will run from April 15 to May 15, and local travellers will
pay only Bt500 a night at all participating hotels.

Charoen predicted that local customers would book more than 5,000 room
nights.

TAT governor Juthamas Siriwan said: "We are launching the
Bt500-per-night campaign in order to salvage the tourism industry. We
don't want to see any staff laid off."

About a dozen other hotels in Thailand's major tourist cities will
participate in the Unseen Price campaign. They include the Rama Garden
Hotel, Bangkok; Resotel Hotel, Kanchanaburi; Imperial Mae Ping Hotel,
Chiang Mai; Golden Pine, Chiang Rai; Lampang River Lodge, Lampang;
Imperial Phukaew, Petchabun; Charoen Thani Princess, Khon Kaen, Lai
Thon, Ubon Rachathani; Royal Paradise, Phuket; and Ao Nang Villa, Krabi.

The tourist authorities and hotel-operators are trying to boost domestic
tourism by making it more affordable for local leisure travellers.

Juthamas estimated that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in April
this year would decline 40 per cent to 513,212.

Despite earlier TAT predictions that tourist numbers would not decline
despite the war in Iraq, TAT now estimates that foreign tourist arrivals
in 2003 will drop by 2.21 per cent to 10.56 million.

Unfortunately, Sars was not predictable, she said, adding that the
impact of the Iraq war and Sars was more severe than expected.

However, she said she was optimistic that the income from tourist
arrivals would grow 2 per cent over 2002.

The country's strong measures against tourists from Sars-infected
countries caused many tour groups to cancel their trips to Thailand
during the Songkran festival.

China, one of the risk countries, yesterday announced a ban on travel to
Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Last year Thailand recorded more than 700,000 tourist arrivals from
China.

Prakit Chinamornpong, secretary of the Thai Hotels Association, said the
average hotel occupancy rate in Bangkok was just 30 per cent, compared
to more than 50 per cent for the same period last year.

Supalerk Soorangkura, president of the Association of Thai Travel
Agents, said hotels in the major tourist destinations of Phuket, Chiang
Mai, and Hat Yai were not fully booked this year.

Choosak Jirasakunthai

The Nation
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Surely, there is some fine print...Maybe you must take your meals there
(Hotels generally profit more from food and beverage sales than room
sales, anyway)

No matter. I'll be paying some of these hotels visits shortly after
Songkran :)

I guess finding a hotel, even for songkran, isn't a problem this
year....