TRAVEL TITBITS
New water park
Tube Trek Water Park Chiang Mai will be opened by the summer.
The water park is developed by a local property businessman with an investment of about 500 million baht. The project is built on a 30 rai plot of land in San Kamphaeng district.
The land used to be a rice paddy.
Decorated with many types of robot sculptures, the water park will be the first water park in the North. It is about 80% completed and expected to be opened by the end of March, in time for people to enjoy during the summer school break.
The park will feature four major zones including Kids’ Zone with attractions like water sliders and a huge water bucket, Lazy River and Wave Pool.
The water park is located on a local road, off Road 1006 linking the city of Chiang Mai to Bo Sang and about 20km east of Chiang Mai International Airport.
Pata Awards
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) Gold Awards 2017 are open for submissions.
The Pata Gold Awards give the opportunity for individuals and organisations to share their successful achievements, recognition and enabling other tourism industry stakeholders to learn from the good practices presented.
The Gold Awards comprise seven categories offering 29 gold and four grand awards. The categories are “marketing campaign”, “environment”, “corporate social responsibility”, “heritage and culture”, “education and training”, “marketing media” and “travel journalism”.
The last day for submission is April 28. The awards presentation will take place during Pata Travel Mart 2017 on Sept
15 at the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel in Macao.
Visit www.PATA.org/goldawards.
In-flight entertainment
In-flight entertainment will be changed to streaming media so passengers can view popular TV series on their personal laptop, tablets, iPads and smartphones.
Netflix, the world’s leading Internet TV network, has already provided the service at least to two airlines, Virgin America since September 2015 and Qantas this month. Passengers are able to watch Netflix’s hit series like House Of Cards, Black Mirror and The Crown while boarding the flights.
In addition, Qantas also provides live sports, news, TV shows and other on-demand content from Australian-based Foxtel company, and streaming music from Spotify.
“We know that email, online shopping and general web browsing will be popular uses when we switch on Wi-Fi, but what a lot of people relish about flying is being able to catch up on their favourite TV shows or watch movies they didn’t get to see at the cinema,” said Qantas Group executive Olivia Wirth.
Airlines update
Thai AirAsia will launch two new domestic routes to promote domestic tourism.
The routes will link U-Tapao International Airport in Rayong to Ubon Ratchathani and to Phuket.
The flight to Ubon Ratchathani will depart from U-Tapao airport daily at 2.20pm and the return flight from Ubon Ratchathani will be at 4.35pm. The flying time is one hour and 10 minutes.
The flight to Phuket, on the other hand, will depart from U-Tapao airport daily at 10.55am and the return flight from Phuket will be at 12.50pm. The travel time is one hour and 20 minutes. The service will begin on March 30.
Visit www.airasia.com.
AirAsia X, the long-haul low-cost carrier, has recently launched a service to Hawaii.
The route will be have three stops starting from international airports in Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, Osaka in Japan and Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii. The airline offers Fly-Thru service allowing travellers in Thailand to check-in their luggage and tickets from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket or Krabi to Hawaii.
The service will start on June 28.
Visit www.airasia.com.
Hotels update
Mercure Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 will be opened around the middle of March.
The hotel features 232 rooms including four suites, connecting rooms for families or group travellers as well as rooms for people who travel with wheelchairs. The room sizes range from 34m² for a deluxe room to 87m² for a suite.
Also provided are a rooftop swimming pool with a pool bar, club lounge, fitness centre, spa and two restaurants.
The 4-star hotel is about 300m from Nana BTS station.
Visit www.accorhotels.com.
Best Western Thousand Island Hotel has been opened in Inle Lake in Myanmar’s Shan State.
Located in Nyaung Shwe town, the hotel features 48 rooms, a billiard room, riverview café and rooftop bar. The hotel is 28km from Heho Airport. Best Western Thousand Island Hotel is the international hotel group’s third property in Myanmar after the Best Western Green Hill Hotel and Best Western Chinatown Hotel in Yangon.
Visit www.bestwestern.com.
Email karnjanak@bangkokpost.co.th if you have any comments to share.