#Dubai announces record tourism arrivals in 2019

Dubai welcomed a record 16.73 million tourists in 2019, an improvement over the previous two years driven by soaring Chinese, Russian and Omani visitor numbers.

The number of international visitors grew by 5.1 percent last year but is still short of its 2020 target of 20 million tourists.

"While the global economy remains in a state of flux, we can clearly see an exciting opportunity to further grow Dubai's dominance in the tourism industry in 2020," said Dubai Tourism chief Saeed al-Marri, according to the Dubai Media Office. 

By country, Indian tourists topped arrivals with nearly two million visiting Dubai, a slight drop from 2018.

They were followed by 1.6 million Saudi visitors to the city-state, one of seven sheikhdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates.

Like last year, Britons came in third with 1.2 million tourists. Visitors from Oman increased 24 percent to over one million, putting the neighboring country in fourth place.

Chinese tourists rose by 15.5 percent to 989,000 and Russian visitors increased by 7.4 percent to 728,000.

Earlier this month, the UAE introduced a multiple-entry visa scheme valid for five years for all nationalities.

Dubai has the most diversified economy in the region and forecasts record spending this year, with its 2020 budget increasing 17 percent to $18.1 million as it seeks to boost its sagging economy.

The emirate has high hopes that the six-month global trade fair Expo 2020 starting in October will revive its fortunes.

But it still foresees a deficit for the fourth year in a row of $700 million.

The government is hoping Expo will attract 25 million visits, most of them from abroad, and is projecting a 25 percent increase in revenues to $17.4 billion.

Dubai is the only government in the Gulf not dependent on hydrocarbon revenues, and projects around 94 percent of income to come from non-oil sources.

The desert city has large numbers of opulent shopping malls, luxury resorts and even an indoor ski slope.

Source - TheJakartaPost

Airports ramp up health monitoring amid Chinese pneumonia outbreak

Airport authorities in Greater Jakarta will increase health monitoring of passengers on international flights from China and Hong Kong amid growing concern about a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, in eastern China.

According to a circular issued by the health office of Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, earlier this month, authorities will enforce a number of prevention and monitoring measures on passengers landing at the airport, as well as Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta.

All airlines serving direct or transit flights from China and Hong Kong were advised to immediately provide health documents in the form of general declarations, as well as passenger manifests to the officials in the health office.

“Passengers coming from countries with reported cases of pneumonia infection will be screened by thermal scanner as well as syndromic surveillance,” says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post.

The office also recommended that all people working in the airport wear protective devices to reduce the chance of infection from people suspected of being infected by the disease.

“If you suffer from fever, cough or throat problems, contact medical personnel immediately,” the health office wrote in the circular.

The Indonesian Society of Respirology (PDPI) warned in a statement issued last Friday that people traveling to countries with outbreaks of the disease should wear masks at all times.

“After returning from places with outbreaks, immediately consult doctors if you experience a high fever or other symptoms of the infection. You should also tell the doctor of your recent travels to the outbreak sites,” the PDPI wrote in a statement.

Since December last year, dozens of cases of pneumonia have been reported in Wuhan. The disease is associated with a previously unidentified coronavirus related to the deadly Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday that China had reported to the organization 139 new cases of coronavirus infection in Wuhan, Beijing and Shenzhen over the past two days. The increased number was said to be the result of “increased searching and testing for 2019-nCoV [2019-novel coronavirus] among people sick with respiratory illness”.

The WHO had recently confirmed the first infection case outside China, with a doctor in Bangkok confirming a Chinese traveler was diagnosed with pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus.

According to the WHO, there are also other suspected cases in other cities around the region, such as Singapore and Seoul.

The outbreak has caused alarm because of the link with SARS, which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

Bank of Thailand to Take Further Steps to Reign in Thai Baht

Thailand’s central bank has reported that is ready to take additional steps to rein in the skyrocketing Thai baht.

The Bank of Thailand and the government remain concerned about the baht’s appreciation and continue to discuss the issue, Deputy Governor Mathee Supapongse said told reporters in Bangkok Tuesday.

The bank’s foreign-exchange intervention has helped to boost reserves and curb the baht, Bloomberg reports.

The Bank of Thailand has taken several steps in recent months to limit gains in the baht. Especially after it surged almost 9% against the dollar in 2019, the best performer among Asian currencies. The strong currency has hurt the nation’s exports, prompting calls for further action from the government.

Mathee said it’s not the central bank’s job alone to manage the baht
“The central bank is like the last door to defend the baht,” he said. “The first door is the private sector and the second door is the government. We all need to help out.”

If the central bank is left to solve the baht problem on its own, “they will need to use strong medicine to handle it,” said Mathee. “And it may not benefit much. If all parties help, they can use milder measures which will benefit all parties.”

He added the central bank will take action if it sees currency speculation. Separately, the bank published a foreign-exchange code of conduct on its website, outlining ethical and governance practices for market participants.

BOT Governor Veerathai Says Thailand To Ease Capital Outflow Rules Again
Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said last week the central bank will relax restrictions on capital outflows again, in an effort to ease upward pressure on the baht. Those steps includes boosting the amount of proceeds exporters can hold overseas to $1 million.

Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana said Monday any steps authorities take to curb gains in the currency won’t disrupt the “market mechanism” of the baht.

Some of the steps already taken by the central bank include:

Interest rates cut twice last year to match a record-low 1.25%
In July, measures were imposed to counter short-term inflows
In November, rules on capital outflows relaxed

The government also plans to issue measures to boost imports on capital goods and machinery for investment to help reduce pressure on the baht.

Source - Chiang Rai Times

They told people not to come': #Australia's bushfires ravage tourism industry

Pillars of fire and smoke from bushfires are tarnishing Australia's reputation for pristine vistas abounding in wildlife and wreaking havoc on tourism, operators say, as authorities are forced to cancel concerts, close parks and evacuate towns.

The smoke has shrouded entire cities and driven air quality to unhealthy levels, with at least 10 people dying in the fires in the past week, while colonies of animals such as koalas and flying foxes have been destroyed.

"Seeing all the images of fires on television and social media is not going to help, it puts a dent in Australia's reputation as a safe tourist destination," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital.

"It's come at a time when the economy was already fragile," he added, ranking tourism as Australia's fourth biggest export whose strength officials had been counting on to help offset a domestic reluctance to spend.

Bushfires burning for weeks near the world heritage site of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in the southeastern state of New South Wales have driven away tourists.

As visitors take to social media to warn others to steer clear, the number of busloads of tourists each day has fallen to about four from 15 or 20, said Stacey Reynolds, a receptionist at the Blue Mountains Backpacker Hostel in Katoomba.

"They told people not to come in and it's affected everything, from restaurants to motels to backpackers to cafes," she added. "The streets are empty."

Although there is no published nationwide data on tourism since the fires took hold in late spring, Australia attracted 2.71 million holiday makers last summer, up 3.2% from the previous year, as many fled the northern hemisphere winter.

Hotels in the largest city of Sydney saw a fall of 10% in guest numbers in December, the Accommodation Association of Australia said.

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"The fires and the smoke have had a real brand and reputational damage in Sydney," added its chief executive, Dean Long.

The train and cable network of Scenic World in the Blue Mountains had 50,000 fewer visitors in December, down 50% from last year, Chief Experience Officer Amanda Byrne said.

Scenic World was open, but the hotels around the area are having more cancellations than bookings, she said.

Government agency Tourism Australia, which released a new advertisement last month to lure Britons to beautiful beaches and stunning scenery, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The scorching temperatures and bushfires, which have also burnt vineyards in South Australia and warmed the usually cool island state of Tasmania, will hit the sector hard, said Judith Mair, who studies tourism, environment and consumer behavior.

"It will be in stages - immediately with evacuations, dislocations and cancellations, but also in the longer term, because tourists buy holidays based on the image of a destination and Australia's is being badly affected," said Mair, a professor at the University of Queensland Business School.

Hundreds of national parks in the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, thronged by 100 million visitors a year, have closed.

With fires burning nearby, Christopher Warren, co-proprietor of a bed and breakfast in Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales, said he had to evacuate his guests.

"The worst-case scenario is that we would be hit by a fire and our business would be destroyed," said Warren, who saw the best case as a loss of income exceeding A$80,000 ($56,048), through the disruption of three of his busiest months.

Paul Mackie, who uses AirBnB to rent out an apartment on Sydney's Bondi Beach to British and European tourists in the peak summer holiday period was hit by last-minute cancellations.

"I had bookings for the whole of this period going for the next couple of months, but a lot have cancelled because they said they saw the news of the fires," Mackie added.

AirBnB declined to comment.

A Sydney airport spokesman said it did not have recent statistics on whether the fires were hitting arrival. A Qantas spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the wildfires had hurt bookings.

The fires have spotlighted Australia's environment policies, criticized most recently at a U.N. summit in Madrid, said Susanne Becken, a professor of sustainable tourism at Griffith University in Queensland.

"The government's response to the climate crisis does not bode well...and this is not good for tourism," 

Source - TheJakartaPost

And they're off! Hundreds of thousands leave #Bangkok for New Year break

Hundreds of thousands of Bangkok residents have already started heading out of the capital, headed to various Thai provinces to welcome in 2020 in the company of friends and family. The long weekends starts from tonight with many Thais being granted a public holiday on Monday, in addition to the Tuesday and Wednesday public holidays. It seems many also took today off to make it a mega long weekend.

Thai PBS World reports that the police are monitoring the highways out of the city, to make sure traffic continues to move smoothly, with CCTV units along all major routes having been checked over to ensure they’re working properly, and road works suspended until after the holiday period.

It’s understood that the Ratchaprasong intersection, in the Pathum Wan district of Bangkok, will be closed to traffic from 2pm on December 31, in order to allow police to carry out security checks ahead of the New Year countdown being held in the busy shopping area later that night.

A number of extra buses are being laid on until December 28, taking the total of state-run buses from 5,419 a day to over 8,200 in an effort to cope with what is expected to be around 160,000 travellers a day over the year-end period.

Transport officials recommend passengers arrive at bus terminals at least an hour before departure, adding that tickets should only be purchased from official ticket booths, to avoid being scammed by con artists selling fraudulent tickets. Alternatively, passengers can book in advance by going to www.tansport.co.th or calling 1490.

Source - The Thaiger

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Thailand’s Prime Minister Orders Quick Action on Thai Baht

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered authorities to immediately stabilize the baht value and control its rise. He also ordered the Finance Ministry to form a new committee for the task.

Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana said Gen Prayut made the order as baht appreciation was affecting exporters. Many groups of operators in exports and tourism has pressured the PM over the soaring baht.

There will not be any order for a particular direction of the baht value, Mr Uttama said. That is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. The new committee idea will be proposed to a meeting of economic ministers. It will be a forum for organizations to exchange information,” he said.

The Finance Ministry will form the baht stabilization committee together with the Bank of Thailand; the National Economic and Social Development Council; the Office of the Insurance Commission; and the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The Finance Ministry also plans to set up another committee to implement national strategies. Concerning small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups and the grassroots economy. Furthermore so that the strategies would significantly boost the economy.
Central Bank Trying to Curb Baht

Thailand is trying to coax the baht down from six-year high territory as the currency’s strength threatens local manufacturing and tourism.

The central bank has cut interest rates and eased capital controls to rein in emerging Asia’s best-performing currency this year.

It is an ironic twist for a country that became the epicenter of the 1997 Asian financial crisis after its currency collapsed. Thailand now finds that its relatively sound fundamentals have made it a safe haven for capital in Southeast Asia.

The bank cut its benchmark one-day repurchase rate to 1.25%, tying an all-time low, while also making it easier to take funds out of the country.

Source - Chiang Rai Times
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