by Reinhard Hohler, Chiang Mai
Highly rewarding UNWTO meetings for East and South Asia will take place in Chiang Mai on 4 – 5 May, 2012.
Chiang Mai is getting into the spotlight, when delegates will arrive in early May to attend the upcoming United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) meetings scheduled to be held in Chiang Mai.
Plagued by weeks of unhealthy haze and air pollution, Chiang Mai needs to get its green environment cleared before the event. Many tourists prefer to stay in South Thailand, where sun, sand and sea are luring tourists from far afield as China. Especially, Phuket, Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi are favorite spots to travel to.

With daily direct flights from Phuket by AirAsia and Koh Samui by Bangkok Airways to Chiang Mai, some tourists should think and decide to visit Chiang Mai and the North too – a town with a more than 700 years old history and a myriad of tourist attractions, such as national parks, elephant camps, Chiang Mai Night Safari and the famous Tiger Kingdom amongst others.

Excursions can be easily arranged to the hilly neighboring provinces of Mae Hong Son and Chiang Rai. Also, Chiang Mai will be the starting point to visit Luang Prabang in Laos or Shan State in Myanmar. If the Thai/Myanmar border in Mae Sot in Tak Province will open, exciting tours to Mawlamyine and beyond become a long-awaited reality.

Timely to the new developments, the annual Mekong Tourism Forum will be held this year in Chiang Rai on June 13 & 14.
For further information, please contact GMS Media Travel Consultant Reinhard Hohler, who can be contacted by e-mail: sara@cmnet.co.th