Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit announced that it has appointed Ms. Patitta Chinin as its new Senior Director of Sales – Corporate, Leisure and MICE.
Ms. Patitta, a Thai national, brings with her many years of experience of sales and marketing within the hospitality industry in Thailand. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Humanities at Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok,where she majored in English with a minor in Mass Communication. Prior to joining Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit Ms. Patitta was Director of Sales & Marketing at Movenpick Hotel Sukhumvit15 Bangkok, and Director of Sales & Marketingat Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit.

Policy experts and statisticians specialized in sustainable development, environment and tourism gathered to agree on the way forward in developing a statistical framework for sustainable tourism. The meeting was held at UNWTO headquarters in Madrid.The first meeting of the Working Group of Experts on Measuring Sustainable Tourism (MST) agreed that developing a statistical framework for sustainable tourism is a priority to support integrated policy responses at national and destination level, and urged UNWTO to lead this effort.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) and its subsidiaries announced third quarter 2016 results with an operating loss of THB 836 million (80.3% better than the same period last year ). During this quarter, impairment loss of assets and aircraft totaled THB 624 million while gain on foreign currency exchange was THB 120 million resulting in the net loss of THB 1,591 million. The Company continues to operate under transformation plan which resulted in THB 4,560 million operating profit for the first nine months in 2016. This is quite an improvement from THB 4,536 million loss in the same period last year.

Bangkok mourns His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej
A unique mourning ceremony for the late King, who passed away on 13 October aged 88, was held this week at Bangkok’s Royal Palace in Bangkok. Elephants are revered as noble animals in Thailand, and the late King was a great animal lover- his dog accompanied him everywhere, even to official functions. Since his passing, thousands of Thais and visitors per day from all around the world have visited the Royal Palace to pay their own respects to the revered monarch.
But today brought a very different group of mourners- a specially trained cohort of 200 mahouts with their specially trained Royal Elephants and their mahouts, who came to pay their own extraordinary tribute.

Bangkok-In Memory of His Majesty King Bhumibol
Impressive mourning ceremony at the royal palace in Bangkok for the late King. He was a convinced and great animal friend and still has his dog on a leash, even when his Majesty was in a wheelchair. Like every day today thousands of Thai people and mourning guests from all over the world were at the palace to pay tribute to the popular king. The monarch had visited the Royal Elephants, and these elephants were leading the special mourning ceremony today. Unbelievably beautiful pictures of the mighty animals in front of the palace. When the 200 Mahout and thousands of mourners sing the royal national anthem even these giant animals were silent … maybe they recognized what was going on and mourned, too, and showed the king the ultimate glory

Destinations around the world welcomed 956 million international tourists between January and September 2016, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. This is 34 million more than in the same period of 2015, a 4% increase.Demand for international tourism remained robust in the first nine months of 2016, though growing at a somewhat more moderate pace. After a strong start of the year, growth was slower in the second quarter of 2016 to pick up again in the third quarter of the year.