Visitor arrivals to Thailand crossed the 10 million mark for the first time in 2001, despite the September 11 attacks which depressed the tourism industry worldwide. Some 10,061,950 visitors came to Thailand last year, up by 5.8% over 2000, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said. "Clearly, Thailand was not as badly affected by the incident in the US and the global tourism slowdown," said the TAT’s acting governor Juthamas Siriwan. "We have successfully positioned ourselves as a peaceful and stable country, backed by high service standards, great tourism products and very good value for money," She said in a statement expecting a strong year ahead in 2002 as well.

Visitor arrivals declined in both September and October after the terrorist attacks, which sent shockwaves through the global tourism and airline sectors. The authority said October’s arrivals at 720,247 represented a record low.

However, intakes picked up again quickly in November, rising to 852,880, and increasing to 1,044,636 in December – the first time Thailand crossed the one-million arrivals mark in a single month.

Reacting quickly after the terror strikes, Thailand launched a campaign under the slogan "Be My Guest", to create an image of the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation as a "safe haven" in a troubled world. Tourism is Thailand’s largest foreign-exchange earner and has become increasingly vital to the nation’s finances since the 1997 economic downturn.

Faced with a sharp downturn in arrivals from the United States and Japan, the tourism authority successfully guessed it could benefit from increased business from other Asian nations, whose citizens are opting to holiday in the region instead of venturing further abroad.

Macau’s casinos

Macau has ended gambling tycoon Stanley Ho’s 40- year monopoly on its multi-billion-dollar casino business by awarding three licenses, including one to a US firm running gaming joints in the world’s betting capital Las Vegas.

However Ho’s Sociede de Jogos de Macau SA was named with US-Macau joint venture Wynn Resorts (Macau) Ltd. and US-Hong Kong-Macau joint venture Galaxy Casino Co. Ltd. as the provisional winners of the licenses.

Ho’s winning firm is a unit of his Sociedade de Turismoe Diversoes de Macau (STDM) which controls Macau’s 11 casinos.

Awarding of the licences will finally open the gambling market after around 70 years as a monopoly, with the government eager to attract overseas investment in Macau which is heavily dependent on gambling revenue and still struggling to recover from the 1997 financial crisis. The involvement of foreign firms is also seen as an attempt to turn Macau into an Asian Las Vegas.

Wynn Resorts, owned by US billionaire Steve Wynn, has promised to build hotel, shops, theme parks and convention centers.

China Airlines to be revamped

China’s loss-making airline industry will see nine firms merged into three major airline groups within two years.

Under the plans, first outlined in 2000, China’s three largest airlines – Beijing-based national flag carrier Air China, Shanghai’s China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines of Guangzhou – would swallow up two smaller firms each.

Air China would merge with China Southwest Airlines and with China National Aviation Corporation, the parent of the Hong Kong-listed firm which owns a controlling stake in Hong Kong’s Dragon Air.

China Eastern would combine with Yunnan Airlines and China Northeast Airlines, with China Southern being merged with China Northern Airlines and Xinjiang Airlines. Each of the new firms would end up with assets of around six billion dollars and a fleet of about 200 aircrafts, the China Daily said.

Many of the difficulties in the mergers have been linked to a refusal by the big airlines to take over the debt of the smaller companies.

India targets 1% of global trade

The Indian government has unveiled its medium term export strategy targeting 1% share in global trade volume, which means US$ 80 billion per annum in exports by 2006-07. At present India’s shares in the world trade is 0.5% only.

The strategy focuses on key markets, select items and incentives compatible with World Trade Organization (WTO) norms. The country-commodity matrix now includes 25 countries and 220 export products, according to reports