Good news for tourists!

Chiang Mai Grand Sales 2009 - May 31 to August 2

30% to 70% discounts at department stores, hotels, restaurants and shops in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai Governor Amornphan Nimanant said:”"There will be about 300 participants, with 100 hotels, 50 restaurants, 50 spas, 30 golf courses, 20 tourist attractions and others joining the promotion. The province will spend Bt1.5 million to host the event.”

Golf Promotion - May 1 to June 30

Golf course operators will offer a single green fee of Bt800 per time.

Source: The Nation

From Bangkokpost.com:

CHIANG MAI : Local tourism businesses are committed to repositioning Chiang Mai as a destination for the meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (Mice) business in place of leisure travel in an effort to address a tourism slowdown in the province.

The northern province has been seen as a leisure tourism destination for 30 years but few new tourism products have been developed to attract return visitors, according to Kanok Suwansutr, president of the Northern Chapter of the Thai Hotels Association.

”The private sector hopes that the repositioning of Chiang Mai will help attract Mice visitors to revisit throughout the entire year, not just for [the October-February high] season at present,” said Mr Kanok.

From BangkokPost.com Breaking News today:

Storm warnings were issued to locals in Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Sukhothai, Phichit and Tak provinces.

The article stated heavy rains are expected in these areas “June 30 - May 2″. Probably a typo. May 30 - June 2?

Well, here’s a negative side of Thai tourism that many do not like to see:

Excerpts from the article from www.news.com.au today:

THAI provincial officials have allowed a new “human zoo” featuring long-necked or “giraffe” women to open near Bangkok despite mounting international criticism of the tourism practice, media reports said.

They are called the Padung or long-necked Karen in Thailand, but they consider those terms denigrating and call themselves Kayan.

Seven Kayan villages are already marketed as tourist attractions in Thailand’s northern provinces of Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai.

But for the first time, a new “village” of Kayans was recently opened in Sattahip in Chonburi province, 100km south-east of Bangkok and a few kilometres from the Pattaya beach resort, the Daily XPress newspaper said.

Read more here:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23739459-5014090,00.html