Asia travel news

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• First Miss Travel Daily Thailand crowned
• Etihad to launch Shanghai services
• Seven Chinese cities unite to form tourism alliance

First Miss Travel Daily Thailand crowned Posted: 06 Jul 2011 08:37 PM PDT + Click Image to Enlarge THAILAND-The Miss Travel Daily (Thailand) competition drew to a close in a frenzied final week that saw the travel industry’s finest strut their stuff at Suvarnabhumi airport and charm the crowds at TDA’s Thirsty Thursday. On Wednesday last week, eight contestants arrived by limousine at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport courtesy of Starlight Express. There, the girls were adorned in Air Astana flight attendant uniforms before being put through their paces. After posing for a photo shoot, the ladies’ hostess abilities were tested. While on the Bangkok tarmac, they were each asked to deliver the “welcome aboard Air Astana” greeting over the aircraft PA. After an assortment of challenges including cooking in the Rembrandt kitchens, building a Facebook following and newsreading on Travel Daily Travel Channel, the contest reached its climax at the Dusit Thani Bangkok on Thursday night. Facing their final challenge, five shortlisted contestants charmed 350 Bangkok travel professionals during an onstage interview before a live vote was taken. Having considered the outcome and performance of all previous challenges laid before the five worthy contestants, Miss Travel Daily Thailand was finally crowned.  Kanya Veenakhup took first place in the competition, and with it a pair of return flights from Bangkok to St Petersburg, Russia, with Air Astana and five nights accommodation. Second place went to May Kunnuda from Montien Hotel, Bangkok. May and a friend will be flying courtesy of AirAsia from Bangkok to Hong Kong with three nights accommodation at the Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong. The second runner-up was Glua Khansai from Equinox Marketing Bangkok. Glua walks a way with return AirAsia flights to Phuket, Thailand, and five nights stay at Anantara Phuket for two.

Etihad to launch Shanghai services Posted: 06 Jul 2011 08:34 PM PDT + Click Image to Enlarge Etihad Airways has announced plans to expand its network in China with daily direct services between Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Subject to government approval, the new flights are scheduled to commence on 1 March 2012, and will make Shanghai the airline's 70th global destination. Etihad Airways' Chief Executive Officer James Hogan announced the new route today in an address to 300 representatives attending the Aviation Outlook China Summit in Shanghai this week. "Shanghai, the most populous city in mainland China, is a strategically important addition to Etihad's China network," Hogan said. "Together with our daily flights to the capital Beijing, the Shanghai route will offer travellers competitive access to the two biggest centres for commerce, trade, government, culture, and tourism in China. "For travellers originating in China, this means a wider choice of convenient flight options to the UAE, Middle East, Europe, and North America, and on the way, the award-winning combination of luxuriously appointed aircraft, best-in-class service, and some of the finest international cuisine in the sky. "Through Etihad's efficient Crystal Cargo operation, we also intend to pursue growth of the valuable export trade for high tech and other commodities."  Today's announcement follows a press conference in Chengdu yesterday, where Hogan released details of the airline's planned new services to the Sichuan province. "The commencement of services to Chengdu and Shanghai and this week's increase in frequency to Beijing are major investments of aircraft and commercial resources into China. It reflects our confidence in the current strength and future potential of the inbound and outbound travel markets," Hogan said. Etihad will operate an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the Abu Dhabi-Shanghai route, configured in Pearl Business and Coral Economy class.

Seven Chinese cities unite to form tourism alliance Posted: 06 Jul 2011 08:20 PM PDT + Click Image to Enlarge CHINA-As the Beijing Shanghai High Speed Rail gives more convenience for residents to travel, 7 cities along the route including Beijing, Tianjin and Nanjing have united to form a city tourism alliance.The 7 cities signed a declaration of cooperation in Jinan, the capital city of east China's Shangdong Province, aiming to promote regional tourism along the railway. The declaration requires the signatories to cooperate in areas such as passenger source search, tourism promotion and cross-city customer service. Tourism authorities and travel agencies have started to promote one-day or two-day tours, targeting at travelers during the weekends. Wang Yuansheng, deputy director of Tourism Admin. of Shandong Province, said, "The Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway provides a good platform to organize the travel resources across provinces. We will unite in the future to promote more attractive routes, connecting Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong." He Zhineng, deputy director of Tianjin Tourism Bureau, said, "Tourism sector along the Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway will be changed. We need a platform to cooperate, to deal with these changes. It also allows us to further promote the cooperation to a bigger region, to promote the development of tourism industry."

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