PhuketWATCH Tourists May Have to Be Insured; Phuket People; Air Traffic ...

PHUKET: The daily wrap of Thailand news, with a Phuket perspective, plus relevant reports from national and international media. Beware of inconsistent imitations.

bangkokpost.com State agencies have agreed in principle with the Public Health Ministry???s proposal to require foreign tourists to buy travel and health insurance before arriving in Thailand. Jetsada Jongpaiboonpattana, director of Vachira Phuket Hospital, said the hospital spent three million baht last year to provide free services to foreign tourists who received medication but later claimed they had no money.

pattayapeople.com Swiss man Gaston Roger Maurer, 62, was caught at a motorcycle rental shop in Pattaya and charged with serious sexual offences. Victims’ families learned a ladyboy had lured them into providing sex. The boys would be paid 250 baht each and the ladyboy got the rest of the money.

guardian.co.uk Academic research on human trafficking in Thailand isn’t being adequately funded. In order to adopt prevention strategies, an accurate and realistic picture of the current situation, trends and enslavement practices is needed. There is a huge need for reliable unbiased empirical academic research in Thailand that is backed up by government data and NGO reports.

straitstimes Director-producer Roland Emmerich is a regular visitor to Singapore. He stops here occasionally on his way to his regular annual holiday in Phuket, where his boat is moored. ”A 110-foot gentleman’s yacht from 1931” is how he describes the 33.5-metre craft, which takes him and his friends out to Bali and the Maldives.

hemeltoday.co.uk Dog-mad Briton Joanna Wills is using annual holiday leave from her job as a management trainer for cruise ships to travel to volunteer for the Soi Dogs Foundation on Phuket. Joanna hopes vets in the area will be able to donate equipment she can take with her when she volunteers for the charity from July 5.

gladstoneobserver.com.au Lexie King from Yeppoon will be heading to Phuket next month and will be taking over donations, including leashes, collars, toys and medicine for both dogs and cats. Lexie has been working with Capricorn Coast businesses to get donations to the Soi Dog Foundation in Phuket.

nationmultimedia.com Airports of Thailand expects the number of passengers through Phuket and five other major airports to rise to 85 million, an increase by 13.5 million or 19 percent from last year. [Total arrivals and departures on Phuket could go close to 11 million.]

bangkokpost.com Phuket airport’s ongoing 5.8-billion-baht expansion will be fully completed in mid-2015, boosting total annual passenger handling capacity to 12.5 million.

bangkokpost.com European hotel management chain Accor Group expects Accor Thailand to record the group’s best performance in the Asia-Pacific region this year. The group will open eight hotels with 4400 rooms in Thailand by 2015.

aap An Australian man facing charges of tax avoidance and money laundering linked to the $430 million Wickenby tax avoidance investigations is set to face a Perth court in September. Greg Dunn was deported from Thailand on January 31, after his arrest by Thai police in December at his Thai seaside residence at Hua Hin following a request by Australian authorities.

channelnewsasia.com Indonesia has agreed to bring forward the Asean trans-boundary haze pollution meeting from August to July. The decision was made after talks between Indonesia’s environment minister and his Malaysian counterpart in Jakarta.

imtj.com Thailand must not overlook unexplored medical tourism potential in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, says the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Besides Russia, whose citizens have become big travellers to Thailand, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the three rising stars listed by TAT. These countries could help to offset declining tourism from Europeans states beset by slowing economies.

bbc.co.uk Burma has awarded lucrative mobile telecom licences to Norway’s Telenor and the Qatari firm Ooredoo, a government committee in charge of bids has said.

reuters Novak Djokovic has been visiting a Buddhist Temple in an effort to escape the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a grand slam, the Serb said after bringing calm to Wimbledon with a comfortable straight sets win over American qualifier Bobby Reynolds 7-6(2) 6-3 6-1.

July 6-7 Phuket Air Show and Family Picnic, Phuket Air Park

July 17-21 Cape Panwa Hotel Phuket Raceweek

July 22 Arsarnha Bucha Day

August 12 HM The Queen’s Birthday

October 5-13 Phuket Vegetarian Festival

October 23 Chulalongkorn Memorial Day

October 29-November 3 Womens’ volleyball, Karon beach

November 17 Loy Kratong Day

November 24-December 1 Challenge Laguna Phuket Tri-Fest. Laguna Phuket

December 5 HM The King’s birthday

January 9-12 Phuket International Boat Show, Royal Phuket Marina

November 14-21 Fourth Asia Beach Games, Phuket

PhuketWATCH Tourists May Have to Be Insured; Phuket People; Air Traffic ...