Briefs

Provinces on the Andaman Sea coast plan to launch a joint marketing campaign aimed at luring more Europeans – especially Scandinavians – and persuading them to stay longer.
The Andaman Explorer campaign is the brainchild of the tourism associations in five provinces on the Andaman Coast: Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga, Trang and Ranong.
Ittirit Kinglake, chairman of the Krabi Tourism Association, said yesterday the campaign would update literature distributed to travel agents in Europe with the addition of cultural sites and activities in Trang, and medical tourism locations and hot springs in Ranong. The move is aimed at helping agents design a greater variety of packages featuring a diversity of products, Ittirit said.
It is also hoped the additional attractions will ease overbooking in Phuket during peak season, Ittirit said.
The five associations expect tourism receipts and holiday lengths to double next year.
Chidcha Sakornbadee, vice president of the Association of
Thai Travel Agents, said tour operators would start promoting the campaign in March to international agents for the following high season. – The Nation

Indorama plans int’l spending spree
Indorama Ventures, Thailand’s largest maker of polyester and plastic packaging material, plans to spend US$2.8 billion (Bt84 billion) over the next three years on acquisitions and new plants overseas to help double its earnings.
New production in the US, Europe and Asia may boost earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to $1.1 billion by the end of 2014, chief executive officer Aloke Lohia said in an interview yesterday. The company forecasts Ebitda to rise to about $600 million this year, he said.
Indorama seeks to take advantage of the economic slowdown in Europe and the US to acquire factories as demand for the materials used in plastic bottles and textiles rises. The Bangkok-based company aims to increase its revenue, more than half of which came from the two markets in 2010, by about $2 billion annually over the next five years, said Lohia. “US and Europe will continue to be at the forefront of our strategy because those are the major markets we would like to have leading positions in,” Lohia said.
“The current economic environment has allowed us to make the purchases at lower valuation than we expected.” – Bloomberg