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MoneyGram offering cash transfers at more GSB outlets
MoneyGram, a global money-transfer company, has signed an agreement with Government Savings Bank to provide transfer services in more than 1,000 GSB locations across Thailand by the end of this year.
As a result of the agreement, MoneyGram services will be available at nearly 2,000 locations across the country, in all provinces.
“Collaborating with Government Savings Bank is an important milestone for MoneyGram as we work to expand across Thailand and provide greater access to affordable money-transfer services,” said Yogesh Sangle, MoneyGram’s senior regional director for Asia.
“It more than doubles the number of places for residents to connect with friends and family members in Thailand and makes using our services more convenient.”
MoneyGram’s agreement with GSB extends the company’s network in a key remittance market. According to the World Bank, inbound remittances to Thailand totalled nearly US$6 billion (Bt200 billion) in 2013 alone.
Most ‘outbound’ trips in Greater China
Mainland Chinese travellers have taken 100 million “outbound” trips this year, officials said, with the vast majority visiting Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Just under 4 per cent of the 100 million trips counted up to the end of November were to Europe, China’s state tourism administration said this week, while 90 per cent were within Asia.
Although Beijing considers self-governing Taiwan as part of China along with Hong Kong and Macau, the tourism administration said that nearly 71 per cent of “outbound” trips were to the three territories.
The total number of people travelling abroad was not given but the figures call into doubt previous reports that some 97 million Chinese did so last year.
Six countries – South Korea, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Singapore – have seen more than a million trips by Chinese citizens so far this year, the administration said on its website.
China’s economy has boomed over the past decade, expanding the ranks of its middle class, who are hungry for foreign travel after the country’s decades of isolation in the last century.
Chinese travellers spent US$102 billion (Bt3.35 billion) overseas in 2012, making them the world’s biggest spenders ahead of German and American tourists, the United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation has said. – AFP
A380 service to Bangkok in January
Qatar Airways has announced that its newly received Airbus A380 aircraft will be ready for touchdown in Bangkok next month.
Responding to high demand for the state-of-the-art aircraft, Qatar Airways brought forward the arrival date of the A380 to yesterday, group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said.
In the wake of the overwhelming success of its inaugural service to London Heathrow, followed by a second service to Paris, Qatar Airways now operates its third A380 route to Thailand, just in time for holiday travellers to experience the airline’s service over the festive season.
The additional capacity offered to passengers with the introduction of the A380 operated on one of the airline’s four-times-daily services gives passengers the opportunity to experience the latest aircraft to join the Qatar Airways fleet.
