Bagan downs the dollar

Bagan downs the dollar

Myanmar’s Ministry of Culture has announced that the entrance fee to enter the Bagan historical site from November 1 will be Ks25,000 (Bt695) instead of the current US$20. The ministry said that since the charge was collected in dollars, starting this January, the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank found many notes were damaged, frayed or defaced. It said the use of dollars contributed to widespread dollarisation, the increasing demand for dollars, the lowering of the kyat’s value and unstable exchange rates. Charging the Bagan entrance fee in kyats, calculated with the most recent Central Bank of Myanmar value, is one of many attempts to boost kyat usage, despite many organisations, including government departments, charging customers in dollars.

 

Upgrade for HCMC airport

Vietnam plans to improve the service at Ho Chi Minh’s Ta Son Nhat International Airport following an overload of passengers that is now topping three million per year. The authority has admitted that HCMC’s airport is underdeveloped and cannot serve modern air travel. The airport is criticised for poor Wi-Fi connectivity and hygienic standards in the toilets. Established in 1930s with an unpaved airstrip by the French before being reconstructed in the 1950s, Ta Son Nhat International Airport is the gateway to Vietnam’s South. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has already received the green light from the Ministry of Transport to upgrade the airport. |– Viet Nam News/ANN

 

Palawan wins Best Island award

Move over Samui: according to Conde Nast Traveller the best island in the world is in the Philippines. Palawan topped the list of the Best Islands in the World Awards category in this year’s Conde Nast Traveller Reader’s Choice Awards. Also in the list are Cebu and Boracay at no 19 and no 15, respectively. Palawan beat out famous and historical destinations like Mykonos, the British Virgin Islands, and Bali. It is also the second time the island topped the said list, getting the honour at last year’s awards as well. – Asia News Network

 

S Africa to change visa regulations

South Africa will overhaul its controversial new visa regulations after the tourist arrivals fell by six percent earlier this year, the biggest decline in six years. Introduced in June, the new rules demanded that visitors apply for visas in person at South African embassies to have their biometric information taken. But after months of digging in its heels, the Department of Home Affairs has announced it would ease these restrictions. The decision comes after President Jacob Zuma established a committee in August to investigate reports that the tourism industry had been badly impacted by the change. - AFP

 

Flying high in Asia Pacific

The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) reports that Asia Pacific airlines carried 22 million international passengers in September, six per cent more than the same month last year. Measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), demand increased by 7.4 per cent reflecting broad support on both short and long haul routes. Combined with the 6.2-per-cent expansion in available seat capacity, the average international passenger load factor edged 0.8 percentage points higher to 77.2 per cent for the month.