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Holidays given away in Phuket
24/02/2005 07:28 - (SA)
Singapore - A 1-Singapore-dollar (US$0.62) trip to the tsunami-hit Thai resort town of Phuket is the latest effort by the travel industry to boost visitor numbers, travel agents said on Thursday.
The offer, including return air fare on SilkAir and two nights at a three-star hotel, is available to the first 100 Standard Chartered credit cardholders who book at a travel fair this Sunday.
"We need to ensure that the local economy is not further damaged by the absence of tourists," SA Tours general manager Alicia Seah told The Straits Times.
All of the bookings are for travel between March 3 and April 20.
Each cardholders can book for three other guests, who will pay 98 Singapore dollars each.
Many travellers are still avoiding areas ravaged by the December 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami.
Budget airline Tiger Airways offered 20 000 seats to Phuket at 9.98 Singapore dollars each. Slightly more than half the seats were sold by the end of the two-week booking period.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand said 423 of Phuket's 560 hotels are operating normally, but occupancy is still hovering below 20%.
Housewife Yeo Siew Cheng, 44, took her family to Phuket over the Chinese New Year break.
"The beaches are very white and beautiful, but it was very quiet with few tourists," she told the newspaper.
"Apart from some construction going on, you can't really tell the area had been hit by the tsunami," she said. - Sapa-dpa
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