The promotional price of Bt999 is available for three days only from Thursday until October 13, exclusive of taxes and fuel surcharges, for travel from October 28 to November 30.

Nokscoot, a medium haul low-cost carrier based at Don Mueang International Airport, recently announced the launch of four weekly flights from its base to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport with its inaugural flight to start on October 28, 2018. This follows its debut in Japan on June 1, 2018, when it inaugurated daily services on the Bangkok Don Mueang-Tokyo Narita route.

The promotional fare is available for roundtrip flights from Bangkok to Osaka only. Tickets can be booked on NokScoot’s website http://www.nokscoot.com.

This is the first time Thailand has lost its top destination status to Japan for the week-long holiday, during which at least 7 million Chinese travel abroad.

“The number of Chinese vacationers expected to make an overseas trip during Golden Week rises from 6 million during the same period last year,” it was noted on the website earlier this week.

The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok has meanwhile issued a travel advisory for Chinese intending to visit during the holiday week of “volatile weather conditions and high sea waves … in Phuket, Phang-nga and Krabi”.

The southern provinces are the three most popular destinations for Chinese visitors to Thailand.

The advisory is partly in response to July’s tour-boat disaster in Phuket, in which 47 Chinese tourists drowned when their dive boat capsized in rough waters.

But Kongsak Khuphongsakorn, president of the Thai Hotels Association’s Southern Chapter, said the number of hotel bookings by Chinese tourists visiting southern Thailand through Golden Week had risen again to the usual level after a drop of between 10 and 12 per cent last month.

The decline was blamed on the monsoon and initial reaction to the boating tragedy.

Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan said this week he believed the tourism sector would soon return to normal after Thailand sent a formal apology to Beijing following a recent assault on a Chinese tourist at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport.

Prawit was asked about a report that China was preparing to “issue a yellow card” to Thai tourism concerning travel safety after a video clip of the altercation at the airport was widely shown on Chinese news and social media.

It showed a security guard briefly scuffling with and then striking a Chinese man. Netizens in China heavily criticised the guard.

However, the Chinese embassy expressed satisfaction with the apology, Prawit said.

The province’s governor, Chaiwat Chuenkosum, said this week that Bt18 million would be spent on the project.

The Loei Public Works Office will build a stairway to the hilltop, replacing a natural trail that’s somewhat difficult to climb, and a walkway around the summit.

The stairway will be easy to ascend for people of all ages, with rest stops along the way and good illumination, Chaiwat said.

At the well-lighted top the peak, tourists will be able to enjoy 360-degree panoramic views, even after dark.

Sompong Pholpattanakul, the head of public works, said Phu Bo Bit is relatively small – rising to about 460 metres above sea level but in fact only 200 metres high – so it could be developed without the need for a huge budget.

He said the stairway would be about 667 metres long.

The signage going up nationwide is clear and unequivocal: No Tips.

By this he means no more back-handers to corrupt immigration officials or the agents who collect the tea money from tourists and either pass it on or keep it for themselves.

Pictures posted on the Immigration Facebook page showed a permanent sign at an airport that said: No Tips please. The message was also in a graphic with Royal Thai Police insignia behind and “The Immigration Bureau” at the bottom.

It was also in Thai and Chinese.

Another stuck on a window at an immigration office clearly stated in English that visa fees were just Bt2,000 – no more.

At Sadao on the Thailand-Malaysia border, a printed sign on a counter said “No Tip” while an accompanying sign said “No other fees charged in passing this border”.

Surachate started his job as immigration commissioner on Monday after his move from deputy chief of the Thai Tourist Police Bureau where he was involved in many highly publicised crime busts.

One of his first statements as he moved to his Immigration desk was to announce an end to the practice of border officials taking bribes of Bt300.

Local media was saying that the practice had become the norm, with agents charging tourists Bt2,300 for their visas.

It was reported that sometimes the fees were kept by the agents themselves but other times they were passed on.

Thus, even honest officials felt they were being tarred with the brush of being corrupt.

Surachate also vowed to go after all agents and their customers nationwide involved in procuring visa extensions with fake documents.

He was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday over the arrest of Yupin Jantakhat, 55, who was acting as a visa extension agent. She has been charged with falsifying tax documents for the purpose of seeking visa extensions for her clients.

Two Nigerians, who were not named, presented the false papers at the government immigration offices in Chaeng Wattana.

Local media reported that Yupin was handling visas mostly for Indians, Pakistanis and Nigerians.

Yupin was arrested in Soi Dan Samrong, North Samrong after the paper trail led to her residence there.

“I am very happy to bring more great news, not long after we introduced Lufthansa’s flagship Airbus A380 to the market. With the right aircraft and growing demand for flights in Thailand, adding the Bangkok to Munich service complements our existing Lufthansa Group schedules out of Thailand. We are now able to offer our customers more flights to Europe via our five-star Munich hub and thereby strengthen the connection between the two vibrant cities,” said Stefan Molnar, regional sales manager.

The Airbus A350 – 900 will service the route, featuring 48 seats in business class, 21 in premium economy and 224 in economy class, the modern aircraft consumes 25 per cent less fuel, produces 25 per cent fewer emissions and 50 per cent less noise. Lufthansa is also the first airline to use a range of different lighting settings to match the day-to-night biorhythms of its passengers.

The Thailand-based airline achieved on-time performance (OTP) of 94.68 per cent for its flights which arrived and departed from Narita International Airport in its first three-months of operating on the route.

The record, regarded as “excellent” by the aviation industry, made NokScoot one of the top carriers serving Narita, the international gateway to Japan.

“The robust OTP record we achieved so far at Narita is testimony of our endeavour to make our flights on time with no sacrifice in the safety or convenience of passengers,” said NokScoot CEO Yodchai Sudhidhanakul.

NokScoot, nicknamed Big Bird, started a daily flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport to Narita on June 1, with Boeing 777-200 wide-body jets, configured with 415 seats.

The industry defines OTP as flights that arrive or depart under 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival/departure times.

NokScoot’s OTP in the first eight months of this year showed an average of 79.89 per cent, relatively high by industry standards, for a total of 2,521 flights.

 He added that the firm selected was only applicant meeting the department’s criteria for providing service in a transparent process.

Counter Service Co Ltd will conduct a six-month trial of the service, October 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. After which , the department will decide on the issinace of a licence.

VAT refund is capped Bt12,000 per person per trip, he said.

The pace of growth was unchanged from the previous month, but was less than half the five-year average growth rate of 5.1 per cent, IATA said.

Freight capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres, grew by 4.5 per cent year on year in August.

This was the sixth month in a row that capacity growth had outstripped demand growth. Yields, however, appeared to be holding up, IATA said.

Properly developed tourist destinations, skilled human capital and strong marketing were strengths of Thailand, Arief said.

“The country has managed these three things very well. Its tourist destinations are well-developed, human capital well-managed and its marketing and promotion have been properly implemented,” the minister said, adding that its government and the people had worked hand-in-hand to develop the industry.

Similarly, Bali also excelled in these three areas, hence the resort island’s status as world-class tourist destination, Arief said.

“[Thailand] is just like Bali. Its people and destinations are ready to welcome tourists. Meanwhile, promotion and marketing there are ready [to support tourism],” he said.

Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia monetary and economic policy director Reza Anglingkusumo echoed Arief’s opinion, saying that Thailand could be the benchmark for Indonesia in developing tourism.

Even though Thailand has fewer tourist attractions than Indonesia, its industry earned US$62.2 billion in 2017, a significant difference compared to Indonesia’s US$14.1 billion in the same year.

Indonesia, he said, had 1,734 tourist attractions, while Thailand had 1,715. “We could maximize our potential in tourism by capitalizing on foreign exchange, thereby narrowing the current account deficit,” Reza said.

Weerasak said on Thursday that he agreed with the proposal of the Tourism Council of Thailand Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) to allow Chinese tourists to visit Thailand twice after being granted an entry visa.

Weerasak said he would coordinate with the Foreign Ministry and other government agencies concerned to have the proposal approved and implemented.

The number of Chinese tourists has sharply dropped after a boat full of Chinese tourists capsized in Phuket in early June.

Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan then blamed it on the illegal Chinese operator of the tour boat service. His comment infuriated Chinese tourists who called for a boycott, prompting Prawit to issue a public apology.