TrongpaiExpat
March 5th, 2009, 19:58
Thai Travel Agents Association Thai International Travel Fair 2009 at the Queen Sirikit Center in Bangkok opened today. MRT stop: Queen Sirikit Center. I think it will be running for the next 4 days. There's not much in the Post or Nation about this fair and I just dropped in out of curiosity today. The Thai papers have been running adds and given the number of people attending they sure got the word.
I found some very good bargains. There's a huge selection of hotels, resorts and travel packages. Rental cars, and even special fair prices for THAI, Air Asia, Nok Air etc. It's huge and quite busy. Basically it's a voucher system, you buy discounted vouchers and can arrange the dates latter if you want, some up to a year. Some budget, lots of midrange and top end hotels. Some buy 3 nights and get one free.
For example bought 4 blocks of vouchers for Budget rental cars for 680 per day, Honda Jazz, regular price internet is about 1,200 and got the 5th block free. I booked 3 nights at a resort in Pai for a 40% discount and another in Kanchanburi for about the same saving. 2xRT Chiang Mai 3000B Nok Air.
You have to bounce back between the best discounts on rooms, and match it to air fare and cars or tours. I also checked on the internet for the same resorts I bought at the fair and saved quite a lot with the fair prices. The discounts get a little confusing, buying more then one gets better rates and there's a lot of paperwork. I did not notice many farangs and most of the signs, discounts flyers etc. were mostly in Thai. People were not just browsing, they were buying and buying. The Air Asia booths looked like the buying floor of the NY Stock Exchange.
It's not just travel in Thailand. I noticed booths for Viet Nam and Cambodia. There could be more international, there were so many people and so many booths I did not take it all in and after charging my daily maximum on my CC and before the bank thinks that I was being held at gun point to spend like a drunken sailor, I left.
Travel Fair Bangkok Post (http://www.bangkokpost.com/travel/travelnews/12346/bargains-at-travel-fair)
I found some very good bargains. There's a huge selection of hotels, resorts and travel packages. Rental cars, and even special fair prices for THAI, Air Asia, Nok Air etc. It's huge and quite busy. Basically it's a voucher system, you buy discounted vouchers and can arrange the dates latter if you want, some up to a year. Some budget, lots of midrange and top end hotels. Some buy 3 nights and get one free.
For example bought 4 blocks of vouchers for Budget rental cars for 680 per day, Honda Jazz, regular price internet is about 1,200 and got the 5th block free. I booked 3 nights at a resort in Pai for a 40% discount and another in Kanchanburi for about the same saving. 2xRT Chiang Mai 3000B Nok Air.
You have to bounce back between the best discounts on rooms, and match it to air fare and cars or tours. I also checked on the internet for the same resorts I bought at the fair and saved quite a lot with the fair prices. The discounts get a little confusing, buying more then one gets better rates and there's a lot of paperwork. I did not notice many farangs and most of the signs, discounts flyers etc. were mostly in Thai. People were not just browsing, they were buying and buying. The Air Asia booths looked like the buying floor of the NY Stock Exchange.
It's not just travel in Thailand. I noticed booths for Viet Nam and Cambodia. There could be more international, there were so many people and so many booths I did not take it all in and after charging my daily maximum on my CC and before the bank thinks that I was being held at gun point to spend like a drunken sailor, I left.
Travel Fair Bangkok Post (http://www.bangkokpost.com/travel/travelnews/12346/bargains-at-travel-fair)