The News Review:

- Hotel association needs to play role in tourism promotion
- Tastes of Bali With a French Accent
- Fort Myers Beach Times Square project runs into foreclosure
- Thailand moves ASEAN summit amid booked hotels
- Avoid Scene f Fire For Safety Chief Says

Hotel association needs to play role in tourism promotion
VietNamNet Bridge
Dominik Stamm newly appointed general manager of the Mövenpick Hotel Saigon said the association should be seen as a venue for sharing experiences as well as sounding out business opportunities. Vietnam should learn from experiences of neighboring Thailand where the Thailand Hotel Association (THA) actively promotes the country as a destination for tourists he told the Daily on Monday. The Swiss general manager who has nine years? work experiences in the same position in Thailand said Vietnam should have a Vietnam Hotel Association where member hotels of three- to five-star standard could discuss ways for a win-win business. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has launched a nationwide promotion by calling for hotels to offer 30%-50% discounts on room rates to woo international travelers with low-cost tours. However the promotion program has received a lukewarm response from hotels around the country. Talking about room rates Stamm said hotels in HCMC were on the higher side as compared to other destinations and that hotel room rates in Thailand were around 30% lower than in HCMC.

Tastes of Bali With a French Accent
New York Times
“I loved the explosion of lemon grass turmeric and galangal” a gingerlike root. Salans was so enamored of the food in Thailand that he began searching for a position in Asia. When the boutique hotel group GHM offered him a job cooking at a property in Bali he accepted even though he didn’t know where Bali was. “I looked on the map and saw that it was a tiny dot in the middle of nowhere” he said. During his stint in Bali Mr. Salans met a Javanese woman Erni whom he later married and with whom he now has two children.

Fort Myers Beach Times Square project runs into foreclosure
The News-Press
He said the case is similar to another highly visible development in troubled economic times: the former Sheraton Hotel in downtown Fort Myers which was taken over by the Resolution Trust Corp. in 1990 with a $43 million foreclosure highest in the county’s history. It was later sold to a Thailand-based company for $6. 7 million which still owns it. (2 of 2)The vacant land where the Times Square FMB hotels once stood is more than just a symbol of hard times said Anita Cereceda owner of Local Color and The Pier Peddler on Fort Myers Beach.
Related from Streetlevelpdx: ‘Springtime’ exhibit opens at Art League of Fort Myers

Thailand moves ASEAN summit amid booked hotels
Philippine Star
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said the plan to host the annual East Asian Summit in Phuket posed too many "logistics difficulties" because it coincides with the April 13-15 traditional Thai New Year one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year. The meeting in Pattaya 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Bangkok will group leaders from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and counterparts from the six Asian economic powerhouses: China Japan South Korea India Australia and New Zealand. Talks are expected to focus heavily on how the region can best cope with the fallout of the global financial crisis. Thailand has faced numerous hurdles since taking over ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship last year.

Avoid Scene f Fire For Safety Chief Says
Greeneville Sun
Heavy smoke from the fires blanketed much of downtown Greeneville on Wednesday. The General Morgan Inn was evacuated and its restaurant Brumley’s was closed for both lunch and dinner. All meetings scheduled at the historic hotel’s conference center were canceled on Wednesday. The hotel was able to accommodate its guests on Wednesday night and reopened for business as usual on Thursday. The Andrew Johnson Bank headquarters on North Main Street reportedly received a considerable amount of smoke particularly in its second-floor offices according to Ginny Miller the bank’s human resources director. Miller said at times the air inside the bank appeared during the fire to be “hazy. “As a result bank employees who requested to go home were allowed to do so.

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