Thailand Tourism Festival 2008 Opens

The Thailand Tourism Festival 2008 opened this past week at the IMPACT Exhibition Centre in Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi province, just outside Bangkok. This is Thailand’s premier travel and tourism event.

The festival was held from 5-8 June, alongside Thailand Travel Mart + 2008.

The travel and tourism event was organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which is responsible for promoting domestic travel in the country to develop the base for promotion of Thai destinations in the international travel market.

The objective of the festival is to create awareness of the fragile nature of the environment and ecotourism opportunities and the country’s national cultural heritage sites, as well as to encourage the preservation Thai traditions and encourage economic growth in all of the country’s provinces.

Visitors were treated to a variety of spectacular cultural performances, representing the four regions of Thailand. Among these was the Khon, a traditional masked dance, which was the first to be performed.

The Thailand Tourism Festival also featured cultural showcases sponsored by other member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion, including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.

A number of games and fashion shows were presented by private operators in the tourism sector.