Tour News

www.Parctel.com: The Harry Potter Black Taxi Private Tour of London is conducted in a licensed London Black Cab by an expert taxi driver/guide who will take you to the sites made famous by the Harry Potter series.

First stop Diagon Alley where Harry and his friends visit at the start of every school year to pick up their supplies of spell books, Robes, wands and other items in preparation for their return to Hogwarts. Step inside the Leaky Cauldron for a Butter Beer and visit Gringotts bank, the Wizarding bank operated by Goblins.

Walk into the wall to get to platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross Station where the Hogwarts Express departs. Watch the time on the clock on the bridge and walk the bridge that Harry and Hagrid march across.

See the site where Harry and Ron stole Ron's fathers flying car. Stand on the bridge where the Knight bus crossed from the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban. And visit the all new Leaky Cauldron.

New and Exclusive to Viator - Visit the locations of the new movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"!

Follow Harry's flight to London with Dumbledore's Army and see the bridges, buildings and ships they pass along the way. Enter the telephone box that descends into the Ministry of Magic below. Stand right where Harry and Voldemort come face to face for the first time since the Triwizard tournament in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.

Last stop is the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, which is also home to Harry's beloved God father Sirius Black.

This is your chance to put yourself in the shoes of Harry Potter and Friends as you see the sights of London.

Find out more about the Harry Potter Tour

Visit the locations of the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"!

www.Parctel.com: Now, you can be the pilot of a single-engine, four-seat airplane, soaring over the Southern California landscape with an unbelievable view of the city and homes below. Best of all, there's no experience necessary!

While you're in the pilot's seat, a certified flight instructor will be guiding you every step of the way, from takeoff to landing. It's a memorable, exciting and fun experience. Plus, the time is FAA-logable as an actual flight lesson, if you bring a valid US passport or birth certificate. This adventure includes a pilot's logbook, "First Flight" certificate and souvenir photo.

Your hour-long experience includes pre-flight and post-flight briefings, and 30 or 60 minutes in the air.

Find out MORE here

www.Parctel.com: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has launched two digital activities to encourage tourists around the world to participate in the "Amazing Thailand" campaign, and to attract more visitors to the Kingdom.

Tourists can win 200,000 baht of prizes by uploading video clips of their most amazing experiences in Thailand in TAT's amazing Experience Video Contest. The aim is to inspire other travelers to visit Thailand.

Thailand Portfolio Project features uploaded photographs and stories from journalists focused on the Amazing Thailand theme. Contributions are ranked by the site's visitors to generate a list of the most popular posts. This seeks to encourage more users to upload their experiences.
TAT will upload all submitted video clips on to social media networking sites such as www.youtube.com, www.crackle.com in order to create an inspiration for the online tourists around the world to visit Thailand.

TAT believes that Thailand Portfolio project and the Amazing Experience Video Contest will provide excellent first-hand tourism information to social networking site users.

TAT expect that within one year these clips will be viewed by more than 100 million visitors, which will help promote tourism in Thailand and will let people world wide have a better understanding of Thailand.

www.Parctel.com: JTB Corp. proudly announces the launch of Japan Travel Guide JTB on 3D virtual world “Second Life”.

JTB provides information in English language about how to enjoy a Japanese-style Inn (Ryokan), Japanese Foot Bath (Ashiyu) and Japanese garden for worldwide visitors to Japan.

* JTB is the biggest travel company in Japan
* JTB has launched an English version, which hardly find in Japanese companies.
* JTB provides an entertaining space where visitors can feel the atmosphere of Japanese traditional dance (Bon dance) and enjoy dancing to original “JAPANiCAN dance music.”
* Through a 3D virtual world, JTB draws the visitors’ attention to real websites of JTB Group companies, while introducing Japanese culture.

JTB has proudly launched the Japan Travel Guide JTB in English version with 3D virtual world “Second Life”.

JTB has started the Japan Travel Guide on a 3D virtual world “Second Life” supported in English for non-Japanese speakers, which is unique in Japan. As Second Life introduces a multilingual language support, the number of users is expected to significantly increase. Therefore, Second Life has the potential to replace a web browser as a new business market.

Based on this experience, JTB is actively researching the likelihood of world demand and expansion into new businesses in the virtual world. The main objective is to build a new business model.

As part of the plan, JAPANiCAN, one of our group companies running a site for non-Japanese visitors to Japan, shows how to enjoy a Japanese Inn (Ryokan), Japanese Foot Bath (Ashiyu) and Japanese garden. The outline is as follows.

Name of SIM (Name of island): "Japan Travel Guide JTB"

Contents: It consists of three areas - Japanese Inn (Ryokan), Japanese Foot Bath (Ashiyu) and Japanese garden.

1. In the Japanese Ryokan area, five kinds of Japanese culture such as how to take a Japanese bath, eating manners, etc. are shown using streaming videos in English. In the large hall, an amusing *camping spot is provided where visitors can feel the atmosphere of Japanese traditional dance (Bon dance) and enjoy dancing to original “JAPANiCAN dance music.”
2. In the Ashiyu area, a 3D feature is used, where a map-of-Japan-shaped virtual Ashiyu introduces real Onsen-Ryokans from all over Japan, guiding you to further local information on “JAPANiCAN.com” supported by JAPANiCAN.
3. In the Japanese garden area, JTB provides a garden of spectacular beauty for users around the world to be impressive for the first time they see.

Note: The term *camping is an activity in Second Life where visitors can get Linden Dollars by staying at one spot for a while.

www.Parctel.com: As part of the Amazing Thailand campaign, tourists worldwide can now gain access to a huge variety of hotel, resort and travel options in Thailand by visiting the new Amazing Thailand mini site, http://amazingthailand.tourismthailand.org, presented by the TAT.

The new site presents all the tourism products and services of Thailand that are part of the e-marketing campaign for Amazing Thailand 2008. This great new online channel aims to attract travellers through e-marketing tactics such as search engine marketing, online PR, e-mail, and e-CRM.

The mini site consists of over 2,000 Thailand tourism products including hotels, tours, attractions and restaurants and a travel agent directory. There are hundreds of direct links to websites covering a wide range of hotels, tour options, attractions, travel agencies and more. The new site provides over 300 exclusive travel deals for inbound travellers.

The new site also offers Web 2.0 capabilities with user ratings and reviews of hotels and tours. The various comments from online reviewers will help visitors choose the right travel option and enable TAT to enhance its customer relationships. The feedback will also help travel suppliers in Thailand to constantly improve the quality of their services

After only ten weeks of online operation, the new site has attracted over 110,000 unique visitors who have made over 422,000 page views in total. The TAT expects to massively boost visits through additional e-marketing campaigns during the rest of 2008.

http://amazingthailand.tourismthailand.org has been created to promote deals in each of the seven "Amazing Wonders of Thailand" themes: Thainess, Nature, Treasures, Health & Wellness, Beaches, Trendy activities, and Festivities.

===============================

eNews 2 | Link AMT | Deal Alert March 08
Email : amazingthailand@borndistinction.com
Contact name/person : Tourism Authority of Thailand

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) launches “E-Marketing for Amazing Thailand 2008”

TAT recently hosted an exclusive trade launch to unveil “e-Marketing for
Amazing Thailand 2008” – Thailand’s latest destination marketing initiative which incorporates the use of the e-marketing channels to promote ‘Amazing Thailand’ online which is expected to response in not only a greater revenue outcome to the travel suppliers as well the country but also a better reputation of Thailand tourism to world wide online travelers.

TAT launched “E-marketing for Amazing Thailand 2008” on January 28th 2008, introducing 5 new projects for the year, each targeting the inbound travelers from countries through out the world. The objective is to increase tourism in Thailand and create a better impression by conducting different online marketing activities for the focused group travelers via various online channels through the announced amazing Thailand campaign.

The announced 5 projects of “E-Marketing for Amazing Thailand 2008” campaign consists of:

Thailand Amazing Deals Project is to promote the travel products of Thailand by launching a mini site: http://amazingthailand.TourismThailand.org and e-mail campaigns targeting global travelers, travel traders, media and bloggers of over 1.1 million people around the world.

Her Own Way: “Thailand – The Woman’s Paradise” Project is to promote the travel products categorized under golf, shopping, beauty and spa by launching a mini site: http://HerOwnWay.TourismThailand.org (Under construction), e-mail acquisition campaigns and e-brochure (woman travel guide) targeting women travelers from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Middle East.

Thailand Portfolio Project is to promote tourism in Thailand by distributing online travel content comprising of photos, videos and travel articles through 9 world’s most famous user-generated media websites such as www.flickr.com, www.youtube.com, www.igougo.com, etc. targeting world wide online travelers.

Amazing Shot… Amazing Experience Contest is to organize an online event, VDO competition, for both domestic and international travelers to send their travel experiences in Thailand through VDO clips format under the concept of “Amazing Shot.. Amazing Experience!” in order to win TAT’s amazing prizes.

WIKI Mission for Thailand Tourism Project is to improve and edit all the information about Thailand on www.WIKIPEDIA.org (all true facts) and www.WIKITravel.org (the travel guide) targeting digital citizen, to make them have a better understanding of Thailand by uploading complete, accurate and up-to-date information on to the websites in order to promote tourism in Thailand.

The project is launched with the favorable support from many partners and supporters such as Royal Orchid Plus, Thai Airways PLC., Advance Info Service PLC (AIS), Academic Institutions being Chulalongkorn University and Rangsit University, www.youtube.com, Software Park Thailand and travel related associations i.e. Thai Hotel Associations (THA), Association of Thai Travel Agent (ATTA), Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association (TEATA), Professional Tourist Guide Association (PTGA) and Thai Spa Association (TSPA).

This effort by TAT eases the marketing for members of the Thai travel and tourism industry while allowing them to participate in the campaign by sending their travel products, travel deals and related information to the project management team. They may visit TAT’s web portal site www.tourismthailand.org or direct to the mini site: http://amazingthailand.TourismThailand.org to get a better scope of the project. In order to participate in the projects or for more queries, travel suppliers may e-mail at: amazingthailand@tat.or.th

About Tourism Authority of Thailand
The major role of TAT is to supply information and data on tourist areas to the public, publicizes Thailand with the intention of encouraging both Thai and international tourists to travel in and around Thailand, conducts studies to set development plans for tourist destinations, and co-operates with and supports the production and development of personnel in the field of tourism.