Bargains used to lure spooked travelers

If the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Asia has not scared tourists silly, Thailand may be the perfect vacation getaway.

For the next week, StarTravel (燦星) is offering a five-night package tour to Bangkok for NT$3,999. The deal includes airfare, four-star hotel accomidations and three meals per day.

And while the group will venture off to the beach resort of Pataya for three nights, the rest of the trip will be in Bangkok.

The new online travel agency began offering the discount group tour package to Thailand yesterday, despite the fact that the outbreak of the respiratory disease has reduced outbound travel demand up to 90 percent, a company executive said.

The company has negotiated with China Airlines Co (華航) and several four-star Thai hotels for the economical package, said Lee Ke-chin (李克敬), StarTravel's vice president of sales.

"We hope the package deal will help us overcome the travel sector's recent woes by reigniting people's interest in traveling abroad," Lee said.

Thailand doesn't require Taiwanese visitors to wear masks or present medical papers upon entry to the country.

StarTravel has so far signed up 30 customers and hopes to attract 200 customers by April 21 -- the last day for booking the special deal, Lee said. Tickets have to be used by May 10.

But rivals in the sector criticized the huge discounts, reasoning that it will only do further damage the local industry, which has been suffering since the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001.

StarTravel's latest offering is nothing special and may make the situation even worse, said Stephen Lu (呂新發), a sales manager at rival EzTravel.com (易遊網), the nation's first and largest online ticketing center. "Their package is not as laid back as it sounds, because tourists will be required to chase from one place to another as a group," Lu said. "Moreover, there are travel firms that have been forced to downsize or cut salaries because of the disease ... [StarTravel] is stealing customers from the already small market."

With falling outbound numbers, EzTravel has chosen to focus on domestic tours.

"We think people should defer nonessential travel abroad because of the disease that has spread rapidly throughout Asia," Lu said.

The company is offering two-day trips to the nation's six top tourist destinations including Kenting, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Taitung, Taipei and Taichung for NT$3,333, including airfare and one-night's accommodation at a five-star hotel.

According to statistics provided by the Travel Agent Association (中華民國旅行公會), about 1,077 out of 1,180 group tours, or 91 percent, have canceled overseas travel plans in April because of SARS. Bookings for tours to China have dropped the most, or about 97 percent, followed by Southeast Asia at 80 percent, and Northeast Asia at 79 percent, the statistics showed.

This offer only applies to Taiwanese passport holders.