Crisis-hit SE Asia a paradise for tourists

Crisis-hit SE Asia a paradise for tourists

By Alexandra Borchardt and Thomas Lanig

FRANKFURT/SINGAPORE (DPA): For tourists with hard currency, many parts of crisis-ridden Southeast Asia are a veritable bargain-hunter's paradise.

At a modest cost you can sleep like a king, dine like a prince and shop like a big money-earner.

With a shortage of cash forcing many travelers from the region to stay at home, hotel managers, restaurateurs and tour operators are placing their hopes on the wanderlust of Europeans.

For the time being, however, those wishing to profit from the exchange rate collapse must travel independently.

Apart from a few special offers, package tours are still based on last year's exchange rates and are only like to get cheaper when winter is over.

"Those people who travel with tour operators, in other words the majority of visitors to Southeast Asia, will have to wait to take advantage of special offers," says Leonhard Reeb, managing director of the Federation of German Travel Agents.

Meanwhile bargain-hunters with a sense of adventure can really go to town, especially in Thailand. CDs, books, fine shirts and made-to-measure suits can all be bought at ridiculously low prices.

You can find a hotel room for less than US$3 a night, and even an enormous room with breakfast, swimming pool and first-class service will set you back no more than $54 at most.

A beer in Bangkok's hottest nightclubs now costs only $1.60, and for $5.40 you can enjoy a lavish buffet lunch in a good hotel.

Though the inflation rate is expected to soar, at present it is less than ten percent. With the result that air tickets to the rest of the world are currently cheaper in Bangkok than ever before.

In the Philippines, too, hotels such as the Holiday Inn have reduced their dollar prices by a good 50 percent.

"Crisis is the twin of opportunity," says hotel manager Reynaldo Conception, quoting a Chinese proverb.

Malaysia is also hoping for a great rush of Europeans in the second half of the year. Singapore has less cause for optimism, because its exchange rate against the German mark and other major currencies has not declined so dramatically.

Antiques

The Indonesian rupiah, in contrast, has become 80 percent cheaper for Europeans, though as yet the Indonesians have been unable to make capital from the situation.

Partly as a result of the prevailing political uncertainty, only 30 percent of the beds in Jakarta's main hotels are occupied, despite prices of under $50 a night for five-star accommodation.

On the holiday island of Bali and in the tourists centers Jogyakarta and Solo it is not so much hotel prices as furniture, handicrafts and batik which have become sensationally cheap.

Particularly attractive for connoisseurs are antique doors and doorframes - though one has to allow for the excesses baggage charges on the flight home.

German tour operators hope that news of this kind will soon attract customers to book their holidays.

"Someone who wants to travel to Southeast Asia should so do in the next 12 months," advises Guenther Traeger, spokesman for leading German travel operator NUR.

The package tour operators have good reason to beat the advertising drum.

Because of the strong U.S. dollar and last autumn's forest fires, Asian business has been rather slack.

Now the travel companies fear that the collapse in prices will leave them with a large number of unsold, expensively-bought products.

Major German tour operator TUI, for one, is already planning some special offers. And Asian airlines such as Singapore airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways are trying to tie up new package deals with tour operators, hoping to compensate for the loss of regional business by attracting more long-distance travelers.

Advertising campaigns seem to be attracting a good response from holidaymakers. Bookings with NUR and TUI are both up, and Singapore Airlines says there has been a very strong response to its special offers.

According to Reeb, something could still happen to turn the whole situation upside down again. For the time being, however, even though most hotels make their agreements with the tour operators in U.S. dollars, they are likely to prove very generous in the current negotiations for the next winter season.

"Of course we will pass the benefits on to our customers," assures TUI spokesman Bernd Rimele.