The Treasury has reported that orders have been placed for more than 3.6 million souvenir coins of different models that are being especially minted to mark the May 4 coronation of His Majesty the King.

The orders include 200 for the highest value platinum coins worth 1 million baht apiece, and 10,000 for gold coins, department chief Amnuay Preemonwong said.

The department has also extended the booking deadline from April 4 to May 10, while the coins will be delivered from June 1 onwards, he said.

A large number of people have been showing up to place orders at the Treasury Department on Rama VI Road in Bangkok as well as at its related offices in provinces, including the pavilions set up in Chiang Mai and Songkhla.

The department will produce limited quantities of three types of souvenir coins without engraved values.

Only 1,000 platinum coins, worth 1 million baht apiece, will be minted; no more than 100,000 pieces of the blackened and sandblasted silver coins worth 5,000 baht apiece will be minted; and 100,000 pieces of the blackened and sandblasted copper coins, worth 3,000 baht apiece will be minted.

The department will also produce three types of commemorative coins with engraved values as follows: 50,000 gold coins with 19,000 baht denomination priced at 40,000 baht apiece; 100,000 silver coins with 1,000 baht denomination selling at 3,000 baht apiece; and 5 million cupronickel coins with 20 baht denomination going for 20 apiece.

The department will also produce 500,000 sets of commemorative medals priced at 1,600 baht each.

SOURCE: The Nation

The 27 year old van driver was killed and 10 Burmese workers were injured when their vehicle crashed in Khamphaeng Phet’s Kosamphee Nakhon district early this morning (Thursday).

Police believe the driver, Thongpoon Chanachan, fell asleep at the wheel and died instantly in the collision. He was taking the migrant workers from Bangkok to renew their visa in Tak.

Rescue workers found the Toyota van with the wrecked front section stuck to the toppled tree when they arrived at the scene on Phaholyothin Highway at 4.30am.

They had to use heavy equipment to extract two of the injured passengers from the wreckage. The other slightly injured passengers told police that they left Bangkok at 10.30pm on Wednesday to renew their visa in Tak’s Mae Sot district, on the border with Myanmar. All the passengers were asleep when the crash happened.

SOURCE: The Nation

OPINION by Dan Cheeseman – Dan About Thailand

We need to wake up and smell the roses, us Westerners are no longer an important group for the Thailand tourism industry – in fact, we are what you would call ‘niche’ – and with good reason.

The Chinese are here in numbers and not only will this continue to grow but they also outspend Europeans per capita by 53% when in Thailand.

There are more Chinese…

The Chinese now account for 57.48% of all tourists in Thailand and what makes this even more staggering is only 8.7% currently have passports (120 million).

According to Jing Travel this could double by 2020 – that means 240 million Chinese able to travel (363% of the UK population – 66 million). They also go on to state that first time Chinese travellers are more likely to travel more close to home to begin with, so places like Vietnam and, you guessed it, Thailand.

And the Chinese share of the pie will only grow.

No wonder Thailand are forecasting tourism to grow from the 38 million now to over 79 million by 2030.

The Chinese Spend More…

Quite often I hear the European retaliation that they would like to see the spend levels per capita of Chinese, suggesting it to be low. This could not be further from the truth as shopping is an important factor for when they go on holiday.

The Chinese expenditure into Thailand is US$15,342,000,000 each year, which is more than any other nation. The average spend per day for a Chinese tourist in Thailand is US$192 – which is 53% more than the average Europeans US$125 daily spend.

Read the rest of the story… Dan About Thailand