Hallyu goes Zen

South Korea celebrates the first successful decade of its Templestay programme by launches "Templestay Season 2", offering visitors the chance to experience Zen meditation, early-morning chanting and total serenity.


Run by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhists, Season 2 will focus more on promoting temple cuisine, developing a relevant Buddhism cultural content and creating a reservation network. The programmes will be tailor-made for specific groups based on age, familiarity and other considerations. - The Korea Herald/ANN

Modernisation not traditionalism

Vietnam's travel agents are apparently turning their backs on the innumerable traditional festivals being proposed by the national tourism organisation. As part of next year's "Song Hong Delta (Red River) - Hai Phong National Tourism Year 2013", Vietnam is to host a wide range of cultural, art, sport, tourism and trade events in Haiphong, Hanoi, Vinh Phuc and other cities. However, travel agencies want to see attractive tourist products and an improvement in tourism infrastructure rather than costly traditional festivals. They also say the national tourism year campaigns are not taken seriously because there are no original tourism products, and tourism sites have not been improved. - Viet Nam News/ANN

Safety in the Cloud

BeTravelSAFE has launched its new Online Travel Wallet for travellers, an initiative to help travellers back up and securely store personal and business travel documents in case of an emergency. The platform allows travellers to store information related to travel reservations, finance, insurance and other personal documents in their own safe, secure, hosted server environment which can be accessed on the move. BeTravelSAFE is free of charge and available for both corporate and leisure travellers. Users can upload or input a variety of personal data - passport, identity cards, driving license, for instant. Visit www.BeTravelSAFE.com.

Indonesia targets Asean and Asian tourists

Indonesian Tourism plans to allocate the bulk of its promotion spending on targeting tourists across Asia next year as the eurozone crisis shows no sign of quick resolution in the near future. Asean countries, Australia, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan are regarded as the most promising market. The government has set a target of attracting 9 million foreign tourists in 2013, a 12.5 per cent increase from this year’s target of 8 million. - The Jakarta Post/ANN

Malan Base to become tourist destination

China is to spend six million yuan (Bt29.5 million) turning top secret atomic bomb site into a tourist destination. Tucked away in the remote desert of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Malan Base is China's former nuclear weapon site. The former working and living quarters at the site are still in their original condition. The labs have remained the same as they were when the first atomic bomb was developed there about 50 years ago. Tourists can visit the 300-metre anti-airstrike tunnel, which has jurisdiction over Malan. - China Daily/ANN

Sourced: nationmultimedia