Thai government holds Thailand Festival in Okinawa
August 25, 2013 Ryukyu Shimpo
Seeking to attract tourists from Okinawa to Thailand, the Tourism Agency of the Thai Government has held the Thailand Festival at the Naha branch of Aeon, a specialist shopping mall developer, on August 24 and 25. The agency set up a space for selling miscellaneous Thai goods and introducing the country’s traditional culture.
Jumbo Tours co-hosted the festival. To commemorate launching charter flights between Okinawa and Thailand in October, the company also held a lottery for round-trip tickets.
This is the first time that the Thai government has held a large-scale event in Okinawa. The festival also introduced tours to Thailand.
There were also performances of Thai traditional arts. The exhibition included fruit and vegetable carvings, in which sculptors made flowers and birds out of watermelons and daikon radishes. It also showed off umbrella painting, traditional craft of the northern region of Thailand, in which artists draw paintings on umbrellas.
In the event, the artists painted the arms and bags of the children who took part.
Pornprapa Lawsuwan, the head of Fukuoka Office of the Tourism Agency of the Thai Government said, “There has been a long relationship between Thailand and Okinawa. Thailand sees more visitors from Okinawa than ever before. Mutual understanding leads to further increases. We held this festival to commemorate the launch of operating charter flights between Okinawa and Thailand. We hope that holding the event will contribute to the launching of regular flights.”
(English translation by T&CT, Mark Ealey)
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