Ayutthaya Historical Park to be Restored

InterContinental Hotels and Resorts are partners with National Geographic, UNESCO to restore Ayutthaya. InterContinental Hotels and Resorts recently embarked on Responsible Business Week 2012 – a week-long programme of activities around the globe to help protect and preserve unique and cultural heritage sites. As part of this week, the InterContinental Bangkok, provided support to UNESCO's World Heritage and sustainable tourism initiative 'People Protecting Places', by helping with restoration work at the Historic City of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Ayutthaya Historical Park

The Ayutthaya historical park covers the ruins of the old city of Ayutthaya, Thailand. The city of Ayutthaya was founded by King Ramathibodi I in 1350 and was the capital of the country until its destruction by the Burmese army in 1767. In 1969 the Fine Arts Department began with renovations of the ruins, which became more serious after it was declared a historical park in 1976. The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Thirty-five kings ruled the Ayutthaya kingdom during its existence. King Narai not only held court in Ayutthaya but also from his palace in the nearby city of Lopburi, from where he ruled 8-9 months in the year.

In late 2011, as a result of the floods around Bangkok, many of the temples in Ayutthaya were damaged, and restoration efforts have been underway since. On 19 and 20 September 2012, more than 100 staff members from the InterContinental Bangkok travelled to Ayutthaya to build a 1,000 metre long tree-fence around the Wat Prasrisanpetch and Wat Rachaburana temples, and the Royal Palace.

The fence, constructed using 30,000 of the tough and durable "Cha" trees, will help prevent flooding, while at the same time beautifying the area and benefitting the environment.

Historic City of Ayutthaya

Markus Platzer, General Manager of the InterContinental Bangkok says: "With a global presence in more than 60 countries, we have a responsibility to preserve the communities that we operate in. We have the tremendous opportunity to make travel and tourism more responsible and successful".

"We developed the idea for our staff to assist in restoring Ayutthaya for Responsible Business Week 2012, and we received a tremendous response. Working towards building the future sustainability of one of Thailand's most historic areas truly excites the InterContinental Bangkok team."

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