Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra arrives at the Royal Cliff with Tourism and Sports Minister
Sukumol Kunplome.
Phasakorn Channgam
Government agencies on Monday were expected to detail
how they plan to work together to boost Thailand’s tourism industry to
30 million visitors and 2 trillion baht in revenue by 2015.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra gave agencies
marching orders to set their strategy at the mobile cabinet meeting in
Pattaya June 17. The government and travel-sector organizations have
been working since late March to formulate a strategy to combat
Thailand’s flagging competitiveness in the tourism sector.
At the cabinet session, Yingluck said she would like
to see integration of government efforts to devise a “unique feature” of
Thailand tourism, increase tourist safety and increase cultural and
environmental tourism.
Tourism Authority of Thailand officials suggested
five strategies to meet the 2 trillion baht goal: Create an outstanding
and unique feature for the country, promote Thailand overseas, build the
domestic-travel market, participate in the World Mega Event and increase
business meetings and convention tourism.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has crafted seven
strategies, which mirror some of TAT’s suggestions and add ideas such as
boosting Thailand’s use in the movie industry; focusing the on
watersports, health and beauty markets; and restoring historical tourist
destination sites.
The cabinet meeting also focused urgent issues, such
as tourism safety, the revision of rules and regulations in immigration
procedures, and the development of transportation routes.
Yingluck directed agencies to set up committees to be
responsible for pushing for the implementation strategies report their
plans to the Prime Minister’s Office July 2. At press time, the plans
had not yet been made public.
Yingluck’s focus on tourism increased in March after
a report by the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations highlighted the
declining competitiveness of Thai tourism against China, Indonesia,
Vietnam and Middle Eastern countries.
Thailand’s ranking in the World Economic Forum’s
report last year dropped to 41st, behind Singapore (32nd), Malaysia
(35th) and China (39th).
Overall tourist numbers are still increasing,
however. At the cabinet session, tourism ministry officials said the
country attracted 5.7 million visitors in the first three months of
2012, a 7.1 percent increase. Tourism revenue of 258.1 billion was up
9.7 percent. Projections for the year are more than 21 million tourists.
