Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul has put on hold a proposal of the Tourism Authority of Thailand that the government declares September 24-27 public holidays to promote tourism.
She said Tuesday that she needs to consult with other ministries and listen to their opinions about the proposal and this process may take about two weeks before there is an answer.
However, she said that the Tourism and Sports Ministry would press ahead with staging more activities to promote tourism, including a request to master license of the Pokemon Company in Japan to help in tourism promotion by releasing a rare Pokemon Go monster in tourist attractions in Thailand and issuing handbooks on how to play the online augmented reality game.
Meanwhile, Yutthachai Sunthornrattanavech, advisor to Thai Tourism Business Association, said although long public holidays would help promote tourism, he would prefer the government to declare long holidays during Chinese New Year’s festival as most SME operators take a break during the period.
TAT, in the meantime, will step up a marketing campaign this month until year end to cushion impacts from the recent bombing and arson attacks in seven southern provinces.
