Tourism and Sports Minister Sorawong Thienthong has ruled out the possibility of a revival of the “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together) co-payment scheme, to boost tourism in northern provinces during the fourth quarter of this year and to offset the impacts on tourism-related businesses of the prolonged flooding.
The minister explained that the government has not assigned a budget for the co-payment scheme this year, adding that the scheme is aimed at boosting tourism during the low season, not the high season in the fourth quarter of the year.
He also said that the government is to launch a tourism promotion campaign, called “Winter Festival”, to attract more foreign arrivals, in addition to the annual Loy Krathong festival in November.
Viroj Chaya, president of the Hotels Association in Chiang Rai, said that September is normally the beginning of the high tourism season for the province, but the floods have ruined early high season tourism potential.
He said that, normally, hotel occupancy in Chiang Rai in September is about 40%, but flooding has cut that to about 15%, and this is expected to fall further if the floods last throughout October.
Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said that several factors, including the floods, the war in the Middle East and the strong baht currency, have negatively impacted the tourism sector.
She remains confident, however, that foreign arrivals for the whole year will reach the TAT’s own target of 36.7 million.
She said that domestic tourism in the past four months is expected to show growth of about 6%, to 72.47 million trips, generating revenue of about 335 billion baht.
