THE TOURISM COUNCIL OF THAILAND PROPOSES TOURISM RECOVERY MEASURES FOR CONSIDERATION BY THAILAND’S NEW GOVERNMENT

The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT), a federation of 61 private-sector travel trade associations based in Thailand, convened a meeting of its members on 16 December 2008 to plan immediate action steps and propose mid- to long-term measures to help bring about full recovery in the Thai tourism industry within the shortest possible time frame. The following recommendations were submitted to Thailand’s new prime minister, HE Mr Abhisit Vejjajiva, for further consideration and implementation by the new government. Image Building The Prime Minister should chair a committee on the drafting of plans to rebuild the image of the country by promoting integrated efforts between the various ministries responsible for or involved in the promotion of trade, investment and tourism to ensure public relations and image building efforts are complementary and all working in the same direction. ‘Team Thailand’ For the Prime Minister to form ‘Team Thailand’ with himself at the head of ministers and senior government officials from relevant ministries, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry. These public sector bodies should work in cooperation with private sector representatives to promote jointly trade, investment and tourism. ‘Team Thailand’ is to meet with country leaders and business executives to explain the situation and provide assurance that the government will find ways to prevent a similar crisis from ever occurring again, and to ensure that there will never be a repeat of incidents resulting in airport takeovers. The Prime Minister is also to lead efforts to draft a prevention plan, contingency plans and recovery plans. This includes plans to prevent the closure of the airport. In the event that this should occur, the government is to have contingency plans in place. Additionally, the government is also to ensure that there is a recovery plan in place to provide assistance and support to those impacted, especially tourists, travellers and tourism operators. The government is to allocate an additional 10,000 million baht to be used as a ‘matching fund’ against the provincial budget in the ratio of 1:2 (one part contributed by the central government to two parts from the Provincial Administrative Organization budget allocation). This would make a total of 30,000 million baht available for tourism promotion activities to stimulate demand, and for the organization of meetings, seminars and training. This would spur domestic travel to help make up for the shortfall of some 100,000 million baht (about 30 per cent) in revenue from international tourism. This will enable tourism operators to maintain employment levels and pay utility costs. For state and SME banks to extend low interest or soft loans to tourism operators to enable them to upgrade their services or facilities or re-build their businesses. TCT calls on the government to instruct all state agencies to speed up the disbursement of the 2009 budget at an earlier date than in past years. Private sector players in the tourism sector are to organize a wide range of promotions and co-operate with all parties, with state agencies, such as Airports of Thailand (AOT) and Thai Airways International extending support for the organization of such promotional activities. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is to undertake marketing and PR to spur domestic travel and stimulate cashflow within the country. Tax Relief for Tourism Operators: For example extending breaks on corporate tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and social security contributions, with tourism operators paying the initial 50 per cent and paying the remainder in installments over a period of two years. Additionally, the government is to raise the amount to be classified as tax deductible tourism-related operating expenses. The government is to coordinate with the Provincial Administrative Organization to increase the provincial budget allocation for the tourism sector to at least five per cent of the total annual budget to support the organization of seminars or study trips within Thailand. TCT also proposes that the government introduce a policy to ban overseas study trips unless these are proven to be absolutely necessary and non-participation negatively impacts national interests. Increase in State Expenditure To substantially increase investment in the development of tourism attractions and sites to create new tourism products, and make this an investment priority. To stimulate domestic travel by re-scheduling official public holidays so there are more long weekends thereby creating more opportunities for domestic travel. Speed up the meeting of the various committees on international trade and economic relations that play an important role in tourism promotion, such as the Thai-Chinese Trade and Economic Cooperative Framework. This should facilitate the resolution of outstanding bilateral tourism-related issues. To allocate, approve and disburse within Q1, 2009, a total of 1,900 million baht in special emergency funds to TAT for international marketing and promotion, and domestic tourism.