TUESDAY, March 19, 2024
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TAT seeks THB1-billion booster budget to push tourism recovery

TAT seeks THB1-billion booster budget to push tourism recovery

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) aims to request a 1.03-billion-baht budget from the government as a "booster shot" to help the country's overall tourism industry recover.

TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said this budget will help the agency to achieve the target of generating 1.5 trillion baht in tourism revenue, accounting for 50 per cent of tourism revenue before the Covid-19 crisis in 2019.

He said of the 1.03-billion-baht budget, 432 million baht will be used for tourism products and businesses, 450 million baht for domestic market, 50 million baht for Asia-Pacific market and 103.75 million for Europe market.

Thailand could lose 265 billion baht in tourism revenue if TAT don't get a booster shot budget, he pointed out.

He added that this issue is in line with Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn's remark, "If we go to war, we must have our weapons,".

Yuthasak added that even though demand for travelling has increased, the frequency of international flights hasn't returned to normal yet, causing flight seat occupancy to drop.

He explained that seat occupancy in the first six months this year was 17.33 million seats, accounting for 31 per cent of 56.28 million seats in 2019.

He added that TAT will launch promotional campaigns and road shows to boost seat occupancy by 10.8 million seats this year or 50 per cent of seat occupancy in 2019.

"TAT will discuss with Airports of Thailand and the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand to ensure that the agency will gain 10.8 million seats," he said.

Yuthasak also expected the number of domestic travellers this year to drop by 50 million people from the target of 160 million people. He added that the number of domestic travellers in the past six months was only 78.35 million people.

To stimulate domestic tourism, he said TAT will launch promotional campaigns with airlines and hotels to boost flight load factor and hotel occupancy rate to 70 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively.

He said TAT will launch a project with tour bus operators affected by Covid-19 crisis to boost the number of passengers, adding that the agency will subsidise fuel prices for tour bus operators as well.

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