Director of Tourism and Sports Authority, Phuket Office, Santi Pawai, said, “Today a team from the Tourism and Sports Authority of Thailand, the Department of Business Development, Ministry of Commerce and Department of Tourism have come to check suspected tour companies in Phuket that could be illegal nominee companies. However, I can't say that they all are nominee companies.
“We have divided the team into two groups. One will check seven suspect companies, the other will check Chinese tour companies and problematic tourists attractions.
“There are around 80 tour companies which involve foreign stakeholders. About one third of them are Chinese tour companies, the rest are Russian and Korean.
“We are doing this in order to prevent and suppress illegal nominee companies, and I hope we get results.”
After checking ANEX Tour it was found that their headquarters are actually in Chonburi, “therefore the checks will be made by a team from Bangkok,” said Mr Santi.
“I would like to point out that the checks we have carried out today doesn't mean that the companies are illegal.”
Nimit Kangkajit, Chief of Business Development, Phuket Office said “We will check if they follow the law and if we find anything we think abnormal we investigate futher. If the companies fail to present their legal documents we will hand the case over to DSI for further investigation.”