Andaman tourism leader spearheads appeal to PM for support

The appeal, under the theme ‘Supply Side Restart’, urged a raft of measures to help facilitate the tourism industry’s ability to serve the expected influx of international tourists as well as the rising volume in domestic tourists.

Presenting the appeal to PM Prayut yesterday (Jan 18) was Chamnan Srisawat, who was elected TCT President only on Jan 3.

However, openly credited as leading the delegation was Wirintra Paphakityotphat of the TCT Region 11 branch, representing Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi.

The first key initiative proposed was to waive the fees for training and issuance of tour guide licences.

The second initiative was for the national government to rescind or modify by law the Interior Ministerial regulation enforced by the Department of Provincial Administration that mandates that accommodation venues with no more than 10 rooms and the capacity to accommodate no more than 30 guests does not meet the legal definition of a hotel.

To make this change possible, a further change to the ‘Ministerial Regulations on Characteristics and Safety Systems of Buildings Used for Hotel Business Operations B.E’, enforced by the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, was needed so that buildings operated as accommodation venues by SMEs would fall under the definition of hotels.

The third initiative requested was for the criteria for being approved financial support through credit facilities to be eased so that SMEs would finally have access to much-needed funds in order to restart their businesses.

After meeting with PM Prayut, Ms Wirintra explained that discussions on helping business operators in various sectors had begun to see concrete action on many issues, especially in terms of access to funds.

The Office of SMEs Promotion (OSMEP) had approved special conditions as requested by the chairman of the OSMEP on Jan 4 to unlock access for tourism operators to loans via credit bureaus.

Suraphon Opassathien, General Manager of the National Credit Information Co Ltd, said that the government will relax the opportunity to access loan sources for tourism operators who were able to make loan repayments up until the end of the year 2019, and which experienced liquidity problems during the COVID-19 crisis during the years 2020-2022.

Such businesses will be able to have the right to borrow money, in order to increase liquidity and have the opportunity to restart the businesses, he said.

Mr Suraphon also noted that a budget of B968 million had been approved through the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG, or บสย) to help tour operators who lack collateral so that loans could provided by guaranteeing credit of more than B3.5 billion.

“I will push on issues that members have problems with, whether it is applying for a small hotel operator’s license and other issues that are ‘stuck’ so that government agencies can help business operators to be able to do business with stability in order to promote tourism in the provinces along the Andaman coast, and throughout of the next country,” Ms Wirintra said.