CESA Secretary Danucha Pitchanan made the announcement at a press conference in Bangkok after the CESA meeting yesterday (Dec 2), reports the state-owned Thai news Agency (TNA).
Also present at the press conference were Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn and Pornchai Theerawet of the Ministry of Finance’s Fiscal Policy Office.
Mr Danucha explained that the CESA was concerned about Phuket and other tourism-dependent provinces.
“We will create campaigns to encourage people to travel from Sunday through Thursday,” Mr Danucha said.
“We will also create financial measures for business operators,” he assured.
“We will attract foreign tourists to Phuket and encourage organisers to hold events in Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi,” Mr Danucha added.
“And we will take steps to encourage foreigners who have Thai wives and have property in Thailand to come back to the country as soon as possible,” he said.
TAT Governor Mr Yuthasak explained that overall Thailand tourism had improved “by about 34%”. His agency estimates that in total 15.57 million Thais had travelled within the country in the two months October through November.
“We expect that about 4 million Thai people will travel [domestically] in December,” he said.
“For the ‘We Travel Together’ campaign, we will increase the government subsidy to up to 40% for each participant, but not more than B3,000 per person, especially for trips to Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga, Krabi, Surat Thani, Songkhla, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai,” he added.
“Officers and state enterprise employees will be allowed to have two free days off without the days being counted as a leave,” Mr Yuthasak explained.
“The TAT will also create an ‘elderly tourism campaign’ for those 55 years old or older to have three-day trips. The government will support 40% of the transport cost up to B5,000 per person. This privilege will be allowed only once per person,” he said.
Mr Pornchai of the Fiscal Policy Office also announced that a second registration period for people to join the Khon La Kreung government 50-50 ‘co-payment stimulus scheme will open for a further 5 million people to join the campaign, with the limit increased to B3,500 per person.