Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Yuthasak Supasorn said the upcoming fifth phase of “We Travel Together” will continue to offer a 40% subsidy on hotel rooms to domestic tourists, along with a voucher worth B600 per night for food and shopping.
However, airfare subsidies, included in previous phases, are discontinued in the new phase as there were almost 122,000 privileges for airfares remaining in the current phase.
The package tour subsidy programme named “Tour Teaw Thai”, which received lukewarm feedback from travellers, will be scrapped, he said.
As of Oct 19, the current phase of the tour stimulus had 130,624 packages sold and 69,376 remaining privileges, unlike We Travel Together, which tallied 1.5mn rooms booked since early September.
According to the TAT, the fourth phase of We Travel Together helped generate B15 billion for the local economy, with the biggest portion derived from hotel spending at B12bn, followed by spending with vouchers (B2.76bn) and airfares (B918 million).
The hotel sector is expected to reap the greatest benefit from this programme, with 4,366 hotels receiving room bookings, while overall spending via vouchers in hotel restaurants totalled B1.45bn. Tour Teaw Thai contributed B1.28bn from 426 tour companies that offer packages in this scheme.
Mr Yuthasak said a leftover budget of B2bn from the ongoing programmes was returned to the Budget Bureau, while the budget for the new phase has to be allocated following cabinet approval.
He said the earliest start for the new phase could be November, potentially spanning to Songkran in April next year, which is a peak period for domestic travel.
The government said last week it prepared a budget of B17bn to stimulate the local economy at the end of this year, aiming for GDP growth at 3.3%.
Mr Yuthasak said the agency has to wait for cabinet approval around mid-November regarding the budget allocation. The stimulus should help create a multiplier effect of 2-3 times of the budget it received, according to the TAT.