Vice Governor Siwaporn Chuasawas made her statements during a “Public Relations and Tourism Warning” conference held at the Pearl Hotel in Phuket T on Tuesday. The event was attended by officials including police and representatives from the tourism industry.
V/Gov Siwaporn explained, “The Ministry of Tourism and Sports launched this project in 2012 with the aim of providing tourism warning information and incident prevention advice to tourists.
“This project also informs tourists how or where to file complaints in incident cases and providing assistance to tourists in need of help. Moreover, it will also provide convenience to tourists.
“The Bureau of Tourism Safety Standards and Ministry of Tourism and Sports are organised a joint discussion for this project in four important provinces: Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Khon Kaen, and Phuket, and in each of these provinces the event will be attend by government officials, business operators, and tourism experts.
“The Bureau of Tourism Safety Standards is also creating a brochure in which will be published in nine languages (Thai, English, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish and German) which will gibe specific advice to tourists,” she said.
“Thailand is consider a leader in tourism especially in Southeast Asia and we continue to see tourist numbers rising. In 2015, we had around 29.88 million tourists visit Thailand, that is an increase of 5.10mn people from 2014.
“Our records from January-July 2016 show us that 19.54mn tourists have visited Thailand in that period, compared to the same period last year that is an increase of 11.87 per cent.
“The highest number of tourists have come from China, Malaysia and South Korea, and the tourists who generate the most income are from China, Russia and Malaysia,” she added.
V./Gov Siwaporn then stated that she believed that by ramping up security tourists will gain more trust.
“With the rapid rise in the number of tourists, we must ramp-up security efforts to provide maximum security for tourist and maintain a good tourism image. And along with issues on security, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and other departments are also keeping an eye out for fraud, threats and other forms of deception which could affect tourists.
“The government has set up many tourist assistance centres in tourist destinations where they can file complaints, ask questions or seek assistance. Today we have 16 centres in 14 provinces and in Bangkok.
“If tourists should need assistance they should call the 24 hours call centre on 02-1344077,” she added.