The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) President, Chamnan Srisawat, has expressed the challenging nature of the government’s ambitious target of achieving 3.5 trillion baht in tourism revenue. Srisawat emphasized that all sectors, including governmental, private, and banking entities, must swiftly implement policies and projects to support the attainment of this revenue goal. Success in this endeavor, Srisawat believes, would greatly benefit the national economy’s recovery.
To bolster efforts toward the revenue target, the TCT has proposed three key strategies. Firstly, there is a focus on enhancing connections between tourists and various tourism sites by gathering data on tourists’ nationalities, ages, and interests. Secondly, the emphasis is on leveraging tourism expertise by engaging experienced individuals from diverse backgrounds and academia to impart knowledge to tourism operators, thus enhancing the overall industry. Thirdly, the introduction of the Tourism Clinic initiative aims to provide ongoing inspections and counseling to tourism businesses to enhance their competitiveness.
Kitti Pornsiwakit, president of the Smart Tourism working group at the TCT, has urged the government to expand its visa waiver policy to align with visitors’ interests or activities. Examples include the introduction of specialized visas such as the Muay Thai visa, digital nomad visas, and Thai cooking visas. These initiatives would not only facilitate longer stays but also enable visitors to serve as cultural ambassadors, thereby contributing to Thailand’s soft power expansion.
Furthermore, the TCT, in collaboration with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, has released the Thailand Tourism Confidence Index for the first quarter of 2024. The index, standing at 82 points, indicates improvements over the previous quarter of 2023 and surpasses the corresponding period of the previous year. Notably, the Northern Region has shown the most significant improvement in tourism, while the Central Region exhibited the least progress. Among different tourism business categories, spas and Thai massage businesses have demonstrated the most improvement, while man-made tourism sites have shown the least advancement.