PM Prayut urges a new Thailand focused on tourism, sustainability

As the reopening of Thailand cranks the doors open wide to international travellers after cracking it open with Sandbox schemes over the past 4 months, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is focusing on tourism in reimagining Thailand moving forward. PM Prayut has called for all sectors of the nation to come together to transform the country in the “new normal” with tourism as a main tenet of the new, improved Thailand.

Looking to piggyback on the reopening to forge a new path for Thailand, the prime minister directed government agencies at a CCSA meeting to look for immediate changes that could be made to improve Thailand. He also called for infrastructure reform in the long term to put Thailand on a thriving and positive path and move the country toward sustainable growth.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand responded to PM Prayut’s call for reform by launching a new “Amazing Thailand, Amazing New Chapters” tourism campaign that will centre around health and safety and the new normal to bring in international travellers next year. The campaign will run throughout the rest of this year and focus on stories and experiences appealing to a wide variety of travellers.

The TAT warns that the tourism sector will need to evolve to match changes in consumer behaviours with the post-Covid lifestyle. Encouragingly, they called for a diversification of target audiences, suggesting tourism focuses on both nearby markets like ASEAN countries and far-away markets like the Americas and Europe.

Then they marched out the usual trope they’ve been proclaiming for years: Thailand needs to stop worrying about bringing in the most travellers and instead focus on quality tourists, leaning again on the government’s penchant for attempting to wrangle a few rich tourists instead of millions of backpackers and travellers they consider low-quality.

SOURCE: National News Bureau of Thailand