Thailand doubles tourism budget

Thailand doubles tourism budget

Beth Jinks, Bloomberg/Bangkok

Thailand will spend a further 1.5 billion baht (US$36.4 million) marketing tourism to revive the nation's tsunami-ravaged southwest resorts, newly appointed Tourism and Sports Minister Pracha Maleenont said.

The government gave the Tourism Authority an additional 2.5 billion baht last month to help revive the industry, which accounted for 6.4 percent of the country's $164 billion economy in 2004. Most of the original 4.6 billion baht annual budget was spent in the first half, authority Governor Juthamas Siriwan said in July.

Earthquake-triggered waves in December killed more than 5,400 people in Thailand, half of them foreign visitors. Hotel and airline bookings for affected areas such as Phuket are down 70 percent, even after the introduction of a tsunami-warning system and a $750 million government rebuilding budget.

"Obviously with the tsunami we saw a dip in the region and a particular impact in Thailand," Ian Wheeler, head of marketing at Amadeus Global Travel Distribution SA, the world's largest travel-reservations company, said in an interview. "Now I would say the region has recovered in total, but Thailand is still a bit down."

Only two tsunami-affected beaches have been fully restored and other recovery work is unlikely to be completed before the peak season starting in October, the Bangkok Post reported on Saturday, citing Vichit Na Ranong, chairman of the Tourism Council of Thailand.

Thailand's economy contracted 0.6 percent in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2004, blamed in part on the tsunami. In 2004, Thailand attracted a record 11.7 million visitors, missing its 12 million target amid the tsunami in the peak last week of the year.

"Reviving business to Phuket and South Thailand remains our top priority," Pracha, a former television executive, said in an e-mailed statement on Friday. Pracha, 58, replaced Somsak Thepsutin as tourism minister in an Aug. 2 cabinet reshuffle.

Record oil prices and the lingering effects of the December disaster saw Thai Airways International Pcl, the country's largest airline, post its worst loss in almost six years in the second quarter. Thai Air on Friday raised fuel surcharges for the third time since July 1, to as much as $50 per flight coupon for intercontinental flights, to help cover rising costs.

Unrest and escalating violence in Thailand's Muslim-majority southernmost provinces is also hurting the economy and travel, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday.

Pracha maintained aims to meet record tourist targets this year "in spite of the consequences of the high oil prices, Thai economic slowdown, the situation in southern Thailand and the lingering impact of the tsunami."

The Tourism Authority of Thailand will "make every effort to achieve" pre-tsunami targets of attracting a record 13.4 million foreign visitors and 76 million domestic trips this year, assisted by the additional budget, he said.

The ministry also plans to promote resort areas not damaged by the tsunami, including Hua Hin, Cha-am, Samui and Chumphon, as well as the northern city of Chiang Mai, and "position Thailand as the film-making capital of Asia" by easing bureaucracy and rules involved in permits for movie and documentary making.