THAI PRIME MINISTER BACKS DOMESTIC TOURISM CAMPAIGN

Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra has thrown his personal support behind the promotion of domestic tourism with the inauguration of a special discount coupons programme designed to encourage the Thai people to see more of the country in the low season months of July-October.

The Prime Minister himself chaired a press conference to launch the "Affordable and Enjoyable Travel with Special Discount Coupons" programme at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre on July 11. Accompanying him were Minister to the Prime Minister's Office and Tourism Authority of Thailand Chairman Mr. Somsak Thepsutin and TAT Governor Mr. Pradech Phayakvichien.

Domestic travel and tourism is now widely recognised as an effective and low-cost means of facilitating the recovery of the country's economy by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, the main beneficiaries of the purchases made by domestic travellers.

Promoting domestic tourism was one of the top agenda items at the National Tourism Promotion and Development Workshop in Chiang Mai between April 20- 21, which was attended by senior ministers, officials and executives of public and private agencies in the tourism industry.

Prime Minister Thaksin said, "It is crucial to encourage Thais to travel within Thailand, the fastest and most efficient way of generating more income for provincial areas and minimising the outflow of foreign exchange resulting from Thais travelling overseas.

"The discount coupons will help Thais get the most out of their budget and make their holidays even more affordable and enjoyable," Mr. Thaksin added.
The discount coupons have been initiated by TAT with strong support from Thai Airways International and Bangchak Petroleum Public Company Limited.

Offering discounts ranging from 5% - 50% at a total of 1,548 tourism-related businesses nationwide, the coupons are valid for three months between July 15 and October 15, 2001, the traditional low season for Thai tourism when visitation by international travellers normally takes a dip.

Participating businesses include hotels and resorts, airlines, transportation companies, tour companies, restaurants, souvenir shops, tourist destinations, sporting venues as well as golf courses.

TAT and the campaign sponsors have published a total of 800,000 booklets consisting of hundreds of discount coupons worth up to 80,000 baht each. They will be distributed free of charge through the TAT's 22 domestic offices and all Bangchak petrol stations and inserted in the August edition of two TAT owned magazines, Or Sor Thor and Young Traveller.

TAT will work with related agencies to further promote the campaign to Thai people via brochures, posters, TV and radio advertisements as well as billboards at all major public areas in major tourist provinces like Chiang Mai, Phuket, Chonburi and Songkhla.

In 2000, Thais and expatriates living in Thailand made an estimated 54.74 million trips, an increase of 2.08% over 1999. Their cumulative spending was estimated at 210,516 billion baht, up 3.61% over 1999. The projection for domestic trips in 2001 is 56 million, with an expenditure of about 222 billion baht.

By comparison, the number of outbound Thais increased from 1,686,448 in 1999 to 1,946,343 in 2000, up by 15.41% over 1999. In 2000, outbound Thais stayed abroad for an average of 11.76 days and spent an average of 3,619.13 (US$90.23), resulting in an outflow of 82.84 billion baht (US$2.07 billion).