New Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor unveils policies

Mrs. Juthamas Siriwan, the new governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), has unveiled her visions and policies after being officially appointed today. 

At the press conference at the TAT head office, Mrs. Juthamas delivered her first speech showing her strong intention to develop Thailand as a world-class quality destination and position it as the ‘Tourism Capital of Asia’ within the next three years. 

The event was chaired by the Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office and TAT Chairman H.E. Mr. Somsak Thepsutin and well attended by TAT senior officials and members of press. 

The Governor stressed that tourism would remain the most effective and fastest means to generate foreign exchange revenue for Thailand in support of social and economic growth at all levels. 

She also promised to boost the potential of the tourism industry via better management and stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors to promote inbound and regional tourism. 

The Governor added, “TAT will act as a driving force to implement practical strategies and improve the co-ordination of all tourism- related projects, even while striving to develop ourselves as one of the model government organisations.” 

TAT expects that international visitor arrivals to Thailand will increase by 50% and tourism foreign exchange revenue will double by 2007. International visitors will total 15.3 million and tourism foreign exchange revenue will reach 668 billion baht. 

On the domestic front, Thais and foreign expatriate residing in Thailand will make a total of 71.3 trips in 2007, generating 401 billion baht tourism revenue to the Thai economy. 

Born on May 4, 1947, Mrs. Juthamas has worked for TAT since December 15, 1978. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, and completed an MBA in Finance from the US. She initially started her career in the Budget Bureau, Office of the Prime Minister, in 1974. 

In 1978, she worked as TAT’s Chief of the Budget Section. She was later promoted as Chief of the Budget Division, Deputy Director of Investment Department, Deputy Governor for Administration and finally Deputy Governor for Marketing.