Thailand tourism leaders back rescue plan

Tourism business leaders in Thailand will ask the country’s new government to call an urgent meeting of agencies to map out a rehabilitation plan for tourism, the Bangkok Post has reported.
Tourism Council of Thailand President, Kongkrit Hiyanyakit, said the rescue plan should cover short-, medium- and long-term solutions for the sectors hardest hit by Thailand’s political unrest and the global economic crisis. In the short term, to preserve tourism employment, the government will be asked to generate funds with a budget of THB10 billion (US$290,000) from government and the same amount from local authorities to finance seminars and meetings, he said.
Kongkrit also urged the government to set up “Team Thailand”; a body of including representatives from the Commerce Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Board of Investment and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
“Many tourism operators have already laid off their workers in this quarter because of a sharp drop in tourists,” the Bangkok Post reported Kongkrit saying. “About 15%, or 165,000, of a total of 1.1 million human resources in the tourism industry have been laid off this month. The situation is likely to get worse over the next two months,” he added.
Thailand’s 2007 tourism receipts totalled THB547 billion, but Kongkrit said revenue was expected to contract 15-20% this year. The high season has been hit hard and fourth-quarter revenue is set to fall by up to 30-40%.
“Without the rehabilitation plan, the industry would slip further,” he said.