The Thai government has decided to promote a program offering free domestic flight tickets to foreign travelers in order to revive its sluggish tourism industry.
According to local media Nation on the 22nd (local time), Minister of Tourism and Sports Sarawong Tienthong plans to request a budget of 700 million baht (approximately 30 billion won) from the Cabinet for the free domestic flight ticket program.
Minister Sarawong explained that the 'free domestic flights with international ticket purchase' program aims to attract at least 200,000 foreign tourists, especially to UNESCO-designated cities, popular tourist spots, and major tourist areas across Thailand.
To this end, the Thai government has decided to offer one-way domestic tickets for 1,750 baht (about 75,000 won) and round-trip tickets for 3,500 baht free of charge from September to November.
The government expects this initiative to generate direct revenue of at least 8.81 billion baht (approximately 377 billion won) through foreign tourist expenditure, further yielding an economic impact of 21.8 billion baht (approximately 933 billion won).
This program is said to have been inspired by Japan's 'free domestic flights' campaign, which encourages foreign tourists to travel from major cities to other domestic tourist destinations.
Thailand's key industry, tourism, has been sluggish due to the aftermath of the kidnapping of Chinese tourists at large-scale scam operations in Myanmar and elsewhere earlier this year.
In the first half of the year, the number of Chinese tourists decreased by about 33%, resulting in 20.2 million foreign tourists visiting Thailand from the beginning of the year to the 10th, a 6.9% decline compared to the same period last year.
Furthermore, last month's skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia along their border resulted in dozens of fatalities, further worsening the atmosphere for Thailand's tourism industry.
According to the Tourism and Sports Ministry, there have been widespread cancellations or postponements of hotel reservations in the three eastern Thai provinces bordering Cambodia, including Sa Kaeo, Trat, and Chanthaburi, as of mid this month.
Consequently, Thai authorities have revised their forecast for foreign tourist arrivals this year down from 37 million to 33 million.
This is about 17% lower than the peak of 39.9 million tourists in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an effort to overcome this slump in the tourism industry, the Thai government is implementing various measures, such as allowing foreign tourists to exchange virtual currencies for Thai baht and spend them.