Thailand’s Tourism Ministry will be giving financial aid to local tour businesses by returning a combined 1.4 billion baht (US$42.4 million) of registration deposits to them.
In a meeting with the Finance Ministry last week, tourism agencies proposed that the tourism ministry return the company registration deposit to local tour operators, The Bangkok Post reported.
The Tourism Department has a total of 1.4 billion baht collected from inbound, outbound and domestic tour companies, who each fork out between 50,000 and 200,000 baht per licence, said the report.
The ministry’s policy stipulates that each company will receive 50-70 per cent of the deposit back to help ease the the economic burden created by the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition, the ministry has requested for a one billion baht budget to build proper facilities and renovate attractions in local communities, said the report.
This project will help create employment, as the ministry estimates that 1.06 million workers in the tourism sector risk losing their jobs should the pandemic persist till July.
The move comes as tourism and sports minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn projects that the pandemic could slash international tourist arrivals to 10 million this year.
Last year, Thailand recorded 39.8 million international arrivals, up 4.2 per cent, while tourism receipts totalled 1.9 trillion baht, up 3.1 per cent.
