Permanent secretary Sakthip Krairiksh said yesterday that his ministry was preparing "many" tourism projects to present to the next Cabinet for approval.

The biggest item in the new plan - budgeted at more than Bt20 billion - is the "Thailand Riviera" project for provinces bordering the Gulf of Thailand.

The rest of the budget will be spent on schemes such as supporting sustainable development projects in "high potential provinces", establishing a national tourism institute, setting official hotel standards, designing specific ecotourism activities including home stays, promoting hot springs and creating more "tourism products".

"Several pilot projects are ready to start, such as the development of Chang Island on the East Coast and Lanta Island in the Andaman Sea," Sakthip said.

The ministry and tourism bodies including the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Tourism Development Office have formed a task force to handle the projects, with caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop in charge.

The ministry plans to set up a public relations unit to take care of all promotional activities as well as tourism information. This June, the ministry will introduce a tourism guidebook exclusively for the celebration of the King's 60 years on the throne.

The ministry has fine-tuned tourism strategies by focusing more on tourist quality instead of quantity. The ministry said it would draw more long-stay, medical and spa tourists as well as business travellers because these quality visitors usually spend more and stay longer.

"With specific target groups like in this master plan, we hope to bring more revenue into our economy," Sakthip said.

Suchat Sritama

The Nation