President Kongkrit Hiranyakit told a seminar yesterday that the public sector rarely paid much attention to helping tourism, even though Thailand has abundant resources that could be strengthened by government agencies.

It keeps focusing on developing the industrial sector and never conducts research and development for the tourism industry, leaving firms to operate by trial and error, he added.

Kongkrit said the Kingdom's market share in terms of visitors among Asia-Pacific destinations had decreased from 9 per cent to 8 per cent between 1990 and 2004, while China's share surged from 19 per cent to 28 per cent.

Thailand's share in terms of revenue fell from 9.4 per cent to 7.2 per cent, but China's share rose sharply from 5 per cent to 21 per cent. Malaysia's share also increased to about the same level as Thailand's.

Kongkrit said the tourism industry had grown at a satisfactory level of an average of 7 to 8 per cent over the period because of the global economic situation, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's marketing and hard work by private businesses.

While the country would continue to grow at the same average rate, its decreased market share and the emergence of China, Singapore and Malaysia should encourage the public sector to put greater effort into helping private operators, he added.

The public sector should think about maintaining the beauty of travel destinations and making them better, improving services and developing university students for serving the tourism industry.

At the same time, the public sector should also think of how to reduce the spending of Thais who travel abroad. Currently, two to three million Thais travel abroad annually but their accumulated spending is about one-third of the total revenue the country gains from international travellers.

Kongkrit remains optimistic that the industry has a good future this year. Thailand has already gained strong awareness among global travellers, there is no new negative factor, the number of travellers around the world is increasing, economies in countries whose people are Thailand's major visitors are on the rise and giving travellers more spending power, travel facilities are quickly being developed, and Suvarnabhumi Airport has been opened, he said.

The seminar was organised by Huachiew Chalermprakiet University in cooperation with the Nation Multimedia Group.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation