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This strategy would help us cope with the declining number of foreign tourists after the unfortunate airport closure. It is vital to induce more Thais to visit national destinations as tourists. This should not be too difficult as there are many destinations in Thailand that are as interesting and exotic as those overseas and there are diverse facilities, which suit the various preferences of tourists.

The ¡§Thai Tour Thai¡¨ promotion needs to be led by the tourism authorities ¡V the Ministry of Tourism and Sports as well as the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

The TAT¡¦s efforts in going out to explain to the world to beef up confidence of foreign tour operators and foreign tourists is in the right direction and must be continued. However, this effort would take time. In the meanwhile, TAT has to assume the additional burden of promoting the ¡§Thai Tour Thai¡¨ campaign, which would help alleviate the severity of the crisis and give a boost to various professions in the tourism industry to keep them going.

The effective promotion of ¡§Thai Tour Thai¡¨ needs parallel action on three fronts:

ĆThe introduction of tourist destinations in Thailand to Thai tourists as a whole.

ĆThe improvement of the destination surroundings to attract and impress tourists

ĆThe total cost of the tour.

With regard to the introduction of tourist destinations, TAT has good expertise in doing it. The TAT has successfully presented our tourist destinations to tourists all over the world for quite a long time. If the government arranges an additional budget for the TAT to promote inland tourist destinations to Thai tourists for a certain period of time, Thai tourists would be exposed to interesting inland tourist destinations all over the country in not too long a period of time.

The additional budget to introduce destinations to Thai tourists would add more tourists to the industry. This would be a more fruitful exercise than to use such a budget to lessen the financial problems of certain tour businesses.

The improvement of the surroundings in tourist destinations, to attract and impress tourists, should be the responsibility of the provincial administration, certainly, with the advice of the TAT on the destination that should be improved and the manner of the improvement.

Such an improvement involves not only the construction and renovation of tourist destinations, it also covers the creation and enrichment of tourist attractions based on the unique character of that locality such as Loy Krathong festival in Sukhothai, which can also be held in other cities where a river runs through.

The Northern style Songkran festival in Chiang Mai can also be held in other cities that are rich in Lanna culture, the winter flower festival in Chiang Rai, Wai Sa Mae Fah Luang, which genuinely associates with the late Princess Mother and Doi Tung, and Ubol Rajathanee Candle Festival, to name a few.

Such an improvement, furthermore, should also cover the preparation and presentation of information about the destinations or events, which will otherwise overwhelm the tourists with information. The presentation can be done with video and audio equipment or through explanation by guides who need to be trained and equipped with more accurate information. The allocation of budget to the provinces for the construction or renovation of tourist destinations, for the creation and enrichment of the tour events, and for the preparation and presentation of accurate information would benefit the tourism industry for a long time. Tourist destinations all over the country should be upgraded and better prepared to impress the visitors and become better infrastructure for tourism industry.

The increase of budget for this improvement will also create jobs during this period of economic slowdown and help stimulate the economy to a certain extent.

The third issue to be considered in promoting ¡§Thai Tour Thai¡¨ is the cost. If the total cost of touring within the country could be reduced markedly during the promotion period, I believe Thai tourists would turn to travel more in Thailand. This would increase business for the tourism industry during this critical period when foreign tourists are decreasing.

Once these Thai tourists are exposed to and impressed with interesting and exotic tourist destinations in their country that they had never experienced before, they may turn to travelling more in Thailand in the long run.

The cost of touring can be divided into four major items: accommodation, food, travelling, shopping and miscellaneous.

The accommodation cost is now relatively low as all hotels have reduced room rates to attract business for their survival. Food is also not expensive and available in a wide range of prices for tourists to choose from according to their budgets. Goods and services by vendors are of abundant supply and are already quite cheap. The only item which currently is relatively expensive is the air fare.

Nowadays, the airfare to places like Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Krabi and Samui are higher than the cost of a two-night accommodation in 4- or 5-star hotels. It is the airfare that pushes up the touring cost considerably. The service of low cost airlines at the moment is not adequate.

Normal fare airlines currently are experiencing a big drop in passengers and are starting to offer reduced fare in some flights but it is still not widespread enough.

I would propose that the government seek the cooperation of normal fare airlines to reduce the airfare for Thais by half for a period of say six months.

The government would compensate for 25 per cent of the airfare while the airline would absorb the remaining 25 per cent. This would markedly reduce the cost of touring and would attract a lot of Thai tourists to take advantage of this offer during this six-month promotion period.

I believe the increased number of passengers could more than compensate for the 25 per cent airfare absorbed by the airlines.

The government expenses to compensate the airlines should be treated as a budget to revive the tourism industry. The utilisation of budget in this direction would be more beneficial than the injection of funds to solve the financial problems of some tour businesses as it would help create business for tourist industry as a whole and benefit all businesses and professions in the industry fairly.

The budget of Bt 10 billion, as is being talked about, if used to compensate for 25 per cent of the airfare of Thais travelling to tourist destinations in Thailand, could contribute up to 5 million additional tourists during the promotion period. The additional number of Thai tourists is sizeable enough to keep the tourism industry going.

Until next Monday