Authorities have high hopes for new transit-passenger tourism scheme

At prices ranging from Bt1,850-Bt6,050 per person, the packages will take them to beaches, temples, palaces, art galleries, shows, zoos, golfing venues, spas, shopping or a city tour of a few hours in the vicinity of Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Weerasak Kowsurat, chairman of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the programme would be on trial for two years with quarterly evaluations.

It hopes to draw 1,000 clients a day. Revenue is projected to be around Bt900 million annually. Suvarnabhumi has about 3,000 transit passengers per day.

The programme has the support of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), which along with other tourism associations has suffered from a drop in customers due to the global economic crisis as well as domestic political instability.

The number of international tourist arrivals is expected to fall sharply to 10 million this year, from an earlier target of 14.8 million.

Surupol Sritrakul, who was yesterday appointed the new president of ATTA, succeeding Apichart Sankary, urged the government to revoke the state of emergency imposed during the Songkran festival.

He said revocation would tell the world that Thailand was back to normal. In his new capacity, Surapol also promised to work more closely with government agencies and private organisations in restoring the industry.

Meanwhile, Tourism and Sports minister Chumpol Silapa-archa said the ministry would propose other tourism recovery measures to the Cabinet next week.

One of the measures is the financial guarantee for tourists who could be injured or killed by political violence, worth up to Bt1 million per person.

The ministry will also ask for Bt15 billion in soft loans to help operators suffering from the airport closures last year. The Cabinet earlier approved a Bt5-billion package to help these businesses.

The TAT has also been urged to revise its marketing strategies and tourism recovery plans for 2009-2010 to draw visitors back to the country.

The ministry will also write to 33 countries that had issued travel warnings, in a bid to convince them to withdraw the warnings.

Chumpol will also lead the private sector and the TAT at an international travel fair in the Middle East early next month, as well as to travel expos in China and Japan.