The Tourism Authority of Thailand is introducing the next phase of a domestic tourism subsidy scheme, offering between 3 and 4 million additional hotel rooms at discounted prices for locals. The scheme offers Thai tourists a 40% subsidy on hotel rooms, in addition to a 600-baht food and shopping voucher per night.
According to a Bangkok Post report, phase 4 of the We Travel Together scheme has so far generated around 15 billion baht for the economy, with most of that coming from hotel bookings at 12 million baht, followed by voucher spending (over 2.7 billion baht) and airfares at 918 million baht. In this latest phase however, airfare subsidies will not be included as the current phase still has nearly 122,000 airfare privileges remaining.
TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn says around 2 billion baht of leftover budget from ongoing programmes, including the unsuccessful Tour Teaw Thai package tour subsidy scheme, is being returned to the Budget Bureau, with Cabinet expected to allocate a new budget for the next phase of We Travel Together, once approval is granted.
According to Yuthasak, the new phase could potentially start in November and run until Songkran next year, the busiest time for domestic travel. It’s understood the government has prepared a budget of 17 million baht to boost the local economy at the end of the year, pushing for GDP growth of 3.3%.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
