BANGKOK— New Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports, Weerasak Kowsurat, has outlined his priorities during an initial meeting with Tourism Authority of Thailand governor, Phornsiri Manoharn.
The Minister stressed the need to focus more on generating high spending visitors rather than mass volume traffic, but also noted that projections of visitor arrivals and foreign exchange earnings should be regarded more as “hopes” and “expectations” rather than compulsory targets.
The Minister called for the public and private sectors to work together “on the basis of mutual trust and respect along the principles of good governance and transparency, with a strong level of public accountability”.
Furthermore, he said they should clarify various issues such as convenience, hygiene, and safety and needs of tourists, “which will all help to encourage more people to travel”.
He called for an inventory of Thailand’s tourism products and destinations with a SWOT analysis carried out to identify each of their strengths and weaknesses.
The selected products would be classified into five “classes” — cluster, provincial, national, regional class and world class.
The Minister supported the continued promotion of Thailand as a filmmaking destination.
Mrs Phornsiri said, “The Minister is said to be one of the youngest members of the Thai cabinet, and because of his legal background, has a very clear and precise sense of direction about what needs to be done, how and over what time frame.”
