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Thailand tourism minister calls for improvements
BANGKOK – Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports has issued a wish list of improvements to the country’s aviation and immigration sectors to help boost tourist arrival numbers.
Tourism Minister Dr.Suvit Yodmani said that a few changes in the management and processing of visitor arrivals could eliminate bottlenecks and help Thailand meet its arrivals target of 14 million this year.
He told public and private sector delegates at a tourism summit that Thailand was facing tremendous competition on the global stage and that it was more cost-effective to make the necessary improvements at home rather than spend more marketing money abroad.
His list of suggestions and included:
Air Transport
– There is a shortage of scheduled flights to Thailand during the high season particularly from major markets such as the UK, Scandinavia, Russia and CIS countries, Australia, Japan and Africa. Thai Airways International was asked to consider adding more cities, depending on availability of aircraft and the financial feasibility of the routes.
– There is a shortage of direct flights from strong potential markets such as Korea, Hong Kong, Japan (Fukuoka), and Australia to popular Thai destinations like Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi and Samui.
– As Bangkok remains a popular destination, special charters could also be operated to the Thai capital from new source market cities like Shenyang, Brisbane, Perth, Chicago and Manchester.
Ground Services
– Improvement could be made at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport by boosting the number of manned immigration counters, especially during peak arrival and departure hours, improving signage, and adding more pick-up tourist points.
– It was also felt to be necessary to boost the processing time for visa-on-arrival by upgrading the technology to check passports. A proposal was also made to boost the number of countries being given visa exemption, initiating an e-visa application system over the Internet or consider a transit passenger visa for 72 hours (without visa).
-In Phuket, the minister cited a shortage of public transportation to the city from Phuket International Airport.
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