Thailand to Offer 40% Subsidy on Hotels, 600 Baht for Food to Domestic Tourists

In order to increase GDP growth to 3.3% this year, the government of Thailand is drafting a new phase of the domestic tourism subsidy programme with an additional 3–4 million hotel rooms, which is double the amount in the fourth phase, which is set to end this month.

We Travel Together

Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), stated that the upcoming fifth phase of “We Travel Together” will continue to provide domestic tourists with a 40% hotel subsidy as well as a voucher worth 600 baht per night for food and shopping.

However, since there were almost 122,000 privileges for airfares left in the current phase, airfare subsidies, which were included in previous phases, are no longer offered.

‘Tour Teaw Thai’ Package to Discontinue

He announced that the “Tour Teaw Thai” package tour subsidy programme, which received mixed reviews from tourists, would be discontinued.

In contrast to We Travel Together, which had 1.5 million rooms booked since early September, the current phase of the tour stimulus had 130,624 packages sold and 69,376 privileges left as of October 19.

The TAT estimates that the fourth phase of We Travel Together contributed 15 billion baht to the local economy, with hotel spending accounting for 12 billion baht and voucher spending accounting for 2.76 billion baht (918 million baht).

The hotel industry is anticipated to benefit the most from this programme, as 4,366 hotels have already received reservations, and 1.45 billion baht have already been spent using vouchers at hotel restaurants. For this project, Tour Teaw Thai received 1.28 billion baht from 426 tour operators.

According to Mr Yuthasak, the Budget Bureau received a 2-billion-baht leftover budget from ongoing programmes, but the budget for the new phase must be allocated after receiving cabinet approval.

Fifth Phase to Start in November

The new phase could potentially begin as early as November and last until Songkran in April of the following year, which is a busy time for domestic travel, according to him.

In order to boost the local economy at the end of this year and achieve GDP growth of 3.3%, the government declared last week that it had prepared a budget of 17 billion baht.

According to Mr Yuthasak, the agency must wait until mid-November for cabinet approval of the budget allocation. According to the TAT, the stimulus should contribute to a multiplier effect that is between two and three times the budget it received.