Thailand to restore Chinese tourists’ confidence

BANGKOK, Aug 3 (TNA) -- Thai tourism-related agencies are instructed to restore confidence in the country’s safety in the wake of Phuket boat accident that killed 47 Chinese tourists last month, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said. During Thursday’s meeting of a national tourism policy committee, Mr Somkid said all agencies were ordered to review and sort out problems to find ways in improving safety measures for tourists. Following the Phoenix boat accident off the resort island of Phuket that killed 47 Chinese tourists, 660,000 Chinese tourists cancelled their trips to Thailand between July 5 when the accident occurred and July 31, causing a loss in tourism revenue of Bt37 billion, Mr Somkid said. Thailand must prioritize tourist safety, he said. Tourists from China remained the largest group by country to visit Thailand in the first half of this year, followed by Malaysia and India, officials say. Mr Somkid said the government planned to open a foreign tourist center tasked with facilitating tourists in time of emergency. Earlier, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports proposed concerned agencies to collect statistics nationwide about boat accidents and study international standards for tour boats. Last year, tourists from China made up almost a quarter of Thailand’s 35 million visitors. After the incident, the Ministry revised down its forecast number of Chinese arrivals for July-December by nearly 670,000, to 5.1 million. During the meeting, the committee announced its forecast that Thailand’s tourism industry would generate Bt3 trillion of revenue this year. (TNA)