Thailand endorses Chinese as UNWTO’s official language

BANGKOK, May 15 (TNA ) - The Thai Cabinet has endorsed Chinese as an official language of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), as proposed by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. Acting Government Spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard said on Monday that the Thai Cabinet's decision was based on rational grounds that Chinese has long been an official language of the United Nations and China is a huge country where a large number of people travel around the world yearly. Earlier, the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok contacted the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking for the Thai government's endorsement of Chinese as an UNWTO official language and the UNWTO Secretariat in Madrid, Spain's capital, urged member states to speed up endorsing Chinese as an UNWTO official language. A Thai Government House report indicated that Chinese tourists have formed a bulk of international visitors to Thailand and the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports has a main policy on keeping on attracting more Chinese arrivals in Thailand. Updated figures showed that Chinese arrivals in the Thai Kingdom topped the list last month, at 196,192, a 42.12 per cent year-on-year surge. (TNA)