Thai Tourism minister says foreign tourists not worried about bombs

BANGKOK, Aug 13 – Foreign tourists are not worried about the recent bomb attacks and fires in seven southern provinces of Thailand while the World Tourism Day is confirmed to take place in Thailand in September, according to Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul. Ms Kobkarn on Friday met with representatives from 20 local tourism associations to discuss the impact of the recent bomb blasts on the Thai tourism industry. She said there has been no cancellation of travel booking among foreign tourists visiting Thailand, while the Thai government is providing its counterparts with factual information to ensure their correct understanding about the situation in the kingdom. The minister is confident that Thailand will return to a state of normalcy very soon. Therefore, the ministry has maintained its 2016 tourism revenue target of 2.4 trillion baht. Ms Kobkarn also said that Mr Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization, has confirmed that the World Tourism Day 2016 will be held in Thailand as planned on Sept 27. She said that Mr Rifai was confident that Thailand is still one of the world’s key tourist destinations. Regarding the ministry’s assistance to Thai and foreign victims of the bomb attacks, Ms Kobkarn said it will pay one million baht from a fund in compensation to those who have been killed and as much as 500,000 baht towards medical treatment. Meanwhile, Yuthachai Soonthronrattnavate , president of the Association of Domestic Travel, said the blasts would rather cause panic and concern among Thai travelers in the short term, citing the spread of too much news through social network and other medias. (TNA)