20 Aug, 2020
The tourism stimulus campaign received lower uptakes than officials had expected, while analysts remain concerned for the hotel operators’ stocks over the effectiveness of the tourism campaign.
Smith Banomyong, a spokesman of the Center for Economic Situation Administration (CESA), revealed that the CESA has agreed to improve the measure after receiving lower-than-expected results.
Only 664,000 privileges were used from a total of 5 million campaign registrations which was expected to gain 70 billion baht in return.
They decided to adjust the criteria for the tourism stimulus campaign by expanding rights to include corporate travellers. It will be proposed to the cabinet for approval next week.
The CESA also proposed increasing the duration to 10 nights per person (previously 5 nights) and increasing discounts for flight tickets to 2,000 baht from 1,000 baht.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will revise information for companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) to include this measure as the government will cover the expense by 40 per cent.
Suspicious move
According to the TAT, the program will end in October and will not be extended, but it appears that hotel operators are not expecting any huge turnaround for their businesses.
A hotel participating in the campaign told Thai Enquirer that in the past two months, there have only been some local tourists but the figure is still modest since the situation is not stable and the government’s campaign would not be successful due to many factors.
KTB Securities revealed that it has a neutral view on the extension of privileges and that it would not stimulate much of the tourism sector.
KTB has also given travel groups and airlines ‘equal to market’ and none are the top picks.
Finansia Syrus Securities said the expansion of the campaign only intends to maintain the liquidity of entrepreneurs.
As the tourism group’s performance fell to the bottom in the second quarter, the recovery is also expected to be slow as 80 per cent of their revenue are from foreigners, according to Finansia Syrus.
