The Ministry of Tourism and Sports is planning a discussion with representatives of four groups — shopping malls, foreign ambassadors, online travel agents and hoteliers — about how to remove obstacles in the tourism sector.
Nor that the government has declared 2025 the “Grand Tourism and Sports Year”, the ministry wants to enhance tourism performance, said vice-minister Jakkaphon Tangsutthitham. It will start by gathering information from key stakeholders to formulate short-, medium- and long-term plans to improve the industry.
He said one ministry policy is to revise the Hotel Act to enable unregistered accommodations to be registered, which would improve safety for tourists, promote fair competition among operators, and lift the overall quality of hospitality services.
Mr Jakkaphon said the ministry is studying how to ease some fixed criteria and motivate more operators to register under the new regulations.
For mall operators, revised tax refund measures for shoppers could help lift tourism.
Ministry discussions with foreign ambassadors will focus on flight expansion, including coordination with airports on arranging slots for new flights.
Mr Jakkaphon said the ministry hopes the government will continue the visa-free scheme for eligible nations that is set to expire at the end of this year.
It also wants to emphasise development of man-made attractions as it attempts to make Thailand a global event hub, he added.
Some companies, he said, are interested in managing the Supachalasai National Stadium, with the ministry acting as a mediator between the companies and Chulalongkorn University, the land owner, to develop the structure as a concert hub.
Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA), said safety standards would be elevated if unregistered accommodation operators can be encouraged to register, because they would have to submit daily booking records to the Interior Ministry, similar to licensed hotels.
Registration would also allow hotel operators to apply for sustainability certification, catering to rising demand for sustainable tourism, said Mr Thienprasit.
He said the government should regulate online travel agents (OTAs), as some European countries have already eliminated price parity rules on these platforms.
These rules ban hotels from freely managing their own pricing strategies as owners are required to sign deals with OTAs to sell at the same or a higher rate.
Furthermore, revenue from some hotel bookings on these platforms does not circulate in the local economy as some OTAs directly collect full payment from guests, paying the net price back to hotels.
The 20% commission they collect, which cannot be traced, might flow overseas, said Mr Thienprasit.