New Tourism minister says strength of Thai currency is a “big headache”for tourism

Thailand-

This report, graph Credit Bloomberg:

Thailand’s tourism minister has blamed a surge in the baht for sapping tourist arrivals into Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy and says he’ll take up the matter with the central bank, highlighting rising concern over the currency’s gains.

Arrivals have dropped because of the baht’s strength, Piphat Ratchakitprakarn, minister of tourism and sports, told reporters in Bangkok after he officially began his new role. Piphat said he’ll discuss with the Bank of Thailand and the finance minister what can be done to help support the industry.

“The strength of the baht is part of the reason why the number of tourists has dropped as those who come would get less money from their currencies to spend,” Piphat said on Thursday. “Tourism is considered to be one of our country’s main revenue drivers. I will do everything I can to make sure that arrivals increase and more revenue is generated than before.”

Piphat’s aim to boost the number of arrivals contrasts with the view from his predecessor, Weerasak Kowsurat, who said Thailand should care less about increasing of quantity of travelers and focus instead on improving sustainable tourism to mitigate environmental impacts caused by too many visitors.

Full report: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-18/world-beating-baht-is-a-big-big-headache-for-thailand-s-tourism

 

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SOURCEBloomberg
Adam Judd
Mr. Adam Judd is the Co-owner of TPN Media since December 2017. He is originally from Washington D.C., America, but has also lived in Dallas, Sarasota, and Portsmouth. His background is in retail sales, HR, and operations management, and has written about news and Thailand for many years. He has lived in Pattaya for over nine years as a full-time resident, is well known locally and been visiting the country as a regular visitor for over a decade. His full contact information, including office contact information, can be found on our Contact Us page below. Stories please e-mail Editor@ThePattayanews.com About Us: https://thepattayanews.com/about-us/ Contact Us: https://thepattayanews.com/contact-us/