Bangkok-
The Thai prime minister has dismissed the idea of extending the Songkran Festival holiday to nine days nationwide.
Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha said the idea was not brought up at a government cabinet meeting today, Tuesday, and will not be discussed any further.
Gen Prayut said he personally did not agree with a longer Songkran holiday and believes it would not boost domestic tourism that much, as suggested by proponents of the extended holiday.
The idea was to add two more days — Thursday, April 16, and Friday, April 17 — so that the Songkran holiday would run nine days from April 11-19.
The Pattaya News notes that in Pattaya the festival runs for the entire duration traditionally anyways and the proposal would have little effect on the local area.