Tourism Minister apologises over 'Half-Half Thai Travel' issues, vows to fix problems quickly
Tourism Minister apologises for issues with the 'Half-Half Thai Travel' scheme and pledges to resolve problems swiftly, ensuring minimal inconvenience.
During a parliamentary session on Thursday, Minister of Tourism and Sports Sorawong Thienthong issued an apology to the public for the issues surrounding the “Tiew Thai Khon La Krueng” (Half-Half Thai Travel) programme, which has faced difficulties in reaching its expected targets.
The scheme, which has a budget of 1.75 billion baht, aims to offer Thai citizens subsidies for travel, but it has fallen short of expectations, with only 158,000 hotel bookings used so far, far fewer than anticipated.
Somchat Techathaworncharoen, a Phuket MP from the People’s Party, raised concerns in Parliament about the programme’s underperformance, attributing the low uptake to a lack of government competence, poor management, and technical issues with the new application designed for the programme.
In response, Minister Sorawong apologised and acknowledged the difficulties caused by the system, explaining that the aim of the new application was to create a comprehensive database of Thai tourists, which would help with future tourism planning.
"On the day we closed registration, over 1.4 million people signed up. Since then, we have been working to resolve issues, such as increasing cloud storage and improving access for users. As of now, 1.11 million people have confirmed their intention to use the scheme, and 140,000 bookings have been completed. The programme is open until October,31" Sorawong said.
He further stated that he took full responsibility for the difficulties caused and reiterated his apology to the public, promising improvements to reduce inconvenience and to ensure that the programme runs smoothly in the future.
Regarding the drop in number of Chinese tourists, Sorawong acknowledged that this was a global issue, not just specific to Thailand, but assured that the government was working to rebuild confidence in the country’s safety and appeal as a travel destination.
He clarified that the funding for the application development came from the 157-billion-baht economic stimulus budget, with 10 million baht refunded for the application’s development due to delays in the procurement process.
"There's no way I can deny responsibility for the issues that have arisen. I apologise once again to the public for the inconvenience. I am committed to improving the situation and ensuring that the public faces as little hardship as possible, and we will take concrete steps to resolve the issues swiftly," Sorawong concluded.
