The Finance Ministry and the Tourism and Sports Ministry are considering offering travel insurance to foreign tourists in a bid to boost the industry, one of the few drivers of the economy.
The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) has also floated the idea of a new tax break for domestic tourists in the form of deductions of domestic travel expenses from taxable income, director-general Krisada Chinavicharana said.
The proposals have been raised even though the impact of the recent bombing incidents in resort towns in the South on the tourism industry are estimated to be limited, he said.
The budget to fund the travel insurance scheme may come from the Thailand Tourism Promotion Fund or the Foreign Ministry's budget for immigration checks, and the central budget may be used to support any shortfall, said Mr Krisada.
Tourism revenue accounts for 10% of GDP at around 13 trillion baht.
The FPO is holding discussions with related state agencies to provide a new tax deduction for domestic travel expenses, Mr Krisada said without providing further details.
The cabinet in April approved the renewal of stimulus measures for the tourism industry that include a 15,000-baht tax break on domestic tour packages and hotel accommodation for individual taxpayers, as well as for businesses and private individuals who provide training programmes for employees.
The measures run will until Dec 31 and become effective retroactively from Jan 1.
The FPO will propose the government allow all state agencies allocate some of their budget for seminars and training courses for their officials within this year and reserve the leftover budget from this fiscal year ending Sept 30 for similar programmes.