TAT board names new governor

Thapanee Kiatphaibool, deputy governor for domestic marketing at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), has been approved to become the new TAT governor, starting from Sept 1.

Yuthasak Supasorn, the incumbent, said the TAT board on Thursday approved Ms Thapanee, 48, to take the helm at the agency, as proposed by the nomination subcommittee after starting the recruitment process on Feb 20.

From the two candidates who got through to the final round, the nomination subcommittee chaired by Arrun Boonchai, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, unanimously voted for Ms Thapanee.

Mr Yuthasak said the recruitment criteria comprised five points, of which capability to administer the organisation, knowledge of the tourism industry and marketing were key skills that were taken into account.

In the next step the remuneration subcommittee will negotiate the salary of the new governor and have a contract signed for the four-year term, with an option to extend the contract for a maximum of four years if her performance is outstanding.

Ms Thapanee said it was an honour to be selected as governor. She insisted to tourism operators that she would pursue the tourism promotion policies that Mr Yuthasak set in terms of direction to ensure a seamless transition.

She added that once the official appointment is made, she would announce her working direction to develop tourism promotional plans with the private sector.

Ms Thapanee began working with the TAT in 1999 after graduating from the University of Surrey in the UK with a master's in science.

Before being promoted to her current position as the deputy governor for domestic marketing, she was deputy governor for tourism products and business.

During the Covid pandemic, Ms Thapanee initiated the Amazing Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA), a certification programme for hotels and services that enabled them to achieve certain health and safety standards.

The SHA certification was set as a default criteria for hotels that wanted to register as quarantine hotels for arrivals during the period when strict Covid controls were in place.