The Tourism and Sports Ministry wants to extend compensation for injured and deceased tourists to the end of this year after only 3.9 million baht from the 50 million allocated for the scheme was used.
Tourism and Sports Minister Sermsak Pongpanit said the compensation was disbursed to seven eligible cases, comprising four deaths and three injuries, out of 50 applications that the ministry received.
The scheme is effective from Jan 1 to Aug 31, 2024, and the ministry will ask the Comptroller-General’s Department to extend the eligibility until year-end to use the leftover budget of around 46 million baht, he said.
If this extension is rejected, Mr Sermsak said the ministry will submit a request to the cabinet for another 50 million baht from the central budget to operate a similar scheme that offers compensation to tourists.
According to the tourism ministry, the incidents which are eligible for compensation must not result from negligence, intent, illegal acts, or risky behaviour from tourists.
Payments for death should not exceed 1 million baht, while permanent loss of organs, loss of sight and permanent disability should be up to 300,000 baht, and medical expenses should not exceed 500,000 baht.
After reviewing applications, the final decision will be made by the scheme’s committee.
Regarding the tourism stimulus budget of 1 billion baht for 55 second-tier cities, which the ministry would submit to the cabinet for approval, Mr Sermsak said the budget for those areas is necessary as the government has a plan to disperse the flow of tourists from concentrated areas in the major tourism cities to less crowded destinations.
However, he said improvements in infrastructure, particularly transport and connectivity, require cooperation from related ministries, such as the Transport Ministry.
Mr Sermsak said the ministry still does not have in-depth reports about the lack of infrastructure in each second-tier destination, so it might have to wait until fiscal 2026 to prepare a budget to develop the sector, as the budget plan for fiscal 2025 has already been agreed.
“As some tourism operators raised concerns about the stimulus budget, which should not only focus on events, we can guarantee that stimulus measures would also address development as well, but we need more time to study the specific inquiries of each destination,” he said.