The Tourism Department is launching improvements of public facilities for more than 26,000 sites nationwide, mostly in secondary provinces, aiming to draw tourists to local communities.
The department is seeking a budget of 20 billion baht to finance the improvement projects, with a focus on tourist safety after numerous lives were lost, especially at beaches, during the past few years.
Director-general Anan Wongbenjarat said the department is considering 2,639 sites for improvement or restoration under its master plan.
Of the sites, 1,843 are in 55 secondary tourism provinces and 796 are in 22 main tourism cities.
The move is part of an urgent call from the Tourism and Sports Ministry, which is pushing community-based tourism in less-travelled provinces.
The ministry plans on offering better tourism facilities to encourage visitors in local communities.
"The project will focus on coordinating work among concerned agencies, safety and universal design to serve people of all ages," Mr Anan said.
The department is targeting popular tourist attractions in secondary tourism provinces and attractions in the outskirts of the main tourism cities, as well as areas near airports.
The aim is to complete some of the projects within one year. Moreover, the department will develop local markets as tourist attractions, promote town centres and improve road signs.
According to Mr Anan, a special committee has been set up to study the feasibility of the project proposals and promote coordination among state agencies.
Representatives include those from provincial tourism offices in 76 provinces; the Forest Department; the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation; the Highways Department; and the Irrigation Department.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Department is launching several other projects to improve tourism services and safety, such as at beaches by increasing the number of lifeguards, increasing beach cleanliness with robots, and protecting coral reefs by increasing the number of buoys.
The department is also improving roads to tourist sites, training tourism personnel, increasing clean toilets under the WC OK campaign, building more ramps and developing niche tourism in museums and temples.
This year, the Designed Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Dasta) said it will continue to work with SME Development Bank to provide education about financial management and accounting to small and independent operators or communities to improve their unique products.
At this stage, Dasta has chosen 120 communities to be developed and promoted as new tourist destinations.
In order to encourage locals to travel into provinces, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) launched a new campaign specifically to motivate female tourists to take vacations within the country this year.