PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN: Hua Hin municipality has welcomed the plan to declare its popular beach a no-smoking zone.
Hua Hin mayor Nopporn Wuttikul said on Thursday the municipality supported the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources intention to ban smoking on tourist beaches.
The municipality will designate some areas for smokers, with appropriate disposal bins, so they will not litter the beach with their cigarette butts, he said.
Details of a campaign to raise tourists' awareness of the prohibition will be announced after a municipal council meeting before the plan takes effect, he added.
Hua Hin is one of 20 beaches to be declared no-smoking areas by the department from Nov 1 under a trial project.
Violators will be liable to a fine of up to 100,000 baht and/or up to a year in jail, because the ban is being enforced under the new law on marine and beach resources management, not the less severe law against littering.
Local bodies controlling the other 19 beaches, which include including Bang Saen and Pattaya in Chon Buri and Samui in Surat Thani, are reportedly also ready to comply with the policy.