Thai Government Responds To “half-half Thai Travel” Criticism With Strong Apology And Fixes

Thursday, July 17, 2025

The Thai tourism assemblage precocious faced challenges pinch nan much-anticipated “Tiew Thai Khon La Krueng” program, besides known arsenic nan “Half-Half Thai Travel” initiative. During a parliamentary convention held connected Thursday, nan Minister of Tourism and Sports, Sorawong Thienthong, issued a general apology to nan nationalist for nan ongoing issues surrounding nan program, which aimed to beforehand home recreation by providing subsidies to Thai citizens. The program, pinch a important fund of 1.75 cardinal baht, intended to stimulate tourism crossed nan state by subsidizing half of nan costs for registered citizens, but it has truthful acold grounded to meet nan expected targets. As nan program’s shortcomings became much evident, a nationalist apology was made, and promises for swift corrective actions were put forward.

The Objectives of nan “Half-Half Thai Travel” Programme

Launched pinch nan extremity of revitalizing nan home tourism industry, nan “Half-Half Thai Travel” inaugural was designed to connection financial assistance to Thai citizens who registered for nan scheme. The thought down nan inaugural was to incentivize locals to recreation wrong nan country, boosting business for section hotels, recreation agencies, and related sectors. However, contempt nan program’s expansive aspirations, nan reality has been little than successful. Only 158,000 edifice bookings person been confirmed truthful far, a number acold beneath nan anticipated target. This underachievement has raised siren bells, peculiarly successful ray of nan important fund allocated to nan program.

Concerns Raised successful Parliament

The challenges surrounding nan programme were brought to ray during nan parliamentary convention erstwhile Somchat Techathaworncharoen, a personnel of parliament for Phuket, highlighted nan program’s underperformance. Techathaworncharoen attributed nan deficiency of uptake to a operation of factors, including mediocre authorities guidance and method problems associated pinch nan caller exertion designed to facilitate bookings.

The application, which was developed to create a broad database of Thai tourists, was initially introduced arsenic a instrumentality that would streamline nan booking process and let for much businesslike readying successful nan tourism sector. However, nan strategy encountered galore issues that made it difficult for users to afloat prosecute pinch nan program. These included problems pinch unreality storage, personification access, and exertion functionality, which yet affected nan number of participants.

Minister Sorawong’s Response: Apology and Plans for Resolution

Minister Sorawong, successful his response, acknowledged nan method difficulties and nan program’s nonaccomplishment to unrecorded up to expectations. He offered a heartfelt apology to nan public, taking afloat work for nan issues that had plagued nan programme and caused inconvenience for nan citizens who had hoped to use from it. Sorawong stated that nan superior intent of nan caller exertion was to create a broad and valuable database of Thai tourists. This database was envisioned arsenic a instrumentality for amended readying and facilitating nan maturation of nan tourism manufacture successful nan future. However, nan system’s nonaccomplishment to run arsenic intended was recognized arsenic a awesome setback.

In his address, Sorawong emphasized that, while complete 1.4 cardinal individuals had signed up for nan program, only a fraction of them had successfully completed nan booking process. Since nan registration play had closed, efforts person been underway to resoluteness nan issues. These efforts included expanding nan capacity of unreality retention to accommodate nan increasing number of users and making improvements to nan application’s personification interface. As of nan latest updates, 1.11 cardinal individuals person confirmed their intent to usage nan program, pinch 140,000 bookings completed. Despite these improvements, nan programme will stay unfastened until October 31, 2025, allowing much group nan chance to usage nan subsidized recreation options.

Economic Impact and Funding for nan Application Development

The improvement of nan “Half-Half Thai Travel” exertion and its related infrastructure was funded arsenic portion of nan broader 157-billion-baht economical stimulus package. This inaugural was designed to support various sectors of nan economy, peculiarly those affected by nan pandemic. However, nan exertion faced delays successful its procurement process, and arsenic a result, 10 cardinal baht was refunded for nan improvement costs owed to nan delays. Minister Sorawong reiterated that nan backing allocation for nan app was captious successful ensuring nan occurrence of nan program. He besides assured nan nationalist that efforts were being made to debar further delays and amended nan functionality of nan exertion moving forward.

Addressing nan Drop successful Chinese Tourists

Another rumor highlighted by Sorawong was nan alteration successful nan number of Chinese visitors visiting Thailand. This driblet successful visitors was framed arsenic portion of a larger world trend, pinch galore countries seeing a simplification successful world recreation owed to ongoing economical and geopolitical challenges. However, Sorawong emphasized that nan Thai authorities was actively moving to reconstruct assurance among world tourists, peculiarly those from China, by addressing concerns complete information and ensuring that Thailand remained an charismatic and unafraid recreation destination.

Plans for Future Improvements

To forestall further setbacks and guarantee nan programme operates smoothly moving forward, Sorawong outlined respective actual steps that would beryllium taken. These steps see streamlining nan exertion process, enhancing its functionality, and continuing to amended nan system’s unreality retention and entree points. By taking these measures, nan Ministry of Tourism and Sports intends to supply a much businesslike and user-friendly acquisition for those looking to return advantage of nan “Half-Half Thai Travel” program.

Conclusion: Minister’s Commitment to Resolution

To sum up, nan apology Minister Sorawong has offered was an definitive acknowledgment connected nan portion of nan authorities that nan “Half-Half Thai Travel” task has been defective. He assured that nan Ministry of Tourism and Sports would instantly resoluteness nan problems pinch nan strategy and nary allocation of nan programme will beryllium wasted. By upgrading nan exertion and attracting much users, nan authorities expects that nan strategy will proceed to play an important domiciled successful stimulating home tourism and revitalizing nan Thai economy. The promise to lick nan issues quickly shows nan government’s willingness to make nan programme successful for Thai citizens and to regain nationalist support for nan country’s tourism agenda.

References: Official Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Ministry of Tourism and Sports Thailand