National—
On April 8th, 2024, Ms. Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol, the Thai Tourism and Sports Minister, publicly revealed a Thai government policy to enhance Koh Samui to be one of the top 10 most attractive islands worldwide.
Recently, the Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin inspected Koh Samui, and Surat Thani, and discussed with locals regarding tourism and the economy.
Srettha aimed to have Koh Samui ranked in the top 10 globally most attractive islands. The Tourism and Sports Minister, President of the Koh Samui Tourism Promotion Association, and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) would integrate to publicize its local identities including delicacy and the way of life, according to Sudawan.
Although current tourism in Koh Samui had returned to normal similar to the pre-COVID-19 period, local entrepreneurs such as masseuses and other specialties were in a shortage. Sudawan stated that the current number of specialty workers had been reduced from 120,000 individuals to 50,000 compared to the pre-covid 19 period.
The local tourism entrepreneurs petitioned the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to hold career training programs to meet the demand of the tourism industry which was consistent with the Ministry’s policy to develop tourism personnel, said Sudawan.
Furthermore, Srettha would present the Cruise Terminal project to a Thai cabinet meeting in 2024 for deliberation as it would surge the number of quality tourists. The proposed cruise navigation route would run from Singapore to Hong Kong via the Gulf of Thailand and cruises would dock at Koh Samui in Surat Thani and Laem Chabang Port in Chonburi.
For the Andaman, the Thai Ministry of Transport planned to establish cruise terminals at Phuket and Krabi, according to Sudawan.
According to Sudawan, the statistics showed that large cruise ships and tourists visited Thailand from January 1st to April 7th, 2024 with a total of 100 trips and 214,097 individuals. The Phuket port held the record for the most passenger arrivals with Chonburi and Surat Thani following respectively.
Pattaya has long debated a cruise ship terminal of their own at Bali Hai Pier, notes The Pattaya News, but is nowhere near a finalized project or set to debut anytime in the near future, with 2026 the earliest that construction would even begin. We covered more on this proposal here.
This article originally appeared on our sister website The Pattaya News.
