BANGKOK, THAILAND – Thailand’s tourism authority set up a crisis “war room” and prepared new incentives to cushion flights and bookings from the fallout of the Middle East conflict.
Crisis taskforce to contain Middle East fallout
According to Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), a dedicated taskforce was created to closely monitor and manage the impact of unrest in the Middle East on the country’s visitor industry.
The new “war room” was designed as a permanent situation center intended to respond more quickly than regular procedures in government agencies and private companies.
Dashboard to track flights, oil prices and sentiment
At the core of the taskforce’s work, the TAT planned a Tourism Intelligence Dashboard to display key indicators such as flight connections, oil prices, operating costs, load factors and airline seat planning.
The agency also intended to monitor market signals, as booking sentiment in many origin countries strongly depended on how safe and accessible a destination was perceived.
Contingency plans and soft loans for businesses
In case the crisis dragged on, the TAT drew up economic scenarios that explicitly included a worst-case outlook for the sector.
As a possible support tool, the authority mentioned soft-loan measures, meaning low-interest credit lines to ease liquidity pressures and ongoing expenses for tourism businesses.
Airport slots and Bangkok as transit alternative
The TAT had already held talks with Airports of Thailand (AOT) on reallocating freed-up take-off and landing slots from airlines that had returned their rights to other carriers.
At the same time, officials aimed to negotiate a stronger role for Thailand—and in particular Suvarnabhumi Airport—as a transit hub, partly replacing connections via the Middle East and improving its competitive position against rivals such as Shanghai.
Shift to replacement markets and short-haul routes
To offset declines from individual markets, the TAT accelerated a rebalancing of its tourism “portfolio” toward replacement markets, especially on short-haul routes.
The agency cited the CIS states, South China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan as target source markets.
“Buy one, get one” incentive back to the cabinet
The authority planned to revive the “Buy one, get one” campaign, under which international visitors purchasing a trip to Thailand would also receive a domestic journey in the form of state-funded domestic flight tickets.
The proposal was to be resubmitted to the cabinet for consideration, as such stimulus programs typically depended on detailed budget allocations and implementation conditions.
Domestic travel linked to “Let’s go halves Plus”
For the local market, the TAT intended to discuss with the private sector how tourism promotion could be tied more closely to the government’s “Let’s go halves Plus” scheme.
The goal was to ensure the “Plus” benefits flowed tangibly into the services and tourism sector during this phase and did not bypass operating businesses.
Focus on information, safety and campaigns
The TAT said its communication approach would focus on three elements: practical travel information, strengthening Thailand’s image as a safe destination, and promoting events and market-boosting initiatives.
From its own sentiment monitoring, Thapanee Kiatphaibool reported that key markets such as the United Kingdom had so far been barely affected and that willing travelers would depart “immediately” provided there was sufficient flight capacity.
“Willing travelers would set off immediately as long as there is enough flight capacity.”
said Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.