The Minister of Tourism called a special executive meeting ahead of the 2027 budget discussions to accelerate tourism and sports policies, highlighting integration between the public and private sectors, enhancing safety, cracking down on nominee businesses, and driving sustainable growth in the tourism economy.
On 29 Jun 2026 GMT+7, Mr. Surasak Pancharoenworakul, Minister of Tourism and Sports, chaired the third 2026 policy and issue follow-up meeting involving executives from agencies under the Ministry. This preceded the deliberation of the 2027 fiscal year budget bill to review progress on key government policies and prepare for effective implementation.
Mr. Surasak stated that advancing the tourism and sports industries requires close integration and collaboration between the public and private sectors to ensure policies, problem-solving, and measures align with changing circumstances, meet the needs of citizens and businesses, and generate tangible economic benefits for the country.
The meeting reviewed progress and discussed key topics such as promoting rail tourism with the Ministry of Transport, preparing to propose the Tourism Plus economic stimulus (Co-Payment) project, establishing a Tourism Data Exchange Center (BDEC) to enhance management and information services, and appointing a working group to promote Pink Economy tourism to expand economic opportunities and diversify Thailand’s tourism market.
Additionally, the meeting agreed in principle to propose the government establish a joint government-private tourism committee under the Joint Public-Private Economic Committee (JEC), chaired by the Prime Minister, as a crucial mechanism to drive tourism policy specifically.
This would open opportunities for representatives from all sectors of the tourism business to participate in setting directions and proposing solutions, ensuring measures correspond to industry realities and can be effectively implemented.
Regarding confidence-building, the Minister instructed all agencies to urgently enhance tourist safety measures by integrating efforts with security agencies to prevent crime, fraud against tourists, and manage emergencies systematically, alongside developing efficient facilitation and rapid communication systems to build Thailand’s image as a safe, reliable, and internationally standard tourist destination.
"I continue to emphasize that all agencies must seriously address nominee businesses in tourism by collaborating with relevant bodies to inspect and enforce laws against operators circumventing regulations. This will foster fair competition, protect Thai businesses, increase transparency, and establish a robust tourism ecosystem to support sustainable long-term growth of Thailand’s tourism industry," he said.
He also urged all agencies to drive key policies into concrete results, focusing on citizens and businesses as the center, integrating work across sectors to ensure tourism and sports remain vital drivers of the economy, generating income and sustainably improving the quality of life for the people.