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Thai Travel Association Seeks Government Financial Support Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

The Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) has called on the government to provide financial support for the tourist industry which has been hardly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ATTA President Vichit Prakobkosol confirmed on Sunday that he had recently discussed with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha the current pandemic situation, which has considerably affected tourism and travel firms, and asked for help from the government.

The ATTA president asked the government to provide a sum of 10 billion baht (about 309.59 million U.S. dollars) in soft loan for hotels, resorts and other tourism-related businesses in addition to the same amount of a loan earlier offered by the Government Savings Bank.

The ATTA president also asked the government to cut or temporarily lift the 7 percent value-added tax collectible from tourism-related businesses, extend the three-months period for the government-given compensation pay amounting to a maximum of 62 percent of the daily wages of employees, who have been hired by hotels and other tourism-related businesses and currently jobless due to the pandemic.

In addition, Vichit asked the government to allow travel firms to make extra earnings by organizing seminars, conferences and tourism-related activities for government agencies and local administrative organizations throughout the country.