The government is preparing a guide to living costs in all tourist cities across Thailand to help visitors plan their trips.
Tourism Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn said on Friday that the National Tourism Policy Committee is collecting data to compile a cost-of-living index for popular destinations.
The idea was proposed by the Commerce Ministry as a way of controlling prices while also promoting tourism.
“The index will help tourists to better plan costs incurred during their travels,” Pipat added.
The index will cover the price of popular tourism goods and services in various destinations. The aim is to help tourists plan their trips according to their budgets while helping local authorities plan measures to promote tourism, the minister said.
The index will also act as a guide for the public and private sectors in designing measures to boost tourism.
In addition, it will allow authorities to control the prices of goods and services in tourist cities more effectively, the minister said.
Pre-pandemic tourism generated revenue of 3 trillion baht for Thailand’s economy in 2019, accounting for 17.8 per cent of GDP.
