THE Tourism Authority of Thailand will seek additional measures to deal with the double whammy - the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and the civil aviation crisis - to save the coming high season.
TAT plans to hold its annual assembly to draw up marketing action plans in Chon Buri's Bang Saen beach resort from Monday to Thursday.
A Tourism Ministry source said some new measures should be forthcoming from the meeting and they should be implemented as soon as possible.
"The government is pushing tourism to drive the economy and the industry should be protected from any bad issues," the source said.
Besides marketing and business strategies to be laid out for next year, TAT and operators involved in tourism are expected to face the challenges and unexpected developments.
TAT has held several talks with key trade associations such as the Tourism Council of Thailand, Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) and Thai Hotels Association to formulate action plans before entering the peak season, which runs from October to March.
Charoen Wangananon, president of ATTA, said travel agents strongly urged the government to overcome the two emergencies as soon as possible.
"Thailand will soon be entering the high season and that should have no problem or threat," he said.
Pornthip Hirunkate, vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, called on TAT and the government to come up with more ideas or practices to extinguish the two fires.
However, the council is optimistic that tourism would rebound this year because many travellers, particularly from China, would flock to Thailand.