THAILAND TOURISM IN THE COVID ERA

Abstract

This article is intended to study about tourism in Thailand in the COVID Era. In Thailand, tourism is divided into various alternative types of tourism including: cultural tourism, ecotourism, health tourism, and specialty tourism. Sustainable tourism needs to encourage the community to participate in all activities of tourism management. According to the characteristics of sustainable tourism, it includes: 1) tourism with continuity of culture that provides a nice recreational experience for tourists;   2) quality tourism that emphasizes the quality of the environment, recreational experience and the quality of life of the people in the community; and 3) a balanced tourism that makes a balance among the needs of the tourists, the needs of the community, and the capacity of the resource. Once after the situation of the first spread of the COVID-19 virus had eased, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports established a tourism rehabilitation strategy by focusing on stimulating domestic tourism through: building confidence of consumers; more expenses of domestic tourists that in turn more income of the entrepreneurs including SME sector, people’s employment in tourism industries such as hotel business, airlines, restaurants, travel agencies under the new normal. Stimulation of Thais in continuously visiting Thailand with a pattern of tourism that is safe for health and quality services. In addition, it was focused on promoting responsible tourism under the 4 tourism promotion policies including: safety, cleanliness, fairness and income distribution to the community in order to reduce disparity towards sustainability