By Alicia Maher
Thailand’s tourism department is making attempts to lure crypto millionaires into reviving its almost moribund industry.
The Tourism Department Chief Makes A Case For The Crypto Rich
A Bloomberg report revealed that the head of the tourism department (TAT), Yuthasak Supasorn, is discussing with crypto stakeholders in the country to seek their help in supporting crypto payments for their tourism services. The pandemic has caused Thailand’s booming tourism industry to lose over $75B in revenue. Before COVID struck, the tourist-dependent country usually had as much as 45m visits to their tourist attractions every year.
Now, Thailand’s tourism department chief wants to make tourism attractive again by luring crypto wealthy individuals. Supasom stated that “many of them crave convenience in payments, and the most convenient way for them to pay is to support crypto payments. Hence, there would be no need for them to change currencies or be subjected to government tax when making payments.”
Not Everyone Is In Support Of This Move
Thai authorities and the stakeholders in its financial sector are yet to embrace the digital asset space still. Hence, they don’t fully support this move by the country’s tourism ministry. The Thai government is yet to approve digital currencies for payments even though some merchants accept BTC. However, no merchant supports other virtual assets for payments.
Six months ago, Thailand’s financial watchdog department made it mandatory for crypto exchanges to perform physical verification of their customers beginning from July 2021. Nevertheless, the tourism ministry also plans to issue a TAT token, which will be the token for those seeking to explore its tourist sites. This department has already submitted its proposal to the appropriate channels, hoping it gets approved.
Supasom further said, “we need to realize that we can’t increase the number of our tourists without embracing crypto.” The tourism supremo emphasized that he expects tourists’ visits to the nation to get back to normalcy in the next four years.
Caution In Opening Tourist Venues
The pandemic has caused Thailand to close its borders to tourists since February 2020. However, the authorities remain cautious in opening their tourist venues out of fear even though there has been an appreciable decrease in COVID-related cases in the country.
At the beginning of this month, the government announced that only vaccinated persons would be allowed entry into its tourist centers, and they could only be from specific nations. This has prevented tourists from coming in their large numbers. Most tourist-related businesses remain shut even though the authorities have relaxed quarantine protocols.
The most probable reason these tourist-related businesses remain shut is that the authorities are yet to relax the ban on club life and amusement, which are the main attraction for tourists visiting the country. There is end in sight as to when the government will lift the ban, and rightly so, as a new strain of the coronavirus keeps spreading globally. The TAT hopes its token initiative will be enough to lure tourists back into the country, it is hoped that they are right.