Yesterday the cabinet approved additional stimulus measures to stimulate domestic tourism and help offset losses during the coronavirus crisis due to the absence of foreign tourists.
The new measures will extend the 40 per cent hotel subsidy to a maximum of 3,000 baht a night — currently capped at five nights under the We Travel Together scheme — to 10 nights, with the air ticket subsidy doubling to 2,000 baht, said Rachada Dhanadirek, a deputy government spokeswoman. 

On June 30 two stimulus packages worth 22.4 billion baht were approved by the cabinet including the We Travel Together scheme to revitalize the domestic tourism sector. 

The promotions are in effect until 31 Oct. At the We Travel Together website 4.62 million had registered as of August 17. 

In a bid to make the scheme more enticing, the cabinet assigned related agencies yesterday to encourage businesses to help promote the scheme and urge their employees to take advantage of domestic tourism subsidies. 

The government can subsidize 40 per cent of lodging expenses for travelling employees, according to Ms Rachada, while tax incentives could be offered to companies participating in the scheme. No further details were available. 

In related news, the cabinet instructed the Labor Ministry yesterday to speed up programs to create 1 million jobs for new graduates and jobless workers as proposed at the Center for Economic Situation Administration's first meeting last week. 

Deputy Prime Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said earlier that the government would allocate funds to support job-creation projects from the 400-billion-baht budget set aside for economic and social rehabilitation. 

The government also plans to allocate a portion of fiscal 2021's 3.3 trillion-baht budget to job creation in the fourth quarter of this year, he said. 

Labor Minister Suchart Chomklin said that next month the Ministry will be organizing Job Expo Thailand with the goal of creating jobs for 400,000 new graduates and 420,000 laid-off workers. 

Employers involved include government agencies, state-owned enterprises and private firms. 

The cabinet also approved a combined 572.58 million baht from the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 to assist the Pid Thong Lang Phra Foundation with adequate economic development programmes.

The funds will support development projects in the three provinces in the south and some provinces in the north, hoping to alleviate poverty and create sustainable development. 

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