Abu Dhabi, August 09: The governments of Thailand and the United Arab Emirates are discussing a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost tourism, Thailand’s Ambassador to the UAE Karn Chiranond told Khaleej Times.
The ambassador said the UAE serves as one the largest tourist markets in the Middle East for Thailand. Tourists from the UAE consist of holidaymakers as well as those seeking medical treatment.
The envoy said the Thai government has implemented a number of policies to promote tourism between the two countries including the exemption of tourist visa fee from June 25, 2009 to March 4, 2010.
Thailand witnessed 22 per cent growth in tourist arrivals from the UAE between January and May this year, over the same period in 2008.
In 2008, visitors from the UAE to Thailand were 95,000 with a 21.93 per cent increase over the number in 2007.
Due to the global economic downturn and the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, it might be possible that Thailand is impacted but would still attain positive growth at the end of this year, Chiranond believed.
He said that the fact can also be supported that Thai Airways and Emirates airline have increased the number of flights from Dubai to Bangkok, especially the extra EK flight with the massive Airbus A380 aircraft, which can accommodate over 400 passengers.
According to the mission’s records, 74,957 people travelled to Thailand from the UAE during May, June and July 2007, while in the same period of 2008 the figure rose to 95,000.
In May this year, 5,057 people from the UAE visited Thailand, most of them were Emiratis. The embassy did not have the figures for June and July.
Some hospitals in Thailand have recruited a number of Arabic speaking staff to interact with Arab patients. Halal food, too, has been introduced extensively for the UAE residents as well as those from other Arab states, the ambassador said.
To a question regarding the growth in number of medical tourists from the UAE, Chiranond said, “Since our country enjoyed 22 per cent increase in tourists from the UAE, we can assume that leisure and medical tourists are roughly the same group of people. Thus it is possible to say that Thailand has maintained a healthy increase in this area of tourism.”
A number of private hospitals, such as Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok Hospital and Samitivej Hospital have invested substantially to improve their establishments in all aspects, including infrastructure, facilities, medical equipment, human resources, and services with specialisation in heart, cancer, children, rehabilitation.
–Agencies