Thailand rolls out jobs support to tourism workers

The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) plans to set up an assistance programme for tourism workers impacted by COVID-19 by March, which it estimates could result in two million job losses in the tourism sector.

Unemployed tourism workers enrolled in the programme can participate in upskilling and reskilling courses on topics like online marketing and languages, with support for daily expenses, said Chamnan Srisawat, TCT’s president.

The workers can also be temporarily hired for jobs in tourism related businesses that currently require more staff so that they will not have to switch industries, he added. 

“The council will develop a tourism employment database that does not only shed light on the number of tourism workers in order to estimate the impact from the future crisis and come up with effective measures, but also seeks ways to prevent more job losses in the tourism segment,” Srisawat said, according to the Bangkok Post. 

The Thai government can also safeguard tourism jobs by rolling out a co-payment scheme with companies to cover employees’ monthly salary of up to 15,000 baht (US$500), he said. 

READ: Skills training needed to meet targeted labour demand in Thailand

Foreign tourist arrivals into Thailand plunged to its lowest level in at least 12 years, declining to 6.7 million in 2020 from 39.9 million a year earlier, showed data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.