Date: 20 May 2003

One billion baht will be spent on confidence-building to tourists to pull the country out of the tourism downfall caused by Iraq war and Sars outbreak.

Thai government has agreed upon the aggressive measures to guarantee the health-safety of visitors, one of those is an offer of US$100,000 to any tourist who could prove they were infected with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) while staying in the country.

The country's travel sector has been hit first by the war and then the Sars outbreak. The continual plunge of tourist arrivals prompted several approaches to draw visitors back while building their confidence that Thailand is free of Sars and safe for traveling.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra admitted that the tourism industry may not completely recover this year but was confident the launching of many promotions and rescue-packages would limit the estimated loss in tourist number to no more than 5%.

Tourism is one of the country's biggest revenue sources and has made a spectacular growth in service sector before the Sars crisis. Last year 10.8 million overseas visitors came to Thailand while a report by the Tourism Authority of Thailand of a survey in April 2003 states that 322,360 foreign tourists entered Thailand via Bangkok International Airport, down 46.14% from April 2002.

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