Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has ordered the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to arrange travel insurance to cover accidents and death for all foreign tourists arriving in Thailand during the New Year holiday period.
The prime minister’s order, issued at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, follows two incidents involving foreign tourists who died recently in Thailand. One incident concerned a Taiwanese tourist who was denied emergency treatment at a private hospital in the Pattanakarn area and died on his way to a second hospital about 10km away. The second case involved an Irish tourist who had been treated in the intensive care unit of a private hospital for dengue fever, but the hospital bill reached about 100,000 baht a day, forcing the patient’s family in Ireland to raise funds to get him back home for treatment.
It is reported that the Ministry of Tourism and Sports will seek about 50 million baht from the Central Fund to buy insurance coverage for tourists visiting Thailand over the New Year period.
The prime minister also instructed Tourism and Sports Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol to coordinate with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to promote regional tourism.
One of the regional tourism routes, which was proposed by Vietnam, is the world heritage route encompassing Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, Luang Prabang in Laos and Thailand’s Udon Thani province.
