By Reporter Kayla Lee
 
“Thailand is work-ing hard to re-vive our tourism indust r y back to the same level as before the COVID-19 pandemic by using its “5F” soft power pro-motion method – which are Food, Film, Fashion, Festival, and Fight (Thai boxing),” said Amb. Witchu Vejjajiva of Thai-land in Seoul. 

In an exclusive interview Amb. Witchu Vejjajiva said, “The Ministry of Tourism of Thailand aims to boost tour-ism by creating a meaningful experience for tourists, while simultaneously advancing to-wards tourism that is more sustainable, more digital, and more inclusive, by leveraging on Thailand’s “5F” soft power promotion method.” 

He stressed that the Thai-land government’s best-scenar-io goal is to generate 2.38 tril-lion THB in tourism revenue this year. The followings are key excerpts from an interview with Amb. Witchu Vejjajiva of Thailand in Seoul. 

Question: Please let us know the detai ls of the MoU signed for the “2023- 2024 Mutual Visit Years” between Korea and Thai-land. 

Answer: From October this year, Thailand and the Re-public of Korea will enter into the 65th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. On this occasion, the tourism author-ities of both countries decided to jointly launch a tourism promotion campaign, entitled the “2023-2024 Mutual Visit Years”, which began from the beginning of this year and will run until the end of 2024. The Ministers of Tourism of Thai-land and the Republic of Korea signed an MoU to officially lay out their vision for cooperation under this campaign.
 
The MoU was conceived based on mutual recognition of the importance of tourism as an engine for economic growth, and as an important foundation for promoting regional econom-ic development by creating jobs and generating stable income. On the whole, the MoU aims to increase tourism exchanges between both sides, as well as the development of each coun-try’s tourism sector. The scope of cooperation under the MoU includes, but is not limited to: 

a) Organizing cultural, ar-tistic and sporting events throughout 2023-2024, such as Thai Festival in the ROK and Korea Festival in Thailand; 

b) Promoting the exchange of experiences and human re-sources in the field of tourism; 

c) Encouraging the develop
-ment of initiatives to increase tourism flows and cultural exchanges, with an emphasis on gastronomic, festival, sports, historical heritage, meetings, incentives, conferences and ex-hibitions (MICE), and sustain-able tourism; 

d) Promoting regional tour-ism in Thailand and Korea and cooperation 

between regional and local governments of Thailand and the ROK in the field of tourism;
 
e) Supporting mutual capac-ity-building through educa-tional programs like tourism seminars and training ses-sions