Govt urged to act on foreign businesses

The Senate is urging the government to crack down on tourism businesses run by local proxies of foreign citizens in an effort to protect local businesses against unfair competition.
In a meeting held to discuss a query raised by Senator Nantana Nantavaropas regarding measures to help Thai businesses struggling to compete with companies run by nominees, Tourism and Sports Minister Sorawong Thienthong said ministry representatives have met with affected local operators to tailor a solution to the problem.
According to Mr Sorawong, foreign businesses run by local proxies are threatening to dominate the tourism sector, which is one of the country’s biggest foreign exchange earners.
The first step, the minister said, is to weed out foreign tour guides from tourist attractions across the country.
Mr Sorawong said the law stipulates that only Thai nationals can run tourism businesses. In companies with foreign shareholders, Thai shareholders must hold no less than 51% of the shares.
To deal with the problem, the ministry will work with the Department of Tourism, Department of Business Development, Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the Tourism Police Bureau (TBP) and the Immigration Bureau to investigate foreign businesses suspected of using local nominees to operate.
The minister said a lot of businesses in the tourism sector are struggling despite the high demand for international travel, saying capacity constraints which persist after the Covid-19 pandemic are slowing down the sector’s recovery.
The government is working with airlines to restore flight routes which were scrapped during the pandemic in an effort to increase capacity, especially to and from India, for the upcoming high tourism season that is set to begin next month, he said.
TPB and the Department of Tourism are also working together to eradicate “zero-dollar” tour companies, which create an entirely tourism ecosystem catering to foreign tourists — from souvenir shops and restaurants — that is completely separate from the local tourism industry, he said.
More than 40 zero-dollar tour firms have been closed by the authorities.