Big concerts ‘will lift tourism’

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra now wants Thailand to secure an exclusive concert deal with a world-class artist as part of a new plan to promote the kingdom as an even more popular destination with international tourists.
The PM has instructed the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to find a way to jointly implement this policy in a new tourism promotion campaign called “Thailand Music Campaign”, said Jirayu Huangsab, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office.
Earlier this year, Singapore secured an exclusive concert deal with pop sensation Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only stop in Southeast Asia on her Eras Tour.
Under the new tourism campaign, Thailand expects to attract many more international travellers with various world-class cultural and music events, said Mr Jirayu.
“The ministry and the TAT will be leading the organisation of a major exclusive concert which won’t be organised anywhere else. It will be an extraordinary performance,” he said.
The organisation of this type of exclusive concert will be subsidised by the government using funds from the current 2025 fiscal budget and the 2026 fiscal budget, he said.
And in preparation for the exclusive concert policy, the PM has already instructed the ministry to work together with the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) to look into which of the country’s various convention halls would make suitable venues, he said.
These halls are in Bangkok and other major cities, he said.
In related news, Tourism and Sports Minister Sorawong Thienthong revealed that the accumulated number of international visitors to Thailand logged from Jan 1 up until last Sunday was 27.21 million, while the tourism income generated was estimated to be 1.27 trillion baht already.
Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, South Korean and Russian visitors were in the top five, he said.
Meanwhile, the number of long-haul travellers arriving in Thailand increased by 4.92% last week compared to the week before that, which is a sign that the number of visitors from Europe and North America is picking up, said Mr Sorawong.
The rise marked the beginning of a new tourism season for Europe and the US travellers, expected to bring more visitors from these zones to Thailand this week, he said.