Government Pays for Thai Tourists Trips

It aims to pay attention to student development, as they will one day become a national resource for the kingdom. All students in the "Educational Travelling" project are given free transportation. They are asked to observe and collect experiences and knowledge from their trips for further use in the future.  They are also encouraged to tell their friends and families about what they see, so that more people will come and enjoy different parts of Thailand in the future.

The elderly are also given trips, as they are especially valuable within the Thai community. Some people say elders are role models for the next generation to follow, so these traveling trips could be seen as being a reward for the elderly, too.

The chief of Educational Area 1 Mrs. Chaleo Boonklip said that the number of tourists had been continuously dropping and was down by 16.5 per cent. This was largely due to political uncertainty and economic problems. She added that both problems seemed to still be unresolved and showed few signs of getting any better. These problems directly caused tourists to be wary when traveling, and this had an effect on hotels, restaurants, transportation and other tourist-related businesses.

Chonburi Provincial Educational Area 1 and Top One Travel and Service Company held an "Educational Traveling" event to strengthen tourism knowledge among students and the elderly.

Assistant Director of Chonburi Provincial Educational Area 1, Mr. Thanu Aksorn, said all 185 educational areas in Thailand had been asked to organize educational trips.

The Ministry of Sport and Tourism and Chonburi Educational Commission, are working together to find measures to deal with these problems. One way is to arrange these educational travelling projects for students, youths, and the elderly and to focus on encouraging people to spend money in their areas, as well as to prepare tourism attractions for the future.