Checking tourism’s net worth

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports’ Department of Tourism will spend Bt50 million over the next two years to create a “Tourism Satellite Account” (TSA), in the lead-up to ASEAN Economic Community 2015. Tourism Satellite Accounts are a comprehensive collection of data on all areas that touch tourism, a sort of checks and balance that measures the state of tourism industry’s health and net worth to a country. Tourism department general director, Supol Sripan, said the first allocation of the budget will be in the fiscal year 2012/ 2013 that begins this October. “The project will take two years so we can test it fully in 2014 and be prepared for the introduction of AEC in 2015.” He added: “At this stage, terms of reference (ToR) are being drafted in order for interested companies and organisations that specialise in statistics and economic studies to bid for the project.” The project has been in the planning stage for five years, but failed to gain a budget under previous administrations to get it going. “TSA will provide information on revenue tracking in the country tourism industry and how benefits are distributed to communities as well as the net worth after all considerations are taken into account.” TSA acts as an indicator of tourism income flow as well an accurate source of information for investment considerations, he said. From ttrweekly