Centres to fight scams

Ministry of Tourism and Sports will spend Bt10 million on seven new tourist service centres mainly at airports and popular destinations. MOTS deputy permanent secretary, Thanitta Savetsila Maneechot, said the ministry would establish all the centres in 2013. “Six centres will be set up at airports across the country namely Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Khon Kaen, Hat Yai, Samui and Phuket while the seventh will be at Pattaya City.” “Nearly 100 officers will provide a 24-hour service to assist tourists. The service will be provided in four languages — English, Korean, Chinese, and Russian.” She indicated the centre would focus on helping tourists, who have been scammed, or bought overpriced-products as they represented the two most frequent causes of complaints. On average, there are 10 cases a month on overpriced-products. Once open, the ministry hopes the centres will increase confidence in Thailand. Today, there are only two tourist service centres in Thailand at Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports. From ttrweekly